In the community of Wilmington near the Port of Los Angeles, for example, where many residents routinely report dizziness, nosebleeds and headaches, more than 10 industrial facilities, landfills and incinerators - and two dozen oil and gas wells - are projected to routinely flood in the coming decades.Īnd in the South Oxnard and Port Hueneme area alone, there are nine hazardous sites at risk of flooding. Now, he said, he can pull up this map and zoom in on all the hot spots. During presentations to various policymakers, he has always spoken anecdotally about the struggles in Oxnard - and then did his best to link to similar stories he’s seen in other communities across California. Zucker, policy director for the economic and environmental justice group CAUSE, said he never had the data to make his case.
“The vulnerabilities of environmental justice communities to sea level rise have not been front and center in the conversation in a way that it should be.” “We know from past flood events that the wealthy communities are not the ones that suffer the greatest impacts,” Cushing said, pointing to recent disasters in New Orleans and Houston. Voter turnout, unemployment, the percentage of people who actually own their home (or even a car) are also factors indicating how much a community lacks political power, insurance protection and even the ability to evacuate in an emergency. If most of the residents living near a toxic site are not fluent in English, for example, the barriers to understanding the flood risks - and how to advocate for solutions - are far greater. Community organizers also provided insight into which data points to use - beyond race and income - as a measure of social vulnerability.
Throughout this process, they turned to those living in threatened communities for help identifying data gaps.
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