SEWRPC's Environmental Justice Task Force

This one's part of a series for students in Geography 564: Urban Environmental Change and Social Justice.

A few years ago, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) created an Environmental Justice Task Force to address concerns about how regional plans (e.g., water supply, transportation, land use, etc.) might adversely affect low-income and minority populations. (President Clinton's Executive Order 12898 requires federal agencies to do this, and since SEWRPC receives funding from the Department of Transportation, it must address environmental justice as well.)

There have been controversies regarding the EJ Task Force's work, particularly with regard to a socio-economic impact analysis of a proposed diversion of Lake Michigan water to the nearby City of Waukesha.

Here are some resources to help you get started (click on the red to get to the web site):

- The EJ Task Force web site: here, you'll find all of the documentation pertaining to the EJ Task Force's activities. You don't have to read all of these documents to get an idea of what the Task Force is up to - I'd recommend focusing on the meeting minutes.

- The EJ Task Force meeting calendar: these meetings are open to the public, and it's pretty easy to get to them on the 15 bus.

- For a critical perspective on the EJ Task Force (from the left) and good summaries of the controversies, check out James Rowen's blog The Political Environment (here's what comes up when you search it for "environmental justice"; you can try out different search terms).

Also make sure to google around. There is plenty of background on the controversy over extending Lake Michigan water to Waukesha available on the Internet, although the sites above will be some of the best sources for considering the relationship between this and social/environmental justice.