| A Strategic Environmental Justice Assessment Methodology (SEJAM) for identifying environmental justice concerns at the policy, planning, program, and procedure (P4) levels of assessment is developed. Through a review of environmental justice mandates of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), related NEPA regulations, Presidential Executive Order 12898, and International Human Rights Treaties and Covenants, a Strategic Environmental Justice Assessment (SEJA) Questionnaire is produced. The Questionnaire is intended for use by engineers, environmental analysts, environmental legal and administrative practitioners, as well as environmental activists.; The Questionnaire is incorporated into a methodology for Strategic Environmental Justice Assessment (SEJA) of the policies, planning, programming and procedures (P4). The methodology is then tested in a Case Study of the SEJA related to the proposed closing of the Fresh Kill Landfill in the Borough of Staten Island in New York City. The landfill is slated to close by December 31, 2001. The closure is part of the New York City Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan Draft Modifications (SWMPDM), and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).; Nine (9) documents containing various degrees of Strategic Environmental Justice Assessment of policies, plans, programs and procedures (P4) are examined. They are then rated using the Questionnaire. The result of the methodology is a distribution of data that is then used to assess and to determine how well the policies, plans, programs and procedures (P4) meet the goals of NEPA at the Strategic Environmental Justice Assessment (SEJA) level for the general “Aggregate Community,” and/or for “Minority/Tribal/Low-Income Communities.”; The Questionnaire was given to a selected group of environmental professionals. They were charged to review one of the nine documents. The varying differences in the scorings are then computed and compared with the results of the author for the same document. The results indicate that the proposed Questionnaire is a valid tool for assisting in the assessment of strategic environmental documents for Strategic Environmental Justice Assessment (SEJA). |
