On Friday Feb. 16 a coalition of environmental organizations gathered at the Georgia state capitol to hold an environmental justice day. The gathering was in support of HB 1263, which would mark Georgia’s premier environmental justice law, which now awaits a committee assignment.
The bill includes creating an environmental justice commission appointed by state lawmakers to deal with regulatory, permitting and compliance issues in environmentally burdened communities. Additionally, the bill would require all state entities to consider and document environmental justice concerns ahead of outlined actions, along with considering the disproportionate effect that environmental hazards would have on people of color and low-income communities resulting from proposed environmental policies.
Organizations included Georgia WAND, Environmental Community Action, Science for Georgia, Citizens for a Healthy and Safe Environment, Dogwood Alliance, Greenlink, Harambee House, and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund.The coalition behind the bill, called the Environmental Legislation Workgroup, is led by ECO-Action and Georgia WAND, along with a number of other partners.
Kim Scott, executive director of Georgia WAND, said the environmental justice bill becoming law would be historic.
“I say all the time that environmental justice is the new civil rights. [The coalition] puts a face to environmental justice,” Scott said.
The coalition hopes to get HB 1263 assigned to the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, chaired by Lynn Smith. So far, they haven’t had much luck. They’re hoping she will come around, or allow it to be assigned to the Urban Affairs committee, which is where many bills go that are deemed Black and Brown [people] issues, says Scott.
“If she’s not going to allow it to come to her committee, to allow it to go to another committee,” Scott said.
Part of Scott’s journey into the environmental justice space was finding out she lived in one of the most energy-burdened zip codes in the city while she was chair of NPU T.
“30310 and 30314 at that time were the most energy burdened zip codes in the City of Atlanta — and I was like wow! That was my zip code,” Scott said. “So I was like, what does this mean?”
Scott said remembered all the issues in her neighborhood, from blown transformers to branches encroaching on power lines, which acted as a catalyst into a dive into environmental concerns for communities nearby the nuclear power plant, Plant Vogtle, as well as a nuclear weapons facility called the Savannah River Site.
“[These communities] were thrust into environmental harm,” said Scott, referencing those nearby the aforementioned nuclear sites. “But then, 200 miles away, you have these communities like in NPU V that were being energy burned by nuclear power production at Plant Vogtle.”
After realizing both urban and rural sites dealt with their unique but interconnected environmental issues, environmental justice, for urban and rural communities alike, became a priority with Scott.
“The idea is you’re not just listening to the City of Atlanta or Metro Atlanta, but that you actually have voices from all across the state,” Scott said. “Environmental justice impacts everyone; it doesn’t have a race, it doesn’t have a socioeconomic status… it impacts all Georgians. So the fact that it’s been such a push to try to get this through a committee for [the Georgia House of Representatives] to hear it, speaks volumes. We need this.”
Agriculture, especially in the coming decades, is at the top of the list of concerns for the coalition. Agricultural land is being taken for other industries to come in, which has led to poor air quality, brown water issues, polluted soils, water scarcity, and more. They argue these kinds of effects could be avoided with a bill like the one the coalition proposes.
Even from a business case, Scott said, this law is necessary. Not following environment compliance standards, even unknowingly, can cost a business tons of money.
“People equate environment and justice to be two different things. And some people equate justice to be for a certain race,” Scott said, adding the face of environmental justice is multifaceted. “The ‘face’ includes people from all over Georgia, and records have shown that there is poor air quality in areas where the demographics are different from what people expect.”
Scott explained industries go to where they can find low property values, and that these areas with low property values are reflected in the amount of taxes that can go towards funding local schools.
“When we can tell our story from that narrative, instead of what people think it is, it gives a little more perspective — and they can see themselves in it and start wondering things like, “why is it that industry is here or why do they continue to come to this area,””Scott said.
Industries don’t get pushback from the community or from lawmakers, according to Scott, which enables more to do the same thing without proper environmental caution or regard for ramifications and how that affects public health.
“I’m hoping that it will shine a different light on a better way of doing business in Georgia, because unfortunately right now we’re harming our communities, we’re harming our neighborhoods, we’re harming our kids… it’s a quality of life issue at this point,” Scott said.
For the time being, Scott says the bill is in limbo waiting to find a home and move forward towards the first environmental justice law in Georgia.
