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2013 Spring | Environmental Justice, Policy & Regulation

Quantification of Environmental Justice Communities and the EPA

Student(s):

Byron Wenning

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Michelle Mullin

Partner(s):

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Faculty advisor(s):

Megan Styles, Program on the Environment, University of Washington

The goal of my internship was to develop a list of all schools in EPA Region 10 that are most likely to exhibit possible Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) contamination. PCBs were used until 1979 and are known to cause a variety of serious health impacts, children being the most vulnerable. Schools most at risk were built or renovated prior to 1980. A list of 10,000 schools was generated. To prioritize this list, a computerized environmental justice (EJ) quantification tool was used to delineate schools experiencing environmental injustice. This work inspired my project research and critique of EJ quantification tools.