Harvard Extension School April 2, 2013 Environmental Justice in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Harvard Extension School

April 2, 2013

Environmental Justice in New Jersey 2013

Nicky Sheats, Esq., Ph.D.

Director, Center for the Urban Environment, John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy of Thomas Edison State College and member of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance

A Preliminary Screening Method to Estimate

Cumulative Environmental Impact

Presentation by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to the Environmental Justice Advisory council December 2, 2009

• NATA diesel (1999)
• NATA cancer risk
• NJDEP benzene estimates
• Traffic (all)
• Traffic (trucks)
• Density of major regulated sites
• Density of known contaminated sites
• Density of dry cleaners
• Density of junkyards

Indicators:

Environmental Justice:

At the intersection of the civil rights and environmental movements.

Environmental Justice:

Concerned with:

• The disproportionate burden of pollution inflicted

upon communities Of Color and poor neighborhoods.

• Participation in decision-making by Environmental

Justice communities.

• Access to benefits produced by improving the

environment.

Who I Am and What I do:

• Member of EJ community.
• Use science and legal background to develop EJ

policy.

• Write different types of comments.
• Help build capacity.

EJ Organizations:

• NJ EJ Alliance
• EJ leadership Forum on Climate Change
• EJ and Science Initiative
• NE EJ Attorneys

Mainstream Activities: New Jersey:

• NJ Clean Air Council
• Clean and Healthy Ports Coalition (steering

committee)

• NJ Climate Change Adaptation Alliance

National:

• EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee
• National EJ Advisory Council
• National Climate Assessment

Cumulative Impacts:

How do we address multiple sources of pollution in a community?

Problem:

• We attempt to regulate pollutant by pollutant

through individual standards.

• But there can be detrimental health effects even if no

individual standard is violated.

NJ EJ Alliance Cumulative Impacts Policy:

• Municipal Policy: Model Ordinance
• Statewide Policy: Integrating cumulative impacts into

DEP permitting

An Ordinance to Protect Public Health and the Environment and to Promote Environmental Justice:

• Applies the precautionary principle
• Requires a cumulative impacts assessment for new

projects

• Requires a municipal environmental resource

inventory that includes environmental justice information

Statewide Policy:

Identify EJ and overburdened communities

New Permits: No net increase of pollution emissions in neighborhood. By either:

• No emissions
• Offsets in neighborhood > emissions

Permits Up For Renewal: Net decrease in pollution emissions in neighborhood. By either:

• Reduced emissions
• Offsets in neighborhood > emissions

Overburdened EJ Communities: Eligible for incentives and resources that would:

• Attract non-polluting industry
• Attract the use and development of renewable energy
• Be used for energy efficiency
• Attract suppliers of fresh food
• Increase open space
• Increase environmental enforcement

Need To:

• Add goals and a timetable to policy.
• Add detail to “net decrease in pollution” and “net

decrease in pollution emissions”.

Cumulative Impacts, Sandy and Climate Change:

• Don’t perpetuate relationship between race, income

and cumulative impacts

• Communities with high levels of cumulative impacts

are also the most vulnerable to detrimental impacts

• f climate change

Don’t Perpetuate Relationship Between Race, Income and Cumulative Impacts: Ask these questions while rebuilding:

• Will facility release emissions
• How much pollution is already in community
• What are demographics of community

If answer is yes: Don’t build or reduce existing pollution before building

Communities with high levels of cumulative impacts are also the most vulnerable to detrimental impacts

• f climate change:
• Adaptation
• Mitigation
• Storm Surge

END

Nicky Sheats, Esq., Ph.D.

609-777-4351 ext. 4280 nsheats@tesc.edu Color scheme