Environmental Justice (EJ) is a vital issue that takes us beyond environment. People have caused environmental degradation and social inequality, just as they have caused disparities in medical treatments and health treatment outcomes. Thus people alone can solve the resulting problem of wealthier people generally having everyday access to better environmental conditions and resources than those less socioeconomically fortunate. The key to change is, as always, grassroots action and community involvement, which in turn educate public officials and lock in progress.

As the Pennsylvania Constitution (I.27) proclaims, environment is for “all the people”:

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

The following information is adapted from a presentation by Maurice Sampson II at the January 27, 2024, meeting of CCEA and subsequent discussion, including his outline of the main concepts:

Chester County, prosperous though it is overall, has its own EJ areas. Historically in our society, toxic manufacturing and processing facilities have always been concentrated in minority areas.

The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revised its Environmental Justice policy in 2023 and has developed PennEnviroScreen to evaluate the environmental burden of communities. High scores, based on both environmental and socioeconomic factors, designate EJ areas. In those areas the community is currently allowed to be involved in the permitting process for proposed facilities, but that means participation in discussion not in decision-making.

PA House Bill 652, under consideration in Harrisburg, provides more of a mandate, requiring every permit to take into account cumulative impact, rather than allowing development to proceed as if there is no other pollution already in place in the area. Under this bill, DEP could reject applications based on community participation and cumulative impact. See more on HB 652 here. Organizations for Pennsylvania’s  Environmental Justice Bill HB652 includes a letter of support that organizations are invited to endorse; individuals can sign on here.

Chesco currently has 5 EJ areas with scores over 80: Modena 97, Valley Twp 95, Honey Brook Twp 87, N. Coventry Twp 84, Coatesville 80. And just behind those, in the 70s: Penn Twp and Sadsbury Twp 79, Oxford Borough 78, New Garden Twp 74, West Chester Borough 73.

This EnviroScreen model combines pollution burden, health, and demographics to identify EJ areas. Underlying info includes pipelines and other environmental factors, plus social factors like poverty and race. But ratings are not only for Black and Brown people; the tool raises standards for all areas and issues. We can’t solve these problems from the top down, but need to start within the communities. We need to talk to people in place and go to their meetings. The poor have the intellect and understanding of the problem but they lack the resources and political clout to solve the problem on their own.

After Maurice’s presentation, others added further info. POWER is actively addressing environmental justice in Phila and Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and Lancaster counties.  Its Climate Justice & Jobs team meets regularly; see info posted on our site here. Their branch called POWER Metro focuses on the Philly suburbs. See also the PA Dept of Health’s Environmental Justice Strategic Plan, connecting environmental justice and health equity.

The Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed concluded from a discussion with EPA that no community is too small to be focused on. Modena (southeast of Coatesville) has the lowest score in Chesco; we need volunteers to find out what is being done there to help. Every neighborhood has people and organizations that love their neighborhood and would never leave it, and EJ areas are no exception. Working on Environmental Justice in Chester County will require finding and building relationships and working in alliance with community organizations (not necessarily environmental ones) in the impacted municipalities.

EPA’s web site has an EJ section including a geographical microdata tool, that helps link health to contamination. An EJ conference is in the planning for 2025, with the objective of building a next network of Environmental Justice organizations.