AC Transit was the local sponsor of a workshop titled Bay Area Forum on Environmental Justice in Transportation this past November. The workshop was co-sponsored with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Its purpose was "to bring together Bay Area regional and local transportation officials, community `grass roots' representatives and federal administrators to discuss environmental justice/social equity issues and requirements and to identify opportunities to enhance meaningful participation of the entire community in the transportation decision making process."
Environmental justice can be defined informally as the environmental movement meeting the civil-rights movement, merging the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, was issued to all federal agencies in 1994. It added low-income populations to the Title VI definition of minority populations based on race, color and national origin. For a family of four, a household income of $17,000 or below would currently be considered low income. Differential exposures of these groups to environmental hazards are to be assessed and the potential effects and mitigation measures are to be discussed with the affected community.
Under the executive order, all transportation policies of FTA and FHWA and projects using federal funds must be examined in the light of environmental equity. At the workshop, Leslie T. Rogers, Regional Administrator of FTA, stated that, although safety remains the highest priority for the U.S. Department of Transportation, consideration of environmental justice affects every decision. Transit proposals must fit into the community and involve the public, from the initial route planning stage to location of maintenance facilities. Disproportionate adverse effects on many social and economic parameters, including health, pollution, employment opportunities, community cohesion, access to services and aesthetics, need to be mitigated if they occur.
Katiann Wong-Murillo, Environmental Specialist with FHWA, pointed to the award-winning community process used by Hawaii-Oahu Trans as a good model for public involvement in transportation planning. Realistic representations using video in community-by-community meetings led by civic leaders resulted in meaningful input from over 2,000 Oahu residents.
Mark Brucker, Transportation Planning Coordinator for the Environmental Justice Program of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), described ways that air and water pollution can disproportionately affect minority and low-income populations. They are more likely to live near highways and to depend on food from the Bay; even if they are equally exposed to pollutants, they are less likely to have health insurance.
Brucker observed that our growth patterns create environmental justice issues, though the EPA has not attempted to quantify the differential impacts on protected classes. Cameron Yee, Policy Director of People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO), also noted that suburban residents generate two to four times the vehicle miles traveled and air pollution per person compared to central city residents of Oakland and San Francisco.
Marc Brenman, Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Transportation Office of Civil Rights, said that we now need to speak in many tongues in order to assess environmental justice issues. He described the Executive Order issued by President Clinton in August 2000, Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Agencies need to prepare materials and design outreach programs to provide full access to communities with language proficiency problems. Community participants suggested the public schools as the best source for identifying relevant languages in the area; cultural events could be places to gather and disseminate information.
Treatment of environmental justice by agencies around the country has not yet assumed a uniform format for assessing adequacy. For example, Brenman said he first became aware of the need for greater attention to environmental justice when he noticed the relative thickness of sections devoted to endangered species compared to people in Federal Environmental Impact Statements he was reviewing.
David Ekern, Assistant Commissioner, Department of Transportation, Minnesota, said the state adopted six environmental justice principles to consider for context-sensitive design in 1997, as part of its public involvement process, `Hear Every Voice':
A local example of how environmental justice issues have shaped a major Bay Area transportation project was the Cypress Freeway in Oakland, which was damaged beyond repair in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The replacement project was dramatically affected by organized citizen involvement:
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will prepare an equity analysis of the 2001 Regional Transportation Plan, according to Steve Heminger, MTC Executive Director. MTC has a Minority Citizens Advisory Committee and programs like Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) and the Low-Income Flexible Transportation (LIFT) program and is a partner in the Smart Growth Initiative. Although these programs are related to environmental justice, it has been suggested that MTC form an Environmental Justice Working Group to provide a more comprehensive focus and oversee a truly inclusive public process.
In workshop break-out sessions, participants focused on effective outreach and principal concerns to be considered in achieving environmental justice. Some of the points made included: To ensure inclusive public input, agencies have to go to groups rather than simply expect the public to come to them; they should tap into community-based organizations. To bridge the gap between transportation users and providers, planning should not be project-driven but should, instead, respond to users needs.
Some agreed-upon principles were the need for:
Some problems with the regional planning process that impact equity are:
Jacky Grimshaw, representing Transportation & Air Quality Programs for the Center for Neighborhood Technology of Chicago, summed it up well when she said, "If you have real public outreach to determine the needs of the community and plan to address those needs, you will have environmental justice."
Joyce Roy/Eva Bansner
For more information:
AC Transit: Georgia DeTro, 510-891-4867; gdetro@actransit.org
Federal Highway Administration: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2000.htm
PUEBLO: http://www.peopleunited.org
Oahu-Trans: http://www.oahutrans2k.com
Minnesota DOT: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/publinvolve/