Solutions to Environmental Injustices

PART I: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Introduction

Chemicals

Land Use

Rural Environmental Justice: Summary

Solutions

A Brief History of Environmental Justice

Examples

Resources

PART II: HOW CAN RESEARCH HELP?

Participatory Research and Environmental Justice



Microsite Credits

I. Participation

Public participation can facilitate solutions to many environmental justice problems, or, conversely, the absence of meaningful public participation often amplifies or creates environmental injustices. If decisions are made, such as where to site a power plant that will have emissions or whether or not to raise Shasta dam and flood cultural sites, without consulting with affected populations, environmental injustices will result. One of the participants at a CALFED environmental justice workshop said that, "environmental justice means inclusion." In order to know whom to include, agencies and companies must predict the effects of their proposed action on populations. Finding and contacting minority or low-income groups in the area can help to ensure that undue burdens are not inadvertently imposed. By investigating environmental injustices through the quantitative and qualitative approaches of gathering local data and building community capacity, the Pacific West Community Forestry Center may be able to provide both information to affected groups, and data to agencies on who may be affected by their policies and what mitigations or participatory strategies need to be undertaken to eliminate ill effects. Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping can be a helpful tool to predict where impacts will occur and who will be affected. Potentially affected communities should be part of the impact assessment and decision-making processes for the project, at the early stages. Affected groups need time and relevant information in order to be able to provide input into the evaluation of alternatives to the proposed project. If impacted populations are not allowed to participate in a meaningful way, participation becomes an environmental injustice in itself.

II. Precautionary principle

Scientific studies should help communities to understand their risks and options, disseminate important information, and document and legitimize little-heard concerns. Populations that subsist on fishing from the New River in Southern California, for example, are mostly Latino and have almost no information in Spanish about the actual toxicity of the water, which is an abnormal greenish color. These fishers have high levels of illness and nearby companies and farms may or may not be taking precautionary activities to make sure that the chemicals they put into the water do not affect people. The affected community has no way of knowing. Without adequate science, it is the people along the river who bear the burden of proving that there is pollution occurring and who become responsible for taking their own steps to mitigate possible dangers, i.e. by limiting how many fish they eat. While amazing examples of organizing within affected communities have occurred, and helpful networks like the Southwest Organizing Project exist to help communities respond, issues of time, empowerment, fear, racism, and language are barriers toward accessing information, building community support, and approaching agencies and officials to make change.

The precautionary principle requires good science combined with good community participation because it requires the forecasting of environmental problems and building in precautions. A participatory process that includes potentially affected parties is key, even when an environmental clean-up effort occurs. Affected populations are often not informed either about contamination risks or the mitigation opportunities. Participation helps to elicit important information communities may bring to the table, including community -based risk assessments and effectiveness monitoring. Participation is also key to define the mitigation strategy that most effectively responds to the specific behavior/exposure dynamics of the populations at risk. Participation also empowers communities—the best insurance against environmental injustices. The Pacific West Center has been involved in supporting Latino Forest Workers to identify issues and questions, build capacity, and move toward participating in decisions that affect their livelihood.

III. Mitigation

Mitigation of environmental injustices can only be done effectively with community participation. People must be able to affect both the problems and the solutions that impact them, or mitigations will be inappropriate or inadequate. This requires, at a minimum, that the predicted and actual impacts of the project are re-evaluated and that mitigations or compensatory benefits are monitored for effectiveness during the life of the project.