The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced a raft of environmental justice initiatives, including restoring prosecutors' authority to allow defendants to undertake special community projects as part of settlements that resolve apparent environmental violations.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference that supplemental environmental projects were inappropriately declared off-limits by the Trump administration in 2017. Garland said the department was issuing an interim final rule that would restore the right to use such projects in settlement agreements to compensate victims and remedy violations of federal environmental laws.

The projects were widely appreciated by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and private parties in the past, he said.

"These are environmentally beneficial projects that a defendant has proposed and agreed to implement," Garland said. "Because these projects bring environmental and public health benefits to the communities most directly affected by the underlying violations, they are particularly powerful tools for advancing environmental justice."

In 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions prohibited DOJ attorneys from requiring defendants to make donations to unrelated third parties as a condition of settlements in federal cases. There was some debate about whether that directly affected all special projects, but former Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Bossert Clark, who led the Environment and Natural Resources Division during the Trump administration, issued a subsequent memo asserting that Sessions' memo barred all supplemental environmental projects.

A memo Garland issued Thursday said environmental projects were back on the table as negotiating tools, with some limitations. Those include requirements that any settlement agreements define "with particularity" the nature and scope of the specific project, that any projects have a "strong connection" to the underlying violation, and that the Justice Department not propose the selection of any particular third party to receive payments.

"Similarly, the Justice Department and its client agencies shall not propose a specific entity to be the beneficiary of any projects carried out under any such settlement, although the department and its client agencies may specify the type of entity," Garland's memo said.

The memo also said the DOJ could, under certain conditions, disapprove of a third-party beneficiary that a defendant proposes for consideration.

According to the memo, the DOJ must approve projects before "an admission or finding of liability in favor of the United States." It also says that the DOJ can't retain control over the funds at issue in a settlement, except for ensuring that the parties comply with the settlement.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan appeared with Garland and talked about the "deeply troubling" scenes he witnessed in a recent tour of environmental justice communities around the country. Regan said he was "thrilled" that the DOJ had reauthorized supplemental projects.

"These projects can range from installing air filtration systems at schools in heavily industrialized areas to abating lead paint hazards in housing," Regan said. "They can help deliver the kinds of health protections that marginalized communities like those I met with on the Journey to Justice tour have been demanding for years."

Also on Thursday, the DOJ unveiled its environmental justice strategy. President Joe Biden early last year issued an executive order titled "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad," in which he directed the attorney general to develop one.

"The burdens of environmental pollution have long been borne disproportionately by members of minority, tribal and low-income communities," Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said at the news conference. "No American should have to live, work or send their kids to school in a neighborhood that carries a disproportionate share of environmental hazards."

The DOJ's environmental justice strategy document says both its civil and criminal enforcement authorities will work with the EPA and other federal agencies to prioritize cases that will reduce environmental and public health harms to overburdened and underserved communities; make "strategic use" of available legal tools, such as pursuing "timely" resolutions to matters; and use Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to address environmental justice concerns.

"The strategy directs the new Office of Environmental Justice to work to build deeper connections with communities that are affected by violations of environmental laws," Gupta said. "It also requires all 93 U.S. attorneys across the country to designate an environmental justice coordinator to help identify areas of concern in their communities and to establish procedures for members of the public to report those concerns."

The DOJ's Office of Environmental Justice will be housed within the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and will be led by Cynthia Ferguson, who will serve as acting division director under Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim.

"This new office will be a critical resource for all department components as they seek to implement the comprehensive enforcement strategy," Garland said in the memo. "The new office will also support environmental justice investigations and litigation and facilitate outreach by the department to communities with environmental justice concerns."

Garland said the DOJ has asked for more money in upcoming appropriations for the office, which will be staffed by environment division lawyers.

--Editing by Karin Roberts.