Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice

Since the mid-1990s, a renewed emphasis on environmental justice has become an integral part of the transportation planning process for urban regions in the United States. PSRC has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to environmental justice in its plans and programs. Including environmental justice considerations in the planning and decision-making process is intended to:

• Avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations.
• Ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the planning decision-making process.
• Prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.

The purpose of this analysis is to document the efforts made to involve minority and low-income populations in the project planning and related environmental processes and to assess whether the alternative selected could result in disproportionately high and adverse effects on low-income or minority populations, taking into account mitigation measures and benefits, as appropriate.

Cumulative Effects Analysis

The Affected Environment sections of the DEIS reflects past and present cumulative effects on minority and/or low-income populations. (See “What are the environmental impacts?”) Future cumulative effects on minority and/or low-income populations would vary depending on the alternative. Other regional plans and actions have the potential to further increase the demand for and on resources. The alternatives that concentrate growth (the Metropolitan Cities and Larger Cities Alternatives) in areas with relatively high concentrations of minority and low-income populations could have greater cumulative impacts if adequate coordination and mitigation measures are not implemented. Transportation plans would likely be implemented to complement the VISION alternative selected, providing cumulative benefits to all populations, including low-income and minority populations.

Potential Mitigation Measures

Measures to mitigate environmental impacts are discussed by topic area under each element of the environment in Chapter 5. Some additional measures specific to environmental justice are discussed above by topic area. In order to avoid impacts to minority and low-income populations as local plans and projects are implemented that carry out the regional VISION, jurisdictions and project proponents should have an awareness of the locations of these populations and make efforts to involve community members in decision making. This can be accomplished by doing demographic analyses similar to those presented previously under Section 6.4 Affected Environment. Interviews with social service providers can help verify the demographic analyses and gain an understanding of the specific local needs of these populations and effective methods for outreach and public involvement. Additional and ongoing outreach to involve minority and low-income populations is recommended, and an environmental justice analysis may be desirable or necessary for certain projects. Information on conducting environmental justice outreach and analysis is available from many agencies and organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Transit Administration, and Federal Highway Administration.

Significant Unavoidable Adverse Impacts

Significant unavoidable adverse impacts are discussed by discipline under each element of the environment in Chapter 5. Outreach to minority and low-income populations helped to identify loss of affordable housing and reduced access to employment, services, and transit as the most important issues for these populations. Although disproportionately high and adverse housing, employment, service, and transit effects are not expected under any of the Alternatives, these impacts would be most likely to occur under the Smaller Cities and Current Plans Extended Alternatives where different types of activity are more likely to be widely dispersed.

Environmental Justice Determination

None of the alternatives are expected to result in disproportionately high and adverse effects on minority or low-income populations. Although there are tradeoffs with each, the Metropolitan Cities Alternative would be most likely to improve access to employment, services, and transit, the most important issues for minority and low-income populations, although it would also require jurisdictions to provide for more affordable housing and an effective level of public services. Additional environmental justice analyses should be completed as a part of future project-level planning and environmental review.