Environmental Justice Mapping
Expanding AG EJ Practice
As environmental justice activism and policy work continue to progress, local, state, and federal programs must first identify environmental justice communities.
EJ Mapping Background
As defined by EPA, environmental justice communities (EPA uses the term "overburdened communities") are those minority, low-income, Tribal, or indigenous groups that are disproportionately burdened by the cumulative impacts of environmental abuse ( EPA "EJ 2020 Glossary" ). This concept of cumulative impact refers to the negative public health, environmental, and social effects that result from the combined exposures to pollution and improper land use that EJ communities are often subject to in this country ( Lee, 2020 ). By tracking areas experiencing cumulative impacts, advocates have been able to identify the communities that are faced with consistently disproportionate environmental and social stressors, and work to better recognize and follow the proper path towards resolving the environmental issues that affect these communities ( Morello-Frosch et al., 2011 ).
In order to address the environmental inequities of cumulative impacts, advocates must first be able to understand where they exist. The process of EJ mapping, first described by the Commission on Racial Justice’s 1987 report Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, was introduced as a tool for identifying the location of EJ communities and gathering direct information from the experiences of people living with the burdens of pollution ( UCC "Toxic Wastes and Race" Report ). While this first step of locating vulnerable communities exposed to high levels of pollution was a critical part of EJ advocacy and promoted more public participation, it did not guarantee sustained government action.
More recently however, technological advances have empowered the resurgence of EJ mapping tools. Over the last decade or so, combined with renewed focus on environmental justice at multiple levels, these newer tools have helped government agencies better confront the problem of disproportionate cumulative impacts in EJ communities.
The newer tools include digital mapping programs, Geographic Information Systems, and data collection tools like air quality monitors. By using mapping to overlay data about environmental burdens with community demographics and vulnerabilities, EJ community members and organizations can now show a direct relationship between public health and harmful environmental conditions. This evidence in turn enables EJ communities to press government agencies to pay attention to over-burdened areas and to take action on issues that contribute to cumulative environmental inequity. Access to these visual and data-based mapping tools provides EJ communities the validation and power needed to combat environmental hazards in their areas. The tool also plays a key role at government agencies as they seek to make environmental justice work central to their advocacy. In this section, we describe the tools that are available.
Models
California's CalEnviroScreen Tool
California led the way for states by recognizing the importance of EJ mapping tools in prioritizing decision making and community protection actions. It became the first state to deploy a widely accepted EJ map with its CalEnviroScreen tool, which was made accessible to the public by CalEPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in 2013 ( CalEnviroScreen ). This tool was developed with the help of significant community participation, and features 21 indicators divided into four categories: exposure, environmental effects, sensitive populations, and socioeconomic factors. The data from these indicators is combined to calculate a peer-reviewed cumulative environmental health score for each census tract in the state. This scoring process gives users the ability to identify EJ communities based on pollution exposure, health, and socioeconomic vulnerability.
CalEnviroScreen 4.0
Local California governments and organizations have widely accepted the CalEnviroScreen tool, which is currently in its fourth version and continues to be improved and updated by CalEPA and other state agencies. CalEnviroScreen data sets are more in depth than the nationally consistent data used by the EPA’s EJSCREEN tool. Partnering groups, such as local schools and independent businesses conduct their own research to assist the state agencies in identifying relevant indicators and demographics for the mapping tool. CalEnviroScreen is now used for planning and procedures at the state and local levels, including the California Air Resource Board’s Community Air Protection Program , CalEPA’s EJ Enforcement Task Force , and the community funding under the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund . The tool is additionally used to challenge and support governmental decisions, and provide data to EJ communities so that they may gain more power to speak for and defend themselves ( OEHHA, CalEnviroScreen Training Videos ).
The Environmental Protection Agency's EJSCREEN Tool
Many federal government agencies have recognized the benefits of the ever-evolving EJ mapping tools, and have used these tools to create their own maps to protect the public health of vulnerable EJ communities. Federal agencies use these maps to steer governmental decision making and disseminate critical information on environmental hazards to the public. The public availability of these federal agency maps has made them an excellent resource for environmental justice advocates everywhere. The most commonly used tool is the EPA’s EJSCREEN (released in 2015) ( EJSCREEN tool from EPA ). This mapping and screening tool uses nationally consistent data that federal agencies can use to identify potential EJ areas of concern. Unlike the CalEnviroScreen, the EJSCREEN data pools include a racial indicator, but also unlike CalEnviroScreen, the EJSCREEN pools do not include the health statistics of sensitive populations.
An example of what the EPA's EJSCREEN tool can display.
EJSCREEN is a publicly accessible web tool that allows users to assess cumulative impacts by overlaying eleven different environmental indicators and six specific demographic indicators at a census group level. The interactive web tool, located in the EPA’s GeoPlatform, gives users access to a vast amount of data on the environmental and demographic indicators present in a given community so that they can define their own areas of interest. Users have the ability to generate ranked score reports for any combination of the environmental and demographic indicators, depending on the cumulative nature of the user’s area and indicators of interest. These reports allow for comparison of ranked scores on a national, regional and local basis, and thus can be used by states without their own tools for mapping cumulative environmental impacts. Users are additionally able to download EJSCREEN data and use it for a state mapping tool or combine it with additional local data on a Geographic Information System such as ArcGIS ( WebGIS Crash Course ).
Other State-Level Mapping Projects
The effectiveness of the EJSCREEN and CalEnviroScreen mapping tools has encouraged other state and local governments and EJ practitioners to develop their own EJ mapping tools through an easily replicable model derived from those two methodologies. This model involves the pairing of the CalEnviroScreen’s community-participation-based processes and scoring formula with the data available through EJSCREEN along with any additional state and local data. State and local governments, communities, universities, and agencies across the country are capable of following and assisting with this EJ mapping model, as the necessary CalEnviroScreen and EJSCREEN information is easily accessible to the general public. The following states have already undertaken EJ mapping efforts that follow this common methodological approach:
Washington
In Washington, organizations from communities of color partnered with Front and Centered, the University of Washington, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and the Washington Departments of Health and Ecology to develop an EJ map and mapping tool (the Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map or Washington EHD Map) to help promote climate policy that focuses on proper reinvestment into EJ communities (WA DOH, Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map). This mapping effort, which involved extensive community engagement, including eleven public listening sessions, was organized by Front and Centered and community groups. Esther Min, a University of Washington Ph.D. student then paired the CalEnviroScreen scoring formula with the EJSCREEN data to create the Washington EHD mapping tool, which is now incorporated in legislative efforts at the state and local level in Washington state. For example, in 2019 the Clean Energy Bill utilized the EHD mapping tool to develop a cumulative climate impact tool (Min et al., 2019). Additionally, Washington is now funding a task force to evaluate how else the EHD mapping tool can be used to assist state actions.
Illinois
In 2016, Illinois enacted the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) with the purpose of increasing jobs and development projects in the solar energy sector. The FEJA directed $750 million in funding towards low-income solar energy programs, as well as a Solar for All program, which required that 25% of resources be used for the benefit of environmental justice communities (Citizens Utility Board, "What is the Future Energy Jobs Act?"). The Solar for All Program sought guidance from the public and community organizations on how to approach identifying disadvantaged areas and gathering data, and chose to use the CalEnviroScreen scoring formula paired with data from EJSCREEN data (Illinois Solar for All, "Environmental Justice Communities").
Maryland
In Maryland, University of Maryland students and professors partnered with the National Center for Smart Growth and the Maryland Environmental Health Network to create an EJ mapping tool to identify communities with EJ issues and improve governmental EJ decision making. The Maryland Environmental Justice Screen Tool was eventually created through the use of intensive community participation, the CalEnviroScreen scoring formula, and EJSCREEN and local data. The mapping tool is now accessible online to the general public via ArcGIS (MD EJSCREEN website; MD EJSCREEN presentation).
Michigan
At the University of Michigan, Professor Paul Mohai and his graduate students developed an EJ mapping tool with support of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. With the mapping tool, the group also authored a report, Assessing the State of Environmental Justice in Michigan (Grier et al., 2019). Michigan's EJ mapping tool was created with significant community engagement and relied on the CalEnviroScreen scoring formula and EJSCREEN data.
New Jersey
In September 2020, the New Jersey legislature passed an EJ law which required the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to develop a map identifying New Jersey communities that face disproportionate amounts of pollution (N.J.S.A. 13:1D-157 to -161). NJDEP identified these communities using the definitions from that legislation, which defines “overburdened community” as any census block group in which: “(1) at least 35 percent of the households qualify as low-income households; (2) at least 40 percent of the residents identify as minority or as members of a State recognized tribal community; or (3) at least 40 percent of the households have limited English proficiency” (Id. at 13:1D-158). Using this definition, NJDEP produced a publicly-available map of overburdened communities in the state (NJDEP EJ website).
Over the next few years, many other states are expected to follow this same methodology and create their own EJ mapping tools. These maps give governments and organizations the ability to prioritize public-health-focused decision making through the visualization of pollution and the communities most harmed by the pollution's cumulative impacts. For example, in New York the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was enacted in 2019 with the goal of working towards reduction of carbon emissions across the state ( NY State Climate Act website ). The CLCPA requires that 35-40% of the program’s benefits be directed to historically “disadvantaged” communities ( NY S6599, § 75-0117 ). While state leaders have not yet decided on a methodology for identifying these vulnerable communities, a New York version of the CalEnviroScreen and EJSCREEN combination model is a potential option.
Resources on Screening & Mapping Tools
Below is a compilation of additional resources on screening and mapping tools. Click through the slides to see each resource. Skip to the last slide to view a complete list of all the resources.
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