The Energy And Environment

Categories: Energy And Environment Environment Nature Pollution

Essay, Pages 8 (1971 words)

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The first national report on comprehensively documenting the presence of hazardous wastes in racial and ethnic communities throughout the United States bought out a challenge that alarmingly needs for the EPA's intervention for a diplomatic resolution. The most exciting captures of this study were when establishing the locality of commercial hazardous waste facilities; race proved to play an essential part in the location of these dangerous sites. It was with this study, which commenced over thirty years ago, a benchmark of environmental equity began.

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This study also leaves a great question about the progression of policy integration of land use planning that mitigate ecological discrimination.

Given concurrent instances and compelling examples of, today, have we progressed considering your Flint, Michigans, Carolinas, and Louisianians? Washington, DC, is unique because its land-use comprises of both District (local) and Federal land. Therefore, when considering restructuring and alternative land use options that ensure a more inclusive city, planners must consider the amount of land that belongs to the District vs.

the Federal government. Because we only have full jurisdiction over local area planning, the potential of land use scarcity is high when justifying the city's landfills and waste storing future policy creation within its comprehensive plan.

The end may result in a potential planning problem for the Department of Planning, Office of Zoning and the Department of Energy and Environment when, for example, ensuring toxic waste dumping sites are not solely in distressed predominately people of color neighborhoods. According to the current comprehensive plan, distressed communities are in locations where predominantly African American families reside.

The comprehensive plan also acknowledges that wards six, seven, and eight, the District's predominantly African American neighborhoods are currently mostly industrial centered, including wetlands and large open spaces, marinas, power plants, housing, commercial centers, and industry.

Today, when considering what makes a good and effective land-use plan, the element of environmental policy integration is often 'strategically' missing. Without considering the environmental sustainability for all neighborhoods, the health of a city is at risk. The Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) principle agreed upon in several international and E.U. commitments is receiving the attention of more urban planning scholars. The EPI phenomenon is underresearched, and in many countries, its implementation, particularly subnationally as in urban planning, is hindered by organizational and administrative weaknesses.

Here is the good news! Blog Destination DC outlines in an online article the top five things that make Washington, DC a sustainable city by highlighting that the 'District was the first of more than 100 cities globally to achieve a Platinum Rating in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Cities Certification in 2017, in part due to the city having the most LEED-certified buildings in the U.S., according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).' The question is, where are these buildings being built?

Historically, the District has been a “green” city since 1971 when the L’Enfant Plan used natural landscaping as a guide for developing our road systems and buildings. Today, the city's sustainable normality has challenges due to its rapid goal of urbanization. I can remember my first semester in graduate school at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), Connecticut Avenue being greener filled with more canopy trees. Today, that same community comprises of more residential and businesses with plans of expansion. Again, green buildings are far more prevalent in these neighborhoods versus the city's wards seven and eight.

The purpose of this case study is to thoroughly show the progression of Washington, DC's environmental policies within the city's comprehensive land-use plan. Does the city's plan include specified strategies that would ban or redirect hazardous storing, promote air quality, or ensure contaminated site rehabilitation for positive use? Does the program ensure quality and sustainable living for all or only in areas of low-distress and less minority make-up? Because of the rapid stride to gentrification, does the full plan address incorporating policies that ensure high distress locations keeping and sustaining its originality. At the same time, generational residents are given opportunities to enjoy a healthier and sustainable living space?

The goal is to understand how vital equitable environmental policy integration for land use purposes can be as it fosters ecological justice increasing community resilience by decreasing contamination exposure in low-income, people of color areas. This paper will examine both the city’s land use and environmental protection plans and determine its current and potential future effectiveness. Additionally, it will provide recommendations based on analyzing the plan, historical and current research, and appropriate data. What does Literature Say About Environmental Policy Integration and Land Use Planning?

The literature on environmental policy integration addresses both characteristics of a sustainable community (References) and the benefits of having an ecologically conscious comprehensive plan (references). A city classifying itself as environmentally conscious has a comprehensive plan that a least addresses policy and programs for water quality control, toxic waste management, climate change mitigation, air pollution enforcement, and green infrastructure. For example, a large water area and a high length of coastline can expect to imply that the status of waters is relatively more important to local citizens because of the potentially more significant role of water quality in the provision of recreational and amenity benefits. Brockwell and Elofsson concludes that low water quality, large water area, and a high length of coastline would increase the propensity of municipalities to implement local environmental policies.

Washington, DC's body of water make-up, consists of both the Potomac and Anacostia. Both have had pollution problems since the urbanization of the city. Currently in the District has a plan of protecting and restoring its wetlands ecosystems by increasing the acreage of wetlands along the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers by 50%. Although there has been significant progress on environmental land use integration in the U.S. and internationally, the automated thought of incorporating a sound ecological policy within land-use plans are still budding. With the world rapidly urbanizing, with the U.N. projecting that this will increase by 65% by 2050, to accommodate this growth, a resilient city that sustains itself is vital. Urban planners should look at land use planning from an eco-socio lens, ensuring that a city's future land use promotes the enduring security of environments, ecosystems, and communities.

Proper land-use planning ensures that all natural space development is sustainable for all neighborhoods. The benefit of an environmentally conscious plan is because we have consistently seen what a city ends to becoming without one. A town that plagued with toxic emission, water pollution, building decay, and unhealthy residents due to toxin waste dumping and food deserts could benefit immensely from a robust, sustainable plan for all. The literature also depicts that while many applications address implementing project-level environmental assessments, comparatively little research has occurred to determine how to incorporate strategically critical environmental impacts into local comprehensive land use planning. Let’s consider hazardous mitigation.

Godschalk, Kaiser, and Berke identify a mitigation plan as a statement of intent. It states aspirations, principles of action, and often specific courses of action the community intends to follow to achieve those aspirations. The social component of land use planning comprises a level of importance people give land use provisions. Specifically, when planners must consider the effect sustainable living will have on those communities that lack access. The fundamental idea of sustainability and its social value of those residents of at-risk populations are frequently not prioritized. If there is choice importance, economic stability will win over sustainable living every time. As a result, the most at risk of hazards are the poor. This group is most likely to live in hazardous areas because they cannot afford better, safer land.

Situations such as this create a critical need for planners to understand how to conduct environmental assessments to develop and implement a strategic eco-friendly comprehensive land-use plan successfully. When ensuring a sustainable community for all, local land use planning and zoning decisions have always played an essential role in influencing environmental justice challenges. Almanza suggests that “zoning and land use planning have been described by some scholars as not only “a root enabling cause of disproportionate burdens [and] environmental injustice,” but also “the most fundamental and potentially most powerful of the legal weapons deployed in the cause of racism.” America’s history of land use planning and zoning supports the explanation of how this unequal distribution of environmental burdens began in the first place, and why these historical patterns have been the source of many environmental justice problems that confront people-of-color or low-income communities today.”

So today, where are we? Far along, but we still have ways to go with ensuring our Federal and local governments take responsibility in creating a robust environmental comprehensive land-use plan. Washington, DC’s Land Use Plan: Environmentally Resilient & Equitable? Criteria associated with internal quality apply to each of the four essential components of a plan: issues and vision statement; fact base; goal and policy framework; and plan proposals, including spatial designs, implementation, and performance monitoring. The District’s idea of moving towards more form-based codes versus the regular zoning updates shows the city's forward-thinking approach to ensuring that the city is inclusive, livable, and sustainable.

Policy LU-1.3.3: Housing around Metrorail Stations Recognize the opportunity to build senior housing and more affordable “starter” housing for first-time homebuyers adjacent to Metrorail stations, given the reduced necessity of auto ownership (and related reduction in household expenses) in such locations. 306.12 is an example of the city's goal of decreasing air pollution due to transportation emission. Environmental hazards like hazardous waste facilities, fossil fuel storage, and transportation sites, and other polluting industrial facilities are disproportionally located in communities of color and low-income communities. The District's facilities alike are near high distressed residential neighborhoods. In the plan, it identifies the city's Industrial Land Use study initiative in 2005 to look at rezoning these facilities.

It acknowledges effects of Industrial-Type Public Works Facilities have on the environment with of these land uses have on residents via policy LU-3.1.6: performance standards (such as noise, odor, and other environmental controls), minimum distance requirements, and other regulatory and design measures to ensure the compatibility of industrial-type public works facilities such as trash transfer stations with surrounding land uses. Improve the physical appearance and screening of such uses and strictly regulate operations to reduce the incidence of land use conflicts, especially with residential uses. Washington, DC, is one of twelve cities whose land-use proactive planning and targeting land-use plan for future development efforts. Currently, DC is going through a plan amendment to include and overall strategic plan on the current land use and city-wide policy.

The city's land-use plan includes benchmarks the municipality has established intending to protect communities from disproportionate exposure to hazardous materials, emission, etc. as the city grows. This is an example of proactive planning- when cities and other localities can envision future development and proactively work towards that vision. There is usually the strategic development of a comprehensive plan, overlay zones, and green zones that explicitly aim to address environmental justice. This strategy to achieving ecological justice focuses on future development, growth, institute new standards, target investment, and attract beneficial, like-minded events. Another initiative that is present during the process of adopting an environmental justice policy is targeting existing land uses.

This idea becomes a reality when municipalities, seeking to address existing land uses that disproportionately impact disadvantaged communities, create mechanisms through targeted mitigation efforts like the implementation of buffer zones, phasing out of harmful area uses that no longer conform to the existing code or extenuation of hazards through code enforcement. In Washington's effort to target, the city's Department of Energy and Environment is leading the nation's environmental justice efforts by ensuring that all D.C. citizens receive equal protection under environmental laws. This agency enforces specific environmental laws like vehicle idling to protect the city from air pollution.