ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE is involved with a number of interrelated issues through representation and/or advocacy, some of which include:
Air Quality
Canadian Forest Fire Smoke deluge : NYC’s air quality ranked worst of any major city on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 see NYC Public Advocates Report: Orange Sky, Red Alert: A Review of Air Quality Emergencies in NYC . Unfettered and mismanaged construction emitting deleterious PM2.5 into adjoining buildings and neighborhoods.
Water Rights
Access to clean water is one of the most important environmental and social issues of our era, marked by climate change and decaying infrastructure. It is an underlying theme in many cases and controversies, spanning many sites and sources of contamination. EJI/NYELJP is engaged in ongoing work with in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, as well as in Lawrence County, Alabama, and here in New York ( NYCHA housing developments).
Lead
Now that nine public officials have been criminally charged over the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, public attention is beginning to turn to the critical importance of clean water and a government accountable for providing it. As many as 10 million lead pipes are still in use despite the 1986 congressional ban. In a recent investigation by The Guardian, less than 10% of responding U.S. cities had followed EPA guidelines for water testing, with many using multiple methods to “cheat” tests.
NYCHA Public Hosusing
Smith Houses Resident Association – Remediation of the Hurricane Sandy devastation continues. Mismanagement of $85 million contract causes critical tree loss and exposure to toxins by a vulnerable population that suffered from the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster. At RIIS Houses, residents and staff face deleterious chronic exposure to re-suspended lead//arsenic tainted soils.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC: positive cases are on the rise.
GAZA – major health crisis including spread of water borne diseases.
More information on MTBEs and PFOA/PFOS, among others, to come.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE - New York Environmental Law & Justice Project - 