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Federal Memoranda
Appendix A: Executive Order 12898, 2/11/94, from President William Clinton
Focusing the attention of federal agencies on human health and environmental conditions in minority and low-income communities. Calling agencies to develop strategies and make achieving the EJ part of their mission. Giving minority and low-income communities greater opportunities for public participation in, and access to public information on, matters relating to human health and the environment. Mandates the creation of an Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, chaired by the EPA administrator and composed of the heads of various agencies. This group will develop guidance on identifying environmental injustices, hold public meetings, and assist in data and research coordination.
Appendix B: Christine Todd Whitman Memorandum, 8/9/01
Re-affirming the commitment of the EPA to environmental justice.
Appendix C: EPA Memorandum, 12/1/00
Analyzes statutory and regulatory authorities under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, and the Clean Air Act that are available to address EJ issues during (EPA) permitting.
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Senate Bill 115 (Solis, 1999)
Establishes the Office of Planning and Research as the coordinating agency in state government for environmental justice programs. The bill also requires the Cal EPA to develop a model environmental justice mission statement for boards, departments, and offices within the agency.
Senate Bill 89 (Escutia, 2000)
Requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to create a Working Group on Environmental Justice to assist the Cal EPA in developing an interagency EJ strategy. The working group would include the Chairs of the State Air Resources Board, the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Director of Toxic Substances Control, and others. The bill also requires the Secretary to convene an advisory committee by January 15, 2002 to assist the working group.
Senate Bill 828 (Alarcon, 2001)
This bill sets dates of completion and timelines for the formation of the working group delineated in Senate Bill 89.
Senate Bill 32 (Escutia, 2001)
Authorizes local governments to investigate and clean up small parcels of property contaminated with hazardous waste; requires the Cal EPA to conduct scientific peer review of screening values; and requires the development of a guidance document to help communities, developers, and local governments understand the complicated factors and procedures of cleaning up hazardous waste.
Assembly Bill 1553 (Keeley, 2001)
Requires the Office of Planning and Research to adopt guidelines for addressing environmental justice in city and county general plans, and to hold at least one public hearing both before and after the release of the draft guidelines.
Assembly Bill 1390 (Firebaugh, 2001)
Requires any air quality management district or air pollution control district with a population of one million residents or greater to spend at least 50% of their funds on reduced emission school busses, diesel mitigation, and/or the Carl Moyer program. The goal is to reduce air contaminants and public health risks in communities with significant exposure, including minority or low-income communities.
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CALFED
http://www.calfed.ca.gov
Environmental Justice subcommittee co-chairs: Leslie Lohse, Martha Guzman
CALFED is a consortium of state and federal agencies working to heal and maintain the Bay Delta ecosystem. In response to concerns raised by urban and rural constituents, CALFED began the process of creating environmental justice guidelines to address and minimize or mitigate the impacts of CALFED activities on minority, tribal, and low-income people. To get public participation and feedback on to how to integrate environmental justice into CALFED programs, CALFED representatives held five environmental justice forums around California. At the meetings, CALFED scientists described CALFED's work and goals, and solicited public opinion to identify impacts and priorities.
Attendees at these meetings were concerned with adequate consultation with tribes, CALFED's lack of attention to the North State watersheds, CALFED's degree of power to exercise eminent domain, and minority and low-income populations being overburdened by environmental problems without adequate information on the scope of the problems (i.e. fish contamination from mercury in the water affecting subsistence fishers). People also asked to be able to participate in the proposal review process when CALFED decision makers decide what activities to fund.
Following these forums, CALFED had established public advisory
groups, is conducting an agency-wide environmental justice education and
training effort, and recommends working with communities to identify
potential impacts. However, the forums were often not well attended by
community groups, so there was some disconnect between goals and actual
outreach strategies. CALFED also established environmental justice
contacts in each of the member agencies—a potentially valuable resource
for community people—but these lists have not gone out to community groups. Office of Planning and Research
http://www.opr.ca.gov
Contact: Heather Halsey, EJ Coordinator (916) 445-4831
- Workshops
The Governor's Office of Planning and Research is the state agency charged with implementing environmental justice programs and creating environmental justice guidelines for general plans for cities and counties. At their Sacramento Environmental Justice Fundamentals course, the focus was on getting agencies to talk to one another, and teaching people what environmental justice is and how it impacts their work.
- General Plan Guidelines
The Office of Planning and Research held a series of four
environmental justice forums around the state during January and February, 2002. The
primary goals of these meetings were to: create a network of
environmental justice contacts at the community and local, state, and
federal government levels; evaluate recent efforts to increase
meaningful public involvement in governmental processes; and hold public
hearings on creating environmental justice guidelines for local general
plans. Under Assembly Bill 1553 (Keeley, Chapter 762, Statutes of 2001)
the Office of
Planning and Research is charged with developing environmental justice
guidelines for city and county general plans. These public hearings were
to provide the necessary public input—prior to even drafting
guidelines—for the process. Each forum also included a panel-led discussion regarding meaningful public involvement in governmental decision-making. A draft of the guidelines will be released to the public for a second review process in fall, 2002. The Office of Planning and Research received feedback on the forums, including calls for more in-depth outreach to communities and groups to increase participation, knowledge sharing, and input. See the Environmental Justice Forums Report Jan-Feb/02 for more information.
California Department of Transportation (CalTrans)
Contact: Norman Dong, Office of Policy Analysis & Research,
Norman_dong@dot.ca.gov or (916) 651 6889
CalTrans has begun an effort to integrate environmental justice into its activities and policies. The goal is to ensure that there are no disproportionate adverse impacts resulting from their work, especially on minority and low-income populations, and that transportation services are equitably provided for all citizens. CalTrans issued a director's policy emphasizing meaningful involvement beginning in the early stages of transportation planning and continuing through construction and maintenance. CalTrans also published a booklet on public involvement and is offering grants of up to $300,000 to promote context- sensitive planning to improve mobility and access for diverse communities. Eligible applicants include Regional and Metropolitan Transportation Planning Agencies, cities, counties, private and nonprofit organizations, community based organizations, and Native American Tribal Governments. Eligible projects emphasize serving low-income, minority, Native American, and other underserved communities, i.e. through identifying transportation needs and issues, demographic analysis, planning safety improvements, community revitalization, cooperation between agencies and communities, bilingual services in public hearings, and promoting new technology and energy efficiency in transportation.
California Energy Commission
Contact: James Adams, Environmental Planner, jadams@energy.state.ca.us
The California Energy Commission has also formally voiced a commitment to environmental justice. Before citing a facility, the Energy Commission goes through a lengthy public participation and research process, in which they study demographics, conduct outreach, and do a comprehensive impact assessment.
California Air Resources Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov
Contact: Jerry Martin (916) 322-2990
The Air Resources Board released its "Policies and Actions for
Environmental Justice" in December 2002. In this document, the Board
recognizes the value of policy-level as well as site-specific solutions,
which are very important in rural areas. Since local air districts and
land use agencies are directly responsible for regulating air pollution,
issuing permits and citing new facilities, the Board plans to work with
local districts to develop tailored remedies to reduce emissions,
exposures, and health risk. By getting people in communities suffering
from air pollution to participate, the Board can gain an understanding
of the pollution's impact on the community and identify existing
community resources—like local knowledge—to mitigate the problem locally. In order to meaningfully include community members (especially low income people and minorities), the Board makes the best information accessible. Getting good information is a problem in rural areas, where abandoned mines are not tested and people are generally unaware of cumulative pollution in soil and water. The Air Resources Board also plans to educate communities on the public process. This is key for rural populations and anyone wary of acronyms and legalese. The Board promises to make staff available to attend community meetings and become familiar with community issues, and increase information through the school system (a center of rural life).
California Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.calepa.ca.gov
The Cal EPA has developed comprehensive environmental justice and
participation guidelines over the last decade and been at the forefront
of training other agencies in understanding environmental justice and
developing similar policies. The Cal EPA also offers an Environmental
Justice Small Grants Program that funds community-level efforts. When
the EPA approaches a community, protocols direct agents to hold
roundtables and constituency meetings to bring affected parties and
institutions together to discuss issues. In this way, all sides
participate and there is an opportunity to reach a consensus-based
decision. Getting people talking to one another and to the agency, the
EPA tries to link environmental, economic, and social concerns.
According to EPA literature, participation is a two-way street with the
community, a mutual exchange. In this vein, the EPA recognizes community
knowledge, which is key in rural areas where people—whether they are
family ranchers or Native groups—often have a lot of knowledge about
their environments. The EPA has published a document on effective
federal consultation and collaboration with Native American tribes and
makes special efforts to contact populations who are hard to reach,
which is also very important in rural areas. The EPA also recognizes
that even a group that represents a small percentage of the total
population can experience a disproportionately high impact if they are
dependent—for subsistence or cultural use on the resources—such as fish
or oaks—that will be affected.
Complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires EPA
to identify potential affects of its actions by consulting with affected
communities. This is the precautionary principle, the EPA maintains a
general list of groups to contact in an area when there is a potential
for high impacts, so even if the population is dispersed (as in a rural
location), the EPA still knows how to reach people—through civic organizations, labor unions, religious groups, etc. These networks are key in rural areas for outreach and information dissemination. The EPA also calls for GIS mapping tools to identify potential environmental justice issues. GIS is valuable in rural areas, to pinpoint where impoverished populations meet affected areas, since this can be hard to conceptualize in a dispersed landscape. See http://www.calepa.ca.gov/EnvJustice/ for information on the Interagency Working Group for Environmental Justice and External Advisory Committee for Environmental Justice. General Accounting Office (GAO)
http://www.gao.gov
The GAO has found that some companies tended to overestimate the number of jobs their polluting facilities would provide to poor communities, and the number of jobs tended to diminish over time. The findings may bolster claims by environmental justice advocates that the economic benefits of waste treatment and other industrial plants are often overshadowed by pollution and other threats to poor communities.
At the behest of Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jesse Jackson Jr.
(D-Ill.), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Maxine
Waters (D-Calif.), the GAO looked at 15 facilities—nine non-hazardous
waste-related sites, three hazardous waste disposal sites, two chemical
plants and one concrete plant—in nine locations and asked them to provide information on jobs and other contributions they had provided to their surrounding communities. The number of full-time jobs ranged from four to 103 per facility, with nine sites having 25 jobs or less. Salaries ranged from about $15,000 to $80,000 per year, GAO said. But for four of the facilities, officials had overestimated job creation. For instance, Michigan's Genesee Power Station early on had predicted creation of 30 jobs, but only 25 were provided; Exxon Mobil estimated it would provide 50 jobs in Louisiana but only ended up with 40; Natural Resources Recovery estimated between 15 and 40, also in Louisiana, but only came through with six; and Safety-Kleen Inc. estimated 55 jobs in California but only provided 22, according to GAO. Officials from some of the 15 companies had also claimed a ripple effect of job creation from their plants, but GAO did not verify such claims.
Moreover, the agency found, jobs at some of the facilities dwindled over
time. A chemical waste plant in Kettleman City, Calif., saw its jobs
shrink from 200 in 1990 to 103 this year, and a similar site in
Buttonwillow, Calif., went from 110 jobs in 1987 to 23 this year. A New
York fertilizer facility had 80 jobs in 1993 but just 39 in 2002. GAO
noted: "Officials from the two facilities in California told us that the
changes resulted from a decreased demand for the facilities due to a
reduction in the amount of waste generated by a more environmentally
conscious public." About half the facilities provided information on
where their employees lived, and for the most part employees lived in
the same county if not the same immediate community as the site where
they worked. Most of the facilities—10 of 15—identified other contributions they made to their communities, including volunteer work such as organized cleanups, infrastructure improvements such as a new water drainage system, and financial help to schools, universities, community groups and other organizations. Three facilities set up a foundation or a fund to disburse such aid, in one case only after a community group took legal action.
Information on property values was not available for most of the communities where the facilities were located, although some residents at least claimed losses due to the proximity of the polluting plants, GAO said. In the South Bronx, where six of the 15 surveyed sites were located, property values appeared to have increased due to expanding economic development and the rising cost of housing in Manhattan. Finally, six of the 15 facilities claimed they took advantage of tax incentives or subsidies to locate where they had. For the House members who commissioned the report, the GAO findings were evidence that polluting plants are not necessarily helping nearby residents by providing jobs.
California Biodiversity Council
The Biodiversity Council—an organization of the leaders of 38
natural resource agencies—held an environmental justice meeting in February 2003. The meeting offered agency leaders basic information on environmental justice and why it is important, gave examples of work being done through a series of case studies, and presented opportunities for local, state, and federal agencies to get involved. The meeting goals were to raise awareness and expose leaders of resource agencies to environmental justice, with the hope that they would see EJ as a new dimension to their work with communities. The meeting touched on urban, water, rural, and forestry issues and their associated EJ concerns.
Although the Biodiversity Council does not have the ability to mandate actions, and organizers don't want to raise false expectations re: the impacts of this meeting, the event has the potential to positively impact the EJ movement by educating agency heads. Although benefits will be difficult to track, agency heads may be making choices (funding or otherwise) in the future, where they may draw on the knowledge, examples, and contacts gained during this meeting.
Policies in other states (from EJ Fundamentals Course Resource Guide)
- Arkansas: State law limits the concentration of high impact solid waste facilities, partially in response to environmental justice concerns.
- Connecticut: "Environmental Equity Policy" (1998) established to insure that low-income communities do not bear a disproportionate share of environmental pollution, and have equal access to environmental benefits.
- Georgia: Beginning in 2001, the Regional Transit Authority's Transportation Improvement Plan includes a benefits and burdens analysis regarding environmental justice
- Louisiana: In a State Supreme Court decision—Save
Ourselves, Inc. et al. vs. Louisiana Environmental Control Commission,
et al. (1984)— citizens living in a low-income, minority community challenged a permit for a hazardous waste disposal facility. Now, before a state agency issues a permit, it must determine that adverse environmental affects have been avoided, that there is a positive cost-benefit analysis, and there are no alternative sites that would offer more environmental protection.
- New Hampshire: Department of Environmental Services established an Environmental Equity Policy in 1994.
- New Jersey: Department of Environmental Protection issued three administrative orders and a regulation regarding environmental equity. These affect permitting issues, public involvement, and the use of alternative dispute resolution.
- New Mexico: Isleta Pueblo: Residents of the Isleta Pueblo Indian Reservation have the authority to designate water quality standards in order to protect religious and traditional uses of water. A section of the Rio Grande falls under their jurisdiction. The Federal Appeals Court upheld their right to dictate high water quality standards in the City of Albuquerque vs. Browner (1996), which forced the City of Albuquerque to modify their wastewater effluent into the river.
- New York: St. Regis Mohawk Tribe: Maintains a Performance Partnership with the EPA, creating a core level of environmental protection, with "particular attention to environmental equity concerns."
- Texas: The Environmental Equity Program (established 1993) has created a State and Tribal EJ Advisory Panel that does outreach and dispute resolution, and encourages public participation.
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The Farm Worker Network for Economic and Environmental Justice
Coordinates the health and environmental work of farmworker groups. Contact Maria Sanchez (509) 547-5616 or mariafwn@msn.com or Carlos Marentes (915) 532-0921 or carlosfwn@aol.com.
Environmental Health Coalition
Research, advocacy, empowerment around environmental health and
social justice. See http://www.environmentalhealth.org or call (619) 235-0281.
Southwest Organizing Project
Community organizing, resources for capacity building, interventions
in situations of environmental injustice. http://www.swop.net. 211 10th St., S.W., Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87102-2919. (505) 247-8832.
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice
Tri-Valley CAREs: Communities Against A Radioactive Environment
Information, forums. See http://www.trivalleycares.org.
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC)
As the national advisory committee on environmental justice to the EPA,
NEJAC drafted a "model plan for public participation." They focus on
getting the input of minority, low-income, indigenous, and agricultural
worker populations, and on identifying specific ways to ensure that the
concerns of impacted communities' are meaningfully incorporated into
process, reports, and recommendations. Tel: (202) 564-2598.
Web: http://www.epa.gov/oeca/ej/nejac
Email: environmental-justice-epa@epa.gov.
The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
http://www.ejwatercoalition.org
Contact: Amy Hui, ahui@svtc.org
The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW) is a network of rural and urban environmental justice, environmental, community-based, regional, and national groups working to address water issues and impacts on low-income and minority groups, and on presenting a collective voice to bring environmental justice issues into water policy. The EJCW is a citizen's network that grew out of a desire to strengthen CALFED's commitment to environmental justice. Groups that are part of the EJCW include ArcEcology (a Bay Area alternative technology resource for communities), the Mothers of East Los Angeles, the Mono Lake Committee, the Sierra Club, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, Heal the Bay, Literacy for Environmental Justice, Environmental Defense, the Southern California Watershed Coalition, Forest Community Research, the Maidu Cultural and Development Group, the Elem Indian Colony, the Urban Creeks Council, the United Farmworkers, the Environmental Water Caucus, the Bayview/ Hunters Point community, and the Planning and Conservation League. Among the issues the EJCW works on are the lack of representation on water boards, and the absence of meaningful outreach to get that participation. The EJCW tries to link local environmental justice efforts to state level policy and management.
Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters
http://www.matsiman.com
A multicultural organization promoting social, environmental and economic justice for non-timber forest product workers and harvesters in the Pacific Northwest.
National Network of Forest Practitioners
http://www.nnfp.org
Cultural Diversity Program
In March, 2002, the NNFP Cultural Diversity Working Group held the first
in a series of training workshops to explore the intersections between
forestry and environmental justice. For more information, see the May
2002 NNFP Newsletter, and contact Cultural Diversity Program Coordinator,
Nanda Shewmangal at 401-273-6507 and nanda@nnfp.org.
Gamaliel Foundation
Organizing institute working to build an interracial, multi issue
network for regional accountability. Currently a coalition of 44
organizations in 14 states and in Kwa Zulu Natal and the eastern
provinces of South Africa. See http://www.gamaliel.org or call (312) 357-2639.
Central Valley Partnership
http://www.citizenship.net
A collaborative of nine nonprofit partners and four nonprofit support agencies that works on building capacity, community organizing and training, economic development in immigrant communities, ESL instruction, immigration legal services, information and referral, legal advocacy, and social services.
Physicians for Social Responsibility
A network of physician-activists concerned with social responsibility.
The Environment and Health Program provides resources for patients,
health care providers, and the general public on environmental health
hazards, and does advocacy, lobbying, and education.
Contact Susan T. West, Director of Environment and Health Program
(202) 667-4260, ext. 224, or http://www.psr.org.
Community Coalition for Environmental Justice
The Community Coalition is a network of rural and urban groups that
provides information and resources on community organizing around EJ
issues in rural areas. The coalition has hosted economic and
environmental summits and has a valuable booklet of proceedings
available.
Contact Matt at 105 14th Ave, Ste 2-D, Seattle, WA 98122, or by phone at (206) 720-0285.
Rural Organizing Project
Located in Oregon, this network of rural groups is an important model
for a less centralized network. Visit the web site at
http://www.rop.org, or contact Marcy, the founder, at (503) 543 8417.
Nindakin: People of Color for Environmental Justice
Nindakin was founded in 1991 by a group of UC Berkeley students. They
offer statewide advocacy for underrepresented groups facing
environmental injustices. E-mail cpotter@nature.berkeley.edu for more information.
Ecojustice Network
http://www.ipc.org/envjustice/org/
Indigenous Environmental Network
An environmental alliance of grassroots indigenous peoples working to
strengthen, maintain, and respect the traditional teachings and the
natural laws, the Network does advocacy, international coalition
building, conferences, and mobilization of groups. See
http://www.ienearth.org,
call (218) 751-4967, or write to:
PO Box 485
Bemidji, Minnesota 56619-0485
International Indian Treaty Council
Organization offering leadership development, international advocacy for
indigenous people, human rights monitoring of indigenous populations,
technical assistance, coalition building, organizing, education, and
advocacy for indigenous groups in the United Nations. See
http://www.treatycouncil.org, write to 2390 Mission St., Suite 301, San Francisco, CA 94110, or call (415) 641-4482.
California Indian Basketweavers Association (CIBA)
http://www.ciba.org
California Indians for Cultural and Environmental Protection (CICEP)
Star Route Mesa Grande, San Ysabel, CA 92070, or by phone at (619) 782-3703.
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Center for Environmental Health
Policy, research, information, support for communities fighting
environmental injustices. See http://www.cehca.org, or call (510) 594-9864.
Highlander Center
Courses, information, popular education, resources, history,
participatory research. See http://www.highlandercenter.org.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Tracks the citing and transport of nuclear wastes and its effects on
communities. See http://www.nirs.org.
Urban Habitat
Publications on resisting gentrification. See
http://www.urbanhabitat.org.
Literacy for Environmental Justice
Education, youth leadership development. Write 6220 3rd Street, San
Francisco, CA 94124, call (415) 508-0575, or e-mail info@lejyouth.org.
Movement Technology Institute
Providing technological assistance, information, and services
(including GIS mapping) to social justice non-profit organizations. See
http://www.movementtech.org or call (207) 749-1606.
Environmental Law Institute
Training, information, research, policy, action. See
http://www.eli.org or call (202) 939-3800.
Environmental Defense
New searchable website at http://www.scorecard.org that relies on
government databases to provide information on toxic chemical health
effects in specific zip codes. Organizing, advocacy, environmental
justice programs, see http://www.environmentaldefense.org.
Center for Health, Environment, and Justice
National non-profit providing information to organizations fighting
pollution. See http://www.chej.org.
Californians For Pesticide Reform
See http://www.pesticidereform.org.
National Environmental Trust: Children's Environmental Health Campaign
Write 1609 Derby St., Suite B, Berkeley, CA, 94703, or call (510) 843-0549.
Maniilaq Association: Environmental Program, Native Services Department
Contact Francis Chin at fchin@maniilaq.org or (800) 478-3312, ext. 7639.
Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice
GIS specialists for environmental justice concerns. Contact Mark
Mitchell at Mark.Mitchell@environmental-justice.org.
GreenAction for Health and Environmental Justice
See http://www.greenaction.org.
Clean Water Action
See www.cleanwateraction.org.
EJ Solutions Urban Habitat
Organizing, education, and action to build environmental and social
justice in the San Francisco Bay Area, with special attention to housing
issues. Housing policies developed at urban habitat can address
displacement and gentrification in rural areas. See
http://www.urbanhabitat.org.
Our Mother's Place: Native American Health and the Environment
This organization provides a model of operating within a holistic vision of health, the environment, and rebuilding after centuries of discrimination. American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeast Michigan, Inc. Located at 4880 Lawndale, Detroit, MI 48210.
National Center for Human Rights Education
See www.chre.org.
Southwest Research and Information Center
See www.sric.org.
New Mexico Environmental Law Center
See www.nmenvirolaw.org.
The Environmental Justice and Health Union
Information on funding opportunities, training, research, policies,
events. Fosters partnerships to eliminate environmental disease in poor
minority communities in the United States. See http://www.ejhu.org or call (510) 594-9864.
Centers for Disease Control
Involved in tracking environmental disease. Funding and information.
See http://www.cdc.gov.
Washington State University Center for Social and Environmental Justice
Support for developing and sustaining community groups. See
http://www.libarts.wsu.edu/csej.
Pan American Health Organization
Studies on health and social welfare. See http://www.paho.org.
Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
Advocates for corporate responsibility and labor
empowerment and sustainable development in the Pacific Northwest and on
the North Coast of California. Write to 1125 SE Madison Portland, Ore 97214 or call (503) 736-9777. See
http://www.asje.org.
(California Chapter, P.O. Box. 3536 Eureka, Ca. Email: asje@asje.org.)
American Friends Service Committee
http://www.afsc.org Works with immigrants and farm workers for humane working conditions, safe housing, affordable health care, and recognition for hard work. Does general social justice and humanitarian service through a variety of programs, including the Rural Economic Alternatives Project, the Pan Valley Institute, the Proyecto Campesino Farm Labor Program, and the American Indian Youth Program. There are offices in Sacramento, Visalia, Stockton, and Fresno.
California Rural Legal Assistance
Provides advocacy, education, empowerment, and legal services for farm workers and the rural poor. Offices line the east and west sides of the Central Valley are as far north as Marysville and as far south as El Centro. For the Arvin, office, contact Mirella Lopez at (661) 854-5993. For the Delano office, contact Gil Flores at (661) 725-4350. For other contacts and more information, visit http://www.crla.org.
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
Offers assistance, leadership development, and training. See http://www.ccaej.org, or contact Penny Newman at (909) 360 8451, or by writing to PO Box 33124, Riverside, CA 92519.
The Northwestern University Institute for Policy & Research
See http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/.
Fresno Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides
Call (559) 227-6134 or see http://www.1000friendsoffresno.org/pesticides.html.
Jefferson Center
Convenes multicultural and multilingual exchanges to identify and
ameliorate root causes of environmental and social injustices in the
contingent natural resource labor sector of the Pacific Northwest and
California. Contact Beverly Brown, P.O. Box. 279, Wolf Creek, Ore.
97497, (541)-955-9705 or email jeffctr@internetcds.com.
American Public Health Association
See http://www.apha.org.
Society for Public Health Education
See http://www.sophe.org.
Pesticide Action Network
See http://www.pan-international.org/.
Latino Issues Forum
See http://www.lif.org.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Information on public health nationwide. See http://www.uspirg.org.
National Center for Environmental Health
Communities for a Better Environment
Organizing, leadership development, legal and research advocacy for disproportionately polluted communities. Write 1611 Telegraph Ave., Suite 450, Oakland, CA 94612.
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Books and Booklets
"The Quickening of America" addresses community activism and grassroots advocacy. The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation booklet entitled "The Decision Process."
Planning and Conservation League handbook: "A Citizen's Guide to
Affecting Change in Your City." http://www.pcl.org
"Building Upon Our Strengths. A Community Guide to Brownfields Redevelopment in the San Francisco Bay Area " Urban Habitat Program, P.O. Box 29908 Presidio Station, San Francisco, CA, or (415)-561-3336
"Brownfields Redevelopment: Meeting the Challenges of Community
Participation" (ISBN 1-893790-02-9, May/2000) 654 13th St. Preservation
Park, Oakland, Ca. 94612, http://www.pacinst.org
The Hewlett Foundation's Guide for partnering with diverse communities. See http://www.Hewlett.org The Institute for Sustainable Communities' guide to participatory and sustainable community planning.
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC)
EJ guidelines for the EPA. See http://www.epa.gov/oeca/ej/nejac Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism: An Annotated Bibliography and General Overview, Focusing on U.S. Literature, 1996-2002. Robin Turner and Diana Wu: Berkeley Workshop on Environmental Politics, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
Articles
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Projections: Journal of Planning.
Issue 3:2, Planning for Environmental Justice. Contact Gregg Macey,
Editor—Projections MIT Journal of Planning; Department of Urban Studies and Planning; 77 Massachusetts Avenue; Cambridge, MA 02139.
"What are Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism?" (Including
interview with Robert Bullard). See http://www.ejnet.org/ej/
"Environmental Liberty and Social Justice for All: How Advocacy Planning Can Help Combat Environmental Racism," by Simmons Buntin, November 1995. "Environmental Justice: Grassroots Activism and its Impact on Public Policy Decision Making," by Robert D. Bullard and G. S. Johnson. Journal of Social Issues 56(3): pgs. 555-578. "American Environmentalism: The Role of Race, Class, and Gender in Shaping Activism 1820-1995. Race, Gender, and Class 5(1): pgs. 16-62. "The Coincidental Order of Environmental Justice." In Justice and Natural Resources, edited by Kathryn M. Mutz, G.C. Bryner, and D.S. Kenney. Island Press: Washington, D.C.
Online Resources
Youth Principles of Environmental Justice
http://www.ace-ej.org/youthprin.htm
World Health Organization report with global estimates of environmental disease
http://www.who.int/peh/burden/burdenindex.htm
Community Resources Toolkit created for the National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities
http://www.omhrc.gov/summit/
Community Air Monitoring Tools from Communities for a Better Environment
http://www.cbecal.org/action/community_tools0602.htm
California Urban Water Management Practices
http://www.cuwcc.org
Rocky Mountain Institute
http://www.rmi.org
Michigan State University Environmental Justice Database
http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/modej/masterej.html
Fighting Environmental Racism Bibliography
http://www.egj.lib.uidaho.edu/egj01/weint01.html
"Wildfire and Poverty: An Overview of the Interactions Between Wildfires, Fire-Related Programs, and Poverty in the Western States"
A paper from the University of Oregon's Program for Watershed and Community Health
http://cwch.uoregon.edu/ReportsFolder/WildfirePovertyPDF121901.pdf
Southern California EJ Listserve
Contact Luis at lcabrales@ecovote.org. Public Citizen is circulating a declaration on keeping water public.
See http://www.citizen.org. Internet Sites with GIS (Geographic Information System) Capabilities for Environmental Justice Purposes
http://intranet.epa.gov/gis/twg/techno.htm
http://gis.com/whatisgis/related_links.html
http://intranet.epa.gov/oeca/oej/ejmapper/
EPA Databases
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/index_java.html
South Central Oklahoma Environmental Justice Resource Center
http://www.ecok.edu/~polsci/envrjust/ejlinks/ejlinks.html
The National Center for Health Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/otheract/gis/gis_home.htm
OECA's EJ Webpage
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/main/ej/index.html
Region 2 Environmental Justice Program
http://www.epa.gov/r02earth/community/ej/poltoc.htm
Region 6 Environmental Justice Index Methodology
http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6en/xp/enxp4a1.htm
EDF's scorecard homepage
http://www.scorecard.org/
Odden's Site
Fascinating World of Maps and Mapping, > 11.500 Cartographic Links
http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.html
Geographic Information Science Center at UC-Berkeley
http://www.gisc.berkeley.edu/
http://intranet.epa.gov/gis/twg/twg_maps.htm
America's Factfinder
Population, housing, economic, and geographic data of US Census
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet
Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles
Data & Maps about communities in L.A.
http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu/
Geotracker
Public water wells and leaking fuel tank sites in California
http://geotracker2.arsenaultlegg.com/disclaimer.htm
GIS Day
Grassroots event for schools, businesses, and the general public
http://www.gisday.com/
American Indian Lands Environmental Support Project
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/ailesp/
ESRI
GIS and mapping software
http://data.esri.com
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National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) Fact Sheet
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oej/nejac/
Executive Order No. 12898
http://www.epa.gov/docs/oejpubs/execordr.txt.html
EPA Guidance for Addressing Environmental Justice in Reviews Conducted
Pursuant to Section 309 of the Clean Air Act, August 1999 - Applies to
EPA staff who review the actions of other federal agencies, and includes
what to look for in an EJ analysis.
http://es.epa/oeca/ofa/ej_nepa.html
Guidance for Addressing Environmental Justice Under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), December 10, 1997 - the Council on
Environmental Quality's guidance for federal agencies on incorporating
EJ into NEPA
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/main/ej/docs/epafin.pdf
Guidance for Incorporating Environmental Justice Concerns in EPA's NEPA
Compliance Analyses, April 1998 - Highlights important ways in which
EPA-prepared NEPA documentation may help identify and address EJ
concerns
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/ofa/ejepa..html
CEQ NEPA Guidance on Environmental Justice
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/main/ej/docs/epafin.pdf
Draft Memorandum on Integrating Environmental Justice into EPA
Permitting Authority, July 18, 1996 - Richard Lazarus, Member,
Enforcement Subcommittee, NEJAC
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oej/nejac/pdf/0796.pdf
Brochure on the Model Plan for Public Participation
Developed by the national Environmental Justice Advisory Council as guidance for any
organization or agency that addresses public participation
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oej/nejac
United Church of Christ, Commission for Racial Justice, 1987, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States - A National Report on the Racial and Socioeconomic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Wastes Sites, Executive Summary Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment, December 1993 - Prepared by the Inter-Organizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment
To find information on U.S. Census Bureau poverty levels: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/01poverty.html
Financial Resources
- (CALIFORNIA) Cal Trans grants of up to $300,000 for context-specific transportation planning. Contact Norman Dong at the Office of Policy Analysis & Research, Division of Transportation Planning, at Norman_dong@dot.ca.gov; or (916) 651-6889.
- (NATIONAL) The EPA offers a variety of grants for EJ groups and projects. See the agency web site at http://www.epa.gov.
- (REGIONAL) The Pacific West Community Forestry Center works through research and dialogue, and can offer resources and funding to assist rural EJ groups in the Pacific Northwest and the Sierra Nevada. Contact Center Director Katie Bagby at (530) 284-1022. Kbagby@FCResearch.org
- (AMERICAN INDIANS) The Seventh Generation Fund is a Native-controlled organization that offers grants for ecosystem protection, traditional knowledge development, sustainable community building, native youth programs, protecting sacred sites, Native arts, and the networking of indigenous peoples. Visit the web site at http://www.7genfund.org/native.html or write to PO Box 4569; Arcata, CA 95518.
- (AMERICAN INDIANS) Honor the Earth is sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Network and offers grants to Native American organizations fighting to protect their lands from pollution and degradation. See http://www.honorearth.com.
Bullitt Foundation
http://www.bullittt.org
Beldon Fund
http://www.beldon.org From the Beldon Fund's Mission Statement: "By supporting effective, nonprofit advocacy organizations, the Beldon Fund seeks to build a national consensus to achieve and sustain a healthy planet. The Fund plans to invest its entire principal and earnings by 2009 to attain this goal."
Impact Fund
http://www.impactfund.org
Progressive Technology Project
http://www.progressivetech.org
Norman Foundation
http://www.normanfdn.org
San Francisco Foundation
http://www.sff.org
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