Environmental Justice, Community Empowerment, and the Role of Lawyers in Post-Katrina New Orleans

City University of New York Law Review, Dec 2006

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.

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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 - 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)


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Janell Smith, Rachel Spector. Environmental Justice, Community Empowerment, and the Role of Lawyers in Post-Katrina New Orleans, City University of New York Law Review, 2006, Volume 10, Issue 1,