Environmental Justice

How do environmental justice issues affect Hartford?

Asthma

The causes of asthma are not thoroughly understood, but it is known that inherited factors and environment both play a role. Many of the factors that may trigger asthma attacks are related to outdoor air pollution and to poor housing quality, such as dust mites, cockroaches, mold, and mildew.

Asthma is widely considered an epidemic in the United States today. Asthma rates are rising for all age groups, within and outside urban areas, regardless of race, income, and region of the country. Hartford’s rates are alarmingly high. In summer 2000, the Hartford City Council declared an "asthma emergency" in the city.

Community forum on environmental justice, 2000

Photo courtesy of Hartford Environmental Justice Network

Community forum on environmental justice, 2000

Lead poisoning

Because the major source of lead poisoning today is deteriorating lead-based paint from older homes, Hartford’s housing situation is closely related to its lead poisoning problem.

Hartford has approximately 56,000 housing units, including many substandard and vacant units. A typical dwelling in Hartford is a three-family house, may have very little green space around it, and dates from around 1920. These houses often feature many windows and porches, which are commonly covered with lead-based paint. Typically, the exterior was last painted in 1975 (before the ban on lead-based paint in residences); the interior was last painted in 1980 (just after the ban).

Many of the housing units suffer from problems of deferred maintenance, including deteriorating lead-based paint. Many landlords can no longer afford to maintain their buildings, and more than 600 buildings have been abandoned. Hartford ranks last in the state for percentage of owner-occupied dwellings, with only 21% of Hartford’s dwellings owner-occupied.

Percent of housing units built before 1940

Click map to see a larger view

Indoor air quality

Poor indoor air quality, in homes, schools, and workplaces, may contribute to a variety of environmental health problems ranging from asthma to cancer. Environmental tobacco smoke, or secondhand smoke, is one of the most serious, and yet one of the most easily remedied, pollutants. Other indoor air pollutants are often connected to poor quality structures, such as mold and mildew from damp kitchens and bathrooms; gases and particles from leaky furnaces and chimneys and poorly vented gas stoves or space heaters; and cockroaches in poorly maintained buildings.

Outdoor air quality

The Hartford Environmental Justice Network, a coalition of community, labor, and environmental groups, is particularly concerned with possible air pollution produced by trash burning and with the effects of such pollution on asthma. Connecticut burns more of its garbage than any other state, and 87% of trash burned in Hartford is from other towns. More than 35 cities and towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island take their sludge to Hartford’s eight regional waste facilities. One-third of the sludge is from outside the eight towns in the MDC sewage district.

Another current concern is the contribution that diesel engine exhausts make to air pollution and the possible health effects. Diesel exhaust consists of hundreds of gases and particles, many of which are known to be harmful to human health. The EPA http://www.epa.gov/ncea/dieslexh.htm is studying this problem. The Hartford Environmental Justice Network, composed of Hartford residents and grassroots community organizations concerned with environmental issues, has received EPA funding to educate city residents about possible connections between diesel emissions and asthma.

Brownfields

During the 1980s and 1990s, the State of Connecticut lost many military and industrial jobs. In the City of Hartford, the number of jobs fell by 22% between 1989 and 1995. The loss of these jobs often meant that buildings were abandoned. Many of these abandoned areas had potential environmental hazards, such as ash formerly used as fill and toxic substances from old plating and manufacturing processes.

In 1997, Hartford became part of EPA’s Brownfields Initiative.

What are the goals of the environmental justice movement?

1. To improve the scientific basis for understanding environmental issues

For environmental justice to occur, environmental issues must be well understood. Many environmental health issues are not yet thoroughly understood. For example, the various causes of asthma—both inherited and environmental—are not well understood. To improve scientific understanding, we must

Collect and analyze data

Develop scientifically valid standards to measure environmental risks

Measures should include proximity measures (how close people are to potential environmental hazards) and risk measures (which include distance, probability of accidental releases of hazardous substances, toxicity of those substances, level of exposure, and natural factors such as wind direction that may affect risk)

To increase research on health risks from exposure to toxics

To take necessary precautions based on how well we understand the problem right now

2. To educate the public about environmental health issues

3. To involve all stakeholders—of all races, ethnicities, income levels, ages—at all levels of decision-making

To establish partnerships with stakeholders

To seek input from all stakeholders

To communicate findings to all stakeholders

To get feedback from stakeholders

Photo courtesy of Hartford Environmental Justice Network

Earth Day Fair in Bushnel Park, Hartford, CT - April 1999

4. To reduce the disproportionate environmental burden borne by poor people and people of color

To reduce the use of toxic materials (pollution prevention), especially in poor communities and communities of color

To eliminate discriminatory siting of polluting facilities

To reduce the prevalence of environmental illnesses, especially in poor communities and communities of color

5. To continuously reassess action items and to develop solutions for emerging issues

6. To ensure compliance and enforcement

Hartford Environmental Justice Network (HEJN)

The Hartford Environmental Justice Network (HEJN) is a coalition of community-based groups that works on urban environmental issues. It is the local affiliate of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ). Among the issues that the network has worked on are the following:

Environmental justice community forum
Photo courtesy of ONE/CHANE

Environmental justice community forum

Persuading the Hartford City Council to declare an asthma emergency in Hartford in 2000

Raising awareness about the relationship of airborne toxins from incineration of trash and asthma

Stopping development of a huge truck stop in Hartford's North Meadows

Campaigning to reduce diesel emissions

Increasing education about household hazardous waste, in both English and Spanish

Promoting legislation to ban medical waste in Hartford. The network argued that Hartford already hosts eight regional waste disposal facilities and fought against adding a medical waste treatment facility. In January 2000 the Hartford City Council enacted legislation banning medical waste storage and disposal in the City of Hartford.

Demanding sewage sludge compost fire accountability. The network hosted a community forum on a fire in November-December 2000 at the MDC sewage sludge compost facility.

Opposing expansion of the Hartford landfill

Protecting Coltsville residents and children. The network worked to get the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to declare the former Colt firearm factory property to be a hazardous waste storage facility and to remove a Headstart Program from this site.

Raising environmental concerns about the cleanup of Adriaen's Landing

For further information, call Dr. Mark Mitchell, 860-548-1133

Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ)

The mission of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice is to protect the state's urban environments by educating the community, promoting changes in state policy, and promoting individual, corporate, and governmental responsibility toward the environment. Its definition of environment includes the places where people live, work, play, and go to school.

Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice
Photo courtesy of Hartford Environmental Justice Network

Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice

In addition to working with the Hartford Environmental Justice Network, CCEJ is assisting environmental justice activists in other cities, including New Haven and Waterbury. The coalition is a founding member of the Connecticut Coalition for Clean Air, which is working to have the state require that the five largest and most polluting power plants meet modern pollution standards.

For further information, contact the
Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice
P.O. Box 2022 Hartford, CT 06145-2022
Phone: 860-548-1133
Fax: 860-548-9197
e-mail: M_MHC@msn.com

ONE/CHANE (Organized Northeasterners/Clay Hill and North End)

ONE/CHANE is a grassroots community-based agency that provides organizing services, advocacy, and development for residents of North Hartford. The primary mission of ONE/CHANE is to rebuild the North Hartford community after years of physical decay, moral decline, and environmental damage. To accomplish this mission, ONE/CHANE implements strategic interventions:

Community organizing
Ownership housing development
Employment and job training
Environmental Justice
Improving child welfare
Economic development

The Hartford Environmental Justice Network sponsors bus tours of environmental justice communities and of waste facilities
Photo courtesy of ONE/CHANE

The Hartford Environmental Justice Network sponsors bus tours of environmental justice communities and of waste facilities

Photo courtesy of ONE/CHANE

Environmental Justice tour

For further information, contact
Larry Charles, Executive Director
2065 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06120
phone 860-525-0190
fax 860-522-8266

Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection: Environmental Equity Program

The Connecticut DEP’s Environmental Equity Program is designed to incorporate principles of environmental justice into all aspects of the department’s program development, policy making, and regulatory activities. Its efforts include

Assessing and responding to environmental problems in low-income communities and communities of color
Developing strategies to increase public participation in the agency’s decision-making process
In cooperation with state and local health departments, identifying community health concerns
Increasing public participation in administrative proceedings
Decreasing language barriers
Assessing the effectiveness of the department’s efforts in the state’s urban areas

For further information, contact
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
Office of Urban and Community Ecology
79 Elm Street, 3^rd Floor
Hartford, CT 06106-5127
860-424-3001