About the Author: Rosemary E. Hambright graduated from William & Mary Law School in May 2016. She interned in the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance in the summer of 2015.
Poster for symposium
After months of brainstorming, recruiting speakers, and hashing out logistics, the long-awaited day had finally arrived! The Symposium on Environmental Justice (EJ) for the William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review (ELPR) was about to begin. The previous summer while interning at EPA, I attended a workshop led by the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). The hosts of the workshop encouraged all participants to advance the principles of EJ by helping to educate others about these issues.
As the ELPR Volume 40’s Symposium Editor, I knew that this would be a great forum to highlight environmental justice concerns and successes. With the symposium, I hoped to raise awareness of EJ issues and to cultivate an intelligent and nuanced conversation that would hopefully reveal invaluable insights and inspire the audience to also work towards the promotion of environmental justice.
Since law students would be most familiar with a legal point of view, the first panel started with the OEJ’s Danny Gogal, who spoke about the events leading up to the signing of President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice. Patrice Simms, professor at Howard University School of Law, pointed out opportunities federal agencies have to incorporate EJ into their decision making processes. Likewise, Ryan Fitzpatrick of the U.S. Department of Transportation (former EPA intern alumnus) explained how Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can prevent racial discrimination in a locality’s land use choices, which he illustrated with his recent work in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Dr. Holloman presenting at the symposium
The second panel was designed with the aim of humanizing specific EJ problems. Dr. Erica Holloman of the Southeast CARE Coalition, a group created with an EPA CARE grant in 2011, highlighted cumulative impacts affecting the community in southeast Newport News, Virginia. The area is currently both sinking and experiencing sea-level rise; is located between a highway, a sewage treatment facility, and a shipyard; and sees disproportionately high levels of asthma and infant mortality. Additionally, Mike Walker of EPA and Virginia Ruiz of Farmworker Justice shed light on the challenges facing migrant farmworkers, particularly their exposure to pesticides and how the chemicals spread through physical contact to their families.
Dr. Simpson presenting at the symposium
The next panel underscored innovative solutions being advanced on the ground. Dr. Andrea Simpson of the University of Richmond shared a study she completed in Memphis, Tennessee, where two grassroots environmental justice leaders had very different approaches in their methodology. The discussion focused on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach: by working independently, the first grassroots community had complete autonomy in defining their issues and the remedies sought. The other community benefited from the skill, experience, and resources of working with a large organization, which helped in swaying regional opinion.
The symposium ended by broadening the topic to an international scale. The final panel highlighted many domestic environmental justice concerns that also exist globally. Maryann Nolan Chong of USAID talked about preparing geographically vulnerable regions for disaster. Upasana Khatri of EarthRights International touched on the displacement of indigenous communities by conservation easements. Finally, Jesse Worker of World Resources Institute brought attention to obstacles preventing citizen’s access to justice in some foreign governments.
I encourage other law students who care about environmental justice to host their own events and especially to invite people from communities to share their perspectives. The symposium was productive because it is already generating new collaborations. For example, one of the ELPR student staff members approached a speaker for feedback. As a result, ELPR Volume 41 is publishing the resulting paper, which proposes a model ordinance for Newport News to require the city to incorporate environmental justice considerations into its sea-level rise adaptation planning.
Many students go to law school with a dream to make the world a better place. However, you don’t have to wait until after graduation to take your first step!
from The EPA Blog http://ift.tt/1YpurhL
About the Author: Rosemary E. Hambright graduated from William & Mary Law School in May 2016. She interned in the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance in the summer of 2015.
Poster for symposium
After months of brainstorming, recruiting speakers, and hashing out logistics, the long-awaited day had finally arrived! The Symposium on Environmental Justice (EJ) for the William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review (ELPR) was about to begin. The previous summer while interning at EPA, I attended a workshop led by the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). The hosts of the workshop encouraged all participants to advance the principles of EJ by helping to educate others about these issues.
As the ELPR Volume 40’s Symposium Editor, I knew that this would be a great forum to highlight environmental justice concerns and successes. With the symposium, I hoped to raise awareness of EJ issues and to cultivate an intelligent and nuanced conversation that would hopefully reveal invaluable insights and inspire the audience to also work towards the promotion of environmental justice.
Since law students would be most familiar with a legal point of view, the first panel started with the OEJ’s Danny Gogal, who spoke about the events leading up to the signing of President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice. Patrice Simms, professor at Howard University School of Law, pointed out opportunities federal agencies have to incorporate EJ into their decision making processes. Likewise, Ryan Fitzpatrick of the U.S. Department of Transportation (former EPA intern alumnus) explained how Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can prevent racial discrimination in a locality’s land use choices, which he illustrated with his recent work in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Dr. Holloman presenting at the symposium
The second panel was designed with the aim of humanizing specific EJ problems. Dr. Erica Holloman of the Southeast CARE Coalition, a group created with an EPA CARE grant in 2011, highlighted cumulative impacts affecting the community in southeast Newport News, Virginia. The area is currently both sinking and experiencing sea-level rise; is located between a highway, a sewage treatment facility, and a shipyard; and sees disproportionately high levels of asthma and infant mortality. Additionally, Mike Walker of EPA and Virginia Ruiz of Farmworker Justice shed light on the challenges facing migrant farmworkers, particularly their exposure to pesticides and how the chemicals spread through physical contact to their families.
Dr. Simpson presenting at the symposium
The next panel underscored innovative solutions being advanced on the ground. Dr. Andrea Simpson of the University of Richmond shared a study she completed in Memphis, Tennessee, where two grassroots environmental justice leaders had very different approaches in their methodology. The discussion focused on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach: by working independently, the first grassroots community had complete autonomy in defining their issues and the remedies sought. The other community benefited from the skill, experience, and resources of working with a large organization, which helped in swaying regional opinion.
The symposium ended by broadening the topic to an international scale. The final panel highlighted many domestic environmental justice concerns that also exist globally. Maryann Nolan Chong of USAID talked about preparing geographically vulnerable regions for disaster. Upasana Khatri of EarthRights International touched on the displacement of indigenous communities by conservation easements. Finally, Jesse Worker of World Resources Institute brought attention to obstacles preventing citizen’s access to justice in some foreign governments.
I encourage other law students who care about environmental justice to host their own events and especially to invite people from communities to share their perspectives. The symposium was productive because it is already generating new collaborations. For example, one of the ELPR student staff members approached a speaker for feedback. As a result, ELPR Volume 41 is publishing the resulting paper, which proposes a model ordinance for Newport News to require the city to incorporate environmental justice considerations into its sea-level rise adaptation planning.
Many students go to law school with a dream to make the world a better place. However, you don’t have to wait until after graduation to take your first step!
from The EPA Blog http://ift.tt/1YpurhL
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