ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE & JOB

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CLEANUP JOBS

The following is a memo that I (Lenny Siegel) prepared today
(November 18, 1994) for the Federal Facilities Environmental
Restoration Dialogue Committee Working Group on Funding
and Priority Setting:

 Though most people think of EJ as overcoming the
disproportionate concentration of people of color around
hazardous waste sites, the issue actually is much broader. It
melds environmental, social, and economic factors in
communities of color and other disadvantaged communities.
Thus, solid environmental justice policies must simultaneously
address the problems of people who have been simultaneously
exposed to environmental and economic inequity.

 To communities of color living near closing or closed
military bases, such as the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in
San Francisco, the goal has been obvious. Local workers and
contractors should receive a significant share of cleanup and
other closure work. In fact, the same demands are emerging at
other military bases, active as well as closing - in the South, in
Alaska, on Indian lands - and near private Superfund sites.

 Unfortunately, little of this work has been available to
members of affected communities. Here, quickly, are four of
the most important reasons.

1. Set-asides and other rules calling for minority or local
contracting are poorly written and miserably enforced.

2. Training programs are not organized or timed to match
actual employment needs.

3. Cleanup work is organized, like construction, in a
sporadic fashion. Blue-collar work in particular does not
provide steady employment, let alone opportunities for career
advancement for entry level workers.

4. Most contracts are awarded regionally or nationally,
minimizing the opportunity for local hiring or contracting with
small, local, or disadvantaged businesses.

 At Hunters Point, we have come up - as part of a larger
program involving training and institution-building within the
African-American community - with two objectives that
directly relate to this working group's mission. In fact,
CAREER/PRO is helping facilitate a meeting on the subject that
brings together the Navy, the City and County of San Francisco,
educational institutions, and representatives of the
Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhoods.

A. The contracting agencies should develop a workplan that
predicts contracting and employment opportunities over the
next two - time subject to discussion - years so training and
community development institutions can make ready the
workforce.

B. To the extent feasible, multiple tasks should be timed to
provide steady employment, not peaks and valleys of
activities.

 For some activities, these objectives are impractical or
conflict with other factors, such as efficiency or weather. Thus
far, no effort has been made to achieve them. I believe they
can, in consultation with the community, be integrated into a
site management plan and the more detailed workplans that
accompany it.