By Will Atwater
Genesis Ibrahim-Balogun, a junior studying agriculture and environmental studies at N.C. A&T State University, and her classmates have specific ways they want to address environmental justice issues like climate change.
“The biggest goal for my peers is we want to see the most change in our own communities […] and reverse the climate change impact on minorities,” she said.
To help prepare Ibrahim-Balogun and her peers for careers in the sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency announced in July a $2.5 million competitive grant opportunity to build the capacity of historically Black colleges and universities “to address climate and environmental justice and protect the public health of their students and the communities they serve.”
And today, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan joins EPA’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Federal Advisory Councils’ first hybrid public meeting, according to an EPA announcement. The event “supports President Biden’s Executive Order 14035, which seeks to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within the federal workforce.”
EPA Administrator Michael Regan joins EPA’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Federal Advisory Councils’ first hybrid public meeting. The event will be livestreamed today at 10 a.m. ET at https://youtube.com/live/eyLwjyJx3Ck?feature=share.
“We’re more committed than ever to partnering and empowering HBCU students and leaders across the country,” Regan, who also is a N.C. A&T State University graduate, said in a news release announcing the initiative. “HBCUs have a permanent seat at our table, so that these institutions remain at the forefront of the environmental movement.”
“Environmental justice for me means that I have clean air, I have clean water and I am able to sit outside and enjoy the environment,” said Ruby Bell, a community organizer and Sampson County resident, at an environmental justice forum in August in Sampson County.
Across North Carolina, low-wealth communities of color in counties such as Mecklenburg, Stanly, Forsyth, Guildford, Durham, Northampton, Warren and Sampson are fighting to combat long-standing environmental justice and public health issues related to air, soil and water contamination.
In addition to the EPA’s competitive grant initiative, officials from the agency’s Research Triangle Park office participated in an environmental symposium in September hosted by N.C. A&T. Undergraduate and graduate students presented their research in air and water quality, and soil and wastewater management, during poster presentations. The focus of the symposium was to enhance the relationship between the university and the EPA, according to a release.
“N.C. A&T students and faculty researchers and EPA researchers will be showcasing the latest science and the newest technologies and the most cost-effective and sustainable solutions that address pollution where people live, work, play and learn,” said Godfrey Uzochukwu, a N.C. A&T College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences professor.
Providing opportunities
The EPA signed memorandums of understanding with N.C. A&T State University and North Carolina Central University, according to Lara Phelps, senior adviser in the EPA Offices of Resource Management and Research and Development.
“There are a lot of executive orders that have been written in the past few years that have really given us space to work on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” Phelps said. “Part of that mission for us was finding ways to further and better engage with minority serving institutions.”
“We wanted to meaningfully engage students who did not realize, and many still don’t, that EPA does, in addition to their oversight, actual research,” said Rob Onyenwoke, assistant professor at North Carolina Central University in the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.
Onyenwoke noted, “It’s still the case that people of color typically are not, for whatever reason, aware of the opportunities, and they’re not working in places like EPA.”
In October, the EPA invited N.C. A&T and NCCU students to its Research Triangle Office to learn more about internships and job opportunities, Phelps said.
Aside from possible job opportunities at the EPA for college graduates, Ibrahim-Balogun said she was pleased to learn that there are also opportunities for undergraduates.
“I did not know that they had research opportunities […] They have specific programs under the Office of Research and Development and they have centers all throughout the United States,” she said. “If you want to do something specific, you can go to that location and do research on whatever it is your heart desires, which I really liked.”
Supporting marginalized communities
Warren County, recognized as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, is still seeking an ecological health assessment for the Afton community to determine whether polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) stored in the toxic waste landfill — more than four decades ago, which was capped and closed — pose a public health risk.
Residents in the Town of West Badin in Stanly County allege that Alcoa Aluminum company, which operated for a century and closed in 2007, exposed employees to toxic materials from the aluminum smelting process for decades, while also contaminating the environment, including Badin Lake and Little River Creek. Locals allege the plant left behind toxic waste that’s continued to affect their health.
These are two examples of low-wealth communities that have collided with outsized forces over environmental and public health concerns — in one case, the state and, in the other, a large corporation. When factoring in the legacy of environmental degradation that haunts some communities of color, it’s understandable why some residents don’t believe the system will ever work in their favor.
However, interacting with environmentalists and scientists with similar backgrounds may help build trust and a better understanding of what’s needed to transform anecdotal information about environmental and public health issues into data that informs policy.
Ciara Zachary, assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Public Health, says there are benefits to a partnership between the EPA and historically Black colleges and universities.
“From a public health perspective, we always talk about the workforce,” Zachary said. “One thing that comes up […] is making sure we have a workforce that’s representative of the community that they belong to or working with, because there’s lots of historical reasons why there’s mistrust. I could definitely see that being the case for environmental health issues as well.”
What happens next?
Much of this work is contingent upon federal funding. The Biden administration committed $600 billion through fiscal year 2027 to support the programs that address environmental issues, including the Justice 40 Initiative, which mandates that “40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”
However, there is concern among the environmental community that the incoming Trump administration will abandon Biden’s commitment to environmental causes. They point to Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint that includes a goal of overhauling the EPA and would be less supportive of green technology and environmental regulations, giving the oil and gas industry more leeway to pollute.
With uncertainty in the air, EPA senior staffer Phelps says the agency is moving ahead with university partnerships.
“The act of entering a Memorandum of Understanding with any institution has been and will remain in place as a tool in our toolbox,” Phelps said. “The Memorandum of Understanding we have with NC A&T is the third I am aware has been put into place over the years.”
“There is no reason for our current efforts to change, and we will continue forward until if/when someone says different.”
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