What makes this an environmental justice issue?

In 2018, the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Task Force chose the City of Pomona for a “focused environmental enforcement and regulatory compliance initiative” (Pomona Initiative Report, p.2).  In this report the “pollution burden indicators,” according to CalEnviroScreen, which is a mapping tool used by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to identify communities within the state that are most impacted by pollution.  It was estimated that in the City of Pomona, the “total pollution burden compared to other areas in California, is estimated to be at the 92nd percentile, meaning only 8% of areas in California have a higher cumulative pollution burden” (p.5).  

For years residents have been concerned with the lack of oversight and enforcement of the industrial zones within the city’s boundaries, and the lack of regard for both local and state regulations when it comes to the environment.  These calls for action by its residents have gone largely unheard, and more importantly unanswered.  The toxic odors that these large industrial facilities emit, the plumes of smoke, and the contamination of the air, land, and water, have been ignored by the City’s government for far too long.  According to the Environmental Justice Task Force, the “EJ Task Force’s enforcement and compliance target area falls in the 88th percentile for the number of facilities with a potential for toxic releases, meaning that only 12 percent of other areas in California have more facilities that have potential for toxic releases” (Pomona Initiative Report, p.16).

Underprivileged groups and communities, like St. Joseph’s of Pomona, who have been adversely affected by the lack of oversight or general negligence by government agencies in charge of overseeing hazardous waste sites and those corporations which put profit over people are at the heart of any environmental justice issue.