Maryland
Commentary: The General Assembly’s Missed Opportunity to Advance Environmental Justice in Maryland – Maryland Matters
By James Duffy, Adam Fetian, Hannah Krehely, Shane Ardinger, Spencer Baldacci, Anne Clevenger, Brandon Hsu, and Cameron Luzarraga
The writers are members of the College of Baltimore’s Environmental Regulation Society.
This previous September, Baltimore Metropolis issued an all-too-familiar boil water advisory to residents of West Baltimore, a area of the town with traditionally and predominantly Black communities. A possible E. coli publicity meant residents needed to boil their faucet water for at the least a minute earlier than consumption. Months after the contamination incident, residents stay involved concerning the water high quality. Water contamination because of infrastructure failure or poor municipal oversight have turn into a typical prevalence, particularly in communities of coloration in America for the reason that Flint water disaster. Not solely will public and environmental well being degrade as these situations proceed, however so will public belief in municipal management.
The precise reason for the September contamination incident stays unknown. Native officers have sought solutions, pointing preliminary concern in direction of the position of municipal building and different infrastructure-related actions. As local weather change exacerbates present inequalities and will increase the pressures confronted by infrastructure, residents will expertise extra frequent boundaries to useful resource entry with out knowledgeable coverage efforts.
How can we act immediately to reduce these seemingly inevitable occurrences?
This legislative session, the Maryland Normal Meeting thought-about however did not go a decision that might have sought options to daunting public well being and environmental challenges. Home Joint Decision 1 would have spurred the legislature to reaffirm the basic aim of a statute generally known as the Maryland Environmental Coverage Act (or MEPA), which they handed fifty years in the past.
The decision represents members of the legislature’s push for the newly-elected Moore administration to make sure that all company decision-making happens successfully, transparently, and in full consideration of potential antagonistic penalties to public and environmental well being.
MEPA, handed in 1973, initially sought to guard every particular person’s “basic and inalienable proper to a healthful atmosphere” by requiring state companies to arrange “environmental results report[s]” on “every proposed State motion considerably affecting the standard of the atmosphere.” Very similar to the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act (NEPA), MEPA shouldn’t be self-implementing and companies are required to undertake their very own evaluation strategies.
The legislature considerably restricted “proposed State motion,” the set off for MEPA evaluation, to solely “requests for legislative appropriations.” Which means that company actions just like the issuance of licenses, permits, and finalized rulemaking all fall exterior MEPA’s mandate to think about environmental results. In observe, this has meant almost all state company choices with the potential to impression human and environmental well being don’t obtain MEPA evaluation.
As a result of this all-too-narrow definition, the Normal Meeting has did not implement MEPA’s basic coverage of “safety, preservation, and enhancement of the State’s numerous atmosphere.” One narrowed statutory definition has rendered MEPA functionally ineffective.
HJ1 would have allowed the legislature to recommit to MEPA’s coverage aim. By giving MEPA the enamel it has misplaced since 1973, this decision and future amendments to MEPA might have ignited a extra detailed evaluation course of for allow issuance that would forestall environmental injustices like water provide contamination. Underneath a heightened evaluation course of, state companies can be required to extra intently scrutinize the potential impacts of their choices on human well being and the atmosphere. Extra detailed evaluation might additionally create clearer authorized avenues to deal with environmental injustices by offering residents a path to holding companies accountable. MEPA’s present implementation strips from our affected communities of their proper to a wholesome atmosphere by eradicating accountability.
Given the Moore administration’s early motion to deal with local weather change and environmentally skilled Cupboard picks, insurance policies like these behind HJ1 appear politically viable. Nonetheless, the decision did not make it out of the Guidelines and Government Nominations Committee.
The stress is on for the Normal Meeting. They possess the ability to outline whose pursuits are thought-about in Maryland’s governmental decision-making course of. Constituents from all corners of the state ought to take into account advocating to their representatives within the Normal Meeting to mandate a better evaluation of the selections which have the potential to in any other case contaminate our water provides or restrict our entry to pure sources.
We consider that each Marylander’s pursuits in clear water and wholesome ecosystems are greater than worthy of consideration. In the event you agree, contact your representatives and urge them to help future legislative efforts geared toward actualizing each Marylander’s proper to a healthful atmosphere.