Environmental Justice includes “investing in environmental improvements, remedying past environmental inequities, and otherwise developing, implementing, and enforcing laws and policies in a manner that advances environmental equity and provides meaningful involvement for people and communities that have been environmentally underserved or overburdened, such as Black and Brown communities, indigenous groups, and individuals with disabilities”.https://www.hud.gov/climate/environmental_justice
A Brief Legal History of the Environmental Justice Movement in North Carolina
The EPA recognizes that “Environmental justice means the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making and other Federal activities that affect human health and the environment.”[1] Environmental Racism is the manifestation of structural and systemic racism in the physical world where people live and work, such as disparities in access to clean water or air and including the “intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-income workers.” [2]
North Carolina has long been recognized as the birthplace of the Environmental Justice movement, and the origin of the term “environmental racism” from the struggle against the dumping of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Warren County, NC.[3] Starting in Warren County, advocates have repeatedly sought justice through the courts, with limited but increasing success. Read More
[1] https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice
[2] Attributed to Dr. Ben Chavis Jr, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-environmental-racism
[3] https://www.energy.gov/lm/environmental-justice-history
Equity in Disaster Recovery
As discussed in the legal history of environmental justice in North Carolina, successful legal challenges to environmental justice issues often prove difficult. However, some advances have been made when utilizing the standard of “disparate impact” under the Fair Housing Act. “Disparate impact” is a term used to describe the disproportionately negative effect a particular policy or procedure may have on a particular protected class or classes of people. Instead of being able to only cite a policy that is discriminatory on its face, “disparate impact” allows a policy or procedure to be challenged based on its effect- even if the overt language of that policy or procedure does not state an intent to discriminate. Read More
The State of Exclusion:
In 2013, the UNC Center for Civil Rights published a study which included an analysis of the disproportionate burden segregated non-white communities faced in their proximity to solid waste facilites and EPA monitored polluting facilities:
State of Exclusion Executive Summary
Based upon that original work by the Center for Civil Rights, The Fair Housing Project of Legal Aid of North Carolina partnered with the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network to do a ten-year update, based upon 2020 census data, to determine whether these indicators of environmental racism showed any improvement:
