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Kedric Payne: So I’m in Memphis, Tennessee where I grew up with my father, and we’re
going down this road that we rarely traveled because it really didn’t go too many places.
And we’re going there and it ends right at a park.
And he said, “This is the ‘Highway to Nowhere.’”
And I soon learned that the issue was that, this was not just a dead end road; this really
represented the uprooting of a community to him.
That road was Interstate 40.
When it was constructed in the late 1960s it went through Nashville where
my father went to college.
And he recalled that they built the road through a minority community -- even though there
was a lot of opposition to building that road directly through a community.
And clearly what you’d think would happen, happened.
You had many families displaced, you had businesses that ended up suffering, and then for the
people who were brave enough to just stay there, their homes were just in direct proximity
to this highway.
But when it got to Memphis, Tennessee, there was a lot of opposition -- again -- but, this
time not about a minority community, but about this park.
The city zoo was in the park and people did not want the animals to be displaced, and
they did not want the animals to be subjected to air pollution.
So the road was rerouted.
As a result, you have resentment that goes generations
that not only is for those folks who were there at that time
but years later they will continue to distrust those who made such a decision
and feel as though they don't count.
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Suzi Ruhl: Environmental Justice has historically been about the fair treatment and the meaningful
involvement of minority, low-income, and tribal populations in government decisions across
the spectrum of those government decisions – whether it’s permitting, whether it’s rule making,
whether it’s environmental reviews.
The National Environmental Policy Act is an important statute that is really meeting the
heart of the Environmental Justice concerns, which relate to making sure those people who
are affected by particular actions are part of the decision-making process.
We created a NEPA committee comprised of the members of the federal family.
And we embraced the notion that we were a community of practice that we all brought
something to the table.
Chris French: The National Environmental Policy Act is critical for us because it is that
place where we’re able to clearly describe and disclose why we’re making the decisions
we’re making, what sort of thinking we've put behind those, what’s informed those
decisions, and what sort of considerations we've taken.
It's a way for us to be transparent with the public that we serve.
Suzi Ruhl: And so we're not only working within the federal family to help them understand
how to effectively consider Environmental Justice from the front end, we're also working with the
external stakeholders, with the community organizations and get everyone to the table at the front end
to be able to identify the issues, determine what alternatives exist
and also to think about, well, if there are going to be some impacts, how do we mitigate them.
Kedric Payne: NEPA wasn’t around when the situation I just described happened.
But now that you have these laws, if you have people who go through the required analysis,
follow the law, follow the guidance -- particularly when it comes to Environmental Justice -- then
it will serve its purpose.
Chris French: When we’re talking with a third party that comes to us and wants to
apply for a permit or wants to apply for doing work on national forests, often they’re
thinking just about the work that they're doing.
But when we put that into the broader mission that we serve, the broader context, whether
we're talking about the impacts that activity has on ecological conditions across national
forests, or the impacts it may have on communities, local communities, through the lens of Environmental
Justice.
When you talk about how their actions can impact people, people understand that.
Suzi Ruhl: And so we developed this protocol, this Promising Practices, that helps guide
the practitioners on how they can do their job more effectively and efficiently.
Kedric Payne: The Promising Practices document is primarily an excellent example of how there
is a commitment to make sure that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
To make sure that now we’re going to consider the best practices among all agencies when
it comes to Environmental Justice, and making sure that the process is consistent.
Kedric Payne: If you green light a project without considering Environmental Justice
-- without considering NEPA -- you are almost guaranteeing that you will have opposition
from the people who live there who feel as though their concerns were not considered.
Suzi Ruhl: And what’s very exciting is that we’re having these outside external stakeholders
actually come to us and ask us for help in how they navigate their world.
It’s also an important value that we realize, is that while people do like to have concrete,
specific answers, in the world of Environmental Justice, in the world of environmental decision-making
– the answers aren’t always clear and distinct – and we’re helping people to
understand that sometimes it’s the question that’s more important than the answer.
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