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A quick explanation as to what environmental justice is, and who it has effected.

Because minority groups are mostly who make up these large cities where industrialization is taking place, they are the ones facing the long lasting effects of pollution in both their air and water sources, and no action is being taken by the government.

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A short film that follows Thomasenia Weston and her family, residents of Detroit Michigan who have been struggling with the health effects of air pollution.

Detroit, more specifically the southwest side of the city, is the most polluted city in Michigan. Because of the air pollution caused by factories & trucks, most of these residents contract asthma and other health effects, as seen with the three generations of Thomasenia's family. Because of the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge that is now expected to be completed in late 2024, Thomasenia and many others worry about the increased traffic of trucks coming into the city and polluting even further. Thomasenia lives only two blocks from the construction site, and yet she is not eligible for a housing swap, air filtration, or updated windows. She and her family are not the only ones being effected by this, as this has been a long-lasting struggle for the people of Detroit, and many other major cities.

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Mother (2019) centers Thomasenia Weston, who raised her daughter and is now raising her two grandchildren in their southwest Detroit home. Many are aware that southwest Detroit is Michigan’s most air-polluted neighborhood. The statistics are bleak—with high rates of asthma, emphysema, and poor birth outcomes. It's also a place where residents find themselves in a position of having to choose between their community and their health.

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Some statistics regarding environmental racism and the people that are affected by climate justice

- "A report titled “Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty” reviewed data collected over a 20-year time period and found that more than half of the people who live within 1.86 miles of toxic waste facilities in the United States are people of color" (Environmental Justice, n.d.).
- "A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that 11.2% of African American children and 4% of Mexican-American children are poisoned by lead, compared with 2.3% of white children"(Environmental Justice, n.d.).
- "Three out of five African Americans live in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites"(Environmental Justice, n.d.).

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Welcome! In this bulletin, we will be discussing the topic of Environmental Justice. You'll be able to find sections including definitions involving environmental justice, history, videos, articles/handouts, statistics, and questions to ponder.

DEFINITIONS

Environmental Justice: 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.

Environmental Racism: Whether, by conscious design or institutional neglect, actions and decisions that result in the disproportionate exposure of people of color to environmental hazards and environmental health burdens.

HISTORY

In 1983, the U.S. General Accounting Office conducted a study that found three out of four of the off-site commercial hazard waste landfills in Region 4 (South) were in predominantly African American communities. This number was shocking, considering that African Americans made up only 20% of the regional population at the time. Later, in 1987, the newly-formed Commission for Racial Justice found that race was the strongest variable in predicting the location of waste facilities (Bullard & Johnson,2000). The Environmental Justice movement was born at the nexus of the Civil Rights' and Environmental movements, and has grown in power and influence since then.

In October of 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit developed a document of Environmental Justice Principles, that have helped to describe and define the Environmental Justice movement in the United States. The US EPA has changed its approach to Environmental Justice over time, and currently fails to recognize race as a unique indicator in Environmental Justice assessments.

VIDEOS

What is Environmental Justice? - Definition, Principles, Examples & Issues

TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch - Van Jones - Environmental Justice

Color by Number - Environmental Justice

STATISTICS

A case study of The Bronx, New York, found that individuals who live close to noxious industrial facilities and waste sites were 66% more likely to be hospitalized for asthma. Significantly, these same individuals were 13% more likely to be people of color.

A report titled "Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty" reviewed data collected over a 20-year time period and found that more than half of the people who live within 1.86 miles of toxic waste facilities in the United States are people of color.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that 11.2% of African American children and 4% of Mexican-American children are poisoned by lead, compared with 2.3% of white children.

Three out of five African Americans live in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How do Race and Poverty intersect in terms of environmental injustices?

How does environmental injustice impact the health and wellbeing of low-income communities of color?

ARTICLES

The Environmental Justice Movement

5 Things to Know About Communities of Color and Environmental Justice

A Look at Environmental Justice in the United States Today

The Dakota Access Pipeline

'Just racist': EPA cuts will hit black and Hispanic communities the hardest

At timeline of Environmental Justice in the United States

RESOURCES

A Brief History of Environmental Justice & EJ Definitions

5 Things to Know About Communities of Color and Environmental Justice

Environmental Racism and Justice

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Welcome! In this bulletin, we will be discussing the topic of Environmental Justice. You'll be able to find sections including definitions involving environmental justice, history, videos, articles/handouts, statistics, and questions to ponder.

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More fast facts on environmental racism and how Black people experience more pollution, food inequality, and health risks in their neighborhoods.

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This week, I'm putting my regularly scheduled recipe post on hold to talk about a much (much much much) more important topic: environmental racism.

Study after study has shown that Black people in Western countries are more likely than White people to live, work and play near environmental hazards. This phenomenon is called environmental racism. In this post, I've compiled a ton of fast facts about environmental racism to fuel your dinner party (or video chat) convos.

black neighborhoods are closer to environmental hazards

According to the NAACP's 2012 "Coal-Blooded" study, 53% of people who live within three miles of the most heavily-polluting coal-fired power plants are Black. This shows that not only do Black people live closer to coal-fired power plants, they also tend to live closer to the most dangerous coal-fired power plants.

A 2016 study based in Southern Texas found that wastewater disposal wells are 2.04 times as common in areas where more than 80% of the population are people of color compared to majority White areas. Wastewater disposal wells are where companies and governments dump wastewater to avoid contaminating freshwater. Although the EPA claims that these wells are safe, some locations report hazardous materials leaking and bubbling out of wells.

black people experience more pollution

A Chicago-based study by researchers at Harvard University found that Black Americans are more likely than White Americans to have elevated blood lead levels. Lead can contaminate people through pipes (see the environmental disaster in Flint, Michigan), paint, occupational hazards and more.

Black people experience less Outdoor Leisure

According to a 2014 study, minority neighborhoods have far less access to green spaces than communities that are primarily White. Some might argue that Black people could simply move or add more greenery to their neighborhoods. However, some Black people cannot afford to live in greener neighborhoods. And if Black communities add more green space, housing prices often increase, which leads to gentrification.

Black people experience Food Inequality

Two studies from 2009 and 2012 found that minority neighborhoods are more likely to have access to unhealthy food options and less likely to have access to healthy food options. More fast food and less produce can lead to obesity, which is linked to risks like heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, some types of cancer, diabetes and more.

Did you learn something here? Tell me all about it in the comments!

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Fast Facts on Environmental Racism - Sustained Kitchen

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Study after study has shown that Black people in Western countries are more likely than White people to live, work and play near environmental hazards. This phenomenon is called environmental racism. In this post, I've compiled a ton of fast facts about environmental racism to fuel your dinner party

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A brief, 3 minute explanation as to how Environmental Justice came to be. This history remains consistent regardless of what city it is, so they speak a bit on other cities but make a point to focus on minority communities which are the ones mostly being effected in Detroit. I felt that this video made a lot of good, important points.

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A Brief History of Environmental Justice

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The Impact of Environmental Racism on Michigan's Minority Communities

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The Impact of Environmental Racism on Michigan's Minority Communities

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Environmental justice had only become majorly talked about as a result of the Flint water crisis, which effected a large number of the Black community due to exposure to lead in their drinking water. Benton Harbor's population is 85% Black, and given the data, they are also the poorest city in Michigan, and have also been having water issues. This would not be happening within a predominately White community, and if it were, I can say with confidence that it would be an issue that would get fixed quickly. Environmental injustice is a form of oppression, and is largely built on racism.

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Michigan’s poor and minority communities most impacted by environmental racism

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Communities across the state from Flint to Detroit and Benton Harbor are calling out the impacts from generations of environmental racism and environmental injustice. Data shows people living in the most socially vulnerable populations in Michigan are more likely to be exposed to water, air pollutio…

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Timeline of the History of Environmental Justice

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Timeline of the History of Environmental Justice

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I found it difficult to find a thorough explanation of Detroit's history of environmental racism, however, I believe that this gives a clear explanation of how these issues came to be in major cities.

However, some of the key takeaways include the following:
- February 11, 1968 was the Memphis Sanitation Strike, and this was the first time that African Americans began opposing environmental injustices.
- NECAG was formed in 1979 to oppose construction of a landfill. The lawsuit was called Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corp, and although it failed, it still sent a clear message to the world about raised public concern for environmental justice.
- April 1983: Dr. Robert Bullard found that African American Neighborhoods were usually chosen for toxic waste sites. "75% of privately owned landfills were cited in Black neighborhoods, although African Americans made up only 25% of the city's population" (Environmental Justice Timeline, n.d.).

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Redlining and discriminatory housing policies have been contributors in minority groups falling into disinvestment and concentrated poverty. Also, years of systemic racism in housing policy and having to deal with the increased industrialization of their cities, high amounts of pollution in communities has become more common.

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Implementing Biden's Justice40 Commitment To Combat Environmental Racism

A child and his grandfather stand on their California street with an oil refinery seen in the background, March 2016. (Getty/Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times)

Introduction and summary

"This is a critical moment to define bold and equitable climate solutions that address the legacy of systemic racism and environmental injustice while rebuilding the U.S. economy in ways that work for everyone."- Former South Carolina State Rep. Harold Mitchell Jr., ReGenesis Community Development Corp. founder and executive director, and member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council ¹
Low-income communities and communities of color have been confronted with environmental injustice for decades, and even centuries, in the United States.² From toxic dumps to polluting power plants, oil refineries, chemical companies, and other industrial facilities concentrated in their neighborhoods, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people have been forced to endure dangerous and life-threatening environmental and health risks. These troubling conditions are compounded by the harms of racial and economic inequality.

To accelerate the delivery of investment benefits to communities on the front lines of environmental, racial, and economic injustice, as well as communities dependent on the fossil fuel industry for their livelihoods, the White House must direct federal agencies to remove funding barriers and strengthen existing programs where needed.⁵ Specifically, the national climate advisor, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and agency leaders must take the following immediate actions to implement the Justice40 Initiative:

Develop and use investment criteria and guidance to ensure that federally funded projects reduce harmful local pollution and carbon emissions where possible; minimize flood, heat, and other extreme weather risks; avoid displacing existing community members; and meaningfully engage community stakeholders.⁶

Overhaul application and reporting requirements, provide technical assistance, and waive cost-sharing rules to make grants and other federal aid more accessible to disadvantaged communities. Cost-sharing requires grantees to bear a percentage of the costs of projects funded by the federal government.

Work with Congress to increase the amount of federal funding that flows directly to communities, including by changing distribution formulas; expanding existing infrastructure, such as Community Development Financial Institutions, that communities need to access critical investments; and increasing annual appropriations to programs that funnel resources directly to disadvantaged communities.⁷

The WHEJAC's recommendations are the product of bringing the expertise and perspectives of environmental justice communities to the table. Communities of color and low-income communities-both urban and rural-have suffered the most from our country's intersecting health, economic, racial and climate crises. We must continue to dismantle the systemic racism that perpetuates these crises, and ensure our communities are being heard at the highest levels of government.¹⁰

If implemented effectively and deliberately, the initiative can begin to accelerate long-overdue progress toward environmental, racial, and economic justice. In addition to achieving the Justice40 goal, the Biden administration must act immediately to integrate environmental justice into the development of all national climate policies to improve the health, safety, and well-being of all Americans.

This report details the actions needed to implement Justice40 and deliver real and measurable benefits to environmentally, and other, disadvantaged communities.

The toxic legacy of environmental injustice

"The voices of the communities that have suffered for too long from legacies of pollution and inequality are finally being heard. Through the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, we finally have the seat at the table that we deserve. We know how to remedy the problems that have been placed in our communities, and our recommendations should form the foundation from which the Biden-Harris administration builds its policies to correct environmental, economic, and climate injustice."- Michele Roberts, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform national co-coordinator and WHEJAC member ¹¹

An environmental justice turning point

""That's why we're going to work to make sure that they receive 40 percent of the benefits of key federal investments in clean energy, clean water, and wastewater infrastructure. Lifting up these communities makes us all stronger as a nation and increases the health of everybody." - "It's historic that we are able to represent our communities who are on the frontlines of environmental injustices through WHEJAC. ... We must continue to focus on environmental justice in climate policy and ensure it goes beyond WHEJAC: It must be integrated into the development of all national climate policies."- Former State Rep. Harold Mitchell Jr., ReGenesis Community Development Corp. founder and executive director, and member of the WHEJAC ²¹ President Joe Biden ²⁰ Environmental justice will be at the center of all we do addressing the disproportionate health and environmental and economic impacts on communities of color-so-called 'fenceline communities'-especially those communities-brown, Black, Native American, poor whites. It's hard-the hard-hit areas like Cancer Alley ... in Louisiana, or the Route 9 corridor in the state of Delaware.
Environmental justice advocates have long called for an end to environmental racism, and for "the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, or ability, with respect to the development, implementation, enforcement, and evaluation of laws, regulations, programs, policies, practices, and activities, that affect human health and the environment."²² President Biden is responding to these calls with a commitment to deliver 40 percent of the climate investment benefits to disadvantaged communities aims to begin redressing historic injustice and inequity by mobilizing significant new resources to the communities that sorely need them, including communities of color and environmental justice (EJ) communities.

The administration should develop a definition for disadvantaged communities that includes Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and other communities of color and low-income communities in rural and urban areas; environmental justice communities; front-line or fence-line communities overburdened by pollution, climate change effects, or both; communities historically reliant on the fossil fuel industry for their livelihoods; and communities with health, wealth, income, and other disparities.

The WHEJAC's recommended factors for defining disadvantaged communities

The WHEJAC considers a community disadvantaged if it:

1. Is majority-minority

2. Has high rates of health disparities

3. Demonstrates nonattainment of clean air and water standards

4. Was formerly redlined (meaning it was unfairly denied access to financial and other services, including home mortgages, due to the race or ethnicity of its residents)

5. Experiences food insecurity and low child nutrition levels

6. Is home to children who receive a school lunch program

7. Has a majority of low-income residents and a high percentage of households receiving supplementary income benefits

8. Has high numbers of Superfund and waste sites, landfills, and toxic facilities

9. Has low educational attainment and low high school graduation rates

10. Has high maternal and infant mortality rates

11. Has high asthma rates and deaths

12. Has a poorly maintained stock of housing

13. Has a lack of grocery stores and a proliferation of cent stores and fast-food outlets

In addition to the WHEJAC recommendations for defining disadvantaged communities, the White House may wish to consider other factors, including: low percentage of dwellings with an internet connection; high eviction rates; high percentages of households with limited English proficiency; and high unemployment rates.

The WHEJAC submitted recommendations to President Biden and the CEQ in May to guide the implementation of the president's environmental justice commitments, including Justice40. Among the recommendations is a call for "a transformative and accountable process developed for the fair and just distribution of 40 percent or more of the benefits to be invested in frontline communities."²⁷ Without such a process, the WHEJAC warned that federal investments will not reach or benefit front-line communities, "given the bias and ambivalence of many state and local governments, and the systemic racial bias, inertia, and resistance to change that we must never underestimate."

To successfully implement Justice40, the Biden administration must confront the difficult reality that the communities that are most in need of resources often have the greatest difficulty accessing federal program funding. Even when communities are eligible to receive federal funds, they face a range of challenges that can prevent the delivery of real and measurable benefits, such as sustainable, equitable, and resilient community development and pollution-free transportation and energy. These challenges include:

Program investment criteria that are unclear or too weak in some cases, leading to projects that do not address community needs or priorities, and overly stringent in others, preventing those in need from accessing the funds

Lack of protections against the displacement of community members, who may be priced out of their neighborhoods in the wake of new investments

Cumbersome application and reporting requirements and limited community capacity to meet them

Cost-sharing requirements that applicants in low-income communities cannot meet

Capacity constraints within agencies that support applicants representing disadvantaged communities

Strengthening federal programs to maximize benefits for communities

"The Justice40 commitment has the potential to make transformative investments in environmental justice communities. To seize this critical opportunity, we must ensure Justice40 is implemented to its fullest potential and in a manner guided by environmental justice values and principles."
- Ana Baptista, associate director, T he New School's Tishman Environment and Design Center ²⁸

Existing federal programs must be updated and strengthened to increase the benefits provided to disadvantaged communities, including communities of color; low-income communities; and communities exposed to disproportionate environmental, health, and other socioeconomic burdens. The Biden administration should implement the changes described below, working with Congress when necessary.

Justice-centered program guidance and criteria

In many cases, existing federal program guidance and criteria fall short of what is needed to ensure that federal investments deliver real benefits to Black, Latinx, Indigenous, low-income, and other disadvantaged communities. In addition, federal programs miss opportunities to maximize project benefits or avoid unintentional harms to the communities that they are aiming to benefit. For example, many federal programs do not have criteria to help ensure that federal investments support pollution reductions, address climate change, or avoid the displacement of community members.

To ensure the Justice40 commitment brings real benefits to disadvantaged communities, the Biden administration must gather community input to develop clear-cut guidance for how funding recipients can successfully design projects that meet community priorities and deliver direct benefits.

Expand federal agencies' field offices and staff capacity

In addition, federal agencies such as HUD should expand their field offices and staff capacity to support funding recipients in developing projects that incorporate community input and match the needs on the ground. The report from the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council recommends "establish[ing] outreach offices to promote awareness of federal program funding opportunities among EJ organizations and communities."³⁴

Support projects that reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

Federal agencies should also develop strong investment criteria to ensure that communities benefit from federally funded projects in both the near and long terms. Federal agencies should be wary of projects that continue or increase emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic air pollutants, which contribute to climate change and public health risks and disproportionately affect people of color.³⁵ For example, the Federal Transit Administration's Low or No Emission Vehicles program supports the purchase or leasing of zero-emission and low-emission transit buses. While low-emission buses, such as those powered by natural gas, are an improvement relative to traditional diesel-fueled buses, they emit greenhouse gases and air pollutants that can harm the community. To reduce health and climate change risks, federal programs must ensure that proposed projects will reduce local air and water pollution, soil contamination, and greenhouse gas emissions to the greatest extent possible.

Require federally funded projects to be built to withstand climate change

Similarly, although President Biden reinstated the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard that was rolled back by the Trump administration, most federal programs do not require projects they support to be built to withstand more extreme heat and more powerful storms tied to climate change.³⁶ As a result, some federally funded projects may not adequately protect communities from and prepare them for extreme heat and other extreme weather-for example, by using high-efficiency air conditioning and building designs and planting shade trees. The White House should require all federally funded projects to be built to withstand climate change effects in order to ensure that communities are not left with damaged infrastructure and costly repairs.

Ensure that program funds do not lead to the displacement of community members

In addition, funds for economic and community development projects may drive up the cost of living and lead to the gentrification of predominantly Black neighborhoods and other neighborhoods of color, forcing existing community members to move to lower-rent areas that are often further away from economic opportunities and critical services. For example, funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Brownfields Cleanup Grants were used to partially remediate the area that is now the New York City High Line, a former abandoned railroad track turned into an urban greenspace.³⁷ The surrounding area completely transformed after it opened in 2009 and many local businesses and longtime residents were forced out.³⁸ Gentrification often follows the construction and completion of projects that were meant to benefit the existing community, such as parks, contaminated site cleanups, and new businesses.³⁹ Federal agencies must ensure that program funds do not lead to the displacement of the community members they were intended to benefit. The WHEJAC recommends that agencies develop project criteria to ensure that Justice40 investments do not price existing residents out of their communities.⁴⁰

Require meaningful community engagement on project designs

Lastly, developers of projects that are supported by federal funding must engage the community during the project design phase. Stakeholder engagement is essential to identifying and meeting community needs and priorities and allowing residents to speak for themselves. A respectful and inclusive stakeholder engagement process that starts early in the project design process will help ensure that federal dollars support projects that bring direct benefits to communities, as required by the Justice40 commitment. As the WHEJAC report on Justice40 states, "All investments should incorporate a community driven, community controlled approach so that communities most directly impacted benefit as intended."⁴¹

Current federal program guidance and criteria to address pollution, climate change, community displacement, and stakeholder engagement ranges from nonexistent to somewhat robust and usually depends on the agency administering the program. For example, programs administered by HUD, such as the CDBG Program, have stronger anti-displacement guidelines than programs administered by the EPA, such as the Brownfields Program. The EPA's programs tend to have stronger criteria when it comes to climate change resilience and pollution reductions. Many federal programs call for some degree of stakeholder engagement, but most do not require it during the application process, preventing residents from having a say in what projects are being funded in their communities.

Ideally, all federal programs, regardless of the administering agency, would have criteria to ensure that federally funded projects, especially in environmental justice communities, achieve the following: a reduction in local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions to the greatest extent possible; a reduction in the risks and impacts of current and future climate change effects; avoidance of community member displacement; and meaningful stakeholder engagement.

Draft criteria for federal programs

The WHEJAC report recommends that all federal programs "should have criteria to address pollution, climate change, and displacement of people and communities to help ensure that benefits are delivered to EJ communities."⁴² Table 1 presents examples of program criteria language that agencies could build on to ensure that program investments deliver community benefits and support progress toward the Justice40 goal. These examples were included in the WHEJAC report and the Justice40 recommendations developed through convenings with environmental justice advocates, academic experts, and national environmental group representatives co-hosted by the Equitable and Just National Climate Forum, The New School's Tishman Environment and Design Center, and the Center for American Progress.⁴³ Agencies should tailor criteria to each program and ensure that they are achievable without overburdening applicants.
Table 1

Simplifying application and reporting requirements

Many eligible grantees who are in desperate need of federal funds do not have the bandwidth or expertise to meet the application requirements. Completing and submitting federal funding applications alone can take several days, or even weeks, of staff time with no guarantee that funds will be granted. In contrast, community organizations or local governments with more resources often have the staff capacity or hire consultants to prepare federal applications and access project funds. The effect is clear: FEMA records show low-income communities made up only 10 percent of the applications submitted for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program for the fiscal year 2021 grant cycle, which is intended to help communities prepare for natural disasters and specifically encouraged low-income communities to apply.⁴⁶

Simplify program requirements, build community capacity to access federal funding, and eliminate cost-sharing obligations for disadvantaged communities

In addition, agencies should dedicate more, and multilingual, staff to help applicants complete required forms and comply with reporting requirements. Agency staff should be required to undergo rigorous anti-racist and anti-bias training, one of many steps needed to "reverse racial inequities and strive to repair the environmental injustice of more than 500 years of institutional policies and practices," a key Justice40 objective identified by the WHEJAC.⁵¹

Lastly, a number of programs aimed at helping disadvantaged communities have cost-sharing requirements, which place a substantial financial burden on city governments or other applicants representing low-income communities. The Biden administration and Congress should remove cost-sharing requirements for local governments and entities in disadvantaged communities seeking funding for projects that advance progress toward the Justice40 goal.

Maximizing federal funds that directly reach disadvantaged communities

To make immediate progress toward the Justice40 commitment, Congress and the administration must ensure that their proposals to support economic recovery and upgrade the nation's infrastructure direct 40 percent or more of the investment benefits to disadvantaged communities. This can be achieved in a number of ways.

Funding formulas
Figure 1

Modify grant formulas to maximize benefits for disadvantaged communities

Congress and the administration should improve the grant formulas to ensure that funds are directed to communities with high concentrations of poverty regardless of size and to strictly limit the amount of funding distributed to wealthy communities that is intended for low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. For CDBGs specifically, Congress should create a single formula that "provides similarly needy communities with comparable funding per capita and more needy communities with more funding per capita than less needy communities," as recommended by the Urban Institute.⁵⁵ Congress should also do away with designating entitlement communities based on population, and direct funds to jurisdictions in need of financial assistance, especially environmental justice communities and rural communities that are affected by the transition away from fossil fuels.

Ensuring every community has access to affordable financial services and housing

Some independent entities, such as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and community development corporations (CDCs), exist to serve low-income communities by providing affordable and responsible lending and financial services to support equitable community development, job creation, affordable housing, local small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which distributes funds to CDFIs and is housed at the Treasury Department, helps create economic opportunity in many of the country's most distressed communities. CDCs are nonprofits that are created to spur economic development in communities in need, but they are self-identified as such, not certified by the CDFI Fund or any other government body. Both CDCs and CDFIs aim to uplift and support their communities, yet residents can only benefit from them if they are served by one.

Expand CDFIs and CDCs in disadvantaged communities

The federal government should support the creation of CDFIs and CDCs in communities that do not yet have one to further the reach of federal funds and ensure that all communities in need can access affordable lending to support sustainable economic development. Congress should follow through on President Biden's budget request for $330 million to support expanding the role of CDFIs and to create and certify CDFIs and CDCs where they are needed, with a focus on communities of color, tribal and EJ communities, and other disadvantaged communities.⁵⁶ Furthermore, the administration should help facilitate the certification of CDCs as CDFIs where applicable so that CDCs have access to funding from the CDFI Fund. Lastly, CDFIs and CDCs should be required to apply the four investment criteria described in Table 1 to reduce local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, support resilient community development, avoid community displacement, and engage community members.

The ReGenesis Project: A shining example of community-led development

The ReGenesis Project, a certified CDC in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has been "tackling public health and environmental health issues focused on environmental justice by addressing environmental, health, social, housing, and economic needs of the community" since 1998.⁵⁷ In 2000, ReGenesis was awarded $20,000 by the EPA's Environmental Justice Small Grants Program. It was able to leverage that money into $300 million in public and private funding.⁵⁸ Since then, ReGenesis has facilitated the cleanup of two Superfund sites and six brownfield sites, as well as the construction of 500 affordable housing units and nine health clinics, and has offered job training programs.⁵⁹ It has also served as a model for community, public, and private partnerships such as the EPA's Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model, Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program, and State EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program.⁶⁰

In May 2021, ReGenesis launched the ReGenesis Institute, which is partnering with community investors to create an environmental justice accelerator to support housing, sustainable manufacturing, clean energy, and public health projects led by front-line communities in preparation for the anticipated funds from the Justice40 Initiative.⁶¹ ReGenesis is also working to ensure there is strong oversight of Justice40 investments by supporting legislation in South Carolina to create a committee to help identify disadvantaged communities and priority needs within those communities and to ensure that Justice40 funds deliver real benefits to community members.⁶² ReGenesis has delivered vital services to Spartanburg and is a prime example of how community development organizations can direct federal and other funding in ways that improve the health and well-being of communities in need.

Support community land trusts to reduce community displacement

Community land trusts (CLTs) are another example of a type of entity that provides vital community services and benefits and, ideally, would exist in every disadvantaged community. CLTs are nonprofit organizations that acquire land, taking it off the real estate market, and then lease the land to homeowners, businesses, or other entities that own the buildings developed on the land, including cooperative housing corporations, nonprofit developers of rental housing, and other nonprofit, governmental, or for-profit entities.⁶³ The goals of CLTs are to help maintain community control of land and community ownership of housing and local businesses and to provide stable, affordable housing to low-income homebuyers and renters. CLTs are an important tool for preventing displacement of longtime community residents.

Increasing funding for federal programs that serve disadvantaged communities

While the above changes to federal programs are necessary to bring measurable benefits to disadvantaged communities, Congress must also increase overall funding for federal programs that serve communities in need. Federal funding for programs that benefit low-income communities has steadily declined, leaving cities, nonprofits, and other community organizations to compete with one another.⁶⁷ Massive new investment in these programs will help provide affordable, energy efficient, and resilient housing; remediate legacy pollution; provide clean transit; and support sustainable community development for disadvantaged communities-and can help increase capacity at agencies to facilitate these essential community improvements. A spending request letter to Congress sent by co-authors of the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform and other organizations identifies critical programs that can help achieve the Justice40 goal and how much funding they should receive.⁶⁸ Examples of these programs include the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds, the Community Development Financial Institution Fund, the Weatherization Assistance Program, the EPA's Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Program, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Environmental Career Worker Training Program, the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, the EPA's Superfund program, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, the Bureau of Land Management's Abandoned Mine Lands program, and HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships Program, among others.

Over the long term, the administration should also work with Congress to create new programs, including a Healthy Communities and Resilient Infrastructure Fund, as proposed by CAP; a National Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Fund, as proposed by the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform; or a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, as proposed by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI).⁶⁹ Any new programs created to support Justice40 implementation must be developed with input from EJ advocates and other stakeholders and be intentionally designed to reach and deliver direct benefits to disadvantaged communities.

Conclusion

The Justice40 Initiative has created an unprecedented opportunity to repair the harm caused by systemic racism; unfair federal and state policies; and disinvestment in Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities, as well as to help communities reliant on the fossil fuel industry as America transitions toward renewable energy sources. The Biden administration must maintain equity and environmental, racial, and economic justice as core goals of the Justice40 Initiative throughout its implementation. To ensure that the initiative effectively delivers benefits to disadvantaged communities, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management and Budget, the national climate advisor, and agency heads should take the actions recommended above to strengthen program investment criteria, improve application and reporting processes, and increase federal funding for programs that serve disadvantaged communities. In addition, the Biden administration must act immediately to integrate environmental justice into the development of all national climate policies. By making these changes, the administration can accelerate progress toward addressing the widening racial wealth and health gaps; ensuring access to affordable housing, energy, and transportation; and protecting the fundamental right of every American to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy, safe, and prosperous community.⁷⁰

About the authors

Cathleen Kelly is a senior fellow for Energy and Environment at the Center for American Progress.

Mikyla Reta is a research associate for Energy and Environment Policy at the Center.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Zoe Willingham, Nicole Ndumele, Lorena Roque, Jarvis Holliday, Shanée Simhoni, Meghan Miller, and Chester Hawkins from the Center for American Progress; the Honorable Harold Mitchell Jr. from the ReGenesis Community Development Corp.; Michele Roberts from the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform; Richard Moore from the Los Jardines Institute; Dr. Ana Baptista from T he New School's Tishman Environment and Design Center; and the participants of Justice40 convenings co-hosted by the Equitable and Just National Climate Forum and The New School's Tishman Environment and Design Center.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

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Implementing Biden's Justice40 Commitment To Combat Environmental Racism

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Implementing Biden's Justice40 Commitment To Combat Environmental Racism Introduction and summary "This is a critical moment to define bold and equitable climate solutions that address the legacy of systemic racism and environmental injustice while rebuilding the U.S. economy in ways that work for everyone." - Former South Carolina State Rep.

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Vince Martin, a resident of Detroit and an environmental activists, shares his story and his experience with living in the city.

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Growing up in south-west Detroit, Vince Martin thought it was normal for the sky to be orange.

When he was three years old, his family moved from Cuba to one of the black areas of town. At the time, discriminatory housing practices segregated the city. His Afro-Cuban family settled in the 48217 district, now Michigan's most polluted zip code, where 71% of the population is black and air pollution makes the sky look like it's on fire.

Specifically, the Martins moved to Boynton, a working-class neighborhood. The town sits next door to a Marathon oil refinery and its sprawling industrial campus.

Martin, now an environmental activist in Detroit, remembers the refinery being made up of "one or two tankers" when his family settled there in the 1960s. Now, Marathon is a 250-acre tank farm that emits so much air pollution it's received 15 violation notices from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy since 2013 for surpassing state and federal regulations emission limits. (Marathon denies any wrongdoing, claiming it has reduced emissions by 75% over the last 20 years and only contributes to 3% of emissions in the area.)

But Martin saw air quality worsen as the refinery grew over the decades. He believes he escaped the worst of it in his youth because he traveled so often for sports, but others "weren't so fortunate".

At his 30-year high school reunion, it seemed to Martin that more people in his class were dead than living. He knew many had died from cancer. As a child, Martin's younger brother David developed asthma and juvenile diabetes, both of which have been linked with air pollution. Every few days, Martin remembers, David was rushed to the hospital with respiratory issues. "These episodes kept happening every time he'd try to go outside and enjoy his environment," says Martin. After a life of health complications, David died at age 45 from what Martin calls "toxic poisoning".

"Seeing someone with such joy in life, seeing it stripped away little by little, it's a terrible thing," Martin says. "To be in a community like that and be exposed to those kinds of pollutants. It's a sad story."

These stories are common in the 48217. Four of the state's top emitters of particulate matter sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides, which can, respectively, cause respiratory issues, and create acid rain are located within a five-mile radius of Boynton.

The situation in the 48217 is by far the worst out of all the areas in Detroit, but environmental problems pervade the entire city. And in Detroit, the blackest major city in the United States, those problems fall disproportionately on poor communities and communities of color. De-population, white flight and the implosion of the city's manufacturing industry have left behind vulnerable communities. These communities are now struggling, and fighting to survive.

Like Houston, Texas, and Richmond, California, Detroit is a stark example of what happens when poor people of color live alongside environmental destruction. "Detroit is a microcosm of the national and global crisis on climate change," says Michelle Martinez, coordinator of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, which lobbies for a safer environment for the state's most vulnerable groups.

Often, these communities are portrayed as hapless, or helpless. But OneZerospoke with four environmental justice activists in Detroit who have taken their own futures - and the future of their communities - into their own hands.

"Eventually a lightbulb goes off and you see that your community is a sacrifice," says Martin. "We're actually Dr Frankenstein's laboratory in Michigan. How you just going to sit here using these people as guinea pigs?"

Environmental justice activists have been fighting for a healthier Motor City for nearly 40 years.

Donele Wilkins, a pioneer in the environmental justice movement in Detroit, is one of them. In the 1980s, Wilkins was an occupational safety worker who became part of a conversation to erect a new solid waste incinerator in the middle of the city. The people involved in building the incinerator, mostly white men, saw it as an opportunity for a new construction job, she says. Government officials and many citizens were excited about it as well: an incinerator, then thought of as a safe, cost-effective waste disposal method, could attract new industries. But the city workers who would eventually have to work in the incinerator facility, many of whom were black, opposed its construction. Wilkins was there to lobby for them.

"They had some idea that it would not be a healthy workplace," she says.

Wilkins, driven by the knowledge "that it was my people who live in the shadows of factories and are impacted by all of these environmental injustices", lobbied to shut down the incinerator for decades. The incinerator was burning trash from Detroit, but also from suburban, majority-white neighborhoods like nearby Westland. Wilkins argued that known pollutants produced by the incinerator were linked to higher rates of cancer and respiratory issues, birth defects, and endocrine diseases. In 2018, a lifelong Detroiter named Kim Hunter, representing a group called Breathe Free Detroit, collected over 15,000 signatures on a petition to the Mayor to close the facility.

Finally, in March 2019, the incinerator closed for good - a significant win for Detroit's advocates.

In 2017, a report from the NAACP showed that in Detroit, 2,402 black children have asthma attacks due to natural gas pollution per year and miss 1,751 days of school as a result. Across Michigan, the report showed, 40% of the population in counties that have a refinery are black.

"One of the things that motivates me," Wilkins says, "is my determination to make sure not another child dies because they can't breathe".

Access to clean water, like clean air, is not a given in Detroit. For residents, the cost of water has nearly doubled since 2007. In 2014, the city began shutting off water to residents whose bills were more than 60 days overdue. By October 2018, more than 112,000 homes had lost access to water, and an additional 11,000 homes lost water for a week or more this year. "We're talking about people bathing babies in bottled water," said Gunn-Wright, the Green New Deal co-author, at an HBCU Climate Change conference in New Orleans this November. "People collecting rainwater to drink and to feed their children, to cook their meals."

In 2014, software developer Tiffani Ashley Bell tweeted her disgust after hearing about the water shutoffs. A Twitter user responded, offering to pay a Detroiter's water bill if she could pay it directly to the water utility. A lightbulb went off for Bell: that night, she built a website that connected Detroit residents who needed help paying their water bills with donors who were willing to help. That effort evolved into The Human Utility, a nonprofit that raises funds to pay the water bills of residents of Detroit and other cities whose service has been shut off. Since 2014, The Human Utility, which received startup funds from Y Combinator's nonprofit program, has paid the water bills of over 1,100 families, mostly in Detroit with the help of over 4,500 individual donors.

"I thought it was a problem that we shouldn't be having," says Bell, who is now also a columnist at the Medium publication Marker. In 2020, The Human Utility plans to use crowdsourced funds to pilot a water subsidy program that will lower the water rates of 100 Detroit families. Bell hopes it will show the city that residents will pay their water bills, if the rates are reasonable.

There is no guarantee, however, that the supplied water will be safe to drink. This year, Wilkins was approached by a man who said he had been sleeping in his car with his daughter after she experienced lead poisoning from the water in their home. They were not from Flint but from Detroit itself, where lead poisoning has driven others from their home as well.

Lead-emitting facilities in Detroit are disproportionately located or moving to black neighborhoods, according to a 2017 study. Even after these facilities close, lead left behind in the soil remains dangerous. It's especially harmful for children, who can experience behavior and learning problems, lower IQ, hyperactivity and slowed growth if they carry even low levels of lead in their blood.

Traces of lead contamination in young Detroit children rose by 28% in 2016 over the year prior, and not just because of increased testing, said Lyke Thompson, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University. Experts point to lead in dust, paint, and soil as understudied culprits. In 2019, 500 "hydration stations" had to be installed in Detroit's public schools so students could access water free of lead, copper and other contaminants.

"The fact is that we live in the shadows of countless brownfield sites and lead smelters ... that used to crush and incinerate batteries from the auto industry that contain lead," says Wilkins.

In 2019, Martinez and the MEJC partnered with the University of Michigan's School of Environment and Sustainability to create a map of the most and least environmentally just places in the state. The map aggregates public data of pollutants and contaminants, health outcomes and demographics in a census tract or zip code and assigns an environmental justice score to the area. It made plain with data what many already knew anecdotally: Michigan zip codes with higher concentrations of people of color and poverty levels, lower educational attainment, and other indicators of social disadvantage bore the greatest pollution-related burdens in the state.

It also makes the divisions in Detroit's segregated geography, created by redlining and white flight, starkly plain. The environmental justice score for Boynton, where Martin grew up, is 78; in Oakwood Heights, where Marathon's oil refinery is, the score is 80. Less than half an hour away in Grosse Pointe Shores, the richest neighborhood in Michigan, the score is 14.

"People don't realize that the average life expectancy of someone living in Detroit and someone living in the suburbs is a difference of 10 or 15 years," Martinez says. The creators of the map hope it will be adopted by state officials to monitor and act upon environmental justice in the state.

While the national discourse focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and shifting to clean energy sources, Detroit must focus on immediate needs. Its citizens are being choked to death by air pollution. The city's water crisis is on the level of some developing nations. Vacant factories have left behind toxic stains that will persist long after the refineries and factories have shut down. Detroit's population has dwindled from 945,741 at the start of the millennium to 673,104 in 2017, and the city's lack of preparedness for climate change suggests it will continue to crumble in the years to come.

And yet, Detroit's activists are optimistic. To Martinez, the environmental situation in Detroit represents "an enormous opportunity to reclaim the labor movement, the principles of the civil rights movement, and to reclaim the modes of production".

She points to the approximately 1,600 community gardens in Detroit, which have sprouted up in lots abandoned by people who fled the city after 2008. "That's a local, organic, closed-loop economy that is working to feed our elders organic, affordable food every season," she says.

As the city's infrastructure disintegrates, its activists are dismantling Detroit's history of environmental injustice and preparing for climate change by bringing green jobs to the city.

Though the fight has been arduous, Wilkins says that the incremental wins, like shutting down the city's incinerator, fill her with the hope she needs to continue pushing for environmental justice for the people in her hometown.

"I understand the resilience of my people," she says. "See, we survived the middle passage. We survived the worst case of human treatment anyone in this world can experience. We survived Jim Crow. We survived all the ugliness. We're still here. And while I'm here in this moment, my job is to advance whatever needs to be advanced so that my people can be better off.

"I fight for the strength of the greater good," says Martin. "I speak for the little kids growing up who don't know that they're going to have to deal with these issues in the future."

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The blackest city in the US is facing an environmental justice nightmare

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Detroit's most vulnerable residents face inequalities like toxic air, lead poisoning, and water shutoffs. Now they're fighting back

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A quick story on how peaceful protestors crashed a morning news conference to spread their message.

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Peaceful protesters on Thursday crashed a Stellantis NV announcement for a $1 million investment seeking to make the east Detroit neighborhood in which it built its new Jeep assembly plant the greenest in the city.

Roughly a dozen residents of Beniteau Street and demonstrators with the Detroit People's Platform carried signs and chanting "Beniteau can't breathe" during the morning news conference that included the planting of a disease-free elm. They alleged environmental racism by Stellantis and called for greater action to be taken with respect to pollution from the plant and assistance for home repairs.

"They put a Band-Aid on it," Robert Shobe, a 26-year resident of Beniteau, said of the actions the automaker has taken as part of its community benefits agreement with the city and impact-area residents. "This wouldn't happen in a non-Black community."

At the new publicly accessible stormwater park at the corner of Beniteau and Kercheval Avenue, Stellantis launched the "Detroit's Greenest Initiative." The three-year, $1 million pledge is on top of the company's existing commitments with the community benefits agreements made in 2019 for its $2.5 billion investment into the Detroit Assembly Complex, which includes Jefferson North Assembly Plant and the new Mack Assembly Plant.

"The notion of being a good corporate citizen is important to us and the enduring environmental impact of our efforts are especially important and timely in this mission," said Ronald Stallworth, Stellantis' external affairs lead for Wayne County. "Ultimately, we are following through on our commitment to improve the environment and enhance the quality of life for the residents on the eastside."

He noted the project is creating 4,950 jobs in the neighborhood, created an advanced manufacturing program at Southeastern High School and has invested in workforce training opportunities. Such initiatives were shaped from input during more than 75 meetings from community residents, organizations and leaders.

The Detroit's Greenest Initiative includes a new neighborhood education pavilion at the stormwater park. Construction is set to begin in the fall. The company also will add educational signage, bike racks, a bat house, beehives, pollinator garden and rain garden to the park that will be accompanied by an environmental-focused curriculum with local educators.

"This is one more educational segment of what Stellantis is providing for our youth," said Stephanie Broddie, a Southeastern High teacher. "Our students are really going to benefit from this. This is for the kids. ... It's introducing the kids to things and careers they might not have a clue about, never would have heard about, never would have thought about."

The initiative includes previously announced environmental efforts, too. The company installed an ambient air quality monitoring station on the north side of the Mack plant last year, the first of its kind in the city. Last year, it also contributed $285,000 to the Chandler Park Conservancy education plaza. With nonprofits The Greening of Detroit, Wildlife Habitat Council and other community partners, 800 of 1,100 trees have been planted on Stellantis' property and in the neighborhood. The automaker has made other upgrades to park landscaping.

"The variety of planting area supports a vegetative buffer that benefits air quality," said Monica Tabares, vice president of The Greening of Detroit. "The impact of these 800 trees will sequester over 2.6 million pounds of carbon and manage 7.5 million gallons of stormwater over the next 40 years."

Stellantis also will distribute rain barrels to residents. The company will install solar-powered bus stops near the assembly complex.

"There is no other efforts like that happening in the city right now," Stallworth said. "We look forward to doing more."

But Shobe, the Beniteau Street resident, says many of the residents living near the plant weren't heard during that community benefits process. Shobe is a 58-year-old cancer patient on disability. His 34-year-old son living with him recently had a kidney transplant, and his 17-year-old son has asthma.

"I don't want to be here anymore," said Shobe, expressing concerns over the chemicals that the vehicle paint puts in the air. "I can't do that on my fixed income. We need help."

Others say the $1.8 million the automaker provided to the city's Housing and Revitalization Department for home-repair grants isn't enough. Residents in the neighborhood can receive up to $15,000 each.

Tanisha Burton, 45, a Beniteau resident, listed needed home updates like noise and air quality control and repairs to a cracked brick foundation since the expansion at the plant began.

"You can't do all of that," she said. "We're asking for more or another grant to qualify for."
bnoble@detroitnews.com Twitter: @BreanaCNoble

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Protesters crash Stellantis' $1M environment initiative announcement

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Peaceful protesters on Thursday crashed a Stellantis NV announcement for a $1 million investment seeking to make the east Detroit neighborhood in which it built its new Jeep assembly plant the greenest in the city.

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Something that helps tremendously is donating/volunteering, and educating yourself on environmental racism that may be happening in your own city. I have provided a link to the Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice where they offer volunteer work and donation links.

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Powerful Change Begins When We Work Together

Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice -or DWEJ for short -is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the environmental and economic health of our community. We champion a healthy environment for all people through innovative, thoughtful community and policy actions that put people first. We have grown from a group of grassroots activists that formed in 1991 and went on to become a major voice recognized locally, statewide, and nationally, for our visionary programs and projects that stimulate economic growth, while also creating sustainable, livable communities.

As Michigan's first environmental justice organization, our work is woven into the fabric of every Detroit neighborhood. Our far-reaching initiatives, programs, and collaborations touch the lives of all Detroit residents and provide lasting benefits to our communities, improving quality of life now and for generations to come.

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Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice | Protecting Detroiters' Right to Clean Air, Safe Water and Healthy Neighborhoods

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Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice -or DWEJ for short -is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the environmental and economic health of our community. We champion a healthy environment for all people through innovative, thoughtful community and policy actions that put people first.

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As Mariann Bischoff stated in this brief interview, the job of the social worker in this case would be to facilitate unity and teamwork amongst different groups. A social worker must be able to connect with people of all backgrounds, especially those who have been effected by environmental injustice, and be able to organize things to benefit the community as a whole. Practitioners must be empathetic with those who have been effected very negatively, whether it be by their health or their mental well-being, it is important to understand what their clients have been through and what steps to take in order to facilitate change for these communities.

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Mariann Bischoff, Teaching Instructor and Management and Policy Field Specialist, and Christine Morales, Assistant Director of Recruitment & Admission and Assistant Professor of Teaching, developed a course at Rutgers School of Social Work teaching environmental justice through a social work lens. They share their approach to teaching this topic, their hopes for their work, and some of the opportunities available to social workers interested in environmental justice.
RUSSW: What are your goals with this work?
CM: I want to help shift the social work paradigm. Mariann and I have noticed that social work tends to be very human centered, or anthropocentric. This idea has been supported by many social work scholars. There's an invisible hierarchy that places humans at the top. We see the deep interconnections people have with the world. As a result, we work to remove that hierarchy in our profession and make it less human centered. One of my goals is to galvanize more social workers into this work, in whatever form it takes for them. We're not prescribing certain interventions, but we are encouraging them to get involved. There are so many social workers out there, and our profession can certainly contribute to creating greater environmental justice in the world.

Mariann Bischoff: One of the problems is that climate change and environmental degradation are such huge issues that people can feel demoralized by them. Whatever changes people are making individually or in their personal lives, from lowering the heat to recycling, might feel like they are not making a difference. We have to help people see that as a community, we are collaboratively making a difference. Also, as people begin to rediscover humans' interconnections with the Earth, they embark on a deep journey that involves protecting the planet and all its inhabitants. Instead of viewing the work as daunting or unmanageable, it becomes nourishing and strengthens connections among people working on that same issue in different ways.

CM: Because this issue is so large, the work needs to be broken down into smaller, actionable items that can be infused into the work that social workers already do. One concrete example for direct service practitioners is to change their clinical assessments to include questions like "How have environmental injustices impacted your life?" Just incorporating this concept into practices that we already do is one easy way to get started. And, in that example, awareness grows. It grows in the clients, the practitioners, and within agencies. As more clinicians and direct service social workers ask more clients how environmental injustices have impacted them, needs assessments can be done to better understand the scope of the problem. This gathering of information will better inform advocacy work.

MB: One of the challenges in teaching the work and how we approach teaching is making sure not to teach at the students but to instead create a collaborative community environment where everyone's voice is important. It seems like a radical approach, and it's hard for me because I have been conditioned to believe that "real" teachers lecture from PowerPoints. It's unhelpful and inefficient thinking, and even with tremendous positive feedback from students on how empowering our teaching methods are, those thoughts can still creep in. Creating a place for people to believe in themselves and further their wisdom and lived experiences is what Christine and I do.

CM: Another challenge is the issue of the environment has typically been addressed by biological and environmental scientists, so carving a niche for the social work profession is both an opportunity and a challenge. Mariann and I were once at a conference mainly for scientists, and we asked the organizer how social workers could get involved. His response was "just show up, just be there." What's important is getting my voice heard, as a woman of color, but then also getting my voice heard as a representative of social work. Those are the challenges. Luckily, all of the scientists that we've been working with have been very open, and they want to hear from us. It's a matter of finding that connection and creating those networks and developing or joining a coalition.

MB: Social workers can take on so many roles in general and in environmental justice work specifically. We can incorporate environmental justice work in direct practice, mezzo and macro work, as we mentioned. Recently I have been thinking about our roles as facilitators. I strive to be a facilitator in the classroom. Also, in working with politicians, activists, and scientists, I see a powerful role for us as facilitators. The direct practice skills of beginning where people are, listening deeply and helping people communicate, coupled with identifying and working to change power imbalances make social workers necessary participants in environmental justice work.

MB: It's so profound that it can be hard to put it into words. We're seeing students reconnect with themselves and feel that their voice really matters. Students share that for the first time they know they can make a difference in the issues that really matter to them. Often these issues have affected them and their families directly.

CM: When I think about environmental justice, I consider it synonymous with economic, racial, and social justice. Much of the work social workers are already doing is well on its way to addressing environmental injustices, but we need to do it more intentionally. Our code of ethics provides the foundation, but we just have to shift it slightly so that humans are not at the top of the invisible hierarchy.

MB: We have to think of the earth and all its inhabitants as our clients, not just humans. That idea comes from the work of Lena Dominelli, whose Green Social Work book is a required text in our class.

MB: In addition to what Christine just shared, another opportunity is within field education. Placing students in organizations that work on environmental justice issues can create opportunities to develop relationships between universities and environmental justice organizations. In so doing, we expand social work values and social work roles in places that don't primarily focus on social work.

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Environmental Justice and Social Work: An Interview with Mariann Bischoff & Christine Morales | Rutgers School of Social Work

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Mariann Bischoff, Teaching Instructor and Management and Policy Field Specialist, and Christine Morales, Assistant Director of Recruitment & Admission and Assistant Professor of Teaching, developed a course at Rutgers School of Social Work teaching environmental justice through a social work lens.

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I personally see social work as a profession that advocates for the voiceless. It was stated on the NASW website that they have a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which I feel relates closely to the issue of Environmental Injustice. The main goal of the social work profession is to help facilitate the well-being of the members of society, as well as meeting the basic needs of ALL people. Especially those who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.

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NASW - National Associacion of Social Workers

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NASW shares your concern about the global threat of climate change and the risks to vulnerable communities. Environmental justice is one of NASW's Social Justice Priorities. NASW continues to support and complement independent efforts by social workers to address climate change within the profession.

Top Resources

Activities and Coalitions

NASW has been an affiliate of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health since it was founded in 2017 and is an active member. NASW was a co-sponsor of the Consortium's Annual Meetings in 2019 and 2020 and participates in many of the Consortium's advocacy activities. In partnership with the Consortium, NASW endorsed a call to action and an open letter to President Trump asking that the United States return to the Paris Climate Agreement.

NASW works in close partnership with sister social work organizations to advance awareness and competency related to environmental justice. These initiatives include:

In 2020, NASW joined the American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, Climate Psychology Alliance, and many other groups to form the Social Climate Leadership Group. This working group is focused on developing strategies to address the mental health needs of individuals and communities in the face of climate change. The working group met in 2020 to create a vision for action to enhance emotional resilience, social ties, and civic capacity to respond to climate and ecological change.

NASW has an environmental policy statement in Social Work Speaks, 11th Edition.

NASW's national conferences have offered breakout sessions on related topics, such as "Environmental Public Health Emergency: Evidence-Based Practice Leads to Optimal Health Programs."

Webinars

This webinar educates participants about the health effects of climate change as they relate to social work practice. Presented by NASW and the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health.

The social work profession has a long history of involvement in climate justice work. The ecosocial lens provides a way of centering this work in current social work practice.

Climate change poses a significant threat to people around the world. It poses a more significant threat to marginalized populations. Social workers uphold their ethical responsibilities by advocating for policies and practices that can create sustainable communities, limit damage to the environment by human activity and help people adapt to a changing climate.

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National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

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Founded in 1955, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with more than 120,000 members. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies.

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The biggest strength that Detroiters have is the fact that they've gotten political attention, which is bound to bring more awareness to their situation. "Gov Gretchen Whitmer's appointments to the MSPC are more amenable to residents and clean energy policies than past pro-industry commissioners" (Perkins, 2020). Another strength would be that through their efforts and complaints, residents of Detroit were able to prevent Southwest Detroit's Marathon Refinery from storing toxic pet coke outdoors, and the city passed an ordinance in 2017 that it must be stored indoors. Resistance and coming together as a community seems to be their biggest strength as well.

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Activists combine education, pressure, and the law to clean up communities and achieve environmental justice. Here's a look at the tactics behind some of their wins and ongoing struggles.
In July, Michigan regulators approved a nearly ten-fold expansion of a US Ecology hazardous waste storage facility in a largely low income neighborhood with a high number of immigrants near the Detroit-Hamtramck border.

When residents objected, EGLE said it was required by law to approve the project. In response, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center took a new legal approach to confronting an environmental injustice in the area: it filed a civil rights complaint under Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin for programs receiving federal assistance.

The pending case illustrates how environmental attorneys and activists are using a wide range of laws, intervening in the permitting process and employing creative legal strategies to push back in a region with a deep history of environmental racism.

"You cannot come at environmental justice just from environmental law," attorney Oday Salim said at a recent symposium at the University of Detroit's Environmental Law Clinic. "You have to come at these environmental injustices from various other frameworks."

Few regions in the nation face more environmental issues and injustices than southeast Michigan, which has paid for its industrial power with polluted water, contaminated soil, dirty air and myriad crises.

Though Michigan's environmental laws were once among the nation's most stringent, a decades-long GOP assault on regulatory agencies has weakened state oversight, leaving the region's environmental attorneys and activists to confront polluters in court.

They make use of tools like citizen suits that can be filed under the federal Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. In many cases, Michigan law goes further than federal law with lower limits on some air and water pollutants. But they are also looking to other areas of the law-like property law and civil rights law - to achieve their ends. Meanwhile activists on the ground run public awareness campaigns designed to pressure policymakers into action and turn public sentiment against polluters.

Though the struggles are constant, combinations of these approaches have led to important wins in recent years. To get a sense of how activists and attorneys are using the law to protect Detroiters and shine a light on corporate malfeasance, Planet Detroit looked at the legal fights and activism around some of the state's greatest ongoing environmental threats and injustices.
Another win against Marathon
Arguably, few of Detroit's industrial villains have been the source of more problems for neighboring residents than Southwest Detroit's Marathon refinery. Residents have long complained about the sulfur dioxide and particulate matter it spews, which is a source of asthma and other lung problems.

Though regulators and the company have claimed the refinery has reduced its emissions, it has continued to violate standards, most infamously in 2019 when a "vapor release event" sent two employees to the hospital and sickened neighbors. Protests before and after the event pressured EGLE into issuing a fine - which some residents called insufficient - and requiring Marathon to make real time air quality data available to neighbors. The company also paid for an air filtration system to be installed in a neighboring school.

Meanwhile, in 2012 Marathon started storing piles of toxic pet coke, a black, sand-like byproduct of the oil refining process, on the shores of the Detroit River. The substance coated properties in surrounding neighborhoods when the wind blew. So the city, responding to residents and activists' demands, passed an ordinance in 2017 that required pet coke to be stored indoors. Marathon then applied for a variance that would allow it to continue storing the substance outdoors. The city rejected that in 2019.

Still, citing its strong desire to avoid spending millions of dollars to build a roof, Marathon appealed the decision in 2020. In October, the city quietly again rejected the proposal. In a letter to the company, the city pointed to environmental justice issues, representing an extra win for activists pushing for officials to take such concerns into account.

Detroit's building department wrote that the company "neglected to provide the pertinent demographic data for this vulnerable area that has a long history of being impacted by environmental justice issues. Marathon failed to provide any discussion of whether minority or impoverished populations are located in the affected areas or potentially affected areas and in what numbers or percentages."
Activists take on DTE Energy and the state's utilities
For decades, Michigan's utility industry operated with little meaningful oversight from state regulators. The results of the hands off approach are clear: Michigan residents now pay among the nation's highest rates while receiving some of the worst service in terms of interruptions. Even as DTE Energy and Consumers Energy deliver especially poor service in Detroit, they've cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers who can't afford high rates.

The cost burden also shifted from Michigan's industrial users to residential users during the Snyder administration, and the state's utilities have successfully resisted a quick move to clean energy. As a consequence, Michigan's greenhouse gas emissions remain among the nation's highest.

But there's a shift taking place as a core of grassroots groups has coalesced to protect residents' financial interests and push clean energy policies. Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, Soulardarity, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, and more work alongside larger environmental groups like Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council. They regularly intervene in utilities' rate cases before the Michigan Public Service Commission, the regulatory agency that governs utilities and makes decisions about clean energy and pricing.

The groups are seeing success. In recent years, their pressure and advocacy have resulted in lower rate increases than what utilities have asked for in Detroit and across the state. Programs that protect low-income residents have been expanded, and protections that consumer advocates pushed during the pandemic have resulted in a significant drop in shutoffs.

Meanwhile, DTE was pressured into shuttering three of its coal plants and is now being required to explore how to shut down a fourth one sooner than its 2030 target date. Activist groups continue to promote and look for ways to increase access to clean and distributive energy sources while pushing environmental justice issues that until recently weren't acknowledged by regulators. In a major victory, the Whitmer administration recently directed the MPSC to factor in environmental justice issues when considering utilities' energy delivery plans.

Activists have been aided by a shift in the political winds. Attorney General Dana Nessel has been a staunch consumer advocate since taking office in early 2019, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's appointments to the MPSC are more amenable to residents and clean energy policies than past pro-industry commissioners.
Reducing sulfur dioxide emissions in River Rouge, Southwest Detroit and Dearborn
The toxic greenhouse gas sulfur dioxide is a driver of asthma and other respiratory ailments. Those inhaling it can feel in its effects - sneezing, sore throat, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness - after just five minutes of exposure. The sulfuric acid it creates in bodies effectively leaves "sunburns on your lungs," said Sierra Club attorney Elena Stackhouse.

Few areas in the nation choke on more of the dangerous gas than that composed of River Rouge, Southwest Detroit and parts of Dearborn. The EPA in 2013 found the region's levels far exceeded federal air standards and required the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (now EGLE) to develop a plan to drastically cut SO2 levels by 2016.

Unsurprisingly, former Gov. Rick Snyder's DEQ turned in a weak plan that largely only required US Steel, a major SO2 emitter, to cut its emissions, Stackhouse said. A state judge recently ruled that the EGLE doesn't have the authority to require only US Steel to cut its emissions without also requiring the same of the other polluters, so the plan fell apart. While the state's failure should trigger a new plan from the EPA, the agency failed to develop one by its 2018 deadline, Stackhouse said. Meanwhile, the SO2 pollution continues unabated, though it has unintentionally been reduced by the winding down of operations at DTE Energy's River Rouge coal plant and idling steel mills.

Groups like the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club have since 2013 continued pressuring the agencies by submitting comments throughout the process, and they're preparing to ask president-elect Joe Biden's EPA to quickly develop and submit a plan. It would likely develop a better plan than a Trump-run EPA, though that and installation of new pollution controls could still take several years.
Ending the Detroit Grand Prix's Belle Isle 'occupation'
To the race's opponents, the ongoing " occupation " of Belle Isle is a clear outrage - each summer, the state allows a billionaire to convert a substantial section of the 982-acre island park into his personal IndyCar race track. Though the state park is a rare urban respite, publicly owned and supposed to remain accessible to the public, Roger Penske, the trucking and race mogul behind the Grand Prix, limits access for most of the spring and part of the summer to some of the island's best areas on the Southwest part of the island, which includes Sunset Point and offers beautiful views of downtown Detroit.

That has provoked strong opposition, and for several years activists with Belle Isle Concern have demanded the race be moved off the island. They've succeeded in drawing unfavorable media attention to the injustice and turning some public opinion against the race, but that hasn't been enough to dislodge Penske. While there was hope that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration might shift course, her Department of Natural Resources has been worse than Snyder's - it's allowing Penske to add a second race to the 2021 schedule.

With the DNR working for a billionaire's interest over the public's, Paul Andrew Kettunen, an environmental attorney, has raised the idea of a legal challenge to the Grand Prix takeover of Belle Isle. The Michigan Environmental Protection Act's public trust doctrine may require the state to care for and provide public access to its natural resources, like state parks. One could argue that the DNR has failed in those responsibilities, as it allows Penske to restrict access to the island, and has breached the state's public trust doctrine.

Similar lawsuits have had success in New York and Illinois, Kettunen noted, though the public trust doctrine hasn't been applied in such a way in Michigan, and it faces a more difficult path in the state's relatively conservative court system. For now, the group Belle Isle Concern is continuing to make noise, paint Penske as a villain and make political inroads.
Ending Detroit water shut offs
Perhaps no issue illustrates the power of grassroots activism and political pressure better than the response to Detroit's water shut off policy. The city in 2014 launched the dangerous debt collection initiative and began shutting off water to those far behind on their bills, pushing a narrative that those in poverty who were unable to afford the city's high water rates were simply lazy or unwilling to pay their fair share.

Since then, 140,000 households have had their water service cut, and an analysis of 2018 shut offs found 95% of those accounts were Black customers. The city-made water crisis has raised fears of an increase in illnesses and other social problems associated with a lack of access to clean water.

The injustice spurred into action groups like We The People Detroit, Hydrate Detroit and the Detroit Water Brigade. The groups have raised awareness of the suffering that the policy has caused, put sustained pressure on policymakers, and assisted residents who have had their water turned off. As a result, the program has remained a flashpoint in the media since it was implemented. In July, the Michigan ACLU and NAACP filed a lawsuit against Detroit and DWSD that asked for a judge to order an end to the shutoffs. That case is pending.

The policy created an especially alarming situation during the pandemic. Health concerns prompted Whitmer to issue a moratorium that ended in July when the GOP-controlled Michigan Supreme Court struck down her emergency order powers. Simultaneously, the Duggan administration announced a $25 reconnection program, and, allegedly, over 1,200 homes have had water restored. Meanwhile, State Sen. Stephanie Chang in 2019 introduced legislation that would require utilities to turn water service back on across the state. A version of it to extend a moratorium on statewide shut-offs passed in the Michigan Legislature during lame duck and was signed by Whitmer.

The pressure at all levels seems to have paid off. The Duggan administration in December announced that it would extend the moratorium through the end of 2021 and "build a coalition" to make it permanent. It's not clear how the city would pay for it - officials have said an income-based water affordability plan, in which rates are subsidized, is fiscally untenable in Detroit. And activists view the announcement with deep skepticism. There will undoubtedly be significant pressure to ensure the moratorium continues beyond next year.
This story is the third and alst in a series about how activists and attorneys are turning to the courts, getting involved in the permit process and raising public awareness to protect the environment and residents in time when regulators and politicians are abdicating that responsibility. The next story will highlight legal battles playing out over the state's ongoing environmental injustices.
Read all stories in the series here:
Story # 1: Michigan's weakened environmental laws lead activists to embrace other tactics Story # 2: How environmental activists and attorneys - not politicians - beat Detroit's toxic trash incinerator Story # 3: Solving Detroit's most intractable environmental justice issues

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Solving Detroit's most intractable environmental justice issues

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Activists combine education, pressure, and the law to clean up communities and achieve environmental justice. Here's a look at the tactics behind some of their wins and ongoing struggles. In July, Michigan regulators approved a nearly ten-fold expansion of a US Ecology hazardous waste storage facility in a largely low income neighborhood with a high ...