“Environmental Justice Focus Areas”
Rhode Island has proposed a bill that would designate certain areas of land as “environmental justice focus areas”. In these zones, state agencies would have more authority when permitting industrial land use that could potentially introduce pollutants to the environment. The sectors that could be affected by this bill include several which relate to recycling processes.
At a recent gathering of the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Rhode Island Representative Karen Alzate spoke about HB 6196, also known as The Environmental Justice Act. She pointed out that this bill would give permit-issuing agencies more flexibility and would also grant community members in environmental justice areas a chance to be heard.
“The bill will help to create a process for … regulating agencies to make decisions on certain communities or indoor permits so that … these areas don’t continue to be toxic dumping grounds,” said Alzate, who proposed the bill. “This bill will allow for regulating agencies to have tools to deny permits that cause harm to these particular areas and or communities.”
According to her, one potential area that could be selected as an environmental justice (EJ) area is the Port of Providence. This port harbors several industrial sites and businesses.
Areas Potentially Impacted
Should it pass, the Environmental Justice Act could revolutionize permit authorization procedures in areas with an EJ emphasis. In particular, this would affect a variety of facilities such as:
- Pyrolysis or gasification facilities, scrap metal facilities, auto salvage operations or facilities, asphalt plants, petroleum storage facilities, ethylene oxide manufacturing or storage facilities, C&D processing facilities, electric generating facilities, resource recovery facilities or incinerators, sludge combustor facilities or incinerators, transfer stations, recycling centers or other solid waste facilities, landfills “including but not limited to” a landfill that accepts ash, construction and demolition (C&D) debris or solid waste, medical waste incinerators, or “the renewal of any permit listed.”
For facilities to be approved in EJ focus areas, the criteria are more stringent. Despite these challenges, gaining a permit can still be achievable by conducting an environmental impact study which must include its cumulative effect on the region.
Following the proposed legislation, those wishing to submit a report for any new facility must arrange and host a public hearing in advance. This should be done three weeks ahead of time, with proper notification sent out to all within the applicant’s respective municipality.
The proposed legislation would allow either Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM) or a local council to “deny a permit application in an environmental justice focus area upon a finding that the approval of the permit would, together with the cumulative impacts posed by the existing conditions, … constitute an unreasonable risk to the health of the residents of the environmental justice focus area or to the environment in the environmental justice focus area.”
Sites That Match the Criteria for EJ Focus Areas
Locations that might fit the criteria for environmental justice focus areas include those with “one or more” of the following characteristics:
- A population in which 25 percent or more of the households lack proficiency in English.
- A minority population of 25 percent or more of the area population and an annual median household income not exceeding 150 percent of the statewide median household income.
- An annual median household income of not more than 65 percent of the statewide median household income.
- A minority population equal to or greater than 40 percent of the area’s total population.
Those Against the Proposed Bill
At the March 30th conference, Danielle Waterfield, chief policy officer at the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, was amongst those to voice her opinion. She expressed her disapproval that recycling centers had been specifically targeted in this bill.
“We are worried that this bill may inadvertently hurt or harm recycling in Rhode Island by removing readily accessible recycling facilities,” she noted that this bill could “stunt innovation” expressing her concern, she stated that this bill may have a negative effect on Rhode Island’s overall recycling efforts.
Waterfield argued that the current bill “needs clarification on the local community public comment section” and proposed that any participating public should be restricted to those living within the area of the planned facility.
She additionally suggested a verification process be incorporated into the legislation to ensure that only local inhabitants could partake in the hearings, and that out-of-town interests would not be superiorly represented.
Possible Effects of the Legislation
Arthur Handy, a representative from the state of RI, explained that this new bill is designed to empower citizens who reside in communities identified as environmental justice (EJ) areas.
“People in communities where these facilities are proposed are often up against it in terms of resources and expertise,” Handy stated. “If they want or need to bring others from the outside in to help them sift through all the information that they’re given and, yes, lend their moral support [and] their political support as they evaluate these facilities and potentially oppose them, they should be able to do that.”
Waterfield suggested that the advantages of recycling facilities to the environment must be considered when assessing the impacts of the bill, and not just the local costs.
“Recycling is intertwined with the public interest, providing environmental and economic benefits,” she said. “Yet this bill gives no consideration at all to the recycling operations that have environmental measures and practices already in place to protect their communities.”
Waterfield also proposed that a cost/benefit assessment should be given to the local area in terms of job opportunities and budgetary constraints for cities tasked with resource management.
In Favor of the Bill
One expressing support for the bill was Jed Thorp, who serves as the Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action. This organization, based in Washington, has identified the proposed bill as one of its most urgent objectives in Rhode Island.
Another strong point of the bill is that it permits the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council to contemplate the combined effect of all facilities in an Environmental Justice (EJ) focus area, including those already existing, he asserted.
The Rhode Island Senate has also taken steps to introduce its own companion bill.
