Managing and Reducing Risk: Vulnerable Populations in a Vulnerable Environment

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Managing and Reducing Risk Vulnerable
Populations in a Vulnerable Environment

• Nicholas Targ, Esq.
• Associate Director
• Office of Environmental Justice
• targ.nicholas_at_epa.gov

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A human face on risk and vulnerability
Legal authorities
Cases and implications
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Conclusions and Take Away
Socio-economic factors affect the likelihood
and intensity of risks and impacts.
Environmental decisions increasingly account
for populations vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilit
y relates both to equity and efficiency
considerations.
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EPAs Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment
Identifying Vulnerabilities

• Susceptibility/Sensitivity
• Differential Exposure
• Differential Preparedness
• Differential Ability to Recover

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Vulnerability Susceptibility/Sensitivity
A population may be susceptible or sensitive to a
stressor if it faces an increased likelihood of
sustaining an adverse effect due to a life state
Pregnant Young Old Impaired immune
system
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Vulnerability Differential Exposure
A population can be vulnerable because it
Lives, works, plays, or goes to school near a
source of pollution or other hazard Faces
unique exposure pathways.
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Vulnerability Differential Preparedness
Populations ability to cope with or respond to
impacts poverty literacy
transportation infrastructure
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Vulnerability Differential Ability to Recover
Population less able to recover from an
environmental insult or stressor insurance
financial resources health care
social capital
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Vulnerability Considerations Regulatory Decisions
Permitting CAA Alternatives Analysis, 42 U.S.C.
173
Standard Setting, CWA Ambient Water Criteria 33
U.S.C. 1314
Environmental Review, NEPA 42 U.S.C. 4321
Enforcement, Environmental Justice Smart
Enforcement Assessment Tool
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Agency Actions and Legal Authorities
In the Matter of Rhino Environmental Services,
117 P.3d 939 (NM August 2006). Bakersfield
Citizens for Local Control, 22 Cal. Rptr. 3d 203
(Cal. App. 5th 2004). Communities Against
Runway Expansion v. FAA, U.S. App. LEXIS 1403
(CADC Jan. 30, 2004). Miller v. City of
Dallas, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2341 (N.D. Tex.
2002).
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A Lament or a Harbinger of Things to Come?
Any property may now be taken for the benefit
of another private party, but the fallout from
this decision will not be random. The
beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens
with disproportionate influence and power in the
political process As for the Victims, the
government now has license to transfer property
from those with fewer resources to those with
more. The Founders cannot have intended this
perverse result. Kelo v. City of New London, 125
S.Ct. 2655, 2667 (2005) (OConnor, J. dissenting)
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Trends
Socio-economic factors affect the likelihood
and intensity of risks and impacts.
Environmental decisions increasingly account
for populations vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilit
y relates both to equity and efficiency
considerations.
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Conclusions
Authority is available to consider
vulnerabilities Decisions have an equity as well
as efficiency component Answers not easy and
frequently involve hard choices