Yesterday I attended the state’s Environmental Justice Community Network meeting. It was hosted at a very interesting place downtown called New Commons. They are doing many innovative things at New Commons besides facilitating environmental justice. On March 5, as part of their “Soul at Work” series, they are hosting a screening of a film by independent film maker Amy Kalafa about the poor quality of school lunches and what could be done to make them better.
But back to environmental justice. The meeting yesterday was comprised of about 30 (40?) people and was facilitated by New Commons principal founder, Robert Leaver. Terry Gray and Elizabeth Stone of the Department of Environmental Management did power-point presentations introducing the subject of environmental justice and how the DEM is creating policies and practices in order to enhance environmental justice in Rhode Island.
An area for environmental justice is identified by two main factors: the poverty level and the quantity of individuals from minority backgrounds. Maps have been created that identify areas in Rhode Island that are primarily low-income (under 2 times the federal poverty level) and/or primarily populated by minority groups.
These areas tend to have more problems with contaminated lots than other areas, which is why they are designated “Environmental Justice Focus Areas.” There are 7 of these in Rhode Island and they include most of Providence and parts of Cranston, Pawtucket, Newport, and Woonsocket, as well as areas in some other cities and towns.
The DEM representatives talked about the goal of making the public more aware of sites under investigation or remediation. They are doing this through requirements for providing notice to the public, which in 2006 were amended to include having public meetings prior to building on a property that is a reused industrial property where toxic dumping and other sorts of chemical contamination may have occurred. There are also requirements for signs to be posted at the sites. These signs were shown in one of the slides and the group offered feedback about them. One member of the group, John Stark of the Pawtucket Bucket Blog, suggested that the communication on the signs was scary and yet vague, not saying the words “contaminated” or “brownfield.”
A lot of this enhanced concern and community outreach regarding the reuse of brownfields seems to stem from Providence’s building of the Springfield Street School and the Adelaide High School on former contaminated sites. This problem has been investigated by Channel 12 and other news sources. Information on the history of the Adelaide school and a link to the Channel 12 investigation is available in this post at Rhode Island’s Future.
One suggestion was made that the scientific investigators who are called in by potential property developers or by anyone, should be licensed by the state and even “graded” in terms of their record of doing a thorough job that helps uncover toxins. One member of the group stated that, in his opinion, the site evaluators who investigated and approved the Gorham site where Adelaide High School was built should never be allowed to evaluate sites again.
I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about protecting our communities. My contribution was to let the group know that I had been active with the efforts to stop the concrete plant in Cranston, and that I was happy to be part of what I hope is an instance of environmental justice more broadly defined, as we work to get a clear settlement and reform zoning and building permit processes to prevent future problems. Then I sat back and listened and tried to take in the concept of environmental justice, a concept which I hope continues to grow and help us build healthier communities. But I couldn’t helping asking: who is going to pay for all of this clean-up? Terry Gray of the Rhode Island DEM replied that there is some money set aside from settlements with polluters that can be used for clean-up, but he lamented that “it wasn’t very much.”
As the environmental justice movement progresses, let’s hope that ways are found to fund the work. My belief is that this money should come not so much from tax dollars as from polluters and others who have profited off of illegal dumping and environmental contamination. Ultimately, justice requires accountability.
Kmareka.com 
** Warning: this comment is lengthy, but hopefully somewhat coherent & worth reading.
Kiersten,
Thanks for writing about this important issue.
Finally, more people are paying attention to the serious problem of environmental discrimination/racism in this country.
Did you know?
– 3 out of 5 Americans of color live in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites
– Abandoned hazardous waste sites in minority communities take 20% longer than those in Euro-American areas to be placed on the national priority list for cleanup
Some pretty disturbing facts to say the least.
I really want to shed some light on the HOW and WHY things like schools in low-income communities continue to get built on contaminated land, such as has been happening in Providence over the past few years.
HOW? It’s the same as anything else – low-income and poor people are shut out of the political process. I’ll use the city of Providence as an example.
Specific to this issue, I want to highlight the importance of ZONING. As is the case with most boards and commissions, the Zoning Board is appointed by the Mayor.
The whole purpose of zoning is to say where you can and can’t build things. Everything from XXX stores, liquor stores, schools, factories, and so on. If you live in a wealthy neighborhood, chances are that the zoning code there prohibits XXX stores and liquor stores from opening up.
So, different areas in a city are classified as either residential (for houses and schools) or industrial (factories and such). A school cannot be built in an industrial zone.
But wait a minute! Weren’t the Adelaide and Springfield Street schools built in industrial zones? How did the city get around that?
It’s a lot easier than you think! Just get the zoning board to re-classify it as a “mixed-use” zone! That means it is an area where both industrial AND residential buildings can be sited! What a great loophole!
That is exactly what happened in Providence under both the Cianci and Cicilline administrations – and neither one of them care about it whatsoever.
But WHY does this happen?
As populations rise, land becomes more and more scarce. Put simply, the good and clean land usually goes to big bidders like developers to build condos and such. Do you think they’re going to pay good money to build condos on a toxic waste dump? That doesn’t happen very often, especially because developers generally have to pay to clean up (remediate) the land – it is pretty expensive and typically requires tax credits from the city (good luck with that!).
In most cases, in cities around the country, former manufacturing sites have shut down and moved their operations, leaving behind some significant plots of contaminated land.
Let’s think for a minute. Your city needs new schools to put in the growing influx of children. You have this big plot of contaminated land that no one else wants any part of. The state will reimburse 80% of the cost of building a school. Skimp a little on the clean-up of the site to save $, and you essentially have yourself a new school at just about no cost. Sounds tempting!
And that is precisely what happened with the Adelaide School. No developers were willing to buy the site. A few developers tried, but all defaulted on their taxes and the city got stuck with a 36 acre pile of shit.
To make it easier to build a school on the site, the 36 acre site was carved up like a pie into 4 areas, that way they could designate it as mixed-use.
The community even had to take the city to court to clean up what was known as a slag pile – a big mound of heavily toxic purplish crap. I kid you not!
What? Did you just ask about the School Board? They are also appointed by the Mayor! They don’t give a damn, either. Excellent.
As an aside on boards and commissions: almost all of them are appointed positions, most of which aren’t paid positions. Basically, that excludes working people from getting appointed to any boards or commissions. Do you have the time to serve on a board for no money?
Finally, it’s Ok to build schools on contaminated land in low-income communities because “those people” don’t vote.
Hopefully, I will be governor before a huge disaster happens at the school. And then I can go on to run for Congress, or even President! Remember, education is my top priority! I love (photo ops with) kids!
Class dismissed.
On a different but related note, I do see something promising coming from this issue.
It is a great opportunity for us as progressives to build ties with conservatives.
A lot of conservatives are very concerned about the environment. Many of them are actively voicing their concerns about things like environmental discrimination and global warming.