Integrating environmental justice (EJ) methodologies into environmental impact assessment
- New York Univ. Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York, NY (United States)
Environmental Justice (EJ) concerns are now a pervasive part of environmental policy. Moreover, Federal Executive Order 12898 mandates its diffusion throughout federal government programs, and many states are developing similar programs. EJ concerns first arose in the environmental field in the context of hazardous waste facilities. Thus, hazardous waste applications provide important analytical models for EJ issues addressed in other programs, such as environmental assessment (EA). At the present time, EJ concerns are treated largely qualitatively in EAs and environmental impact statements (EISs) in sections dealing with neighborhood and community character or socioeconomics. The manner in which EJ issues are examined in EISs is described using examples from recent EISs, and an approach to quantifying EJ in terms of demographic patterns is presented using techniques previously applied by the author to hazardous waste sites (primarily sites on the National Priorities List under the Superfund program). Various geographic levels and demographic parameters are discussed and compared. A key point is the manner in which the choice of a comparison area influences conclusions about a particular area. these methods are critical in addressing such issues as whether proposed projects are being located in areas with relatively greater proportions of {open_quotes}vulnerable{close_quotes} populations or, in the case of public service projects, how these populations are served relative to other populations by the facilities that are the subject of the assessment.
- Research Organization:
- National Association of Environmental Professionals, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 125939
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9506115-; TRN: 95:006735-0033
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 20. National Association of Environmental Professionals annual conference and exposition: environmental challenges - the next twenty years, Washington, DC (United States), 10-13 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Environmental challenges: The next 20 years. Proceedings; PB: 932 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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