Environmental Justice: Process and Inequality

1. Environmental Justice: Process and Inequality Charlie Lord BC Law School Environmental Studies Program Boston College

2. EJ Theory Suggests Communities of Color have: • More environmental disamenities • Fewer environmental amenities • Less access to decision-making processes

3. How has the environmental injustice case been presented? Examination of patterns of amenities/disamenities

4. MA Study by Faber & Kreig • Minority communities average more than 4 x’s the number of hazardous waste sites • Minority communities exposed to nearly 5 x’s as many lbs. of chemicals

5. MA Study by Faber and Kreig • Low income communities exposed to nearly 7 x’s as many lbs. of chemicals • Low income communities average nearly 2.5 x’s more waste sites and 4 x’s as many waste sites per square mile

6. National Data • Robert Bullard Study: 2008 • 2000 Census Data • Over 9 million people live within 3 Km of a commercial waste facility • These neighborhoods are 56% people of color • Non-host communities are 30% people of color • Percentage comparisons: • African American 1.8 times greater • Hispanic/Latino 2.3 times greater • Asian/Pacific Islander 1.8 times greater

7. National Data • Metropolitan Issue • Host areas are densely populated • 870 people/sq. km • 83% of sites are in metro areas (343 sites) • Socio-economic disparities • Poverty rates 1.5x higher in host areas • Mean household income is 15% lower

8. Methodology Critiques • Definition of minority • Unit of analysis • Summary: General pattern of distributional inequity

9. Regulatory Salience Critique • Distributive injustice alone: Not a concern • Absent evidence of discrimination or procedural bias • Post-siting market dynamics • Which came first: The hazard or the distribution? • Community Preference • Blais: Market in preferences works well enough to conclude that, overall, disparities are generally justified by differing preferences.

10. Legal and Political Implications • Political Force • “Racism”: Contemporary moral strength • Connection to structural repression • Constitutional Analysis • Narrower • Purposeful conduct • Consciousness of race as motivating factor • Individual actor

11. Response • Market critique • Cole and Foster • Accept the critique • Response: structural racism • Economic and social factors • Segregation in housing • Lack of political power • Distributive outcomes are unjust • Community Preferences • Kaswan • Similarly: Structural racism suggests community preferences are not met

12. Implications • Legal and political force measured by: • Distance from Individual Actor • Distance from race as decisional factor • Or at least consciousness of race as motivating factor

13. What’s Different About Our Study? Outcome equity vs. Process equity

14. Process-Equity Analysis • Focuses on processes that create outcome inequity • Especially evidence of race as a known causal factor • Examples: hazardous waste facility/incinerator siting, court decisions, zoning maps and decisions

15. Our Hypothesis • Land use processes over time situate disproportionate amount of disamenities in low income/minority communities • Race was a motivating factor

16. How are we testing this hypothesis? • Step 1: Gather data re “noxious use” decisions • Step 2: Overlay locations with race/income data • Step 3: Determine if patterns of inequity exist • Step 4: If yes, review and analyze decisional record

17. Zoning • Determines where certain uses can occur • Allocation of Land Uses • As of right • Conditional Use

18. Research Plan • Zoning Maps • Conditional Use Decisions • 1931-1971(Presumptive right) • City Council • 1971 to present (Specified as of right/conditional) • City Council • Zoning Board of Appeals

19. What data have we found? • Zoning Board of Appeals Decisions • City Council records • Scale • Reviewed every decision 1931-present (10,000) • Pulled 3000 decisions for review • Entered 1000 records relevant to environmental disamenities

20. How did we categorize data? • Incinerators • Recycling facilities • Penal/correctional facilities • Garage/open parking lot • 100+ housing unit • Other uses with environmental impacts

21. Example of ZBA Spreadsheet Docket # Year Code Use/Disamenity Location Decision 6-60 1960 6 slaughter house 1242 Hargest Lane App. 475-89 1989 2 waste recycling plant 500 Chemical Rd App. 182-90 1990 2 landfill 3115 ft. w. of App. Patapsco Ave. on Baltin 277-91 1991 1 incinerator 3204-3214 Hawkins Pt. Rd. Disapp. 113-93 1993 4 auto repair shop 3146-3158 Wilkens Ave. Disapp.

22. Example of Ordinance Spreadsheet • NumberYearCodeDisamenity Location • 128 1940 6 Oil Storage Tank for Power Plant 2101-2121 Kloman St. • 1952 6 Smelting Plant N. side of Open St. up to Marely Neck Branch • 779 1957 2 Scrap iron and metals 1510 Aspen St. • 1099 1971 1 Incinerator Pulaski Highway, Reedbird Ave. • 304 1998 4 Open Area Parking Lot 1205 Bank St.

23. Data Analysis • Map and analyze records in relation to race and income • Overlay to demographic data • Evaluate change in spatial patterns over time • Review and analyze decisional record • Map and analyze records in relation to Redlining Data

24. Redlining Data • Home Owners Loan Association • Security Grade by Neighborhood • High, Still Desirable, Declining, Hazardous • Criteria • Occupations of Residents • Average annual income • Nationality • Percentage of “negro” families • Threat of Infiltration • “negro, foreign born, lower-grade populations” • Encroachment of Industrial Zone • Baltimore Reports • Race and Industrial Character

25. Redlining Data Implications • Regulatory Salience Critique • Approval of Conditional Use • Nature of proposed site • Nature of surrounding area • Extent to which proposed use might impair present and future development • Proximity of dwellings, churches, schools • Does Redlining Import Race as a Decisional Factor?

30. Next Steps: Evaluate the Market Critique • Longitudinal analysis • Variances and Demographics • By Decade • Demographics inside impact zones and as compared to control areas or city as a whole • Demographics in zones around approved versus disapproved variances • Connections to decisional record • Redlining Analysis • Correlations between redlining zones and variances • Review of decisional records