Tim Hill / Pixabay
By Beebs Hartzell, F22 Environmental Clinic Student
Over the past decade, as climate activism has risen to the forefront of the national stage, there has been a correlative rise in attention to environmental justice. The goal of environmental justice, according to the EPA, is to provide everyone with “the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment” regardless of race and other protected characteristics. The question is, how do we make that happen? Traditionally, legal remedies were limited to money damages and equitable injunctions, but it is difficult to imagine either of those basic remedies achieving environmental equity when that goal is as complex as the history of race relations in this country. Instead, as this field of law grows, more comprehensive remedies and creative solutions are needed to achieve environmental equity.
Driving into Mobile, Alabama from the northeast, the highway ends right after an exit called Africatown. This is the site where the last known, illegal, slave trade ship docked in the United States. The trafficked people on that ship lacked the funds to go home, so they stayed and founded a community to preserve their language and culture. That community, known as Africatown, has suffered from environmental racism since its inception as Mobile’s refinery row developed around it. Originally an independent town, the community voted to be annexed into Mobile in 1960, partially because of a need for safe drinking water unpolluted by the refineries bordering their community. Instead of finding the expected relief, Mobile zoned more of the community’s land for industrial use polluting their neighborhood even more. In its recent history, a community organization in Africatown, called the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition, formed and successfully halted the expansion of petrochemical storage tanks. This success has encouraged more community activism and made it possible for the residents to partner with a number of groups, including the HBCU Gulf Coast Equity Consortium led by the father of environmental justice, Dr. Robert Bullard, and Dr. Beverly Wright, founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. Despite progress, the community is still working to ensure that local heavy industry is regularly monitored, that polluted sites are cleaned up, and that health impacts to current and former residents are addressed.
In Houston, Texas, a union between community activists and legal aid has grown over a proposed highway expansion. The plan would have I-45 expand into historically Black and Hispanic neighborhoods that already suffer from proximity to Superfund and RMP facilities. Over time, different community activists have organized to oppose the expansion, and in 2021 the Biden Administration’s Federal Highway Administration halted TxDOT’s progress to consider all potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Federal agencies’ willingness to seriously consider claims of civil rights violations due to environmental injustice, could point to a new route forward where environmental justice impacts are more thoroughly analyzed before allowing development at all.
In addition to the remedies available through legal claims and settlements, the Executive Branch provided another line of support to ensure federal agencies, such as the EPA, are working with state and local communities to aid individuals overburdened by pollution and its ill-effects. Soon after entering office, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008 and created the Justice40 Initiative. Justice40 is designed to direct 40 percent of certain federal investments to underprivileged and underserved communities. Federal programs that can benefit these communities in one of the following categories are covered by the initiative: climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of clean water and wastewater infrastructure. Through the combined efforts of so many—activists, lawyers, and politicians—the way forward in environmental justice seems clear. From the snowballing effects of community organization in Africatown to the prioritization of environmental civil rights analysis in Houston, remedies have a way of coming into being whether they fall into the traditional categories of legal remedies or not.
The articles published on this site reflect the views of the individual authors only. They do not represent the views of the Environmental Clinic, The University of Texas School of Law, or The University of Texas at Austin.
