Environmental Justice in East Palo Alto : The Appalling Truth

Before talking about environmental justice in East Palo Alto, let’s define what environmental justice really means. According to the EPA, environmental justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”

Some Background

East Palo Alto is the less wealthy, less white, and less green neighbor of Palo Alto, my hometown. While this city is in San Mateo County, California, in the middle of Silicon Valley where it borders Palo Alto and Menlo Park, it is starkly different from the other cities in its vicinity. In East Palo Alto, Latinx people make up around 61% of the population, 15.6% are Black, 11% are Pacific Islander, 7.2% are Asian, and 7.2% are white, with nearly 17% of the population living below the line of poverty.

If you compare it to Palo Alto where 58.94% of the population is white and only 4.8% live in poverty, there is a massive distinction which set up the issues regarding environmental justice in East Palo Alto.

The Beginning of Environmental Justice in East Palo Alto

In the 60s and 70s, East Palo Alto housed the largest population of African American people in the Peninsula. In the eyes of many people, this made the land of East Palo Alto a permissible place to dump toxins and pollute, regardless of the impact it might have on the people. Unsurprisingly, this area became the home of many hazardous and toxic facilities, including Romic, a hazardous waste treatment facility that started operating in 1964 and leached dangerous chemicals into the soil and groundwater.

In fact, testing has demonstrated that toxins are present in the soil at least 80 feet below the ground surface in this area. Fortunately, this site shut down in 2007 and there were some efforts to clean up and treat the contaminated soil and groundwater with biological treatments, but this is just one example of the many issues relating to environmental justice in East Palo Alto.

While this facility was shut down, there is another threat facing the people of East Palo Alto: air pollution. East Palo Alto is located next to an Amazon office, Facebook’s main headquarters, and a busy highway, leading to lots of traffic in the city. Approximately 80% of which is through traffic, meaning traffic from people whose final destination is not East Palo Alto. This has a worrisome impact on the air quality in East Palo Alto and on the health of residents in the area.

Research has shown that the asthma rate in East Palo Alto is between 2 and 4 times larger than those of Menlo Park and Palo Alto, and frighteningly, the average life expectancy in East Palo Alto is 13 years less than it is in surrounding cities. This issue has been exacerbated by government projects to build highways and freeways throughout the entire country, even if that means disrupting and polluting communities, with no plans to mediate the health repercussions.

My experience

I noticed the issues regarding environmental justice in East Palo Alto through my experience visiting the city (it is located just 5 minutes away from my home). I noticed how different it was to my hometown of Palo Alto and how there are far more cars, fast food places, and industrial facilities, but had never researched this issue or heard people speak about it before.

Quite frankly, there is a huge lack of awareness about environmental justice and how racial injustice is tied together with this issue, and most people I have asked do not even know what environmental justice entails. But at the same time, it has had such a devastating effect on the people of East Palo Alto and in other communities.

What we can do

I volunteer at an organization called the Ecumenical Hunger Program (EHP) that provides aid and essential items to people in need in East Palo Alto, including fresh produce (some are grown in a garden on-site!), food items, clothing, appliances, and bedding. While this does not remedy the issue of pollution and environmental justice in East Palo Alto, it is a way to give back to some of the people who are affected by this injustice and provide healthy fruits and vegetables to those who otherwise would not be able to afford them.

While some organizations are working on addressing the issues regarding environmental justice in East Palo Alto, including pollution and toxic facilities, more directly, there needs to be more action from the government to address the traffic and air pollution issues as well as enforce stricter rules on locations of potentially toxic facilities. Additionally, there needs to be a shift in mindset from surrounding communities like mine from the “Not In Our Backyard” movement, to “Not On Planet Earth”.

If wealthier communities push governments to build hazardous facilities away from their homes, those facilities will simply be built in the backyards of the underprivileged, and it does not make the problem of contamination and pollution go away. It needs to be established that these facilities and other structures that are dangerous to public health either need to be distributed evenly across the country or eliminated to address this climate change and racial injustice.

Sources: 

“East Palo Alto.” Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, greenaction.org/east-palo-alto/. 

“Environmental Justice.” Sierra Club, 1 Nov. 2019, www.sierraclub.org/san-francisco-bay/environmental-justice. 

Leach, Ronald, and Mark Duffy. “Bay Road Holdings LLC (Formerly Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation).” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/ca/bay-road-holdings-llc-formerly-romic-environmental-technologies-corporation. 

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Check out some of other articles regarding climate change and education, including The Single Best Thing YOU Can Do To Help The Planet, Deforestation & AI, and 4 Must-Watch Plant-Based Documentaries!