South Fulton neighbors collaborate on study to solve environmental pollution problems – WABE

“This is the first time since I was born that I’ve lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, and there’s something different here,” Boone said.

She lives not far from Brianna McGeehan, who loves South Fulton’s progressive leadership and policies.

“Honestly, I think I live in the most exciting place in Georgia,” McGeehan said. I also like my neighbors very much.

However, they have a problem.

Boone, McGeehan and their neighbors all live within a half-mile of warehouses, major industrial facilities and freight train stations. They are concerned about pollution in their communities and the long-term effects it may have on their health.

on the ground

Boone stood on the side of the road near a major intersection where she said 18-wheelers rumbled down the hill all day long. There is a train station next to it.

She said the intersection is a perfect example of what she and her neighbors have been talking about.

We had warehouses and food factories behind us with smoke coming out of them. “So you can see the flooding, you can see the trucks, the husks of the trucks,” Boone said over the ding of incoming trains.

Trains, 18-wheelers and factories produce large amounts of small particle air pollution, which can easily enter the lungs and even affect heart health. Such industrial activities can also bring hazardous chemicals into nearby areas.

Because of this, neighbors want to know whether surrounding industrial facilities are harming their health and which ones they should be most concerned about.

Neighbor Drew DeMan said he feels environmental and health concerns are taking a back seat to business growth in local zoning decisions and statewide regulations.

“We’re in Georgia, which is, quite literally, a business-friendly state,” he said. I mean, that’s part of the deal.

So Boone, McGeehan, Deman and several of their family members and neighbors created the South Side Environmental Justice Alliance (SEJA) through Emory University’s Shahid DuBois Community Grants Program to Learn more and become a voice for their community.

But they need technical help and training to analyze nearby contamination and communicate the results to leadership. To do this, they are partnering with local nonprofit advocacy organization Science for Georgia, which combines community training with new and improved data tools to equip community groups like SEJA.

Data is important

“There’s a lot of environmental justice mapping out there, right?” said Amy Sharma, Georgia’s executive director for science.

What her team is doing is making it easier for people to view relevant data.

Georgia Science’s new maps include the location of hazardous waste sites, landfills and Superfund sites, but they also include demographic and socioeconomic data. Sharma said this is unlike other similar efforts.

When we talk about this, the most important things keep coming up [environmental justice] Things are cumulative effects, right?

The problem, she said, stems from the fact that much of this information is already cataloged, but they are considered individually.

But these islands only exist on paper. Sharma explained that neighbors in communities surrounding pollution-discharging facilities need to consider all types of emissions because, at the end of the day, they are still breathing and exposed to the entire environment.

If there’s a factory in your county and it’s running well and performing well, that’s cool, right?

But if this hypothetical community had five factories, and all of them emitted just the right amount of air pollutants allowed by the government, which is often the case, it would cause trouble, Sharma said.

Then you go beyond the limits of the community, says Sharma.

Sharma said all these facilities, which may produce hazardous pollutants, have emission permits from the government. The Georgia Department of Environmental Protection calculates these amounts, and there is a set cap on the amount of air or other types of pollutants that each facility can emit per day, month and year within a community.

Georgia Science is creating layered maps to provide a more complete picture of contamination. Sharma says they’re not reinventing the wheel: The data is publicly available from government agencies like the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But taking them together adds important context to the outsized impact of pollution on certain communities, often low-income communities and communities of color.

However, Sharma said numbers can only go so far. Her team also trains community groups on how to interpret data, request government documents and communicate their concerns to local officials.

Sharma said this is where the rubber really meets the road.

“This is where you have to roll up your sleeves and take action community by community,” she said, adding that communities have many types of environmental pollution problems and varying levels of pollution.

Georgia Scientific is working with other communities around Atlanta to complete this process and advocate for environmental justice.

Sharma said that in some communities, people already know where the contamination is coming from.

“They were like, please don’t collect more data, just do something about it,” Sharma said. But they need help organizing and advocating to those in power.

However, for other communities, these problems are not as obvious as illegal dumping or clogged sewers, and this is where research and advocacy that showcases the problem to policymakers can really make a difference.

In South Fulton, SEJA’s Yvonne Boone said she and her neighbors are still collecting data.

“I would say, I mean, I was completely out of my comfort zone, but something needed to be done,” Boone said.

Boone said her group, through Georgia Science, created an educational pamphlet for neighbors highlighting the contamination they found in the community and recent violations of environmental laws by local facilities. It also includes information on how to learn more, how to join SEJA, and how to connect with local leaders to advance policies that protect human health in the region.

She said because at the end of the day, they love this community and it’s worth fixing any problem rather than moving away.