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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Civil Rights has one mission: to ensure entities that receive EPA funding do not discriminate against communities straddling industry fencelines. Yet time and again, communities of color living in the shadows of sewage plants, incinerators and landfills have found their claims of harm denied or ignored by the EPA's civil-rights office, a first-ever analysis by the Center for Public Integrity shows. In its 22-year history, the office has never made a formal finding of a civil-rights violation by regulatory agencies or companies operating in U.S. communities. Since our publication, the agency has worked to revamp this program and promised to track progress.