EIGHT MAPS TO STENGTHEN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE POLICY IN PENNSYLVANIA

There is less than one week left to comment on Pennsylvania’s recently revised environmental justice policy, available here. We’ve made eight maps of social and environmental injustices across the state to help residents consider ways this policy could be strengthened.

Pennsylvania’s environmental justice policy is an important tool for protecting marginalized communities from environmental harms – but it needs your input! 

There is less than one week left to comment on the state’s recently revised policy, available here. 

Environmental justice (EJ) policies recognize that low-income and communities of color experience a disproportionate burden of pollution and environmental threats, and are designed to rectify that.  In Pennsylvania, the EJ policy gives these neighborhoods tools to participate in the decision-making process for certain proposed polluters, like landfills and major sources of air pollution, proposed in their neighborhoods. 

Pennsylvania’s existing EJ policy was released in 2004. In the years since, environmental justice communities and organizations have called for changes to strengthen the policy. The DEP has finally responded to these demands and has released a revised version, which the public can comment on through May 11th using the DEP’s online eComment tool or by e-mail to ecomment@pa.gov, or mailed to: 

Technical Guidance Coordinator,
Department of Environmental Protection, Policy Office, Rachel Carson State Office Building,
P.O. Box 2063,
Harrisburg, PA 17105-2063

New oil and gas engagement section

One of the major changes to the policy is the inclusion of an oil and gas public engagement section (see Section IV on page 15). The policy encourages the DEP to annually assess operators with activity in designated EJ areas. It states that the DEP should convene a community meeting with local officials, the public, and other stakeholders when a new fracking permit is proposed in an EJ area. It also states that the DEP should develop a webinar on the oil and gas permitting process.

This is a step in the right direction since in the past, the EJ policy did not apply to oil and gas development, and public participation with regards to this industry throughout the state is very limited. It’s also a testament to the organizing power of people throughout Pennsylvania who have called for more attention to this issue. However, there are a lot of “shoulds” and not enough “musts” in this section and throughout the policy, creating too much wiggle room for the industry and DEP to skip over these guidelines. Strengthening this language is important for giving the policy more teeth. 

Defining EJ areas

The draft policy doesn’t make changes to the original definition of a EJ area, which is: “any census tract where 20 percent or more individuals live at or below the federal poverty line, and/or 30 percent or more of the population identifies as a non-white minority.”

The policy states that this definition will be outlined in a separate document, allowing them to be updated using the most recent data available.

Many environmental justice leaders in the state are calling for an expanded definition of an EJ community.  We made eight maps that show why and how the state’s EJ definition should be expanded.  

The definition “20 percent or more individuals living at or below the federal poverty line” leaves out a lot of communities facing financial hardship 

While the federal poverty line is an important way to determine where the most impoverished people are, there are other indicators that give a more comprehensive look at where people are facing financial struggles. 

Map 1 shows the percentage of households with annual incomes below a quality of life threshold. As you can see, a lot of the state has a high percentage of such households.

Language Access is very important to consider when implementing a policy about public participation

The DEP’s draft EJ policy does mention issues around language access, including the Office of Environmental Justice’s role in implementing a Language Access Plan to ensure that people that don’t speak English or have communication challenges can participate in the decision making process. However, the languages spoken in an area are not considered when defining EJ areas. Map 3 shows a percentile for linguistic isolation – which is a measure used by the US Census Bureau of households where “all members aged 14 years and older speak a non-English language and also speak English less than “very well” (i.e., have difficulty with English).” As you can see, there are many tracts that rank high by this percentile in the Philadelphia-area that are not considered EJ areas. 

The DEP could strengthen its EJ definition by considering languages spoken.

Map 4) Map of unconventional well activity overlaid with Pennsylvania’s EJ-designated census tracts. Data from the PA DEP, retrieved April 2022. 

The data exists – use it to empower action!

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

“Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This goal will be achieved when everyone enjoys:

• The same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and
• Equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.”

Pennsylvania’s existing definition of an EJ area is a start, but it isn’t enough to protect communities that are already facing social injustices and excessive pollution from the fossil fuel industry. Luckily, incorporating more demographic and environmental factors is an achievable step the DEP can take to rectify this issue. 

Plus, other government bodies are already doing this work, for example the Biden Administration’s climate and economic justice screening tool, creating a precedent for instituting more meaningful policies. 

Beyond defining the environmental justice definition, FracTracker echoes the recommendations of environmental justice groups such as the PA Climate Equity Table and the Center for Coalfield Justice in asking that the EJ policy be triggered by all new permits, not just select ones. 

Additionally, the draft policy could be strengthened by mandating the DEP to do more with the comments it receives from EJ communities – which are often just recorded and not considered in any meaningful way. Instead, the DEP must provide a comment response document when decisions are made on a permit to show how the agency took community feedback seriously.

It’s important that all Pennsylvanians participate in this comment period—it’s one important way out of many that we can make steps towards Environmental Justice. Remember, the deadline to submit your comment is May 11th.

Submit your comments today! 

• PA DEP, Environmental Justice Policy Revision
• FracTracker Alliance, 2016, Defining Environmental Justice in Pennsylvania
• National Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, Beta Version
• Center for Coalfield Justice, Community Indicators of Environmental Justice