Chemical Policy and Environmental Justice in Connecticut: A Case Example of Taking Action

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Chemical Policy and Environmental Justice in
Connecticut A Case Example of Taking Action!

• -By
• Mark A. Mitchell M.D., MPH
• Founder and President
• Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice
• May 2009

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Why I Became Interested in Chemical Policy

• Health Disparities
• Environmental Injustice
• Environmental Health Policy Implementation
  Process
• Asthma

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What is Environmental Justice?

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines
  Environmental Justices as
• The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of
  all people regardless of race, color, national
  origin, or income with respect to the
  development, implementation, and enforcement of
  environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

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What is Environmental Justice? Continued

• Fair treatment means that no group of people,
  including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group
  should bear a disproportionate share of the
  negative environmental consequences resulting
  from industrial, municipal, and commercial
  operations or the execution of federal, state,
  local, and tribal programs and policies.

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Point Source Air Pollution Emissions in
Connecticut 2000
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Common Environmental Justice Issues Linked to
Chemical Policy

• Health Issues
• Asthma
• Lead Poisoning
• Autoimmune Disease-Lupus
• Learning Disabilities/ADHD/
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Obesity

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Common Environmental Justice Issues Linked to
Chemical Policy

• Land and Solid Waste Pollution
• Landfills and Dumps
• Waste Transfer Stations-Storage/Transfer/Disposal
  Facilities
• Brownfields
• Hazardous Waste
• Abandoned Storage Drums of Chemicals
• PCBs in Soil
• TCE Contaminated Soil
• Arsenic in soil

• Air Toxics
• Trash, Sewage Sludge and Other Incinerators
• Odors
• Power Plants with Ammonia Gas
• Fires/Explosions/Spills
• Indoor air contaminants
• Water Contamination
• Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sewage Contamination
• Chlorine Gas used in sewage or water treatment
  plants
• Fish Contamination with Mercury, PCBs
• Sewage Sludge Compost/Pellets

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Common Environmental Justice Issues Linked to
Chemical Policy

• Local Business Toxins
• Auto Body Shops
• Dry Cleaners
• Nail Salons
• Chrome Plating Facilities
• Cement Kilns
• Workers Hazmat Exposures
• Agricultural Pesticides
• Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Listed Facilities

• Industrial Pollution
• Refineries using Hydrofluoric Acid
• Chemical Plants
• Plastics/Rubber Factories
• Pharmaceutical Plants
• Paint Manufacturers
• Chlor-Alkali Plants
• Pulp and Paper Processing Facilities
• Industrial or Chemical Fires/Explosions/Spills

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Common Environmental Justice Issues Linked to
Chemical Policy

• Consumer Product Exposures
• Lead Contaminated Dishes
• Dollar Store Selling Toxic Toys
• Formaldehyde in Trailers
• Household Chemical Poisoning-Accidental
• Home Pesticides
• Cosmetics/Personal Care Products
• Mercury Dental Amalgam
• Ritual Use of Mercury in Traditional Remedies
• BPA in canned food and drink containers

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Health Disparities and Environment

• Asthma is 50 higher in urban schools in CT when
  compared to rural schools
• Asthma deaths are 6 times higher in Black males
  between the ages of 15 and 24
• 84 of lead poisoned children in CT are Black or
  Latino
• Cancer, Diabetes, Lupus, Depression, ADHD, Low
  Birthweight, Sudden Death, etc.

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Waste Facilities in Hartford

• Trash incinerator
• Ash landfill
• Bulky waste landfill
• Sewage sludge incinerator
• Sewage treatment plant
• Paper and cardboard recycling Plant
• Plastic and metal recycling plant
• Demolition and construction debris transfer
  station
• Proposed Hazardous Waste Transfer Station

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Trash Incineration in Hartford, CT

• The Mid-Connecticut Project
• Quick Facts
• 5th Largest in the U.S.
• 1, 025,532 Population Served
• 70 Municipalities (Towns)
• 2,850 ton per day operation
• 888,000 ton per year operation
• Emissions
• Lead
• Mercury
• Nickel
• Chromium
• Cadmium
• Dioxin

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Metropolitan District Commission Water Pollution
Control Plant

• Sewage Treatment Facility
• Quick Facts
• Processes an average sewage flow of 100 million
  gallons a day. Largest in CT
• Has the largest sewage sludge incinerator in
  Connecticut
• Burns sludge from 35 towns in 3 states
• Sewage sludge incineration is the 10th largest
  source of dioxinone of the most toxic chemicals
  known to science

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Hartford Point Source Air Pollution
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What Is CCEJ?

• 10 year-old multi-racial, multicultural
  organization led by people of color
• Provide people of color and low Income people
  with the tools they need to change the
  institutional decisions, policies and practices
  that make them less healthy
• Chapters in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport
• Provide technical assistance to other urban areas
  in CT and beyond
• Work in national, state and local coalitions to
  accomplish our goals

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Our Greatest Successes

• Passed Landmark Statewide EJ Law
• Blocking English Station Power Plant
• Reducing diesel emissions in all school buses,
  all transit buses, some elderly transportation,
  and some construction projects statewide

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Provisions of the Environmental Justice Law

• Provides for enhanced community notification and
  participation in the decision-making process for
  any new or expanded environmental affecting
  facility in DECD designated distressed
  municipalities and environmental justice
  communities
• Defines environmental justice communities as low
  income census block groups with 30 of the
  population with incomes less than 200 of poverty
  
• Allows for the provision of environmental
  benefits in these municipalities and communities

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Definition of Environmentally Affecting Facilities

• Environmental Affecting Facilities include the
  following
• Power plants
• Trash or sewage sludge incinerators
• Large sewage treatment plants
• Trash transfer facilities
• Active landfills
• Multi-town recycling facilities
• Major sources of air pollution as defined by U.S.
  EPA

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Environmental Justice Communities
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Other CCEJ Successes

• Blocked Siting of New Power Plant
• Passes Zoning Law to Ban Medical Waste Facilities
  in Hartford
• Persuaded the City of Hartford to Declare an
  Asthma Emergency
• Moved Headstart from Contaminated Site
• Got Old Colt Firearms Site Declared a Hazardous
  Waste Site
• Got Trash Incinerator to Reduce Air Pollution
• Got Adriaen's Landing brownfields site developed
  in an environmentally and neighborhood friendly
  manner

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CCEJ has been able to work with other state
groups to

• Reduce toxicity of incinerator emissions by
  reducing mercury use and disposal
• Passed the toughest state law to ban the addition
  of mercury to consumer products
• Passed law to require stricter mercury emissions
  from power plants
• Persuaded State Treasurer to support shareholder
  resolutions to reduce global warming and to
  reduce industrial use of toxic chemicals
• Promote increasing the number and use of
  household hazardous waste collection days and
  sites

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CCEJ has worked with the Coalition for a Safe and
Healthy Connecticut to

• Virtually eliminate lead and asbestos from
  childrens toys
• Pass a law to require safer cleaning products and
  practices in state buildings
• Pressure the federal government to ban phthalates
  from childrens toys
• Hopefully pass the strongest ban on Bisphenol A
  in the country

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CCEJ has been able to work with national groups
to

• Sponsor local actions to get Microsoft, Johnson
  Johnson, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Sears and many
  others to phase out PVC plastic sales
• Get FDA to change their policy and admit that
  mercury dental amalgam may be harmful to children
  and pregnant women

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Remaining Issues

• Strengthening environmental justice law
• Keep trash incinerators from expanding
• Reducing storage of toxic materials at power
  plants and sewage facilities
• Block new hazardous waste and other multi-town
  waste facilities in urban areas
• Promoting recycling and research into
  alternatives to current waste disposal methods
  Emergency response for climate disasters

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For More Information

• Call CCEJ at [phone]
• www.environmental-justice.org
• Our Backyard A Quest for Environmental Justice.
  Visgilio, G. and Whitelaw, D. (editors). Rowman
  and Littlefield, publishers. 2003
• Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty 1987-2007 - United
  Church of Christ April, 2007

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For Further Questions Contact

• Mark A. Mitchell, M.D., MPH
• President
• Connecticut Coalition for
• Environmental Justice
• 860-548-1133
• mark.mitchell_at_environmental-justice.org