Environmental Justice is the concept that every person is entitled to equal environmental protection under the law: ECO-EQUITY—which includes the right to be free from ecological destruction and the assurance that environmental burdens are fairly distributed, as well as providing equal access to environmental goods. Environmental Justice refers to the need to prevent the disproportionate impacts of pollution that are all too often borne by communities of color and residents of economically disadvantaged areas. For example, power plants and industrial facilities are frequently sited in poor communities, or traffic is routed through them.
Clearwater partners with grassroots community leaders along the Hudson Valley corridor to identify environmental inequities and empowers underserved communities to take effective action. In collaboration with community partners, Clearwater has implemented a Climate Justice Initiative in four Hudson Valley cities of Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, and Peekskill, each of which have waterfronts vulnerable to sea-level rise along their shorelines, to assess potential environmental, economic, public health, and safety impacts of climate change on communities of color and low income
In 2010, the Peekskill Environmental Justice Council completed the Peekskill Community-Based Environmental Justice Inventory (CBEJI).
Click here to view the report.
Click on the links below to read articles about Clearwater’s Environmental Justice efforts:
“Advancing Environmental Justice: Clearwater’s 2010 Angler Survey”
Clearwater Navigator, Fall 2010/Winter 2011, page 13
“Advancing Environmental Justice and Empowering Youth”
Clearwater Navigator, Spring 2009, page 18
“Environmental Justice in the Hudson Valley”
Clearwater Navigator, Winter 2008, page 16, 17
