EJ & enforcement in LA

[Bob Hersh <bhersh@cpeo.org>]

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FYI
The article below describes an environmental justice initiative in Los
Angeles.  The initiative is intended to promote more responsive and
effective environmental enforcement and compliance in the city's most
disadvantaged communities.   Put simply, the guiding idea is that a team
of experts from different agencies in the city works with community
members to identify and address specific environmental concerns.
According to the article, the team then carries out a single, complete
inspection of the suspected polluter, using a multi-media approach.
After gathering the appropriate information, the team confers to decide
what its next action ought to be: further inspections, civil litigation
or criminal prosecution. 

If anyone on the listserve is familiar with this initiative please post
to the listserve to let the rest of us know how it's being implemented.
Also does anyone know if  a similar approach to environmental
enforcement in EJ communities has been tried in other cities?  The
article follows below.

Thanks
Bob Hersh


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New Dem of the Week: Rocky Delgadillo
City Attorney, Los Angeles
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=252689&subid=117&kaid=104

Since taking office in 2001, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo
has earned a reputation for being both a tough prosecutor and an
innovative reformer. His Neighborhood Prosecutors Program, for example,
has successfully brought the city's prosecutors and police department
together with members of the community to empower neighborhood groups to
improve their own public safety and quality of life. Community
prosecution works proactively, not only responding to crimes but also
preventing them before they occur. The initiative has proven successful
in cities across the nation. And recently, in LA it has been honed to
specifically target the city's growing gang epidemic. 

Now Delgadillo has taken another creative step. This spring he announced
the creation of Los Angeles's Environmental Justice Enforcement and
Compliance Team (EJECT), modeled on the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program.
The new effort aims to combat serious environmental crimes that plague
some of Los Angeles's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. EJECT targets
the growing crisis of rampant urban industrial pollution by combining
myriad inspections, criminal prosecution, civil litigation, and most
importantly constant community input. The Team works by coordinating the
tasks of over 30 environmental protection groups from the federal,
state, county and local levels. It is the first of its kind for any
municipal law-enforcement agency. 

"We established the Environmental Justice Unit to be proactive, much
like our Neighborhood Prosecutor Program, and fix the conditions that
lead to environmental atrocities before there is a problem." Delgadillo
said. "In our experience, the communities that need this kind of support
are often those without a voice in government." 

The old system was largely ineffective, and especially unhelpful for
those on the margins of society -- those in poverty or new immigrants to
the nation -- who are unlikely to lodge official complaints when they
are affected by pollution. Previously, various city agencies would wait
for specific complaints from residents. If enough complaints came in,
one of LA's many agencies, from the Sanitation Department to the Water
Works, would show up for an inspection. Often different groups would
pursue their own inspection and enforcement schedules, sometimes
overlapping and sometimes rendering their work redundant. And follow-up,
from continued inspections to criminal prosecution, was inconsistent.
For both the city and many of its businesses, the excess bureaucracy and
uncertainty had become costly. Meanwhile, many more polluters continued
their dangerous practices unchecked. 

Delgadillo's new program establishes a new model. And Los Angeles, the
nation's second most populous city, has been an appropriate place to lay
that foundation. Large portions of the city are highly industrial, and
many are seeing new, quickly growing residential populations arise in
their midst. Wilmington, a neighborhood near the city's port, has acre
after acre of oil refineries. You can visit Sun Valley for the many auto
dismantlers and landfills, South LA for the chrome plating facilities,
and MacArthur Park for the large-scale dry cleaners. Among the many safe
businesses are a handful of egregious polluters. 

Now under the umbrella of Delgadillo's EJECT program, a team of experts
from almost 30 different agencies works closely with community members
to identify and address specific concerns. The team then carries out a
single, complete inspection of the suspected polluter, using a
multi-media approach -- that is, they consider water, air, and earth,
all possible sites of pollution, at once. After gathering the
appropriate information, the team confers to decide what its next action
ought to be: further inspections, civil litigation or criminal
prosecution. Often, the coordinated inspection inspires immediate
straightforward compliance. The pollution stops, further action is
unnecessary, and Delgadillo's office counts another victory. 

For Delgadillo, the program is grounded in a desire to both serve the
needs of LA's residents and make it possible for clean businesses to
lawfully coexist with those residents. The streamlined approach makes
enforcement more effective, and benefits businesses through its less
interruptive, all-in-one inspection approach. 

"The environmental justice project takes full advantage of limited
resources to benefit the underserved neighborhoods of Los Angeles."
Delgadillo said. It's a classic New Democrat approach to developing
innovative solutions: "The synergy produced by multiple agencies working
together will allow us to provide more service at less cost."

Bob Hersh
Brownfields Program Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO)
1101 Connecticut Ave., NW  Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20036

Tel:     202.452.8043
Fax:    202.452.8095
email:  bhersh@cpeo.org
url:      www.cpeo.org
 

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