Elevating Environmental Justice Into The Planning Process

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Elevating Environmental JusticeInto The Planning
Process

• Communications in the Age of the Environment

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What is Environmental Justice ?

• What do you think?

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Historical Perspective on Environmental Justice

• Dumping in Dixie
• US General Accounting Office
• Toxic Waste and Race Study 1987
• EPA creates Office on EJ 1992
• NIEHS and ATSDR Published
• Grassroots Dr. Robert Bullard Clark Atlanta EJ
  Resource Center
• Executive Order 12898 Federal Actions to
  Address Environmental Justice in Minority
  Populations and Low-Income Populations
• 1964 Civil Rights Act No person in the United
  State shall, on the grounds of race, color, or
  national origin be excluded from participation
  in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to
  discrimination under any program or activity
  receiving Federal financial assistance.

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Environmental Justice and California Law

• Cal/EPA California law defines Environmental
  Justice to mean The fair treatment of people
  of all races, cultures and incomes with respect
  to the development, adoption, implementation and
  enforcement of all environmental laws,
  regulations and policies
• Senate Bill 89 established a procedural framework
  for pursuing environmental justice and created
  the Interagency Working Group on Environmental
  Justice which includes heads of Cal EPAs Boards,
  Departments and Office and the Director of OPR.
  2000
• Senate Bill 828 established a deadline for
  Cal/EPA Boards, Departments and Office to
  identify and address gaps in their programs that
  may impede the achievement of environmental
  justice
• Assembly Bill 1533 required OPR to establish
  guidelines for incorporating environmental
  justice into the general plans adopted by cities
  and counties.

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CARB

• The California Air Resources Board Overseas Air
  Quality Management Districts
• CARB Assumes Disproportionate Impacts in
  Environmental Justice Communities.

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Environmental Justice IssuesDisproportionate
Impacts

• Inequitable effects of Policies
• Lack of Identification
• Disparate Health Care
• Failure to Empower

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2007 Case StudyAir Quality Management District

• Directed to adopt Environmental Justice standards
  based on local conditions.
• Board of Directors direct staff to draft an
  environmental justice policy statement
• Board adopts EJ policies and requires an
  implementation plan.

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Environmental Justice Audit

• A Compliance Tool

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The Environmental Justice Audit

• Complies with Legislative Acts, Policies and
  Orders
• Establishes a Baseline
• Initiates Partnerships
• Increases Organizational Efficiencies

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• HOW?

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Ask The Environmental Justice Question

• Identification of Environmental Justice
  Populations
• Is There A Low Income OR Minority Population
  Within 1/2 Mile Radius of The Improvement or
  Development Project?

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The Audit

• Task 1 Review of Client Programs and Services
• Task 2 Identification of District Service Areas
• Task 3 Demographic Analysis
• Task 4 Evaluation of Client Public Outreach
  Process
• Task 5 Identification of EJ Community
• Task 6 ID English Language Needs
• Task 7 Evaluation Client program impacts on EJ
  communities
• Task 8 Issue/Opportunities of interface with EJ
  Communities
• Task 9 Written Report
• Contact mababio_at_pmcworld.com

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Client Reference

• CD of Audit Report is available upon request.

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Equity A Review of Current Planning Practices

• Public Participation Process
• Public Surveys
• Interactive Website
• Outreach or Education
• Targeted Marketing to EJ
• Public Meetings
• Focus Group/CAC
• Specific Budget
• Language Translations
• EJ Audit
• 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
  

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WHEN?
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Ask the Environmental Justice Question When..

• A Proposed Project Creates Change
• A physical barrier
• Change in travel time
• Disruption of access to neighborhood child care
• Increase risk of physical injury/health
• Decreased accessibility to usual
• Congregational centers
• Increased noise level
• Reduction in open spaces

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Selecting an AppropriateMethod of Analysis

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Desk Top Evaluation Air Quality

• The worse the general air quality is in an area
  due to whatever source, the greater the harm of
  additional emissions.
• Transportation projects can affect ground level
  air quality

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Desk Top EvaluationWater Quality/Drainage

• Is the EJ population the dominate user of the
  impacted resource?
• Does the EJ community use the resource
  differently than the population as a whole?
• Are there unequal distributive effects of water
  quality and drainage improvements.

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Desk Top EvaluationNoise

• Define Impact
• Identify Protected Population land use and
  activities
• Perform noise impact screening analysis (look up
  tables or FTA noise screening procedure)

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Desk Top EvaluationNoise

• Receptors near a project will incur the greatest
  noise level increase and sustain the greatest
  noise level.
• Properties further from the project often are
  protected from noise.
• Therefore, demographics of persons associated
  with specific properties are preferred over
  census data.

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Desk Top EvaluationHazardous Materials

• Identify existing hazardous waste data and
  integrate that data into demographic information
  to evaluate distributive effects to protected
  populations.
• Evaluate transportation routes for hazardous
  materials.
• Employ higher level evaluations when screening
  methods indicate significant potential for
  exposure.

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Desk Top EvaluationSafety

• Determine the extent to which a difference exists
  between road users in minority/low income areas
  compared to other areas
• Attempt to reduce conflicts between vehicles and
  bicycles
• Research EJ community habits i.e.. street corner
  assembly, middle of the block crossing,
  unintended paths or short cuts

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Light Rail Case Study

• City Of Louisville, Kentucky
• Transit Authority Of River City
• Parsons/Schimpler Joint Venture

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Smoketown
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Churchill Downs
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Horseman and BoardersPublic Assistance
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Americana Apartments
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Outreach to Multi-ethnicMulti-lingual Communities

• Make an effort to understand something relevant
  about the culture.
• Use a culturally sensitive greeting.
• Use visual outreach tools as primary presentation
  materials.
• Organize sub-groups w/ language and/or technical
  translators to solicit feedback.
• Training may be required. The American is a
  mystery.

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Environmental Justice Community Involvement
Impact Summary

• Community outreach can bring important
  intelligence into the planning process.
• Environmental Justice provides an opportunity to
  substantiate the redistribution of investments

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Transit Oriented DevelopmentBART Garage at
Fruitvale
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Fruitvale Village-Unity Council
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Selecting An Appropriate Method Of Analysis The
Future Challenge
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Global Warning

• Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependency
• Anticipate Water Shortage
• Population Increases
• Recognize Change in ecosystems
• Increase Ethanol and other alternative fuel
  production
• Desalination Efforts
• Land Use limits
• Categorize and document

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Disproportionate Impacts

• Understanding the distributive impacts of
  economic benefits sheds light on who gains from a
  project.
• EJ requires a shift in focus from aggregate
  benefit cost comparison to an understanding of
  which groups benefit and which do not.

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Resources/References

• Clark Atlanta University, Environmental Justice
  Resource Centerwww.ejrc.cau.welcome.html
• Sanchez, Thomas W., Stolz,Rich, and Ma, Jacinta S
  (2003), Moving to Equity Addressing Inequitable
  Effects of Transportation Policies on Minorities.
  Cambridge, MA The Civil Rights Project at
  Harvard University
• Authored by Thomas W. Sanchez, Associate
  Professor and James F. Wolf, Professor, Virginia
  Polytechnic Institute and State University 2004
• Ababio, Marilyn (2002) Environmental Justice
  Technical Memorandum, TARC Schimpeler/Parsons
  Joint Venture, Louisville, KY
• Forkenbrock, David J. and Sheeley, Jason (2004)
  Effective Methods for Environmental Justice
  Assessment. Washington DC Transportation
  Research Board

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Environmental Justice Resources

• Transportation Research Board www.TRB.org
• Clark Atlanta University, EJ Resource Center,
  www.ejrc.cau.welcome.html
• 3. Department of Transportation,
  www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2.htm
• COMTO, www.comto.org
• Department of Environmental Protection,
  www.epa.gov/swerosps/ej
• Environmental Defense, www.edf.org/programs/EJ
• 7. Federal Transit Admin. www.fta.dot.gov link
  transit data and information, Title VI Compliance