Abstract

CalEnviroScreen: A mapping tool to identify environmental justice communities in California. How it is used and what type of communities are identified?

Laura August, MPH1, Komal Bangia, MPH2, John Faust, PhD2, Andrew Slocombe, MS3 and Walker Wieland3
(1)Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, CalEPA, Sacramento, CA, (2)Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, CalEPA, Oakland, CA, (3)San Francisco

APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)

Many California communities, including low-income and minority communities, still face disproportionate and cumulative impacts from pollution. To better understand and identify these communities, the Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment, part of the California EPA developed CalEnviroScreen. CalEnviroScreen is an environmental-justice mapping tool used to help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution and have characteristics that make them more vulnerable to pollution. CalEPA uses the tool to identify disadvantaged communities for investment from the State’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in addition to assisting with prioritizing enforcement and cleanup activities. CalEnviroScreen 3.0, released in 2017, is comprised of 20 statewide indicators of pollution burden, such as drinking water quality and cleanup sites and population characteristics, which include health and socioeconomic indicators. The model uses a scoring system to derive a CalEnviroScreen score by averaging indicators of pollution burden and population characteristic for all California census tracts. The overall CalEnviroScreen score is a relative ranking of communities in California from least to most cumulative burden. In this presentation, we describe the tool and its uses in California, demonstrate the mapping tools, and present the results an analysis of race and children with respect to CalEnviroScreen scores. CalEnviroScreen 3.0 does not use indicators of race or children as part of the score, yet these characteristics remain important to examine in the context of disproportionate pollution burden and population vulnerability. Results indicate a clear racial disparity where Latinos and African Americans in California disproportionately reside in highly impacted areas. This finding is even more pronounced for Latino and African American children under 10 years old.

Environmental health sciences Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines Public health or related research