Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice

In 1997, People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) began its eighth year of community organizing by initiating Strategic Action For Environmental Health (SAFE HEALTH). SAFE HEALTH will generate community-driven policy recommendations to reduce exposure to environmental toxins and other forms of pollution in the greater Oakland area. SAFE HEALTH has three primary outcome objectives:

To train a group of community members in a personal computer-based geographic information systems (GIS) to create a comprehensive set of GIS maps that document toxins, hazardous waste sites, and other sources of potential pollution in East Oakland, drawn from original and secondary data sources compiled by a resident research team.
To establish a resident-driven (grassroots and community-based) issue identification process to allow residents to prioritize their concerns about the greatest threats to environmental health in the focus community of East Oakland. In this way, the community becomes a legitimate partner with government in assuring that public health needs are being met.
To develop an environmental health action strategy comprised of a set of recommendations for public agencies, the medical community, community-based organizations, regulatory agencies, and private industry. This health action strategy will combine an interdisciplinary approach with a multi-ethnic perspective to improve community health. A community organizing plan will be developed and implemented to ensure follow-through on the policy recommendations.

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Outcomes

SAFE HEALTH will have four primary outcomes during the next four years:

1) Database production and GIS maps: SAFE HEALTH will create a set of GIS maps of toxic waste sites in for East Oakland. This map will be created by merging the publicly accessible databases of existing regulatory agencies as well as sites identified through community surveys of more than 1,000 households. For the first time, residents, public health officials, and policy makers will have a comprehensive picture of environmental toxins in the area. The detailed maps can be produced according to many variables including emission type, potential health risk, and length of potential exposure. The maps will be widely distributed to neighborhood residents, community organizations and other stake holders in the area.

2) City-wide policy reform: An analysis of the maps will create policy recommendations to provide a strategic guide to reforming environmental health policy in the focus area and throughout the City. These policy reforms are organized in a table below:

Topic	Policy Reform Area
Public access	Storage of documents Permit tracking Public notification of waste sites and reporting requirements Public participation in zoning, sitting, and regulatory decisions
Toxic Emissions Site Reduction	Management plans of contaminated sites Clean-up and remediation strategies of contaminated sites Hazardous waste transportation, storage, and handling guidelines Determination of acceptable risk levels Fencing and posting of contaminated sites Zoning and development policy and protocol Worker safety guidelines Emergency response protocol
Health Education and Service	New environmental health education strategies Shifts in the delivery of primary health services New collaborations between health service providers

The policy recommendations will be generated through a series of community meetings and will be presented to appropriate decision makers including the City of Oakland, County Health Department, private businesses, and other federal and state regulatory agencies. Project leaders have already met with Arnold Perkins, Director of Public Health for Alameda County, Mee Ling Tung, Alameda County Director of Environmental Health, and Nate Miley, City Council member for East Oakland.

3) Leadership development: The project will train a team of 50 neighborhood leaders in a broad range of advocacy skills including research, recruitment, and strategic planning. PUEBLO members have already designed and tested the surveys used to identify environmental health concerns in the focus area. They will take an active role in defining the issues and concerns in the environmental health infrastructure that affect them. SAFE HEALTH will provide organizing training and leadership experience to enable the leaders to address other health problems in their community. The leaders will receive stipends of approximately $200 over the year for approximately 50 hours of work. Twenty-five of the neighborhood leaders will be teenagers, ages 14 to 18, drawn from the environmental sciences classes at two East Oakland high schools.

4) Community participation: Through surveys, neighborhood meetings, and community forums, SAFE HEALTH will engage at least 1,000 households in the process of shaping an environmental health policy for Oakland. At least 300 residents will gain greater awareness concerning environmental toxins that affect the health of the community, and strategies for building a safer environment by participating in community meetings to generate policy recommendations.

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