Environmental Justice, Community Empowerment, and the Role of Lawyers in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Environmental Justice, Community Empowerment, and the Role of Lawyers in Post- Katrina New Orleans
Janell Smith 0 1
0 Vermont Law School Rachel Spector CUNY School of Law , USA
1 The C UNY Law Review is published by the Office of Library Services at the City University of New York. For more information please contact , USA
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Acknowledgements
The Author s are grateful for the inspiration and assistance of Albert Huang, Environmental Justice Attorney at
the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Thi s article is available in City University of New York Law Review: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/clr/vol10/iss1/12
Janell Smith & Rachel Spector*
Wen the mainstream nationalenvironmental groupspair up with en
vironmentaljustice groups that have the ability to mobilize large
numbers of constituents-to get people marching and filling up those
courtrooms and city council meetings-that's when you can talk about
an environmental movement.'
I. INTRODUCTION: HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT
Working together toward a common goal often requires
mobilizing the strength and energy of many groups of people, all of
whom share the same passion for accomplishing that goal.
Hurricane Katrina and its devastating effect on the environment and
communities in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has done exactly
that, bringing together numerous coalitions of concerned
individuals who share the determination to clean up and improve New
Orleans and the Gulf region. This Article addresses how lawyers from
around the country can work with local advocates on
reconstruction efforts in New Orleans in a way that increases, rather than
undermines, community empowerment. While the Article focuses
on environmental justice advocacy, it defines the concept broadly
with the understanding that adequate housing, opportunities for
employment and economic stability, and an effective political voice
are just as important as neighborhoods free from toxic pollution.
A.
When the Local Becomes National
Environmental justice has been formally defined as the fair
treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of
race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the
develop* Janell Smith, Vermont Law School, J.D. Candidate 2007; Rachel Spector, City
University of New York School of Law, J.D. Candidate 2007. The Authors are grateful
for the inspiration and assistance of Albert Huang, Environmental Justice Attorney at
the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
1 Gregory Dicum, Justice in Time, GRIST MAC., Mar. 14, 2006, http://www.grist.
org/news/maindish/2006/03/14/dicum/ (interview with Robert Bullard, "the father
of environmental justice").
ment, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws,
regulations, and policies. 2 The environmental justice movement is
a community-led response to the disproportionate levels of
environmental pollution and degradation in communities of color and
low-income communities in the United States and across the
globe .'
The environmental justice movement began in the early 1980s
as a loose coalition of various minority and low-income
communities across the nation and focused on local issues of pollution and
poor health.4 In 1991, the similarities among these community
struggles led to the organization and meeting of the First National
People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in
Washington, D.C.5 The Summit's 600 participants included African
Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans
from across the United States and other countries who "struck out
at environmental racism and committed themselves to a new
movement-a movement for environmental justice." 6 To accomplish
the goal of environmental justice, the participants "depart[ed]
from the goals of national environmental groups" which "turned
struggles over pure air and water into lifeless technical debates
about balancing risks and costs."7 Instead, participants made it
their goal to address issues more in tune with "personal human
2 United States Envtl. Prot. Agency, Environmental Justice, http://www.epa.gov/
compliance/environmentaljustice/index.html (last visited Dec. 18, 2006).
3 See, e.g., COMM. FOR RACIAL JUSTICE, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, A NATIONAL
REPORT ON THE RACIAL & SoCIo-EcONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITIES WITH
HAzARDoUs WASTE SITES (1987) (groundbreaking report on the disproportionate
impact of environmental degradation on low-income people and people of color); cf.
MANUEL PASTOR ET. AL., IN THE WAKE OF THE STORM: ENVIRONMENT, DISASTER & RACE
AFTER KATRINA (2006) (studying racial disparities in environmental health after
Hurricane Katrina).
4 Robert Bullard, Environmental Justice in the 21st Century, Environmental
Justice Resource Center, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/ejinthe21stcentury.htm (last visited
Dec. 18, 2006) (providing history of the environmental justice movement and how it
started in Warren County, North Carolina).
5 See Keith Schneider, MinoritiesJoin t (...truncated)