Community Voices

Mar 12, 2015

Grassroots Mojo

Collaboration, Community Engagement, Community Voices, Environmental Justice, Grassroots 2 Comments

by Fred Tutman

The recent 50th Anniversary commemoration of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights brings to mind the long history of grassroots organizing, and the role the local Selma freedom movement played to help raise the civil rights conversation to national prominence.

In making the connection from Selma to today, we need to remember that there is a power, an inspirational wallop, that flows from small grassroots movements, like those that served as the foundation of the civil rights movement and today’s environmental justice movement. The civil rights movements not only achieved their own local goals but served to pursue larger ones as well.

The grassroots have a powerful “mojo” with a deeply inspirational history of achievement. Grassroots causes have a track record of success that channel the raw energy needed to change the world in order to make it more just. Grassroots causes are also inherently democratic, compassionate, equitable, empowering, and diverse! The fact that such movements generally lack money is unimportant, as their lack of cash is more than made up for with their zeal, ingenuity, and passion. Grassroots causes can produce charismatic and highly effective leadership. My own grassroots heroes include people like Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ. Nobody paid them lots of money to be change agents.

A true grassroots movement generally draws its strength and vision from rank and file participants, while empowering the people and communities from which that same power and initiative flows. These mostly unpaid and localized grassroots groups often have intensely active and engaged members who control the priorities of their movement.

So while grassroots groups build coalitions and campaigns around mutual self-interest and shared moral commitment, top down ones often do so around issues that can rally more people and more money. And why not? These groups surely have more expenses and compete with other similar groups on national and international stages for both members and resources. But the key is that while both forms of advocacy can do vital and worthwhile work, they rarely do exactly the same work, nor should we always expect them to! Recognizing distinctions between top down organizations and grassroots movements is vital when understanding how true community-based advocacy works, and how such work occasionally clashes with well-meaning institutionalized environmentalism.

Despite these differences, if there is one thing of which I am certain, large top down movements need grassroots partners as well as a deeper appreciation of the rich potential of grassroots work and environmental justice.

I have heard it argued that these distinctions are unimportant because, regardless of the business model, grassroots and big environmentalism “all want the same things.” But it’s important to realize that communities don’t usually band together simply because “everybody” wants clean air and water. They do so more forcefully because their sense of place is threatened by dirty air and water. The reality of attacking a local threat is a much stronger motivator than an issue that is a diffuse and amorphous threat that attracts empathy and donations. The momentum generated by a movement serving actual communities and local constituencies presents an enormous advantage in terms of the payload it can deliver.

That is why it’s especially important for large, well-funded environmental groups to explore fresh ways to jump on local bandwagons, instead of the other way around. And the fastest way to satisfy the need for diversity in environmentalism is to build stronger connections to grassroots advocacy.

So how do we forge stronger bonds between the larger and more nationally influential organizations to invest more deeply in local work? One way is to better understand that local advocates are drivers and not passengers along for the environmental ride. It is important to remember that the civil rights movement was really a series of grassroots efforts, like the Selma march, of ordinary citizens determined to end racial injustice, not only locally but across the United States. Success came when they banded with others, locally and with other like-minded souls from around the country.

There is no greater calling than doing grassroots work that helps real people and real communities, as well as the nation and the planet.

About the author: Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper, has served more than 11 years as the Riverkeeper for Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate river. Fred also is an adjunct instructor at historic St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he teaches an upper level course in Environmental Law and Policy.

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Feb 10, 2015

Public Participation – A Bedrock Principle for Human Rights

Collaboration, Community Engagement, Community Voices, Environmental Justice, human rights, International 2 Comments

by Lupe Aguirre, Neelam Mohammed, and Leslie Morales

Public participation is an essential component of a vibrant and truly representative democracy. It requires meaningful opportunities for the public to provide input during decision-making as well as free and simple access to information about government agencies and their activities. Yet, it is challenging to facilitate public engagement in a nation as large, complex, and varied as the United States.

On October 7, 2014, the University of California, Berkeley School of Law hosted the United States Government Consultation on Environmental Issues. This session was held in advance of the second review of the human rights record of the United States by the U.N. Human Rights Council, scheduled for May 2015.

As interns with the school’s International Human Rights Law Clinic (the Clinic), we were tasked with coordinating this historic effort in collaboration with government officials and community groups. Bringing together numerous advocacy groups, members of the public, and officials from seven federal agencies, the session provided an important opportunity to directly engage a variety of stakeholders about pressing environmental issues.

Developing an inclusive and effective Consultation required thoughtful coordination. The planning process involved advocates, community members, and government officials to determine the agenda and topics to be discussed. Participants (whether attending in person or by phone) could submit written comments in advance of the session to create a record of public input. Dozens attended the Consultation in person and dozens more joined by phone, allowing those who could not travel to the session to participate.

In the months since the Consultation, we have posted several videos of the individual panel sessions to allow those who were not able to participate to listen to the full discussion. Lastly, we drafted a summary report outlining the main points of discussion and providing resources for further engagement.

Although each panel focused on a distinct issue (climate change, water issues, and environmental/public health protections and members of vulnerable communities), a common theme that arose was the need for meaningful public participation to identify and address environmental challenges. We know public participation is a bedrock principle of human rights, but how can that principle be put into practice?

Due to its national scope and the array of relevant issues, the Consultation on Environmental Issues presented our team with complex questions:

How do we reach diverse communities across the country?
How do we facilitate the opportunity for affected community members to speak?
How do we keep the conversation going well into the future?

Answering these questions offered both insights into the challenges as well as best practices in creating opportunities for engagement.

During the Consultation, community members and advocates from around the nation identified problems in their communities and offered solutions. They asked for more opportunities to engage with the government and to lift barriers to that engagement by addressing linguistic, geographic, and temporal challenges to participation. The dialogue reminded us that direct contact with affected community members can reveal issues that may otherwise fall through the cracks, and that the knowledge of local communities is a critical component in crafting creative solutions to environmental challenges. Having all stakeholders at the table ensures the development of responsive and sustainable solutions to real world problems. So while providing inclusive processes can be complicated, it is well worth the effort.

We saw what public engagement looks like in action at the Consultation in October and hope that government at all levels will provide more opportunities for meaningful community engagement. However, coordinating national events is not the only path to achieve public engagement; it can be accomplished in simpler and smaller ways. Such opportunities should not only be available when the United States is on the eve of a review before the U.N. or some other significant event. Rather, a continuing dialogue between government and the public is necessary to tackle environmental and other social justice issues.

Moving forward, the Clinic continues to work with local environmental justice advocates to advance universal access to clean and affordable water by engaging with California state officials and raising these important issues before international human rights bodies.

NOTE: On February 20, 2015, the U.S. State Department is holding a civil society consultation on the U.S. government’s second UPR, in Washington, DC, with an option to dial-in by phone.

About the Authors: Lupe Aguirre, Neelam Mohammed, and Leslie Morales are law students at the International Human Rights Law Clinic, UC Berkeley School of Law, who are scheduled to graduate in 2016. Lupe’s interest in social justice was sparked by her work with vulnerable low-income immigrant communities in Southern and Central California before entering law school; she plans to continue serving at-risk communities as a public interest lawyer. Neelam developed an interest in environmental justice issues after taking courses at Berkeley Law focused on the importance of clean energy development and the rights of individuals disparately impacted by fossil fuel-generated energy. Leslie was drawn to international human rights through her volunteer work providing legal services to immigrants and asylum-seekers as she became aware of the many injustices faced by low-income and minority groups in the U.S. and abroad, including in her family’s native Guatemala.

Nov 24, 2014

Sampling the Garden Soil

Community Voices, EJ, Environmental Justice, Food Safety, gardening, My Garden, Resources and Tools, Soil Kitchens, Soil Pollution 6 Comments

by Cliff Villa

It began with a concerned mom in Eugene, Oregon, raising a seemingly simple question: is the soil in my garden safe for growing food?

Joanne Gross, the stay-at-home mom posing the question, had reason to be concerned. The neighborhood of West Eugene, where she and her family were living, was ringed with air pollution from a variety of sources: energy production, chemical processing and manufacturing, wood products, traffic, and idling trains. The chemicals emitted from these sources are associated with a variety of health risks including asthma, headaches, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. And indeed, more than 60% of residents who participated in a local survey reported significant concerns about asthma and cardiovascular diseases, as well as increased incidences of headaches, fatigue, and other ailments potentially connected to air pollution.

The 97402 zip code that makes up West Eugene is home to 99 percent of the City of Eugene’s air toxics emissions. Of the 31 facilities reporting to the city’s Toxics Right-to-Know Program, all but one is located in this zip code. One facility, a wood treatment plant that uses creosote in its industrial process, operates 100 feet from the nearest home and just over half a mile from Fairfield Elementary School, which has the highest asthma rate for an elementary school in the Bethel School District. Reflecting local demographics, 35 percent of Fairfield’s students are Latino and 71 percent receive free or reduced school lunches.

To help gather information about environmental justice concerns in this community, EPA Region 10 awarded two Environmental Justice Small Grants to Beyond Toxics, a local community-based organization working in partnership with other community organizations. The grants supported statistical analysis, door-to-door surveys, community presentations, and other initiatives including a local “EJ Toxics Tour.” Beyond Toxics and its partners, including Centro Latino Americano, conducted community interviews and meetings in Spanish, and recorded the concerns of community members who might have been overlooked in the past.

These discussions engaged the attention of many government organizations, including the City of Eugene, the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, the Oregon Health Authority, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. While some agencies worked on air permitting issues local health studies, brownfields assessments, and land use planning, we here in EPA Region 10 wondered how else we might contribute to enhancing the environmental well-being of this over-burdened community.

The simple question posed by concerned mom Joanne Gross and other community members prompted EPA’s response: find out whether it is safe for local residents to grow food in their gardens.

The My Garden – West Eugene project was designed to answer this question. We knew that we possessed the technical capacity to conduct soil sampling and analysis, and through the use of mobile laboratories, field equipment, and EPA and contractor personnel, it seemed possible that soil sampling and analysis could be conducted in the field, with results provided to community members almost instantaneously. We discovered that the concept already had been tested and proven a success in EPA Region 3, where staff had held “Soil Kitchen” events in diverse neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia. Their Soil Kitchen events pioneered an innovative process involving community members collecting their own soil samples from their backyards and gardens and bringing their samples to the “Soil Kitchen” for real-time analysis by EPA.

Partnering with local organizations, including Beyond Toxics and the Active Bethel Citizens neighborhood association, as well as state and local agencies, we planned the My Garden event for Sunday, October, 19, 2014, to coincide with the neighborhood Bethel Harvest Festival. In the weeks leading up to the event, community partners helped assemble and distribute throughout the community 250 citizen sampling kits. Each kit included a metal spoon, the illustrated instructions, and a zip-lock bag for collecting and the delivering the soil sample to the mobile lab. Over the course of a lovely fall afternoon, community members, including concerned mom Joanne Gross, brought 38 soil samples to the EPA mobile lab and received both the analytical data and an explanation of what the data meant. The operation was overseen by EPA On-Scene Coordinator Dan Heister, assisted by many other technical and program staff and contractors. Importantly, the EPA team included a native Spanish speaker who could explain the sampling process and results to the more than one-third of Spanish-speaking community members who brought their samples in for testing.

In addition to establishing connections with community members and local agencies and organizations, the My Garden – West Eugene project provided reassuring news to Joanne Gross and all her neighbors participating in the event: of all samples analyzed, none indicated contamination at levels of concern for growing food in gardens.

About the author: Cliff Villa is an Assistant Regional Counsel for EPA Region 10 and an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law. At EPA, Cliff provides legal counsel to the Emergency Management Program and represents the Office of Regional Counsel on the Region 10 Environmental Justice Integration Team.

Oct 23, 2014

Working with Municipalities and Communities to Bring New Solutions to Old Problems!

Community Voices, Environmental Justice 0 Comments

By Suzanne Murray, with John Blevins

Source: The Advocate

One of the most gratifying accomplishments that I can point to in my almost 20 years with EPA would never have happened if the Agency relied solely on traditional tools to address environmental and community concerns. These traditional tools include discussions focused on enforcement resolution only, which are conducted in a “closed-door” confidential setting. For the Buffer Zone Project for the City of Baton Rouge Wastewater Treatment Plant, we helped to break down bureaucratic silos and historic barriers by going beyond traditional practices and achieved what we set out to do every day at EPA – making a neighborhood and its environment a better place to live.

Baton Rouge, which sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, is a city that saw its population temporarily explode after Hurricane Katrina. The University Place neighborhood where the treatment plant is located is a predominantly minority, lower-income community. Residents complained about foul odors and swarms of sewer flies invading their homes. After decades of sharing their neighborhood with the facility and its expansions, residents were looking for change.

When I became involved in the project in 2012, there already had been a decade of legal battles between the neighborhood and the City, a civil rights action against EPA, and an enforcement action against the treatment plant. The City felt hamstrung because it had already made significant investment in the plant at a time when the infrastructure of Baton Rouge was pushed beyond capacity, due in large part to the population nearly doubling in the month after Hurricane Katrina.

Emotions were running high due to positions taken and statements made about the treatment plant during the protracted legal battles, but everyone in Baton Rouge wanted an outcome that ended the fighting and addressed community concerns. The neighborhood had asked for relocation, which the City of Baton Rouge had supported as a path forward – but the City had no legal mechanism to support such a project. So, along with our colleagues at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), we flew to Baton Rouge. We came upon a tense situation where traditional legal options were scarce. All we had was a decade-old enforcement consent decree that needed modification, a civil rights complaint, and no consensus on how to move forward.

What followed was months of conversations, negotiations, and advocacy, which took place at kitchen tables, in conference rooms and community centers, and at City Council meetings. We talked to and worked with people from the community and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), a local environmental organization, and representatives of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, the Mayor’s Office and the State of Louisiana. These meetings were not easy and not always civil – there were raised voices, tears, and even a bit of laughter. But despite the differences, there was always one remarkable uniting force – we all wanted to make the buffer zone project happen. There was a power in our united singularity of purpose.

Eventually, this collaborative effort prevailed and the City is creating a buffer zone around the wastewater treatment facility, which includes green space and the relocation of residents living in approximately three city blocks surrounding the treatment plant. The project is now memorialized in a consent decree among EPA, the City, Concerned Citizens of University Place Subdivision, and LEAN. As Adam Babich of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic said, “It was a bumpy ride. We got an agreement only because everyone kept working and kept talking.”

I believe it’s working because all parties have represented what they want and are doing so in an honest way. We are still talking. We continue to work out the inevitable kinks that go along with implementing a large scale project, particularly one that is so filled with the emotions that come with uprooting one’s family and changing one’s home. We are not overcommitting, but working within the authorities that we have to make a difference for the citizens and for Baton Rouge’s infrastructure.

If traditional methods, while useful and successful in many situations, had been relied upon in this instance, I do not believe the final project would have been possible. It is clear that having these types of conversations – face-to-face, person-to-person dialogues where voices may be raised but new relationships can be forged – are crucial to the success of environmental projects where people’s lives and homes are impacted.

About the authors: Suzanne Murray, EPA Region 6 Regional Counsel, has been with EPA since 1997, when she joined the Agency as an enforcement attorney. Since that time she served as the Deputy Regional Counsel for Enforcement and has been the Regional Counsel since 2001.

John Blevins, EPA Region 6 Enforcement Director, has been with EPA since 1986, where he has held positions in EPA Regions 9, 4 and 6. John has also held positions with the states of Oregon and Delaware. John has been the Region 6 Enforcement Director since 2005.

Sep 9, 2014

Restoring a Watershed One Community at a Time

Community Voices, Environmental Justice, Youth Engagement 5 Comments

by Alicia N. Neal, MFA

In a city like New Orleans, community is everything. I remember when I would walk down the street, I’d speak to everyone I passed, and everyone would keep an eye out for one another. Everyone was our neighbor. Eight years ago, prior to Hurricane Katrina, walking around the Lower Ninth Ward meant passing several homes on every block. Now it means visiting one, maybe two, houses per block. As a result, a sense of community has disappeared from the area. With very few residents returning to the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina, many lots stand vacant, some filled with weeds and trash, others still are home only to dilapidated buildings.

The few residents who have returned also gaze out over the ghostly remains of a former cypress swamp. Bayou Bienvenue, once a flourishing freshwater cypress-tupelo tree wetland where community members would hunt and fish, is now an urban swamp decimated by salt water intrusion which killed the vegetation, and weakened protection from high winds and water surges. Loss of the cypress trees made the Lower Ninth Ward more vulnerable to flooding from hurricanes. Without the natural barrier protection provided by the Bayou, a daily downpour can instantly incapacitate neighborhoods with floods.

For Lower Ninth Ward residents, there is a movement afoot to, in a sense, take back the streets through improved stormwater management. With the help of an EPA Environmental Justice Small Grant, Groundwork New Orleans assessed community needs to address issues of stormwater management, ecosystem restoration, and quality of life. In the midst of the assessment, we recognized a common theme: lack of communal connection. Residents had simple requests like planting more flowers to attract butterflies back to the area. As a result, a simple rain garden was installed to mitigate flooding and grew into a beautiful green space for neighbors to gather and get to know one another.

Central to this process was engaging local residents in identifying solutions. For example, we incorporated Lower Ninth Ward residents’ needs and input to create a site that removes toxins from stormwater and provides an educational and beautiful space for residents to enjoy. A corner lot at Caffin Avenue and North Prieur Street was selected to create a rain garden and community beautification site. The site, located near the Industrial Canal levee breech that inundated the neighborhood during Hurricane Katrina, contains a shade structure, rain garden, native plants, fruit trees, benches and educational signage. After but a few months, the site has become a communal space where neighbors can feel welcomed, help alleviate street flooding, and improve watershed health along with neighborhood aesthetic.

Members of the Green Team, our job training program for high school aged youth, are a part of the process from start to finish. The students learn about research methods, public speaking, community engagement, science, construction, and water testing. The students are gaining valuable life skills while making improvements in their community, like using GIS mapping to plot drainage problem areas along Caffin Avenue and conducting water quality testing in Bayou Bienvenue. The results compiled from these activities were presented to neighborhood residents and organizations. At each workshop the Green Team leads a hands-on activity to share what they have learned and educate the community.

The restoration of Bayou Bienvenue is an important part of the rebuilding of the community because it can provide opportunities for fishing, canoeing, and other activities for local residents. Engaging the community in understanding how a neighborhood-level watershed and habitat design can reduce susceptibility to flooding is helping to usher in a sense of communal connection so that we heal our community while helping to heal the environment.

About the Author: Alicia Neal, MFA is the Executive Director of Groundwork New Orleans. As a long time resident of New Orleans, she welcomes the opportunity to make a positive change in the city. She is also a mother and a visual artist who is inspired most by nature.

Aug 14, 2014

Psst! Health Impact Assessments Offer New Pathways to Healthier Environments

Community Engagement, Community Voices, Environmental Justice, Health Impact Assessments, HIAs, public health, Resources and Tools 4 Comments

By Aaron Wernham

It’s no secret that residents of low-income communities frequently experience serious health problems as a result of their living environments. Air pollution and substandard housing are a root cause of asthma and other respiratory diseases. Inadequate access to healthy foods increases the risk of diabetes and obesity. A growing body of research shows that a lack of economic and educational opportunity also results in poorer overall health. Seeking ways to respond to this challenge, policymakers across the country are turning to health impact assessments or HIAs.

Click to see an interactive map of completed HIAs in the US

A health impact assessment is a fast-growing tool that helps ensure that proposed policy changes will improve health, especially in low-income and predominantly minority communities that are often disproportionately exposed to environmental risks such as air pollution and poor-quality housing. HIAs use a flexible approach that brings together public health expertise, scientific data, and input from community and other stakeholders to examine the potential health risks and benefits of key policy proposals. Based on the potential effects identified, HIAs provide practical recommendations to capitalize on opportunities to improve community health and to minimize any potential health risks before it’s too late to correct them.

HIAs can be used to inform decisions in a variety of policy areas, from transportation and housing to energy and education. A recent evaluation published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that federal, state, local, and tribal legislators, public agency officials, and many others are using HIAs to craft smarter policies that promote safer and healthier communities.

One assessment completed in 2013 gave low-income communities in North Minneapolis a voice in planning a new transit system. The Bottineau Transitway’s proposed light rail routes travel through several low-income neighborhoods where residents experience higher-than-average rates of serious health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and obesity. With that in mind, Hennepin County’s Department of Housing, Community Works, and Transit conducted an HIA alongside the project’s environmental impact statement, a study that guides county, state, and federal planning.

The assessment found that the transitway system could significantly improve health in North Minneapolis by reducing traffic congestion, improving air quality, providing greater access to grocery stores and healthy food, and opening up employment and educational opportunities in other parts of the city. Based on the findings, county officials developed a set of recommended actions to maximize the transitway’s health benefits. Today these officials are increasing outreach to underrepresented minority stakeholders, promoting residential and commercial growth that will benefit low-income communities, and working to ensure that affordable housing remains available. As a result, the Bottineau Transitway will be more responsive to the community’s needs and ultimately support a healthier North Minneapolis.

Assessments carried out in Alaska beginning in 2007 to answer health questions raised by Alaska Native communities regarding proposed oil and gas and mining projects led to the use of HIAs as a routine part of the state’s permitting process. The first of these informed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) consideration of proposed oil and gas leasing in the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve. Village residents raised questions about health effects related to air quality, the potential for contamination of local fish and game (a critical source of food), and social changes related to the influx of nonresident workers.

The HIA, which was completed in 2008, brought together the tribal government and the BLM to address these concerns. Ultimately, the BLM adopted additional protections for hunting and fishing areas to protect local food sources andprovide new monitoring for pollutants in the air and food supply near villages. Collaboration among tribal governments, state and federal regulators, and health officials on this and several other HIAs between 2007 and 2009 demonstrated the value of this approach and ultimately led to the establishment of the state’s HIA program.

The secret’s out. The voices of community members, influential champions, and other stakeholders can be deployed in ways that build momentum for considering and adopting HIA recommendations. Nationwide, more than 300 HIAs have been completed or are underway in diverse communities (view them on the Health Impact Project’s interactive map), demonstrating the power of HIAs as a tool to help decision makers develop healthier communities and environments.

About the Author: Aaron Wernham, M.D., is the Director of The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Project is a national initiative dedicated to promoting the use of health impact assessment in the United States.

Aug 5, 2014

100th Blog Post: Harnessing Momentum for the Next 20 Years of Environmental Justice

20th Anniversary, 20th Anniversary Video Series, Community Engagement, Community Voices, Environmental Justice, EO 12898, Mayah's Lot, Tox Town 11 Comments

By Mustafa Ali

In the more than two years since beginning this blog, we’ve presented many posts that have looked at what two decades of environmental justice has meant across the country. In our very first post, I said that we want to use this space to celebrate 20 years of environmental justice at EPA, as well as to discuss the future of the environmental justice movement in the next 20 years.

Over the past 99 blog posts, we have focused on highlighting those stories that often get overlooked in the dialogue about the environment and environmental justice. These are the stories of positive change that are helping to move many environmentally overburdened communities from surviving to thriving, as well as those stories that highlight the challenges that still exist. We featured an entire video series dedicated to powerful stories from environmental justice leaders who were on the forefront of the movement, advancing it with each innovative and tireless action that they took to defend their communities from pollution and harm. As we commemorate the 20^th anniversary of environmental justice at EPA, I want to go back to the beginning and share this video with you.

I love this video because it captures the passion and energy of the environmental justice movement 20 years ago. To be clear, 1994 wasn’t the beginning of environmental justice. Civil rights and environmental leaders had been working on these issues for decades. But twenty years ago there was a new momentum, there was a sense of togetherness, and it was exciting.

In the early 1990s the words of environmental justice had not yet been cemented in the public lexicon. But the concept was beginning to take shape, and things were changing. I’m sharing this story with you now because I think it is so relevant today. Everywhere you look, it seems like the EJ movement is gaining new momentum. Things ARE changing. And that is one of the things I think this blog has captured well over the last 100 posts.

One source of this new momentum is the energy from the multitudes of young people getting involved in the EJ movement. Worcester Roots’ Toxic Soil Busters program is a great example. The program employs the local youth in Worcester to clean up and remediate hazardous lead-filled sites. Another post highlighted the efforts of a group of students who were doing research on environmental hotspots and used the feedback from surveys filled out from over 150 readers on this blog to complete a list of case studies on environmental justice. And there are many more avenues being developed to engage with younger people about environmental justice, like Mayah’s Lot, the environmental justice comic book, or Tox Town, which is a great tool for teaching children about chemicals and chemical safety.

Another catalyst of momentum has been technology. For example, we shared stories like the one from the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which is utilizing smart phone technologies to enable residents to track pollution and associated health effects in their neighborhoods. The Jordon River Commission in Utah has been using smartphones to engage young people to help clean up the river and make it more accessible for community residents, many of them from more ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods. And new tools being developed here at EPA (like the new community mapping tool C-FERST) and outside the agency (like the Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas), are providing more information and data to residents to inform them of pollution problems and equip them with tools for protecting their communities.

More than anything though, the environmental justice movement is being propelled forward by the ingenuity and hard work of everyday heroes in towns and cities all across the country. One illustration of this hard work is from the Clean Air Coalition, which used EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory data and other monitoring technology to hold a company accountable for violating the Clean Air Act to the tune of a $200 million settlement. Another example comes from Nuestras Raíces, which is training young people how to weatherize houses and make them more energy efficient. This effort not only provides jobs in the local economy but saves money for community residents. These stories are just a sliver of the multitude of stories that demonstrate the breadth and depth of positive results led by environmental justice advocates around the nation.

When I first started at EPA as an intern, the term environmental justice was brand new. I remember the enthusiasm and excitement that was emerging across the country as the movement was taking shape and gaining ground. As I travel across the country I see similar signs of that momentum everywhere I go. There are collaborative partnerships where communities are joining with state, local, and tribal governments, faith based organizations, and business and industry to make a positive change. So let’s keep pushing for change. Let’s keep going forward and make the next 20 years even more exciting and impactful as we strive to build a country that is safe and healthy for all to live, work, play, and pray.

About the author: Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Acting Senior Advisor on Environmental Justice to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

Jul 31, 2014

Science for Sustainable and Healthy Tribes

American Indian, climate change, Climate Justice, Community Voices, Environmental Justice, Policy on Environmental Justice for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples, Tribes and Indigenous Peoples 1 Comment

Cross-posted from It’s Our Environment

By EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy

Last week I signed the Policy on Environmental Justice for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples, which clarifies how EPA works with federally and state recognized tribes, indigenous community-based grassroots organizations, and other indigenous peoples to address their environmental and public health concerns.

American Indian communities have been inextricably tied to the natural environment for generations. From cultural identify to sustenance, many of those unique traditions endure. That’s why I’m so excited about the six tribal environmental health research grants to tribal communities and universities that we recently announced.

EPA is proud to have a long and rich history of supporting environmental and public health protection for all communities. These EPA supported grants will increase our knowledge of the threats posed by climate change and indoor air pollution, while incorporating traditional ecological knowledge to reach culturally appropriate and acceptable adaptation strategies to address these threats.

There is a unique need for tribal-focused research to identify those climate-related impacts and to reduce associated health and ecological risks. EPA has been actively engaged in supporting such research, and I’m thrilled EPA is providing grants to further that work. The grants will support the study of the impacts of climate change and indoor air pollution on tribal health and way of life. Grantees include:

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium located in Anchorage, Alaska will be looking at ways to assess, monitor, and adapt to the threats of a changing climate to the sustainability of food and water in remote Alaska native villages.
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in La Conner, Washington will be examining coastal climate impacts to traditional foods, cultural sites, and tribal community health and well-being.
Yurok Tribe in Klamath, California will be identifying, assessing, and adapting to climate change impacts to Yurok water and aquatic resources, food security and tribal health.
Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Montana will research climate change adaptation and waterborne disease prevention on the Crow Reservation.
The University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will examine ways to improve indoor air quality and reduce environmental asthma triggers in tribal homes and schools.
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts will measure indoor air quality in tents as related to wood smoke exposures and identify potential health risks in remote subsistence hunting communities in North America.

The health of our communities depends upon the health of our environment. These grants will help build prosperous and resilient tribal communities both now and for future generations. Like the enduring memories of my tour of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and tribal environmental program in North Dakota, they will have an impact long after my service as EPA Administrator.

About the author: Gina McCarthy currently serves as the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Jul 30, 2014

Hip Hop is Acting on Climate!

Climate Justice, Community Voices, Environmental Justice, Hip Hop, Hip Hop Caucus 4 Comments

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.

We have students. We have celebrities, recording artists, and cultural influencers. We have academics and experts. And we have activists and community leaders. We even had the EPA Administrator. They all are working together to act on climate, to demonstrate that communities of color across this country want common sense climate solutions.

This past spring the Hip Hop Caucus organized the “Act On Climate Campus Tour” that visited Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and African-American neighborhoods around the country. Armed with the knowledge of the disproportionate life-threatening impacts of carbon pollution on our communities, African American communities have joined the call for climate action. From people, particularly poor African Americans, drowning in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to our elderly passing away in the extreme heat waves in Chicago over the recent summers, to the homes and small businesses destroyed in our communities in the wake of Super Storm Sandy, the devastation and destruction of increasingly extreme weather caused by climate change is getting worse and more dangerous before our eyes.

As champions of health issues, the Hip Hop community knows that in the African American community we suffer disproportionately from higher rates of asthma and other respiratory and heart related diseases as well as cancer. We live closer to sources of carbon pollution, like power plants, which can be a major contributor to higher rates of morbidity and mortality. These proposed standards from the EPA would decrease pollution that is causing illness and death in our neighborhoods.

There is no doubt that the cost of life, the cost of health, and the economic cost of natural disasters and increasingly expensive energy and food, all which disproportionately impact communities of color, makes it imperative for us to act on climate. Short term and long term, these carbon pollution standards are good for African American communities. They will create jobs, save money, and protect public health.

The tales of energy rate increases by those who oppose these standards are wildly speculative. More importantly, they only tell one part of the story, because they do not account for the cost to communities of color of not implementing these standards. There is great economic cost of inaction. We are already paying more for air conditioning in a warming world. We are paying more for water and food produced in times of drought, and we are paying more for the cost of rebuilding after increasingly violent natural disasters. Curbing climate change through these power plant standards will also curb these cost-of-living increases that our communities are already experiencing.

Further, the speculative claim that our communities will suffer job losses if the proposed standards are approved do not account for the economic benefit from resulting job creation through green innovation. Every dollar put into clean energy creates three times as many jobs as putting that same dollar into fossil fuels.

This is a moment for great leadership. I know the Hip Hop community will continue to lead the fight and use our voices and talents in our great and continuous struggle in this country for freedom, for civil rights, and for access to economic opportunity and livable communities.

That is why the Hip Hop community must lead and must act to curb the impacts of climate change that our communities are suffering from now. Our success in getting young people, particularly young people of color, involved with environmental issues is because we harness the mass appeal of Hip Hop and the power of cultural expression to engage and mobilize collective action to affect change. For young people in urban communities, the Hip Hop Caucus provides an entry point to get involved that is fun and familiar. We frame the issues in relevant ways to mobilize our communities to action and we take a holistic approach to community empowerment. Ultimately, we exist for the collective of young people who are not drawn to traditional campaigns or organizations, but who need and want the knowledge, tools, and resources to become a recognized force that has the ability to effect change in this country and around the world.

This week, the EPA is holding public hearings across the nation to give people an opportunity to present data, views or arguments about the Clean Power Plan that we’ve spent months fighting for. These hearings are the most important event in our movement at this time in our fight for clean air and clean water. It is critical that people of color communities engage on this subject, whether they have attended in person or submit a public comment. If you can’t attend the hearings, you can submit comments directly to EPA until October 16, 2014. You also can leave your public comment: http://www.actonclimate.com/?ntl=true.

Can’t Stop, Wont’ Stop….All Power to the People!

About the author: Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, is a minister, community activist, and a national leader within the green movement. Rev. Yearwood has been successfully bridging the gap between communities of color and environmental advocacy for the past decade. Rolling Stone declared Rev Yearwood one of our country’s “New Green Heroes” and Huffington Post named him one of the top 10 change-makers in the green movement.

Jul 17, 2014

Clean Power, Cleaner Communities

Air Pollution, climate change, Climate Justice, Climate Justice in Action, Community Engagement, Community Voices, EJ, Environmental Justice 3 Comments

By Jalonne White-Newsome

My daughter and I love to cook together, and one of our favorite shows is “Chopped,” where chefs come from across the country and are given 20 to 30 minutes to create an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert with a mystery basket of ingredients. This show is intriguing in that all the chefs are working with the same ingredients, but ultimately, the way they decide to transform the basket of ingredients is unique. While the Food Network was not the first thing on the minds of EPA’s rule writers, I believe the EPA is providing yet another opportunity for us to create a program that will not only be fulfilling, but enhance the quality of life for all.

At the end of July, environmental advocates across the country will be testifying at public hearings to make their voices heard about EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which sets state limits on the amount of carbon dioxide that can be produced from one of the largest sources of carbon pollution — power plants (or referred to in the plan as “electricity generating units”). This plan is the next big step in President Obama’s Climate Action Plan introduced last year, which set forth an agenda to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, build community resilience, and encourage energy efficiency.

Yes, this is a huge step forward in addressing climate change and there is a need for ALL voices to be heard, especially those of us who are disproportionately impacted by power plant emissions and numerous co-pollutants from exhaust stacks in our community. There is a need for us to not only be present at the public hearings across the country, but to start to engage with utilities, environmental agencies, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders – at the local and state levels – to ensure that equity is a major part of the state-implementation planning process for this proposed rule. Additionally, if you can’t speak at one of the public hearings, there are other ways to comment in writing. The comment period on the proposal is open until October 16, 2014, and you can click here for tips on how to effectively comment on EPA proposed rules and changes.

This rule, I believe, will be a game changer. It is a federal rule but, similar to other federal regulations that are crafted in the Beltway, the State environmental agencies have the responsibility of creating a unique ‘menu of options’ to meet state-based carbon dioxide emission goals. This ‘menu’ can include things like improving emission rates through technological upgrades from power plants, converting current coal-fired utilities to natural gas, enhancing state-level renewable energy requirements, and other options. So while having options on any menu is a good thing, it is also crucial that environmental justice and social justice advocates across the country help create the ‘best menu’ possible – at the state level – that will ensure that EVERYONE feels full and satisfied.

To understand how you can chime-in, WE ACT for Environmental Justice is hosting a webinar next Monday, July 21^st to unpack the Clean Power Plan and highlight some of the key equity concerns that could arise. We know that there are many local environmental challenges that require time, energy, and resources that, quite frankly, do not leave much space to work on federal policy. However, it is my hope that environmental advocates across the country will listen in, and see how much we really have at stake if we do NOT get engaged. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan will have a local/state impact that – in one way or another – will probably touch on issues of energy, air quality, alternative fuels, civil rights, green jobs, and education which align with the work you already are engaged in.

Let us all be at the table and make sure we make the menu work for all of us. There’s a lot at stake.

About the author: Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome is WE ACT’s Federal Policy Analyst, based in Washington, DC. Prior to joining WE ACT, Jalonne was the inaugural Kendall Science Fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), engaging in independent research on climate change adaptation and public health. While matriculating through the Environmental Health Sciences Department at the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health, her dissertation research focused on understanding the public health impacts of extreme heat events, specifically related to indoor heat exposure and how the urban-dwelling elderly adapt to hot weather.

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