Sacoby Wilson, director, Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, Health, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, Univ of MD

1. Environmental Justice, Health
Disparities, and the Chesapeake
Bay Watershed
Dr. Sacoby Wilson
Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health
School of Public Health
University of Maryland-College Park
June 4, 2013

2. • “For many of us, water simply flows from a
faucet, and we think little about it beyond
this point of contact. We have lost a sense
of respect for the wild river, for the
complex workings of a wetland, for the
intricate web of life that water supports.” –
Sandra Postel, Director and Founder of
the Global Water Project

4. Grand Gulf Nuclear Power
Station

5. What is Environmental
Justice?
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sanitation Workers
Strike in Memphis (1968)
• Landfill issues in Houston, TX (1970s)
• PCB Landfill in Warren County, NC (1982)

6. EJ Definitions
• Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people regardless of race, ethnicity, culture,
income or education level with respect to the development,
implementation and enforcement of environmental laws,
regulations, and policies
• Environmental Justice is served when people can realize their
highest potential, without experiencing the 'isms.' EJ is
supported by decent paying and safe jobs, quality schools and
recreation, decent housing and adequate health care,
democratic decision-making and personal empowerment; and
communities free of violence, drugs and poverty. These are
communities where both cultural and biological diversity are
respected and highly revered and where distributive justice
prevails

7. Environmental Justice Stool
• Environmental Justice Framework is a Three-
Legged Stool
– Leg 1: Differential Burden and Exposure to
Environmental Hazards and LULUs (chemical plants,
TRI facilities, incinerators, brownfields, heavily-
trafficked roadways, industrial zoning, goods movement
activities, landfills, depots, etc)
– Leg 2: High Concentration of Psychosocial Stressors
(Crime, Violence, Poverty, isms, social disorder)
– Leg 3: Lack of access to high quality health-promoting
infrastructure (supermarkets, banks, schools, basic
amenities, housing, parks/green space, economic
opportunity structures)

8. Toxic Wastes and Race
Report
• The publication in 1987 of the United Church of Christ
(UCC) Report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United
States led to an increase in public awareness about
disproportionate environmental burdens in people of
color communities and further fueled the growing
environmental justice movement.
• The report was significant because it found race to be
the most potent variable in predicting where
commercial hazardous waste facilities were located in
the US, more powerful than household income, the
value of homes, and the estimated amount of
hazardous waste generated by industry.

10. 17 Principles of Environmental
Justice
1) Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological
unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from
ecological destruction.
2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual
respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.
3) Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and
responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a
sustainable planet for humans and other living things.
5) Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic,
cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.
6) Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins,
hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current
producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the
containment at the point of production.

11. 17 Principles of
Environmental Justice
7) Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every
level of decision-making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation,
enforcement and evaluation.
being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also
affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.
9) Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to
receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health
care.
10) Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a
violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the
United Nations Convention on Genocide.
12) Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to
clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the
cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full
range of resources.

12. Pioneers of Environmental
Justice
Damu Smith (1952-2006)
• an D.C. peace activist who fought
chemical pollution on the Louisiana
Gulf Coast in the 1990s
• Instrumental in forming the National
Black Environmental Justice Network
(NBEJN), the first ever national
network of Black environmental justice
activists
Professor Wangari Maathai
• The first Kenyan woman to
receive a Ph.D. in biological
sciences from the University of
Nairobi
• The first African woman to win
the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Founded the Green Belt
Movement which has
mobilized poor women to plant
some 30 million trees

13. • When resources are degraded, we start competing for
them, whether it is at the local level in Kenya, where we
had tribal clashes over land and water, or at the global
level, where we are fighting over water, oil, and minerals.
So one way to promote peace is to promote sustainable
management and equitable distribution of resources.
• For me, one of the major reasons to move beyond just
the planting of trees was that I have tendency to look at
the causes of a problem. We often preoccupy ourselves
with the symptoms, whereas if we went to the root cause
of the problems, we would be able to overcome the
problems once and for all.
– Wangara Maathai

14. Pioneers of Environmental
Justice
Dr. Robert Bullard
• Director of the Environmental
Justice Resource Center at Clark
Atlanta University
• Wrote Dumping in Dixie, which is
widely regarded as the first book to
articulate environmental justice
• Helped Clinton administration draft
an executive order to require
federal agencies to consider
environmental justice in their
programs
Hazel Johnson
• Founded People for Community
Recovery (PCR) in 1982 on the
Southside of Chicago, one of the
oldest African American grassroots
community-based environmental
organizations in the Midwest.
• Tagged the "Mother of the
Environmental Justice Movement"
at the First National People of
Color Environmental Leadership
Summit held in Washington, DC.

15. • "One of the key components in
environmental justice is getting people to
the table to speak for themselves ... they
need to be in the room where policy is
being made."
• "There is no level playing field. Any time
our society says that a powerful chemical
company has the same right as a low
income family that's living next door, that
playing field is not level, is not fair."
– Robert Bullard

16. EJ Science = Assessment of Disparities

17. Health Disparities
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) states that : “Health disparities are differences
in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of
cancer and related adverse health conditions that
exist among specific population groups in the United
States”
• These population groups may be characterized by
gender, age, ethnicity, education, income, social
class, disability, geographic location, or sexual
orientation

18. Relevant Health-Related
Disparities
• Exposure
– PM2.5 levels (inhalation- ambient/personal monitoring)
– PCBs, PAHs, mercury (body burden)
– Blood Lead Levels
• Health Outcomes
– Asthma
– Cancer
– Cardiovascular Disease
– Diabetes
– Poor Birth Outcomes (low birth weight, infant mortality,
birth defects)

19. • This EJ literature and
ecological framework
focuses on aspects of the
built environment and
spatial processes which
create unhealthy
community ecosystems
known as “riskscapes”
(Morello-Frosch and Lopez
2006)
• Populations who live in or
are exposed to
“riskscapes” experience
environmental health
disparities (Gee and Payne-

20. Cumulative Exposure
Assessment
• Cumulative exposure assessment is a predictive
science for assessing health risk
• Cumulative exposure research has three basic goals
related to providing a predictive science for
assessing health risk
– The first is the assessment of absorption, distribution,
metabolism, and elimination (ADME) of chemical
exposures
– The second is retrospective exposure reconstruction
from biomarker measurements
– The third is determination of preclinical (or early health)
effects

21. Cumulative Risk Assessment
• Cumulative risk assessment means “an analysis, characterization, and
possible quantification of the combined risks to health or the
environment from multiple agents or stressors”
– Multiple stressors (chemical, physical, biological, social)
– Multiple media
– Multiple exposure pathways
• One key aspect of this definition is that a cumulative risk assessment
need not necessarily be quantitative, so long as it meets the other
requirements
• Another key aspect is it allows you to take into account underlying
vulnerabilities (social, economic, geographic, biological)
• The National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC)
emphasizes the importance of community engagement and the use of
collaborative problem-solving as part of the cumulative risk assessment
approach

22. Environmental Justice Issues
in Maryland

23. Environmental Injustice and
Superfund Sites in MD

24. Environmental Justice and
Stormwater Issues in Baltimore
•Increased stormwater volume can cause flooding,
scouring, and sewer overflows
•Stormwater pollutants
-Cause beach closures and swimming illnesses through
bacterial contamination
•Include trash in the Baltimore Harbor
•Impact fisheries through excess:
•Sedimimentation (smothering fish eggs)
•Nutrients (reducing available dissolved oxygen)
•Metals (pose health risk to individuals who eat fish)
•Temperature (affects cold water fish and other biota)
•Stormwater pollutants can also increase the cost of treating
drinking water supplies

25. Baltimore’s Stormwater Problems
• Baltimore’s harbor and rivers are impaired by
a variety of pollutants from many sources
including stormwater
• Patapsco River Lower North Branch is
impaired by phosphorus, sediment, PCBs, and
fecal bacteria
• Johns Fall watershed is impaired by sediment
• Baltimore harbor is impaired by trash, PCBs,
and nutrients
• Baltimore City’s impervious cover = 45.1%

26. Baltimore Watershed Agreement Phase I Action
Mapping Environmental Justice and Water Quality in Baltimore County

27. Community-Based Green
Infrastructure
• Engage local residents in green, stormwater management
• Use innovative approaches that manage stormwater the way Mother
Nature would do it: Where it Falls; plants and soils
• Approaches include:
– Bioinfiltration
– Vegetated Swales
– Parking Lot Infiltration Areas
– Rain Gardens
– Curb Extensions
– Planters
– Permeable and Porous Pavements
– Green Roofs
– Green Walls
– Pocket Wetlands
– Vegetated Buffers and Landscaping
– Rain water harvesting

28. Community-Based Green
Infrastructure Benefits
• Community Empowerment
• Increased Environmental Literacy
• STEM exposure and education for youth
• Cleaner water
• Stable hydrology/baseflow maintenance
• Reduced flooding
• Climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Cleaner Air
• Reduced urban temperatures
• Jobs creation
• Water supply
• Energy savings
• Cost savings
• Habitation protection
• Community benefits
– Healthier Community Ecosystems
– Public Health Improvements
– Recreational Infrastructure

33. Year Toxic Air Emissions
Rank Percentile Pounds
2005 7 99.93% 13,736,694
2006 9 99.91% 11,939,943
2007 1 99.99% 20,670,026
2008 1 99.99% 21,650,020
2009 2 99.98% 13,798,694
2010 75 98.96% 2,205,260
2011 73 99.00% 2,084,433
Toxic Air Emissions Reported to the Toxics Release Inventory in
21226 Relative to Other Zip Codes in the U.S.
Rank is out of 8,949 zip codes in the U.S. (not counting territories)

34. Energy Answers Incinerator
• Energy Answers is in the process of securing construction permits for a
waste-to-energy power plant in Curtis Bay, a community in Baltimore that
already ranks near the bottom for air quality in the state
• Incinerators release a wide variety of hazardous and toxic air pollutants
including mercury, particulate matter, and PAHs
• The health of residents particularly women and children will be at risk from
air and water pollution from this plant
• This facility will add to environmental injustice, cumulative impacts, and
environmental health disparities in the community and region that has
negative implications for environmental quality
• WHY PERMIT ANOTHER LULU IN THIS COMMUNITY?

35. Pollution in the Anacostia River
• “Two billion gallons of
untreated sewage mixed
with stormwater dumps
into the Anacostia River
in the average year”
– 70,000 tons of trash,
toxic pollution, and
sediment
• Each section of the river
only meets, or attains,
Water Quality Standards
65% of the time on
average

36. Pollution in the Anacostia River
• “Two billion gallons of
untreated sewage mixed
with stormwater dumps into
the Anacostia River in the
average year”
– 70,000 tons of trash, toxic
pollution, and sediment
• Each section of the river
only meets, or attains,
Water Quality Standards
65% of the time on average

37. Anacostia Contamination
• Metals
– Arsenic and mercury (MeHg)
• Organic Chemicals
– PCBs and PAHs
• Pathogens
– Bacteria and viruses
• Total Suspended Solids (Sediments)
• Oil and Grease

39. The PEPCO Consent Decree
• DDOE citied PEPCO with PCB releases into
the Anacostia river 6 times between 1995 and
2005
• Residents in surrounding communities have
complained for years of poor air and water
quality and flooding in their basement
• In Dec 2010 PEPCO was ordered by the
District Court to clean up their site, citing
violations of RCRA
• A Consent Decree was executed in Feb 2011,
and after public comments were received, a
Revised Consent Decree was then entered by
the District Court on Dec 1, 2011.
• DDOE was instructed to oversee the cleanup
process

40. Survey of Local Residents-
Results
• All knew that Pepco had either stopped producing
electricity at Benning Road, or heard of the plans to do
so.
• The plant has been polluting their neighborhood for
very long time. This is not the first time that people
have heard that things will be changed
• Expressed concern that PEPCO is not sampling in
their neighborhoods
• Expressed concern that the Consent Decree does not
address health of residents who may have been
affected by emissions
• There is uncertainty as to what will happen at the site
after the sampling process is over –Pepco has not
indicated what their future plans for the site are.

41. Anacostia Riverkeepers and
Partners Survey
• Anacostia Riverkeeper,
Anacostia Watershed
Society, U.S. Department of
the Interior, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration,
OpinionWorks, the District
Department of the
Environment, and several
other institutions partnered
to assess angler behavior
and fish consumption in the
Anacostia Watershed for the
past year.

42. Widespread consumption and
sharing of fish
• 75 % of anglers are consuming or sharing Anacostia fish.
• 21% anglers eat or share “everything” they catch. That number rises to 39%
when including those who eat or share “most” of what they catch. Another
35% are eating or sharing “some” of their catch, leaving only 25% who is not
eating anything that they catch from the Anacostia.
• 35% of the anglers who eat or share their fish are doing so at least once a
week. 7% are eating the fish “every day.”
• Further, there is evidence of sharing with high-risk groups: 12% of
Anacostia River anglers said that children are eating their catch, and 11%
are sharing with wives or girlfriends (some of whom may be or become
pregnant).
• Nearly half (46%) of all anglers interviewed in the riverbank survey said they
are sharing their catch with people beyond their families.

43. Environmental Justice, Fish, and
Risk
• Communities of color, low-income
communities, tribes, and other indigenous
peoples depend on healthy aquatic
ecosystems and the fish, aquatic plants, and
wildlife that these ecosystems support
• While, there are important differences among
these groups, members of these groups
depend on fish, aquatic plants, and wildlife to
a greater extent and in different ways that do
the general population
NEJAC Report on Fish Consumption and Environmental Justice 2001

44. Environmental Justice, Fish, and
Risk
• Horace Axtell, Nez Perce, explains: According to our religion,
everything is based on nature. Anything that grows or lives, like
plants and animals, is part of our religion. The most important
element we have in our religion is water. At all of the Nez Perce
ceremonial feasts the people drink water before and after they eat.
The water is a purification of our bodies before we accept the gifts
from the Creator. After the feast we drink water to purify all the food
we have consumed. The next most important element in our religion
is the fish because fish comes from water. It doesn’t matter what
kind of fish… That’s how we honor the food we eat, especially the
fish, because it is the next element after the water. The chinook
salmon favored because it is the strongest fish and the most
tasty….
NEJAC Report on Fish Consumption and Environmental Justice 2001

45. Environmental Justice, Fish, and
Risk
• Harms associated with the degradation of aquatic habitats
and depletion of fisheries are intergenerational
• Part of the affront to culture and social fabric of communities
and tribes for whom fish and fishing are vital comes from the
diminished opportunities for intergenerational transfer of
knowledge-especially ecological knowledge about places and
natural systems….
• The acts of intergenerational transfer of customs and
traditions surrounding catching, preparing and consuming fish
are themselves important to the maintenance of social and
cultural health
NEJAC Report on Fish Consumption and Environmental Justice 2001

46. 2009 Chesapeake Bay Executive
Order
• The Executive Order requires that these agencies
prepare and submit by September 9, 2009 draft reports
that make recommendations to:
– Define the next generation of tools and actions to restore
water quality in the Bay and describe the changes to be
made to regulations, programs and policies to implement
these actions.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
– Target resources to better protect the Bay and its rivers,
particularly in agricultural conservation practices.
• U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
– Strengthen storm water management practices for federal
facilities and federal land within the Bay watershed and
develop a best practices guide for reducing polluted runoff.
• EPA, & Dept. of Defense

47. 2009 Chesapeake Bay Executive
Order
• The Executive Order requires that these agencies prepare and
submit by September 9, 2009 draft reports that make
recommendations to:
– Assess the impacts of climate change on the Bay and develop a
strategy for adapting programs and infrastructure to these impacts.
• Dept. of Interior & Dept. of Commerce
– Expand public access to the Bay and its rivers from federal lands
and conserve landscapes of the watershed.
• Dept. of Interior
– Expand environmental research, monitoring and observation to
strengthen scientific support for decision-making on Bay
restoration issues.
• Dept. of Interior & Dept. of Commerce
– Develop focused and coordinated habitat and research
activities that protect and restore living resources and water
quality.
• Dept. of Interior & Dept. of Commerce

48. Barriers to a Healthy
Chesapeake Bay
• The Bay Program does not address
pollution impact on human health
• The Bay Program is based on voluntary
agreements
• The limitations of the CWA (33 USC
§1342l(1); 40 CFR §122.3e) lead to the
continuance of one of the major issues in
the bay ecosystem: nutrient pollution

49. Nitrates in Groundwater

50. Health Effects of Nitrates
• Induction of methemoglobinemia
– Blue baby’s disease
– Babies less than one year of age or with
respiratory problems or diarrhea are at risk
– Risk increases when drinking water with
nitrates above 1- mg/l
• Nitrates can be converted to nitrosamines
which are carcinogenic

51. Pesticides in Groundwater
At-Risk:
Workers
Family
Members
Pregnant

52. Environmental Justice and Wetland
Restoration Funding
• 319 money grants and the programmatic (state-built) wetlands, there are
significant racial disparities in terms of who benefits.

54. Environmental Injustice and
Nutrient Trading
• Disproportionate health and environmental impacts on low-income
and minority communities
• Failure of governments to ensure that low-income and minority
communities enjoy the potential benefits of trading
• Failure of governments to provide opportunities for full and fair
participation by low-income and minority communities
Source: Nutrient Trading to Target Chesapeake Bay’s Water Quality:
Will the latest pollution ‘solution’ hurt minorities and the poor?
Report by the Abell Foundation

55. Climate Change
• Climate change does not affect all Americans
equally. Communities of color and low-
income neighborhoods suffer the greatest
health and economic consequences. Among
the many disparate impacts, these
Americans are more likely to be exposed to
dirtier air, more vulnerable to extreme
weather events, and suffer more than others
by the rising costs of basic necessities and
economic dislocations caused by climate
change.

56. Climate Gap
• The “Minding the Climate Gap” report
examines one aspect of the “climate gap”
in the context of market-based strategies
to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
• Market strategies:
– Charging a fee on carbon emitters to
encourage reduction
– Placing emitters within a cap-and-trade
system
Source: Shonkoff, S., Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, P. & Sadd, J. (2009). Minding The Climate Gap:
Environmental Health And Equity Implications Of Climate Change Mitigation Policies In California
Environmental Justice, 2(4), 173-176.

57. Closing the Climate Gap
Option 1: Restrict Allowance Allocations and
Trading or Fee Options Among the Worst
Offenders
Option 2: Create Trading Zones
Option 3: Use Surcharges to Improve Highly
Impacted Areas
Option 4: Create a Climate Gap
Neighborhoods Fund (also known as a
Community Benefits Fund)
Source: Shonkoff, S., Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, P. & Sadd, J. (2009). Minding The Climate Gap:
Environmental Health And Equity Implications Of Climate Change Mitigation Policies In California
Environmental Justice, 2(4), 173-176.

58. The Way Forward

59. • “Those who profess to favor freedom and
yet depreciate agitation, are people who
want crops without ploughing the ground;
they want rain without thunder and
lightning; they want the ocean without the
roar of its many waters. The struggle may
be a moral one, or it may be a physical
one, or it may be both. But it must be a
struggle. Power concedes nothing without
a demand. It never did and it never will.”
• ― Frederick Douglass

60. • “There must exist a paradigm, a practical
model for social change that includes an
understanding of ways to transform
consciousness that are linked to efforts to
transform structures.”
― Bell Hooks, killing rage: Ending Racism

61. Key Ingredients for
Authentic Community
Engagement
• Cultural competency
• Trust
• Attend to power inequities
• Attend to conflicts
• Evaluate and Attend to community
capacity

62. Good Cultural/Contextual Understanding =
Good Community Engagement
• By conducting a self-assessment and community
assessment, advocates can reduce intimidation,
increase community participation, build trust, and
become more culturally aware about the
communities with EJ concerns. Cultural
competency is important for:
– Understanding history
– Understanding community issues
– Understanding the community’s perception about
outside agents and lack of trust
– Helping to assess and understand diverse community
interests related to the environmental health problem

63. How Do We Perform Community
Engagement in Public Health?
• Community-based participatory research (CBPR): “collaborative,
community-based approach to research that equitably involves community
members and organizations in all aspects of the research process” (Israel
et al 1998)
- Use CBPR framework to engage communities of concern on EJ
and health disparity issues
- Principles include:
- Recognizes community as an unity of identity
- Builds on strengths and resources within the community
- Facilitates collaborative, equitable involvement of all partners in all
phases of the research
- Integrates knowledge and intervention for mutual benefit
- Promotes a co-learning and empowering process

64. • “There is hope if people will
begin to awaken that spiritual
part of them, that heartfelt
knowledge that we are
caretakers of this planet.”
– Brooke Medicine Eagle

65. • “I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for
justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a
human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm
for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as
a whole.”
• “I for one believe that if you give people a
thorough understanding of what confronts them
and the basic causes that produce it, they'll
create their own program, and when the people
create a program, you get action.”
― Malcolm X

66. Community Outreach, Engagement, and
Capacity-Building (COEC)

67. THANK YOU!!!