EPA Region IV Community Workshops

Environmental Justice Superfund Community Workshops were conducted in the four case study communities. Typically, the community workshops lasted 3-6 hours. The workshops included workbooks that covered a range of topics, including Superfund and RCRA requirements, site characterization, EPA site updates, report of health effects and risk assessment, status report of Technical Assistance Grants (TAGs), Community Advisory Groups (CAGs), Brownfields, GIS/TRI analysis, and implications Executive Order 12898. Workshops were conducted in Brunswick, Georgia (August, 1996), Charleston, South Carolina (September 14, 1996), Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (September 28, 1996), and Anniston, Alabama (November 14, 1996).

The four community workshops were attended by at least 25 people per workshop. All workshops were open to the public. Press releases were developed and sent out to local media. All workshops were covered by the local press (newspapers and television). The core material of the workshops provided the residents with a broad introduction to the foundation, principles, regulations, and terminologies used in the environmental and health field. The workshops utilized community and government resource persons as presenters. The resource persons' presentations (maps, charts, and transparencies) were compiled in the workshop notebooks and distributed at each meeting.

Crosscutting Issues and Stakeholder Concerns

The case studies and community workshops highlight some of the important environmental justice issues involved in communities with Superfund sites in EPA Region IV. Although many of the concerns at the four case study communities were different, there were some central themes and crosscutting issues. They include:

• Environmental Justice is relatively new to many EPA officials who are charged with implementing Superfund, RCRA and Executive Order 12898. New community outreach and communication methods are needed to address environmental justice issues in low-income and people of color communities.
• Effective environmental justice community outreach extends beyond public relations.
• Community empowerment can be attributed to community residents educating each other about environmental/health problems surrounding superfund sites.
• Initiating and sustaining partnerships among diverse stakeholders such as with the EPA, universities, community based organization (CBOs), and impacted residents take time, effort, hard work, and resources. Resource imbalances and mistrust continue to be major obstacles.
• EPA and the community should be prepared to remain in environmental justice struggles for years and possible generations to come.
• There is no "cook book recipe for involving impacted community residents and other community stakeholders in Superfund or other forms of environmental decision making. Getting minority and low-income populations to become involved is especially challenging. Many of these challenges result from a historical legacy of exclusion, racial discrimination, and mistrust of government.
• In order for public participation to be effective, the public must be involved early and throughout the decision making process.
• A few innovative communication and outreach strategies are being tried to reach populations that historically have not been at the decision making table.
• More work is needed in building trust and "good neighbor" arrangements between the EPA, industry, community based organizations, and impacted residents who live near hazardous waste sites.

Lessons Learned about Community-Driven Outreach

• Community outreach is most effective when it addresses issues or problems that directly concern residents.
• Community outreach can be an effective way to identify potential resident leaders, who should then be offered special leadership training.
• Outside professionals can play an important role in assisting residents see the options in a given decision and gain the skills needed to evaluate alternatives.
• Seeking residents' input can help builds their confidence in managing problems and encourage them to think creatively about solutions.
• Seeking the input and cooperation of residents before undertaking significant planning can foster respect and trust for EPA staff among residents.
• Building a sense of community among stakeholders is an important key to the success of the partnership.
• Creative partnerships or collaborations with community based organizations and community stakeholders can help provide valuable training, education, networking, and empowerment benefits for impacted residents.
• Recognize the contributions of individuals and groups and celebrate their successes.
• Take on short-term, visible problems first to give residents confidence that what they do can make a difference.

Recommendations from Site-Specific Community Workshops

The last hour in each community workshop was devoted to interactive dialogue between community stakeholders and workshop presenters. In all four workshops, there were community-specific recommendations that residents wanted addressed by the appropriate governmental agency:

Brunswick, Georgia

• Facilitate the Health Department (Coastal Health Unit) in becoming an active participant with the other community stakeholders (Save the People, Youth Initiative Project, Glynn Environmental Coalition, Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Justice Resource Center, and Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice )in this community.
• Build stronger partnership with local groups and EPA, EJRC, and community stakeholders.
• Initiate a Minority Worker Training Program in collaboration with the EJRC in the area of environmental restoration.
• Approach the City of Brunswick to submit a Brownfield application.
• The community needs be informed about the status of the "Brunswick Initiative" and its relationship to other redevelopment plans and proposals, i.e., Brownfield, enterprise zone, etc.
• A mechanism needs to be put in place not only to keep the impacted community residents informed but also involved in the Brunswick Initiative and decisions (including proposed and on-going research and health studies) that impact the lives of the residents.

Charleston, South Carolina

• Hold a public information hearing on the Bayside Gardens and Manor Apartment Complex and future land use.
• Provide the community with a written status report on all the superfund sites(Calhoun Park Area Site, Koppers Co., and Bayside Gardens and Manor Apartment Complex) in Charleston.
• Provide a status report on the environmental cleanup at Charleston Naval Base.
• Inform community residents on the Brownfield and economic development proposal in Charleston.
• Initiate a strategy to minimize residential and business displacement in the city's low-income African American communities.
• Train local residents on community participation and environmental decision-making.
• Provide more information on the tank farms.
• Provide community with list and results of environmental health studies.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

• Provide status report on the local Technical Assistance Grant.
• Initiate community-driven discussion on the re-development options for the Wingate Road Municipal Incinerator and Landfill Site.
• Organize meetings to bring the City of Fort Lauderdale and community resident together to discuss environmental and health issues that are associated with the Wingate site.
• Undertake a comprehensive health study on the residents in the Wingate community.
• Facilitate work with the newly formed Community Advisory Group (CAG) around the Wingate site.
• Initiate an EPA Superfund Job Training Initiative (Super JTI) Pilot for residents who live near the Wingate site with the EJRC Minority Worker Training Program.

Anniston, Alabama

• Fill vacant slots of Fort McClellan Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) with African Americans who are currently underrepresented on the RAB.
• Rotate public meetings in community venues where people feel comfortable attending.
• Move RAB meetings off the base and into the community.
• Explore lessons learned from Fort McClellan to guide the development of a new RAB at the Anniston Army Depot.

Post-Workshop Evaluations and Community Feedback

The workshop evaluations and community feedback were designed to improve the Partnership's delivery of services and breakdown the information gridlock. The following feedback represents post-workshop activities that are needed in the case study communities:

• Incorporate residents into the cleanup process and economic development plans.
• Organized community planning and the sharing of information about Superfund sites and future land use.
• Disseminate study updates on toxic/hazardous chemicals and health effects that are present in the community.
• Organize follow-up meeting and workshop de-briefing with all the stakeholders in the community.
• Provide examples of "superfund success stories" where the cleanup of superfund sites were done in a timely matter and re-use of the site was done.
• Extend publicity and media coverage of the community and progress made at the site throughout the cleanup and restoration process.
• Provide more in-depth information and discussion on the chemicals found at the Superfund site(s) and how they may cause potential health-related problems to residents living in close proximity to the toxic sites.
• Initiate follow up dialogue between residents and the presenters to discuss and explain complicated environmental and health topics.
• Provide methods on how residents can engage in changing the environmental laws to include community involvement in the decision-making.
• Assist residents in understanding risk assessments and environmental justice analysis.
• Introduce environmental justice principles and Executive Order 12898 to the local public officials to get them involved in this issue.
• Disseminate additional GIS maps, tables, and other information on polluting facilities in the impacted communities.
• Enforce time limit of the presentations by government bureaucrats.
• The strategic goals in Waste Division of Region IV should be extended to include methodologies and tools for measuring community impacts, direct and indirect impacts as well as the cumulative impacts of various effects.
• Provide community presentations at the request of community organizations on the purpose of the RAB, the base cleanup process, and the status of cleanup efforts on post; provide more specific briefings on topics of concern to community organizations.
• Use the standard print and broadcast media to provide information concerning meeting times and locations, status of the cleanup effort, and to answer questions about the process.
• Incorporate environmental justice principles (Executive Order 12898) into the Community Relations Plan (CRP).
• Hold empowerment sessions to educate community residents on Superfund, RCRA, and hazardous waste in order to build the capacity of these populations to become involved in the process. The target community should be involved in planning, organizing, and conducting the sessions.
• Expand database to include all addresses within a one- to two-mile radius of the site, in order to insure that the community residents who live closest to the site and who may be impacted by cleanup (proximity impacts) and reuse decisions receive information on developments in the process.
• In addition to the public library, archive government documents at community-designated repositories.
• Formalize communication channels with community leaders from the impacted area.

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PART VI

CONCLUSION

Much of the information community residents receive on Superfund and RCRA sites is through word of mouth. Clearly, there is a need for a more systematized communication system to get the community stakeholders information in a more user-friendly form and timely manner. Although environmental justice is not equated with public relations, environmental justice principles need to be incorporated into all Community Relation Plans (CRPs).

It is imperative that the target population and community stakeholders are correctly identified. For example, community residents expressed concern about TAGs and other grants routinely go to groups that have only marginal presence in the impacted communities. Community workshops and town hall meetings are effective forums for identifying concerns of community- based groups.

Diversity is important in establishing effective community partners in CAGs and RABs. Plans need to assure that people of color and low-income populations have adequate representation and access to public meetings and materials. In addition to making public meetings and forums available at the public's request, EPA and other federal agencies will need to be more proactive in soliciting the involvement of impacted communities and their grassroots leadership structure.

Environmental justice principles need to be integrated into each step of the Strategic Goals for Region IV. This is true for the Waste Division as well as other divisions in the agency. The key to implementing any environmental justice strategy is building trust with the community stakeholders, especially the population that may be most vulnerable, and properly assessing and mitigating impacts (environmental, health, and socioeconomic) that may fall disproportionately on vulnerable populations.

Community stakeholders must be brought to the table early and as equals. Their viewpoints, even if different from government officials, must be respected. This is not a small point since many decision in government follow the DAD model (Decide, Announce, Defend). Community residents will resist this model out of their own self interest. Although participatory democracy is not easy, it can go a long way in minimizing conflicts.

The centerpiece of environmental justice is prevention of harm before its occurs. EPA will need to examine common pollution sources such as concentration of point and non-point release sources, including both permitted and non-permitted; presence of listed or highly ranked toxic pollutants with high exposure potential; multiple exposure sources and/or paths for the same pollutant; potential for aggravated susceptibility due to existing air pollution, lead poisoning, existence of abandoned toxic sites; and other sources of environmental contamination and human health effects.

The environmental justice analysis should take into consideration historical factors that may impact public policy implementation, including industrial concentrations that may pose health risk; factors that encourage certain industries to locate in certain areas; non-uniformity in enforcement, site-selection criteria, and clean-up/remediation methodologies across communities; research gaps and past data collection practices, validity, and adequacy of these data, non-scientific and arbitrary decision-making and documentation; past resource allocation practices; past and present cultural diversity on decision-making boards, within agencies, on commissions; and failure to fully implement or uphold prior agreements, such as treaties with tribes.

Finally, environmental justice decision-makers should apply uniform standards and selection criteria for including people of color and low-income populations in the decision making process. This would include representation of racially and culturally diverse stakeholders on the CAGs, RABs, and other advisory groups that function as the main catalyst for public involvement in the EPA Superfund process.

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