New Environmental Justice Mapping Tool Developed Under Gov. Cooper’s Executive Order

By Brianna Kraemer
Carolina Journal

An executive order signed by Gov. Roy Cooper last year set in motion an environmental justice initiative across North Carolina, including a mapping program currently in development that displays layers of “injustices” impacting areas of North Carolina. 

As part of Executive Order 292, the Environmental Justice Advisory Council has developed a statewide environmental justice mapping tool to provide information about environmental justice issues that enables individuals to assess disparities or inequities associated with that data.

Called the NC Environmental Justice Hub, the interactive map pulls data primarily from the census; the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s community mapping system and environmental justice tool; the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ environmental health data dashboard; and the NC Department of Transportation’s Environmental Justice and Transportation Disadvantage Index. 

According to a video from NCDOT, “environmental justice means equal access to a healthy environment for all,” which requires “meaningful involvement in decision-making that affects our health, well-being, and environment.”

Critics of the environmental justice movement, as part and parcel of the social justice movement, worry its racial predicates have more to do with advancing woke ideologies than achieving cleaner air and water.

On Tuesday, program leaders provided information to the public during a Zoom training session. Council member Courtney Woods, an Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Master of Public Health Program Director at UNC Chapel Hill, instructed users on how to use the mapping tool and received feedback from the audience, of which multiple were from government agencies. 

“One of the charges within Executive Order 292 on advancing environmental justice in North Carolina involved creating this EJ hub and mapping tool,” explained Courtney Woods, whose work has concentrated on environmental health solutions, health equity, social justice, and human rights. “The tool is really designed to provide North Carolina citizens, agencies, organizations, researchers, and others with information on environmental justice issues in the state, across the state, and in a way that’s data-driven, and that will allow us to understand disproportionate impacts and cumulative impacts.”

The data is categorized at the top across seven different categories, including climate stressors, demographics, environmental, health, supporting data, and transportation. The map has over 100 data layers to filter, such as poverty levels, households with no car, inactive hazardous sites, and the prevalence of certain health conditions. Under the environmental tab, it shows the projected difference in extreme heat and precipitation days between 2036 and 2099 and the reference period (1976-2005) under high and low emissions scenarios.

Under Section 10 of Cooper’s executive order, Cabinet agencies may use the Mapping Tool in permitting policy actions and agency programs to the furthest extent permissible by law. This includes using the map when considering environmental regulatory permitting and other actions, evaluating grant awards and other incentives, and considering energy, utility, and transportation infrastructure projects.

“This map’s use of the phrase “Environmental Justice” encourages the user to consider that any variations among a host of factors selected for tracking are actually not the result of random chance, but instead based in discriminatory intent,” commented Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation. “This approach would be merely unfortunate and prejudicial were it not for the fact that the governor’s order would allow it to be used for permitting decisions, policy actions, and agency programs. In that case, it would be lame stab at applying a gloss of objectivity over what would clearly be arbitrary and capricious decision-making.”

Public feedback on the prototype is welcomed in a series of public forums, including virtual demo meetings held every Tuesday in August. Several more community meetings are planned for the coming weeks.

In addition to the mapping tool, Cooper’s executive order authorizes the Council to identify funding opportunities that advance environmental justice principles and also requires state agencies to develop and track goals to improve environmental justice in North Carolina.