The mission of the Law Center’s Public Health and Environmental Justice Project (the “EJ Project”) is to provide legal and technical expertise and assistance to local communities of color and poverty that seek to overcome the disproportionate burdens of environmental impacts.
GAMING CONTROL BOARD DASHES FOXWOODS CASINO'S HOPES OF RELOCATION; LAW CENTER CLIENTS HAIL DECISION
August 28, 2009 - The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board told the developers of the Foxwoods Philadelphia Casino, in no uncertain terms, to stay out of Philadelphia Chinatown. Board Chairman Gregory C. Fajt sternly admonished Foxwoods’ top executives and lawyers that any attempt to relocate the proposed slots casino to 8th and Market Streets would be a “fool’s errand,” adding later that the Board does not want to hear that Foxwoods is evaluating any alternative locations to the site the Board previously approved for Foxwoods in South Philadelphia. “I cannot be any more emphatic,” said the Chairman.
The Chinatown Preservation Alliance and Liberty Resources, Inc., who are represented by the Law Center’s Public Health and Environmental Justice Clinic in their opposition to the Casino’s proposed move to their neighborhood, are both pleased that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has finally told Foxwoods that enough is enough, that no casino will be sited next to Philadelphia Chinatown. In response to the Board’s ruling, Mary Yee, President of the Chinatown Preservation Alliance, said, “The cynical games that pit neighborhood against neighborhood are over. The Chinatown Preservation Alliance, along with so many other community organizations in Philadelphia, will continue to support the residents of South Philadelphia in their fight against the current Foxwoods casino location. Our position is that no casinos should be located close to any residential neighborhood. And we will continue our efforts to ensure that any casino company entering Philadelphia will pay in full for the costs of gambling addiction prevention and treatment services, any decline in neighborhood quality of life, and increased crime, so that the financially strapped City of Philadelphia and its many citizens who suffer the negative impacts of casino gambling are not left to foot the bill of this predatory industry alone.”
The Chinatown Preservation Alliance (“CPA”) is a not-for-profit corporation organized to preserve, protect and promote the general welfare of and quality of life in the area of the City of Philadelphia commonly known as Chinatown and of the residents, community organizations and institutions, and businesses located there. CPA’s members include individuals, business owners, and non-profit organizations that, among other things, reside in, provide social services in, own property, conduct business, and/or work in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Chinatown. Philadelphia Chinatown has, for approximately 140 years, been a cultural center for ethnic Chinese and other Asian populations in the Philadelphia community. It is a vibrant residential and commercial area that faces geographic constraints, as it tries to grow, due to past and ongoing City development and redevelopment projects, including the Vine Street Expressway and the Convention Center and its subsequent expansion projects.
June 18, 2009 - At their annual awards banquet, the Hunting Park Stakeholders Group, a coalition of residents in the Hunting Park neighborhood of Philadelphia concerned about school-aged children and environmental risks in their community, honored Law Center attorney Adam Cutler and Public Health and Environmental Justice Law Clinic Interns Barbara Mallory Sampat, Mara Jackel, TJ Rafferty, and Michelle Payne for their efforts to help prevent the expansion of a construction and demolition materials recycling plant located close to residential areas and schools in the Hunting Park neighborhood.
The facility had sought a major permit modification from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that would have allowed it to increase its daily processing operations from a maximum of 1500 tons per day to a maximum of 2500 tons per day. The community around the facility already suffers from significant environmental burdens that may have adverse impacts upon the health of residents, including exhaust fumes from trucks entering and exiting this and other industrial facilities and dust emissions from the currently permitted processing operations and stockpiles at this recycling facility. With technical assistance and legal advice from the Clinic, the Stakeholders organized residents in opposition to the proposed expansion of operations and convinced the facility owner not only to abandon plans for increasing the plant's processing volume, but also to re-route its truck traffic away from residential streets.
The community hopes to continue discussions with this facility, and to open up discussions with other facilities in the neighborhood, aimed at improving environmental conditions in Hunting Park.
LAW CENTER ENVIRONMENTAL ATTORNEY PARTICIPATES IN PA-DEP's FIRST STATEWIDE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CONFERENCE
April 27-28, 2009 -- The Law Center's Adam Cutler presented in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's First Environmental Justice conference. The program was geared toward Environmental Justice Community residents, grassroots and community organizations, government officials, academics and anyone interested in learning more about Environmental Justice. Mr. Cutler was a panelist in the program "Legal and Mediation Resources" held on Monday, April 27th.
Conference information:
“Building Healthy & Improved Communities for All”
April 26-28, 2009 at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel
CLINIC APPEALS SUGARHOUSE CASINO SEWAGE PERMIT
November 5, 2008 – The Law Center’s Public Health and Environmental Justice
Legal Clinic, representing a Philadelphia neighborhood association and a
resident of Fishtown, has filed an appeal asking Pennsylvania's Environmental
Hearing Board to overturn a sewer permit in connection with the proposed
development of the SugarHouse Casino. The permit was issued to the City by the
Department of Environmental Protection last month - the casino developer sought
to hook its sanitary sewer system to the city's waste treatment collection
infrastructure in an area that already experiences significant flooding and
basement backups in wet weather. The Law Center’s clients argue, among other
things, that they were deprived of the opportunity to comment on significant
changes to the permit application, that Philadelphia is already out of
compliance with federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines because of
the amount of untreated sewage that goes into the Delaware River during heavy
rains, and that the data presented in the City's permit application is not
sufficient to support the issuance of a permit that would create more capacity
for outflow of untreated waste into the river. The Law Center is co-counsel on
the appeal with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which represents itself and
the Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum.
PlanPhilly.com, “Sugarhouse Sewage
Permit Appealed”
Read the
Appeal
THE LAW CENTER LAUNCHES NEW PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE CLINIC
October 2008 - The Law Center’s environmental practice has entered a new chapter
this fall with the arrival of a new environmental attorney and a partnership
with the Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law to launch a Public Health
and Environmental Justice Legal Clinic – the first of its kind in the
Philadelphia region. The Clinic’s mission is to provide legal and technical
assistance to affected local communities to enforce their environmental rights
and, through impact litigation and other methods of advocacy, to empower local
activists to improve the public and economic health of their communities.
This unique collaboration between the Law Center and Drexel University is an
innovative marriage of the two organizations’ strengths, combined to meet a
pressing need in the community.
Adam H. Cutler, the
Law Center’s new environmental attorney, holds a dual appointment as Director of
the Clinic and as an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University’s School of Law.
Drexel is a leader in providing its students with real world experience through
its rigorous co-op program. The students and Law Center staff will also have
access to experts and resources through the University’s schools; this
capability will be extremely valuable to the Law Center’s environmental clients
as this litigation often hinges on specialized scientific knowledge and
interpretation of detailed environmental data. Ultimately the Clinic will be
staffed by student interns from Drexel’s schools of Law, Engineering, and Public
Health. The Clinic is currently staffed by four interns from the School of Law:
Thomas J. Rafferty (who began his internship over the summer), Michelle S.
Payne, Mara C. Jackal, and Barbara Mallory Sampat. As specific litigation
projects take shape, the staff will expand to include students from the
Engineering and Public Health schools. The students are currently focused on
fact-finding and legal research related to the Clinic’s new projects and policy
research for future advocacy initiatives.
The Law Center’s work in this field has been on hold since the retirement of
attorney Jerry Balter in 2005, though demand from communities throughout
Southeastern Pennsylvania has not diminished. You can
read more about
Jerry’s groundbreaking work below. In its first month the Clinic has
undertaken a number of exciting new initiatives:
The Chester Environmental Partnership – a grassroots organization based in
Chester, PA which seeks to protect the environmental health of the community –
has engaged the clinic to provide environmental and legal advice to address
community concerns over the planned Chester Riverfront Redevelopment project.
The redevelopment project contemplates construction of a stadium for a new
professional soccer team and a mixed use commercial/residential development on
and adjacent to land fouled by historic contamination. The Partnership has been
in contact with the Law Center since before Jerry’s retirement, and we are
pleased that we now have the resources to assist them in obtaining environmental
justice and tangible benefits for the Chester communities bordering the proposed
development.
The Clinic is also advising several community groups around Philadelphia to help
resolve sewage, air quality, waste management and other environmental concerns
raised by redevelopment and by expansion of existing facilities. Further, the
Clinic is meeting with other local and national environmental protection and
environmental justice organizations including PennFuture, the Clean Air Council
and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ DC-based Environmental Justice
Clinic to explore opportunities for collaboration on advocacy for enforcement
and rule-making at the state and federal levels. The Clinic also anticipates
joining the dialogue on climate change, sustainability and green jobs
initiatives in the city of Philadelphia.
LAW CENTER CO-SPONSORS FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION OF LAID TO WASTE - AN
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE DOCUMENTARY
On February 9, 2008, The Law Center joined the Delaware County Alliance for
Environmental Justice and other grassroots organizations to present an
Environmental Justice advocacy event at Widener University. The film "Laid to
Waste" was screened, followed by a panel discussion featuring Mike Ewall of
ActionPA and Energy Justice Network, Delores Shelton and Francis Whittington,
Chester residents and activists, Diane Sicotte of Drexel University Law School,
and David Gibson of the Coalition for Peace Action.
"Laid to Waste," made by Drexel students Robert Bahar and George McCollough in
the late 1990's, centers on the struggles of Chester Residents Concerned for
Quality Living (CRCQL) an organization led by the indomitable Zulene Mayfield,
as they protest the companies that place a disproportionate and severely harmful
burden on the low-income and predominantly minority community of Chester by
bringing in health-threatening waste and pollution. This film is considered,
"the best case study of environmental injustice and racism available on video."
The Law Center's retired environmental justice attorney Jerry Balter is featured
prominently in the film, as he worked closely with CRCQL during his career,
representing the organization in law suits against the companies that polluted
their neighborhoods. Mr. Balter was in attendance and helped fuel the
discussion after the screening.
Read more about the film
The Law Center announced that its distinguished environmental and civil rights attorney
Jerome Balter is retiring from active practice. Balter, 84 years old, joined the Law Center in
1979, shortly after graduating from Rutgers Law School following a first career as a civil
engineer and civil rights activist in Rochester, N.Y.
At the Law Center Balter shaped its urban environmental health and justice project. He was
responsible for drafting and then negotiating the passage of the first "Community Right to
Know" law, which was adopted by the City of Philadelphia. The law gave communities the right
to know what toxic and hazardous chemicals were being stored and used in their community.
The ordinance was passed with the strong assistance of PHILAPOSH, at that time led by Jim
Moran and Rick Engler.
Shortly thereafter Balter shepherded a similar bill through the New Jersey legislature.
Those enactments proved to be the model for approximately 20 other city and state laws. The
Law Center successfully defended the New Jersey legislation in the federal courts against claims
that it was pre-empted by federal OSHA laws which did not give notice to the community.
Because of the impact of differing local provisions, companies which had vigorously opposed
local ordinances then endorsed national legislation which provided uniform disclosure rules.
In the early 19070's Balter was involved in a legal shoot out with the state over the
implementation of automobile exhaust inspection and maintenance to reduce the pollution in
Pennsylvania's air. Although the state had agreed to settle a suit brought by the Law Center to
enforce the clean air act by establishing automobile exhaust inspection and maintenance as part
of
the registration process, the Thornburg administration and the state legislature refused to go
forward with the system. Balter sued to enforce the agreement, and asked District Court Judge
Bechtle to cut off million in federal highway funds in order to coerce compliance. Judge
Bechtle did so, in an opinion which was upheld by the Third Circuit and which the Supreme
Court declined to review. The legislative leaders then obtained a ruling from the state
Commonwealth Court enjoining adoption of any implementing regulations, which the federal
court struck down. Finally, the state vigorously fought payment of any fees, and was successful
in getting the Supreme Court to restrict the payment, despite the District Court's finding that the
efficient and tenacious legal work of Balter to vindicate the public interest warranted a multiplier
for the quality of work.
Balter brought more private Clean Air Act citizen enforcement proceedings than any
other lawyer in the country, successfully forcing the City to clean up and then close its
incinerators. He also brought successful actions to stop hazardous air pollution from the City's
sewage treatment plant, from the Delcora incinerator in Chester, from Philadelphia Coke,
Franklin Smelting, and numerous other polluters. In the course of this work, Balter came to
realize that communities would be willing to allow industrial operations if they could monitor the
emissions and control the enforcement process to assure they were in compliance with best
available technology, but would oppose enforcement left in the hands of bureaucrats and
politicians.
Ironically, the opposition of Balter and many community groups to a huge new
Philadelphia trash incinerator, which was supposed to have been needed in order to cut landfill
costs, eventually saved the city millions of dollars as the price of landfill disposal dropped lower
than incinerator prices throughout the 1990s. As a member of the City's Sewage and Waste
Treatment Advisory Committee Balter was influential in getting the Department of Streets to
take advantage of the declining prices.
In the mid 1990s Balter became a national leader in Environmental Justice as he sought
to remedy the common industrial practice of locating polluting facilities in minority
neighborhoods which had less political clout to keep them from getting the necessary permits
than more affluent and whiter communities. Working with Zulene Mayfield and the Chester
Residents he quickly learned that state courts would not halt environmental polluters at the
request of citizens when Justice Castile told him in open court that the law was whatever the
Justices said it was and overturned a stay of a permit which Balter had won in the lower court.
He then found out that even EPA analysis would not be enough to stop permits when he
instigated the first ever EPA analysis of the cumulative impact of air pollution which they
undertook for the City of Chester. The report found that given the poor health of the City's
residents and the high level of polluting facilities already there, no further permits ought to be
given. Nevertheless, the state DER continued to grant permits in Chester, including one for a
facility licensed to be the largest infectious waste treatment facility in the country, able to handle
more infectious waste than produced in the entire state and designed to serve the entire east
coast.
He then turned to federal courts to enforce the regulations developed by the Robert
Kennedy Justice Department to implement Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
prohibited recipients of federal funds from operating their programs in a manner which would
have a disproportionate racial impact. Balter first brought suit against the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Resources for granting an incinerator permit in the predominately
minority City of Chester, where the state had granted permits for handling two million tons of
waste compared to the rest of the county which was predominately white and which had permits
for only 1,400 tons of waste. The District Court held that claims of disparate impact were not
enforceable. On appeal, with the assistance of Professor Gilbert Carrasco, then of Villanova
Law School, Balter convinced the Third Circuit that the Title VI regulations were enforceable.
While an appeal was pending in the Supreme Court the applicant withdrew its permit request and
the case was vacated as moot.
The next opportunity to assist a minority community arose in Camden, where Balter had
successfully worked to reduce odor violations of the Camden Municipal Utility Authority sewage
treatment plant. St. Lawrence Cement wanted to put a slag grinding plant right in the middle of
the minority community, releasing very small and dangerous particulate matter in an area already
overburdened with significant pollution and dangerous air quality. When New Jersey considered
granting a permit, Jerry persuaded Camden Legal Services which had not been willing to sue on
the sewage treatment plant, to request the state and EPA to deny the permit on the grounds of
disproportionate impact on minorities. When the permit was granted, PILCOP, New Jersey Legal
Services and the Center for Poverty, Race and the Environment sued to halt operation of the
plant. Judge Orlofsky found that New Jersey had never investigated whether there was a Title VI
disparate impact violation and enjoined operation of the plant until they did. Unfortunately the
victory was short lived because the Supreme Court ruled that the regulations could not be
enforced by private parties. The plant began operation; the case continues on the issue, inter alia,
of whether the state had intentionally discriminated in granting the permit.
Balter found a similar situation in connection with the permit granted by Pennsylvania for
an incinerator bringing the trash from predominately white Cumberland and Dauphin counties
into a minority community in Harrisburg. Again the state agency refused to conduct any
investigation, either of the disparate impact or of the steps necessary to ameliorate the impact of
the dangerous ambient levels of very small particulate matter. Balter asked the Environmental
Hearing Board to declare that the state had wrongly failed to investigate the impact of locating
the facility in a minority neighborhood and to investigate the impact of dangerous particulate
matter. Instead the Board dismissed the case on procedural grounds, failing to rule on the issues
presented.
Balter is the drafter of the "Vulnerable Communities Protection" protocol which would
limit new air pollution permits in communities with the greatest existing health problems. The
protocol is designed to avoid the enforcement problems of the Title VI regulations. Developed
by Balter with the research assistance of Lionel Dyson, the protocol is under consideration by the
Advisory Committee on Environmental Justice of the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection.
History of the Environmental Health and Justice
Project
The Law Center has represented successfully community groups seeking to reduce pollution from numerous facilities throughout the region including the Philadelphia Waste Treatment Plant, Northwest Philadelphia Incinerator, Franklin Smelting, Philadelphia Coke, Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, Sun Refinery and the Delcora Waste Treatment Facility. With a neighborhood group, the Law Center forced a demolition waste grinding facility to cease operating in a North Philadelphia neighborhood. In the City of Chester, Pennsylvania, the Law Center stopped a soil remediation plant from opening, ended the operations of an infectious waste treatment facility, and most recently, worked with Local 413 of the Laborers International Union successfully to oppose the use of tire derived fuel in the boilers of a large paper manufacturer. In another recent case in Philadelphia, the Law Center successfully took action against a local chemical plant with a history of air emission violations.
While the Law Center earned its reputation in the field of environmental health and justice through its successful representation and advocacy work on behalf of the residents of countless neighborhoods and grass roots organizations, it has also played a critical role in effectuating change at the policy level by drafting new laws and recommending practices that have improved dramatically urban environments.
In the last ten years, the Law Center innovatively has sought to translate President Clinton's Executive Order on Environmental Justice into concrete reality by challenging the proliferation of polluting facilities in low-income and minority neighborhoods. In Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living v. the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Law Center brought the first civil rights lawsuit in the country charging a state with discriminatory permitting policies. Chester, Pennsylvania is comprised of 40,000 residents, the majority of whom are minorities. Mortality rates in Chester are 40% higher than in the white suburbs and infant mortality rates and low birth rates 100% higher. The case was set to be argued before the Supreme Court when the polluting facility withdrew its permit application.
In 2000, the Law Center filed South Camden Citizens in Action v. the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, a case that received national attention when a District Court judge ruled that the state had violated the civil rights of the residents by failing to investigate the impact of the facility in accordance with EPA regulations. The city, already home to a regional incinerator, a regional sewage treatment plant and two Superfund sites, is comprised of a 91 percent minority population whose residents suffer from some of the worst health problems in the state. This decision was overturned on appeal, however, when the Supreme Court, ruling in a separate matter, eliminated citizen lawsuits to enforce civil rights regulations of this kind. The case continues as we try to show that the failure to investigate was a form of intentional discrimination.
In addition to the Camden case, the Law Center presently is working with minority residents in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to stop a new incinerator in their community. Over 500 persons signed a petition declaring their willingness to intervene in the proceeding, now pending before a state Environmental Hearing Board. The complaint alleges a failure to investigate any environmental justice impact before granting the permit, as well as a failure to consider the impact of very fine (PM-2.5) particulate emissions.
In response to the EPA's historical, lax enforcement of civil rights laws and regulations intended to advance environmental justice by preventing low-income and minority areas from being overburdened with waste and industrial facilities, the Law Center just last year conducted the very first survey of Environmental Justice activities among the 50 State Departments of Environmental Protection. Of the 31 states that responded, only three states had Environmental Justice (EJ) programs and 28 states had none. Under federal civil rights laws, each state annually assures the EPA that its permits do not have a discriminatory impact but the survey reveals that 90 percent of the states have no basis for their assurances.
On a long-term basis, the Law Center seeks to combat the problem of environmental injustice through a public engagement campaign that explores and focuses on the concept of creating health zoning districts based on existing census tract public health data in an effort to protect communities with existing poor health from additional polluting facilities. The Law Center has spent considerable time developing a protocol to identify and protect vulnerable communities with the poorest health in each state. There is an increasing literature that supports the need for protecting these communities, including a recent EPA publication, that speaks to the heightened vulnerability of persons with poor health to pollution assault. The Law Center is continuing to explore public discussion and local legislative adoption where circumstances seem favorable.
With regard to the educational component of this project, the Law Center participates in environmental justice work as a member of the PADEP's Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, as a participant in local, regional and national meetings on environmental justice and as speakers before law schools, high schools and community groups.
