Question

Looking at the map of TRI facilities in your city, do you think there is an environmental justice issue in Irvine? Discuss and support your answer with evidence.

Answer 1

there are burden disparities in the distribution of TRI facilities in the Charleston MSA at the block and census-tract levels, across varying levels of racial/ethnic composition and SES. Even with a few methodological limitations, this study found statistically significant associations between (1) block-level distribution and number of TRI facilities and race/ethnicity and (2) presence or absence of TRI facilities and non-White, renter, poverty, educational, and employment status at the census-tract level. We are confident that LAMC will be able to use the results of this study, particularly the burden maps, to influence local environmental decision-making, particularly around revitalization efforts in the region. In future work, we will explore the use of RSEI and NATA data for the assessment of burden and exposure disparities in the region. We will also employ other spatial methods, including cumulative distance function and geographically weighted regression, at different census levels to assess burden disparities.

In addition, we believe that this study contributes to environmental justice science and provides information that may be useful for other port cities in their local environmental decision-making and community planning and development. These findings are unique and timely given that the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2014 will open more southeastern US ports to increased port traffic and the additional industrial development that often follows. This study provides those communities an opportunity to learn from the lessons of Charleston so that the environmental disparities present there will not be replicated in other southeastern port communities.