Environmental Justice: Principles, Policies, Guidance, and Effective

Practices

FTA Region VI Civil Rights Colloquium

March 29, 2006

The Environmental Justice Movement

1982--Protests in Warren County, NC against siting a landfill in predominantly African-American and low-income community,

1983--The GAO found that 3 out of 4 hazardous waste landfills in the South were located in minority and low-income communities.

1990s--The first national people of color environmental leadership summit.

1992--EPA creates office of environmental equity. 1994—Executive Order on Environmental Justice

Executive Order 12898

“Each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States.”

Principles of Environmental Justice

To avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations.

To ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the transportation decision-making process.

To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.

Terms and Concepts

Minority--defined according to census categories. Low-Income--means a person whose median

household income is at or below the Health and Human Services policy guidelines.

Low-income population--low-income persons who live in geographic proximity or geographically dispersed/transient persons.

Terms and Concepts

Adverse effect--can include economic as well as effects to the human and natural environment.

Disproportionately high adverse effects are those effects that are:

(1) Predominantly borne by a minority or low-income population or

(2) Effects that will be suffered by the minority or low-income population and is appreciably more severe or greater in magnitude than the adverse effect that will be suffered by the non-minority or non-low-income population.

The DOT Order on Environmental Justice

This order incorporates environmental justice principles into the DOT’s existing programs, policies, and activities.

DOT’s Planning and programming activities will include explicit consideration of the effects of the activities on minority and low-income populations.

DOT will continuously monitor its programs, policies, and activities to ensure that disproportionately high and adverse effects to minority and low-income populations are avoided, minimized, and mitigated.

The DOT Order on Environmental Justice

The U.S. DOT Order applies to all policies, programs, and other activities that are undertaken, funded, or approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), or other U.S. DOT components:

Policy Decisions. Systems Planning. Metropolitan and Statewide Planning. Project Development and Environmental Review under NEPA. Preliminary Design. Final Design Engineering. Right-of-Way. Construction. Operations and Maintenance.

The DOT Order on Environmental Justice

In making determinations regarding disproportionately high and adverse effects, DOT will consider mitigation and enhancement measures and offsetting benefits provided to minority and low-income population, as well as the design, comparative impacts, and number of similar elements in non-minority and non-low-income areas.

DOT Order on Environmental Justice

Activities that have adverse and disproportionately high effects on minority and low-income populations will only be carried out if mitigation measures and alternatives that would avoid these effects are not practicable.

The National Environmental Policy Act

The National Environmental Policy Act seeks to ensure that public projects take into account social goals

Specifically, NEPA seeks to:– Prevent or eliminate damage to the environment– Stimulate the health and welfare of man– Enrich the understanding of ecological systems

and the natural resources important to the nation.

The National Environmental Policy Act

Under NEPA, the Federal responsibility is to:– Act as trustees of the environment– Assure, safe, healthful, productive, aesthetically and

culturally pleasing surroundings– Attain the widest range of benefit without degradation or

undesirable and unintended consequences– Preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects– Achieve a balance between population and resource use– Enhance the quality of the environment

Essential Elements of NEPA

Scoping Alternatives Impacts Mitigation Public Involvement Interagency Coordination Documentation

Scoping

The purpose of scoping is to define the objectives, scope, and impacted areas of a project.

Determine whether a potentially affected area includes minority populations or low-income populations.

Develop a strategy for effective public involvement.

Alternatives

NEPA requires that project sponsors identify a reasonable array of alternatives that meet the purpose and need of the project and that a “no build” alternative be evaluated.

Evaluate environmental justice issues for all reasonable alternatives.

Alternatives should be developed that mitigate and avoid effects to both the population at large and any disproportionately high and adverse effects on minority and low-income populations.

Impacts

Identify the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of a project to the human and natural environment.

For each alternative, identify whether there would be adverse and disproportionate effects on minority and low-income populations.

Mitigation

Consider measures that would avoid, minimize, preserve, repair, rehabilitate, or restore the human and natural environment.

Mitigation measures should be developed specifically to address disproportionately high and adverse effects to minority and low-income communities.

Ensure that the affected community receives its fair share of the benefits of the proposed action

Public Involvement

Make a targeted effort to overcome linguistic, institutional, cultural, economic, historical, or other barriers that may prevent minority and low-income persons and populations from effectively participating in a recipient’s decision-making process.

Public Involvement

Examples: Coordination with individuals, institutions, or organizations in the affected

predominantly minority and/or predominantly low-income communities to reach out to members of the community.

Provision of opportunities for public participation through means other than written communication, such as personal interviews or use of audio or video recording devices to capture oral comments.

Use of locations, facilities, and meeting times that are local, convenient and accessible to the disabled, low-income, and minority communities.

Use of different meeting sizes or formats, or variation in the type and number of news media used to announce public participation opportunities, so that communications are tailored to the particular community or population.

Implementing the Department of Transportation’s policy guidance concerning recipients’ responsibilities to limited English proficient persons to overcome linguistic barriers to public participation.

Providing assistance to people with disabilities, including individuals who are blind or have low-vision or are hearing impaired.

Interagency Coordination

Coordinate with other Federal agencies to identify and address possible adverse and disproportionate impacts to minority and low-income populations.

Documentation

Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments should contain an environmental justice section that identifies and addresses adverse and disproportionate effects of project alternatives on minority and low-income populations.

Applications for a “documented” categorical exclusion should also reference any environmental justice issues.

Resources

Effective methods for Environmental Justice Assessment

Resources

DOT Environmental Justice Website , www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2.htm