Environmental Justice

Fighting for Everyone’s Right to Breathe Clean Air

What is Environmental Justice?

“Racial minority and low-income populations experience higher than average exposures to selected air pollutants, hazardous waste facilities, contaminated fish, and agricultural pesticides,” according to a 1990 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Report. Environmental justice is 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. For the American Lung Association, environmental justice represents the need to focus special attention on people living in at-risk communities.

Examples of environmental inequities are:

• Low-income residents, and quite often people of color, are more likely than other groups to live near pollution sources including freeways, industrial centers with increased truck traffic, power plants, landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste treatment facilities.

• Low-income and African American children consistently have higher than normal levels of lead in their blood.

• Eighty percent of Hispanics, 65 percent of African Americans, and 57 percent of whites live in communities that fail to meet some U.S. EPA air quality standards.

• A large number of hired farm workers in the United States, and especially in California, are people of color. Farm workers suffer from pesticide-related illnesses.

Environmental Justice in California

California legislation (SB 115, Solis) requires the fair treatment of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income with respect to the laws, regulations and policies implemented by the California EPA (Cal/EPA). Despite the fact that environmental justice is a growing concern in California, there is a lack of cumulative data to document the heavy toll air pollution is taking on these communities. The American Lung Association of California has joined the California Air Resources Board’s Neighborhood Assessment Program Advisory Committee, which is developing new strategies for measuring the impact of air pollution on targeted communities and investigating ways to reduce the amount of pollution generated by industrial and other sources in these communities.

The Cal/EPA has also established an Advisory Committee on Environmental Justice, pursuant to SB 89 (Escutia), to assist in implementing an environmental justice agenda. The committee issued its final report of recommendations in September 2003. To view the report, visit http://www.calepa.ca.gov/envjustice/Documents/2003/FinalReport.pdf.

Among recent Cal/EPA activities to promote environmental justice have been programs to limit diesel exhaust in low income and minority neighborhoods and monitoring of industrial activities in residential areas so that pollution can be minimized or eliminated.

The California Air Resources Board published a public participation guide for understanding the activities of the state board and local air districts, which is available at www.arb.ca.gov.

Environmental Justice and Diesel

The American Lung Association of California is working to reduce diesel emissions in California. The association advocates upgrading older diesel vehicles to run cleaner and, when possible, replacing diesel-powered buses and trucks with cleaner-fueled vehicles powered by natural gas, electricity or fuel cells. Diesel particulates are the most significant source of air toxics and account for 70 percent of the cancer risk from toxic air contaminants statewide. This is a significant environmental justice issue because low-income residents, and quite often people of color, live in communities located near freeways, shipping yards, and other areas with heavy diesel truck traffic.

Diesel emissions are also released throughout the process of fuel production, refining, distribution and dispensing. Diesel refining, distribution and storage facilities are predominantly located in communities already burdened by major air pollution and toxic risks. Continued expansion of refining increases toxic air pollution and raises the risk of lung cancer and other lung diseases in low-income areas. Increasing diesel consumption has a devastating effect on these communities.

Brief History of Environmental Justice

While there has always been an awareness of the disproportionate burden borne by minorities and low-income communities, events did not give rise to a "movement" until 1982 in Warren County, North Carolina. The spark that lit the fire for the environmental justice movement had its beginnings in a small, low-income, predominately African-American community where a landfill was created for the disposal of PCB contaminated soil.

Civil and states-rights activists collaborated to stage numerous demonstrations, which resulted not only in the arrest of more than 500 people, but in the creation of a rallying point for those eager to focus on the prejudiced usage of community lands.

At the request of Congressman Walter Fauntroy, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) conducted a study of eight southern states to determine the correlation between the location of hazardous waste landfills and the racial and economic status of the surrounding communities. Published in 1983, the GAO study found obvious bias in the placement of the landfills: three out of every four landfills were located near predominantly minority communities.

Another milestone commission on racial justice showed that race was in fact the most significant factor in determining the siting of hazardous waste facilities. This study found that three out of every five African-Americans and Hispanics live in a community with unregulated toxic waste sites. The commission also noted that African-Americans were heavily over represented in areas with the greatest number of toxic waste sites. While race plays a great part in determining the location of hazardous waste landfills, economic status is also important. Often, poor communities are intentionally chosen to house such sites because due to a lack of resources, there is no expectation that the community will organize opposition.

Closely following this commission was a study by the National Law Journal. It found that the U.S. EPA took 20 percent longer to cite abandoned sites in minority communities as a priority, as compared to the time it took the U.S. EPA to prioritize sites in white communities. It also noted that polluters of such communities paid fines 54 percent lower than polluters of white communities.

The U.S. EPA created an Office of Environmental Equity in 1992 (the name was changed to the Office of Environmental Justice in 1994) to address these concerns. In 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898: “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations.” It requires all federal agencies to incorporate environmental justice into their missions.

Resources

California Environmental Rights Alliance
310.536.8237
www.envirorights.org

Cal/EPA, Environmental Justice
916.324.8425
www.calepa.ca.gov/envjustice/

California League of Conservation Voters Educational Fund
310.441.4162
www.ecovote.org

Communities for a Better Environment
Huntington Park Office: 323.826.9771
Oakland Office: 510.302.0430
www.cbecal.org

Environmental Defense
202.387.3500
www.environmentaldefense.org

California Air Resources Board
www.arb.ca.gov/ch/programs/programs.htm