Environmental Justice in Corpus Christi

• Federal government agencies have developed online tools to support the Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative.
• Those tools help us better understand the extent and nature of environmental and socioeconomic inequities locally.
• Future government-supported projects will strive to generate disproportionate benefits to federally designated Disadvantaged Communities, which have historically been overburdened by environmental impacts under climate change.

Within his first week in office, President Biden established the  Justice40 Initiative  with a goal that at least 40% of the overall benefits of major federal investments flow to socioeconomically disadvantaged communities (DACs). 

In line with the Biden Administration’s energy-oriented goal to achieve a zero-carbon electric grid by 2035 and a net-zero carbon economy by 2050, those disadvantaged communities are considered underserved, marginalized, or overburdened by environmental risks and pollution under climate change. 

To officially identify disadvantaged communities, the White House Council on Environmental Quality has launched the  Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool  (CEJST) as a geospatial mapping tool for the public.

Across the nation, most disadvantaged communities cluster in rural areas particularly in the southern region.  In Texas, many disadvantaged communities lie along the U.S.-Mexico border in the western and southern parts of the state.  The new policy initiative is grounded on the consensus that communities that have historically faced disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards and harms have been excluded from access to federal funding and its various benefits.  In other words, the Biden Administration aims at serving environmental justice, which refers to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race/ethnicity or income.

According to the  Department of Energy , fair treatment means no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial and commercial operations or governmental policies. 

Meaningful involvement means: (1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health; (2) the public’s contribution can influence the regulatory agency’s decision; (3) community concerns will be considered in the decision-making process; and (4) decision-makers will seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected.

This policy movement is built on the consensus and research findings that underlying structural inequalities have historically resulted in development projects that disproportionately and inequitably harm minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. 

Justice40 has been applied to most investments by the Department of Energy under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021, and the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022.

To ensure an equitable transition to clean energy, and to avoid further harm to communities with environmental justice concerns, every energy-oriented project funded by the federal government must adhere to the principles of environmental justice.

Within the Department of Energy, the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity identified eight  policy priorities  to guide the department’s implementation of Justice40 specifically for DACs:

1. Decrease energy burden in DACs
2. Decrease environmental exposure and burdens in DACs
3. Increase parity in clean energy technology (e.g., solar, storage) access and adoption of DACs
4. Increase access to low-cost capital of DACs
5. Increase clean energy enterprise creation and contracting specifically for minority-owned businesses and historically underutilized businesses
6. Increase clean energy jobs, job pipeline, and job training for individuals from DACs
7. Increase energy resiliency in DACs
8. Increase energy democracy or inclusiveness in DACs

What is the extent of environmental inequities in Corpus Christi?  The following map indicates DACs (gray areas) in Corpus Christi.  Most of the western part of the city, particularly neighborhoods around the downtown area, falls into this category.  Neighborhoods in the Southside and the waterfront of the Bay area are the primary non-DACs in the city. 

To address environmental justice issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched the  EJScreen  as an environmental justice mapping tool.  This tool shows indexes of environmental risks for individual census tracts representing neighborhoods.

The following maps show the data for Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, ozone and superfund proximity.

The highest environmental risks associated with PM 2.5 and ozone are associated with the locations of major industrial facilities.  The following is a map of the volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from those facilities.  The data are drawn from the EPA’s Facility Level Information on GreenHouse gas Tool ( FLIGHT ). The sizes of the purple circles surrounding the emission sources (black dots) correspond to the volumes of CO2 emissions.

In the city of Corpus Christi, most sources of CO2 emissions come from the petrochemical plants on so-called Refinery Row near the ship channel.  In San Patricio County, the major sources are the new heavy industry facilities built in the past 10 years. 

The following map displays data of the aggregate socioeconomic index for the census tracts in the area. The index measures the overall vulnerability of a community based on an array of sociodemographic factors, including the percentage of people of color, low-income families, people with less than a high school education, young children, and seniors. 

Census tracts with high social vulnerability also face the challenge of high environmental risks.

Although there is no scientific evidence to support the impacts of environmental inequities, patterns of environmental risks appear to correlate with health disparities among communities.  Many Disadvantaged Communities are located near the area’s major industrial facilities.  Residents of those communities also tend to have a relatively lower life expectancy. 

The four census tracts on either side of Interstate Highway 37 near downtown, including the historically black neighborhoods of Hillcrest and Washington-Coles, have the lowest life expectancy of about 70 years.  This is nearly seven years shorter than the average life expectancy for people living in the Southside. 

To understand how Disadvantaged Communities stack up locally, we take a look at a census tract that represents the historically black neighborhood of Washington-Coles.  The census tract 500 has a population of 1,760 and it is considered an overburdened and underserved community.  This community exceeds the thresholds in four out of eight burden categories and the associated socioeconomic thresholds.  

Under the category of climate change, the community ranks in the 93rd percentile nationwide in an expected loss to building value resulting from flooding as it is located on a 100-year flood plain.  The economic impact from the potential property losses is disproportionately high for residents in this census tract given its average household income ranking in the bottom sixth percentile.

The community is also severely overburdened by pollution.  Only 2% of census tracts in the nation are located within about 3 miles (5 kilometers) of pollution-generating facilities, such as oil refineries and power plants near the Corpus Christi ship channel.  The census tract also ranks in the 87th percentile in proximity to hazardous waste facilities.

Despite widespread  community concerns  about the environmental and health risks of industrial pollution sources in the region, there is little scientific evidence to support the disproportionate impact of industry on this and other neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status. 

In 2016, the EPA’s Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry (ATSDR) released a  public health assessment  of the Refinery Row area.  After reviewing historical data for more than 150 chemicals, the agency offered no solid evidence to support that the chemicals and emissions found in the Refinery Row area could seriously harm people’s health or increase cancer risk except in rare occasions of high concentrations and long exposure.

While correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the environmental and health risks of the community closest to Refinery Row are obvious.  The following screenshots of CEJST's data for the  census tract  associated with the Washington-Coles neighborhood. In addition to ranking in the 97th percentile nationwide for low life expectancy, residents in that census tract experience a remarkably high risk of diabetes (97th percentile rank), asthma (82nd percentile rank), and heart disease (79th percentile rank).

Environmental and health inequities for residents in that community are exacerbated by socioeconomic inequalities.  Its share of households living in poverty ranks in the 90th percentile.  Other indicators of socioeconomic vulnerability, such as unemployment, educational attainment and limited English proficiency, also well exceed the official thresholds or the national averages.

Overall, those new tools regarding environmental and socioeconomic inequities help us better understand the extent and nature of socioeconomic disparities within Corpus Christi.  The Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative aims at mitigating the observed inequities by guiding resource allocations toward identified overburdened and underserved communities.  Whether this groundbreaking policy movement will successfully mitigate environmental and health inequities remains to be seen. 

Going forward, most federally funded projects will be guided by the Justice40 principles.  As the federal government is doubling down on its energy investments to expedite the nation’s transition to a net-zero economy, a slew of public projects focus on developing major  hydrogen hubs  across the nation. 

In Corpus Christi, the first  hydrogen-based site  to be built by Net Zero Carbon One is located on Union Street in the Refinery Row area near the Washington-Coles community.  This facility is expected to convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide into synthetic fuels cleaner than traditional fossil fuels.  Other than the creation of 25 jobs associated with the facility's operations, the environmental and economic benefits as well as risks, however, remain unclear. 

Additional government support for energy-related projects will likely involve a deeper understanding of how Disadvantaged Communities in Corpus Christi will be benefited or harmed by the long road of the nation's energy transition.

As the first step to engage members of local community stakeholders in this process, especially those from Disadvantaged Communities, the Department of Energy held a  Carbon Interactive Workshop  in Corpus Christi in November 2022. This event was hosted by Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, which promotes community resilience through environmental justice.

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