Project Description: To provide technical support and outreach to several grassroots community groups that has historically been underrepresented in environmental education, training, and technology transfer, and environmental policy formulation.

The goals of the project are to expand EJRC's technical assistance, community outreach, networking, database, retrieval/dissemination, and maintenance/updating of our information clearing house website functions.

Accomplishments:

Eastern Navajo (1999). The EJRC provided technical assistance and expert testimony to the Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) group attempt to block Hydro Resource, Inc. from obtaining a permit to mine uranium in Church Rock and Crown Point, two Navajo reservation communities. The EJRC research and written testimony helped document a pattern of disproportionate impact of the operation on the Navajo people. The case is in front of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The current analysis is patterned after the analysis the center staff provided on the Louisiana case (Citizens Against Nuclear Trash vs. Louisiana Energy Services). CANT defeated the Louisiana Energy Services in 1998. The HRI permit is still pending.

Seattle, Washington (1999). The EJRC conducted a transportation equity briefing with groups from the Mt. Ranier community in Seattle. The groups are concerned about the disparate impact the construction of an above ground light rail line (that will run along Martin Luther King Boulevard) will have on the mostly minority and low-income community in that area. The rail lines go underground in the northern part of the mostly white neighborhoods. The groups have filed a Title VI complaint with the U.S. DOT. The EJRC serves as one of the groups technical advisors.

Atlanta, Georgia Transportation Equity (1999). The EJRC provided the research and technical background information for the preparation of the environmental justice and transportation equity complaint filed by local Metro Atlanta community groups. Much of the statistics and assessment of the equity impacts were gleans from the EJRC's work on just transportation and urban sprawl. The case is currently in "informal" negotiations with the U.S. DOT that follows a two-step process. The EJRC continues to serve as a technical advisor to the groups. The U.S. DOT expects the negotiations and planning process to last two years.

Year Initiated: 1998
Contact Person: Glenn S. Johnson, PhD
Funding Source: Public Welfare Foundation