[Senate Hearing 117-73]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                     S. Hrg. 117-73

                   EXAMINING CURRENT ISSUES ADVERSELY AFFECT-
                    ING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE POPULATIONS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                SUBCOMMITTEE ON CHEMICAL SAFETY, WASTE 
                MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND
                          REGULATORY OVERSIGHT

                                 OF THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                      ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               ----------                              

                             JULY 22, 2021

                               ----------                              

  Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works
  
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]  


        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
45-657 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------           
  
               COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
                             FIRST SESSION

                  THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware, Chairman
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont                 Virginia, 
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island         Ranking Member
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts      KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan            RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
MARK KELLY, Arizona                  JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
ALEX PADILLA, California             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
                                     DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
                                     JONI ERNST, Iowa
                                     LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina

             Mary Frances Repko, Democratic Staff Director
               Adam Tomlinson, Republican Staff Director
                              
                              ----------                              

   Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental 
                    Justice and Regulatory Oversight

                     JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon, Chairman
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi, Ranking 
EDWARD J. MARKELY, Massachussetts        Member
MARK KELLY, Arizona                  RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
ALEX PADILLA, California             DON SULLIVAN, Alaska
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware (ex       JONI ERNST, Iowa
    officio)                         LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
                                     SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
                                         Virginia (ex officio)
                           
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                             JULY 22, 2021
                           OPENING STATEMENTS

Merkley, Hon. Jeff, U.S. Senator from the State of Oregon........     1
Wicker, Hon. Roger A., U.S. Senator from the State of Mississippi     2

                               WITNESSES

Pulido Laura, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies and 
  Geography, University of Oregon................................     6
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
Flowers, Catherine Coleman, Founder and Director, The Center for 
  Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice.....................    13
    Prepared statement...........................................    15
Harden, Tracy, Owner, Chuck's Dairy Bar..........................    20
    Prepared statement...........................................    22
    Responses to additional questions from:
        Senator Wicker...........................................    28
Rexford, Delbert, President and Ceo, Ukpeagvik Inupiat 
  Corporation....................................................    32
    Prepared statement...........................................    35

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Spatially Informed Analysisi of Environmental Justice............    60
Ducks Unlimited..................................................    64
Science Direct Environmental Justice: Evidence from Superfund 
  Clean up Durations.............................................    88
New York Times; FEMA : Why Does Disaster Aid Often Favor White 
  People?........................................................    91
Washington Post; Canada Sets New All-Time heat Record of 121 
  Degrees Amid Unprecedented Heat Wave...........................    99
Historically Racist Housing Policies Exacerbating Climate Change 
  Effects in Low-income Portland Neighborhoods...................   105
Air Pollution, Health and Racial Disparities Evidence from Ports.   115
Yazoo Backwater Pumps Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 
  Statement......................................................   217
Article, Meet You at the Bar.....................................   236
Briefing, Minority Rights Group International, The Impact of 
  Climate Change on Minorities and Indigenous Peoples............   249
Article, Natural disasters widen racial wealth gap, Rice 
  University, University of Pittsburgh study also finds FEMA aid 
  increased inequlity............................................   261
Environmental Research and Public Health, Playing it safe: 
  Assessing Cumulative Impact and Social Vulnerability through 
  and Environmental Justice Screening Method in the South Coast 
  Air Basin, California..........................................   267
Article, Plumbing Poverty: Mapping Hot Spots of Racial and 
  Geographic Inequality in U.S. Households Water Insecurity......   285
Environmental Health, Spatial disparity in the distribution of 
  superfund sites in South Carilina: and ecological study........   324
Article, Journal of Poverty: The Role of Class, Status, and Power 
  in the Distribution of Toxic Superfund Sites in Texas and 
  Louisiana......................................................   358
Article, The unequal vulnerability of communities of coloor to 
  wildfire.......................................................   362
Article, Dr, Vivek Shandas: This is the Hottest Place in Portland   371
Article, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States..............   386
Article, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007: About the 
  United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries...........   397
Article, Anals of the American Associatioin of Geographers: 
  Urban-Rural Differences in Disaster Resiliance.................   571
Letter, IOPScience: Which came first, people or pollution? 
  Assecing the dispartate siteing and post-siting demographic 
  change hypothesis of environmental injustice...................   581

 
  EXAMINING CURRENT ISSUES ADVERSELY AFFECTING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE 
                              POPULATIONS

                              ----------                              


                        THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2021

                               U.S. Senate,
         Committee on Environment and Public Works,
        Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management, 
                                             Environmental 
                          Justice and Regulatory Oversight,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works 
Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management, 
Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight Washington, DC.
    The committee, met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in 
room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jeff Merkley 
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
    Present: Senators Merkley, Wicker, Carper, Markey, 
Duckworth, Kelly, Capito, Sullivan, Ernst.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF MERKLEY, 
             U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OREGON

    Senator Merkley. The subcommittee will come to order.
    Ranking Member Wicker, colleagues and guests, welcome to 
the first hearing of the Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste 
Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight in 
the 117th Congress.
    Today's hearing will explore critical issues of 
environmental justice and adverse impacts on at-risk 
communities. It is fitting that these important issues are the 
subject for our first hearing, as just earlier this year, the 
term ``environmental justice'' was added to the name of this 
subcommittee, highlighting the growing awareness of and public 
conversation around environmental justice in America.
    As climate change ravages our Country and our planet, from 
the 80 fires burning across 13 States, the biggest, the Bootleg 
Fire, in my home State of Oregon, coastal communities 
confronting flooding, ever more frequent powerful, destructive 
storms, we cannot ignore the fact that while we all feel its 
effects, the worst consequences of pollution and the ravages of 
climate chaos disproportionately fall on communities of color 
and communities with the fewest resources for either adapting 
or recovering.
    Front line communities, low wealth communities, indigenous 
communities, communities of color, not only are they more prone 
to experiencing extreme weather events, but they also face 
greater health burdens, such as asthma and lead poisoning, 
along with higher rates of heart-related illnesses and deaths.
    Oftentimes, these impacts are the direct result of 
decisions and discriminatory policies. Decisions like where to 
place a landfill, where to place a factory, the location of 
toxic waste dumps, oil refineries, chemical companies, where 
water infrastructure projects are prioritized and where they 
are ignored, where green spaces are created, and where they are 
not created. But while advocates and concerned citizens have 
been highlighting these injustices for decades, for far too 
long, the cost of these decisions and policies have been 
ignored.
    Fortunately, that has been changing to the point that 
today, we are engaged in an over national conversation about 
environmental justice and the well-being of all of our 
communities. Over the past 7 months, I have been pleased to see 
the Biden Administration actively engage at the forefront of 
this conversation. The President's Executive Order directing 40 
percent of the Administration's climate and clean energy 
investments to disadvantaged communities will not only bring 
much-needed resources to bear on cleaning up pollution and 
delivering clean water infrastructure, it will begin to course 
correct for decades of persistent injustice endured by these 
communities.
    Beyond that, the Administration has continued to 
demonstrate its commitment to environmental justice through the 
work of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. 
Made up of a wide range of leaders on the issue, the council is 
making contributions to guiding the President's environmental 
justice efforts through the recommendations contained within 
its landmark report.
    Like the renaming of the subcommittee and today's hearing, 
the White House's ongoing efforts to address environmental 
injustice are significant signs that progress is being made. 
Yet, despite growing attention, one has to only look at the 
disparate impact of the heat wave out West or the wildfires 
burning up rural communities or the outsized impact of COVID to 
know that we have barely begun to address environmental 
injustice.
    That is why we are fortunate today to have leading voices 
in this critical and growing national conversation to talk 
about issues and challenges. I would like to thank all of our 
witnesses for being with us today. Each of you brings a unique 
voice, a unique set of experiences to this dialog. In the 
pursuit of environmental justice, we need to uplift and listen 
to every voice, especially those who have historically not had 
a seat at the table. We will only succeed in eliminating 
injustices when all communities are listened to, and when we 
commit ourselves to addressing the challenges raised.
    I would like to now turn to my Ranking Member, Senator 
Wicker, for any remarks he would like to make.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER WICKER, 
           U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

    Senator Wicker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this 
hearing. This is a very important topic. I welcome out 
witnesses today as the subcommittee considers issues affecting 
environmental justice populations.
    To begin with, I think we should define what we mean by 
environmental justice, and I think really, a better topic, and 
you might agree, Mr. Chair, is environmental injustice, because 
it is those populations that you are talking about who are 
experiencing an injustice.
    Although Federal law gives no official definition to the 
term, it typically refers to situations in which adverse health 
or environmental impacts fall disproportionately on minority or 
low-income populations. There has been a growing recognition of 
the need to address environmental justice in recent years. The 
Flint Water Crisis in Michigan comes to mind as a major 
example.
    But not all cases of environmental injustice receive the 
same attention. One prominent example is in my State of 
Mississippi, where residents of the South Delta have long 
suffered repeated flooding from the Mississippi River. The 
South Delta has a predominantly minority population and faces 
unique economic challenges, which are made worse by the 
recurrence of flooding.
    This region has flooded in eight out of the last 10 years, 
the most recent being this year, when nearly 300,000 acres were 
inundated. Flooding was even worse in 2019, when over half a 
million acres went underwater for months. Water overtop roads 
closed three highways, kept many residents from leaving their 
homes. Two hundred thirty-one thousand acres of cropland were 
flooded, destroying livelihoods in a region where agriculture 
is the main economic driver. Wildlife was forced to flee to 
high ground. Six hundred eighty-six homes were flooded, 686 
families, and two people were tragically killed.
    According to one study from Mississippi State University, 
the 2019 Backwater Flood resulted in residents spending an 
average of more than $42,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. Can you 
imagine? People were forced to build levees around their 
property to keep the floodwaters from encroaching around them. 
These are costs that many residents simply cannot afford.
    In five of the six counties of the South Delta, roughly 
one-third of the population lives in poverty. For years, 
residents have moved away because of the continuing flood risk. 
As populations decline, the community fabric has frayed, 
leaving many behind who have nowhere else to go. Regular 
flooding reinforces this cycle of poverty because residents 
lack the certainty they need to build homes and establish new 
businesses.
    The real tragedy, though, is that these floods are entirely 
preventable. In 1941, 80 years ago, Congress made a promise to 
the people living along the Mississippi River. That promise was 
the Mississippi Rivers and Tributaries System, which includes a 
series of levees, flood control structures, and pumps to remove 
excess rainwater trapped by the levees from the residential 
areas and farmland.
    Over the years, this system has been built up and down the 
Mississippi River, with one major exception: the Yazoo 
Backwater Pumps have never been completed. The system has been 
completed everywhere else. Of the four backwater areas along 
the Mississippi, the Yazoo backwater area is the only one 
missing backwater pumps.
    If we are here to discuss environmental injustice, I would 
suggest that the residents of the South Delta face one of the 
most glaring instances of environmental injustice anywhere in 
the Nation.
    The good news, though, is that today, there is a viable 
project to remedy this situation. For years, I have worked with 
local stakeholders, Army Corps of Engineers, and Federal 
officials to get these pumps finally built, and earlier this 
year, the Army Corps finally issued a Record of Decision in 
favor of the pump project, a milestone that brings it closer to 
final construction.
    I am happy to say, Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen, 
that this plan is a win for animal life, for plant life, and 
for human life. There is no doubt this proposal would have 
positive impacts on minority and low-income communities. South 
Delta homes and businesses would enjoy a hedge of protection, 
allowing for greater economic development to take hold. The 
proposal would improve aquatic and wildlife conditions, water 
quality, and it would improve the environment. Nearly 2,500 
acres of crop land would be reforested, providing quality 
habitats for many fish and wildlife.
    The science and the economics finally all line up in 
support of the backwater pumps. As this project shows, there 
are communities across the Nation that need true physical 
infrastructure to remedy cases of environmental injustice.
    Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much. We will now introduce 
our witnesses. I will introduce the first two, and Senator 
Wicker, I believe you are going to introduce Ms. Harden, and 
Senator Sullivan will introduce Delbert Rexford.
    Professor Laura Pulido will be joining us online from the 
University of Oregon. She has been on the front lines of 
expanding the school's environmental justice efforts. She is 
the Collins Chair and Professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic 
Studies and Geography, as well as the leading scholar in the 
field of environmental justice.
    Back in January, she was part of the team that received a 
grant to establish the Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute 
for Racial and Climate Justice, which seeks to tackle the 
intertwined issues of racial and climate justice and work 
toward a more just future for our region, as well as increase 
access to higher education for historically underrepresented 
communities.
    Professor Pulido has published six books in her field, 
received numerous honors for her work, including the 
Presidential Achievement Award from the Association of American 
Geographers, the Cullum Geographical Medal from the American 
Geographic Society, and Ford and Guggenheim Fellowships.
    Catherine Coleman Flowers is the founding director of the 
Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice. She is 
also the current Co-Vice Chair of the White House Environmental 
Justice Advisory Council.
    Ms. Flowers is an internationally recognized environmental 
activist, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and author. Ms. 
Flowers serves as the Rural Development Manager for Brian 
Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative, is a board member for the 
Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and sits 
on the board of directors for the Climate Reality Project and 
the Natural Resources Defense Council.
    Thank you to both of them for joining us today, and we will 
now turn the microphone over the Senator Wicker.
    Senator Wicker. Thank you again, Senator Merkley.
    I am honored to introduce Ms. Tracy Harden from the State 
of Mississippi. Ms. Harden is a lifelong resident of the South 
Delta. She owns Chuck's Dairy Bar, a fixture in the Rolling 
Fork community known for its Chuck Burgers and milkshakes. 
Tracy and her husband Tim, who is with us today in the 
audience, purchased Chuck's in 2006. Tracy has been 
successfully operating it since then. Chuck's patrons include 
farmers and farm workers and sportsmen, particularly hunters 
who travel to the South Delta during hunting season.
    Tracy's business has suffered during the pandemic, but as 
she will tell you today, her business was far more impacted by 
the 2019 flood in the South Delta. Every day, she witnesses the 
heavy costs that have come from government delay in building 
the Yazoo Backwater Pumps. She has firsthand experience with 
many of the issues we will discuss, and I appreciate her 
traveling to Washington, DC. and appearing before this 
subcommittee.
    Thank you, sir.
    Senator Merkley. Senator Sullivan.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking 
Member Wicker for holding this hearing.
    I am honored to introduce a truly great Alaskan leader, 
Delbert Rexford, who certainly will get the award for traveling 
the farthest for this hearing, coming from Ukpeagvik, Alaska. 
That is the top of the world, the northernmost community in 
North America. We are looking up the miles as maybe about 4,000 
miles from D.C.
    Mr. Rexford, thank you sir, for being here. It is great to 
see you.
    His experience in community service includes Lay Pastor at 
the Ukpeagvik Presbyterian Church, city of Barrow Councilman 
for 7 years, North Slope Borough Assemblyman for 6 years, 
Alaskan Municipal League Director and President, UIC Board of 
Directors and Construction Director, Executive Director, Gates 
of the Arctic National Park Subsistence Commission Member and 
the Native Village of Barrow Tribal Council, just to name a 
few.
    He is also a member of the Inuit Circumpolar Council 
General Assembly, where he focused on contaminants and 
pollutant in the high arctic polar regions.
    Mr. Rexford learned to read and write English by a seal oil 
lamp. Mr. Rexford is a great Alaska Native leader, as I 
mentioned, from Ukpeagvik, the most northern community in all 
of North America, one of my favorite places in the world in 
Alaska. If you haven't been, you should go. It is an amazing 
place with wonderful people.
    A great time to go is during the celebrations following the 
spring and fall whaling seasons. We still do whaling hunts, 
legal whaling hunts. Our Native people have been doing that for 
thousands of years. Americans still do that; it is incredible. 
You can see for yourself how the residents there have kept 
their cultural heritage not only alive, but thriving, due to 
leaders like Mr. Rexford.
    You will no doubt hear from Mr. Rexford that this has not 
always been easy, largely because of actions and inactions of 
the Federal Government. He will discuss today the contamination 
of Federal lands, Federal lands conveyed to the Alaskan Native 
people that were all polluted. Unbelievable, and the Feds need 
to clean it up. It is an ongoing struggle to clean up these 
lands. It is long past time to right this wrong.
    Mr. Rexford has also spoken about the frustration he and so 
many Alaska Natives feel about their ability to have an 
economy, an economy that, yes, is based on resource development 
and the proceeds that Alaskan Natives receive from oil and gas 
and mining in Alaska on State, Tribal, Native, and Federal 
lands. Natural resources on the North Slope of Alaska have been 
a lifeline, literally a lifeline for Ukpeagvik and communities 
across my State.
    Unfortunately, this Administration, some of their extreme 
environmental allies are constantly trying to shut down the 
resource development in Alaska that has been so vital for the 
health and well-being of the Alaska Native people. As the Mayor 
of the North Slope Borough and another exceptional Inupiaq 
leader, Harry Brower, so eloquently wrote in the Wall Street 
Journal recently, ``We treasure and protect our land and 
wildlife, the resources that executives and environmental 
groups in cities thousands of miles away from Alaska claim to 
care about. The way we see it, caring about the land and 
wildlife should also mean caring about the indigenous people 
who live in these communities.'' I am sure Mr. Rexford would 
agree, and I very much look forward to his testimony.
    Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Senator Sullivan. 
Now, we get to hear from the witnesses themselves. We will turn 
first to Laura Pulido through online.

  STATEMENT OF LAURA PULIDO, PH.D., PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF 
       ETHNIC STUDIES AND GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

    Ms. Pulido. Chair Merkley, Ranking Member Wicker, and 
members of the committee, good morning. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify today on environmental justice. I am 
delighted that the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on 
Chemical Safety, Waste Management, and Environmental Justice, 
and Regulatory Oversight is being reconfigured to include this 
urgent topic.
    I am a professor at the University of Oregon and have been 
studying environmental justice for over 30 years. I first 
became interested in the environment growing up in Los Angeles 
and not being able to see the mountains due to the smog. I 
still remember the stench and burning in my lungs as a child.
    More recently, I moved to Oregon because Southern 
California was simply getting too hot, and I suffered from heat 
sickness.
    Today, I would like to provide a brief introduction to 
environmental justice research and highlight what I think are 
some of the pressing issues faced today.
    Environmental justice refers to the fact that people of 
color and low-income populations in both urban and rural areas 
are disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards. I 
really appreciate and agree with what Senator Wicker said, it 
should be called environmental injustice.
    Environmental justice is also the name of the movement that 
has arisen to challenge these problems. Environmental justice 
traces its origins to the late 1980's. Several key events 
precipitated it, including protests in rural North Carolina 
against the dumping of PCBs, farm worker struggles against 
pesticides, Native reservations dealing with uranium waste, 
urban communities opposed to incinerators, and rural residents 
lacking access to clean water.
    In 1987, the United Church of Christ conducted the first 
national-level study of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites and 
their proximity to various demographic groups. Researchers 
found that people of color were disproportionately exposed to 
toxic waste, what is called environmental racism.
    Of course, environmental injustice did not begin in the 
1980's; we just previously lacked the language to name it. 
Since then, environmental justice has had a major impact on the 
large environmental movement and society.
    I would like to now briefly highlight some of the pressing 
environmental justice challenges that require action. First, 
cumulative impacts. Cumulative impacts refer to the need to 
take into account multiple forms of pollution and vulnerability 
that impact geographic communities. Almost all policy and 
permitting systems treat polluters individually while 
disregarding the cumulative impacts of industrial 
concentrations. This has produced a major mismatch in terms of 
public health and regulatory policy.
    For example, near the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, 
there is an epidemic of childhood asthma, which is due both to 
the logistics industry, as well as individual factories. In 
California, scholars have developed prototypes to begin 
considering cumulative impacts. What these tools do is they 
enable individuals to identify the multiplicity of risks in a 
given place. Such tools need to be refined and applied across 
the Country.
    No. 2, climate change and heat. We know that low-income and 
communities of color are the most vulnerable to climate change. 
They are vulnerable because they have fewer resources and 
capacity to respond to heat, cold, drought, and flooding. The 
end result is higher levels of death and displacement.
    This past summer in Eastern Oregon, the temperature hit a 
record 118 degrees. In that particular heat wave episode, 118 
people died in Oregon. In urban areas, there are significant 
differences in heat. Wealthier places tend to have more trees 
and shade, which led to a 25-degree differential in temperature 
in parts of Portland. In places like Mississippi, Louisiana, 
and South Carolina, it is the poorest who are most impacted by 
hurricanes and flooding, as we saw in Hurricane Katrina, as 
well as South Carolina in 2015, as well as Senator Wicker's 
story, as well.
    Exacerbating the situation is recent evidence that FEMA 
relief is far more likely to go to wealthier residents and 
homeowners versus low-income populations and renters. Immediate 
resources need to be directed toward increasing shade, 
weatherization projects, sheltering the unhoused, and building 
a more reliant and sustainable energy system.
    Last, water access. As a wealthy Country, we assume that 
access to clean, potable water is not an issue, but that is 
untrue, especially in rural areas. Sometimes, people get 
disconnected from the utility, such as in Flint in the 
contamination crisis, but rural communities are 
disproportionately impacted.
    For example, the Navajo Reservation, spanning both Arizona 
and New Mexico, has one of the highest proportions of 
households without plumbing. In parts of Appalachia, there are 
communities that had water boil advisories for over 5 years. 
These problems require immediate attention and investments in 
infrastructure to solve the problems.
    Thank you for your time. I would be happy to answer any 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Pulido follows:]
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    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much.
    We will have all of our testimoneys before we go to 
questions. Next, Catherine Coleman Flowers.

STATEMENT OF CATHERINE COLEMAN FLOWERS, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF 
   THE CENTER FOR RURAL ENTERPRISE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

    Ms. Flowers. Thank you, Chair Merkley, Ranking Member 
Wicker, and members of the committee for the opportunity to 
testify.
    My name is Catherine Coleman Flowers, and I am a proud 
native of Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural area located between 
Selma and Montgomery. Lowndes County has a proud history of 
fighting for equality and the right to vote.
    In addition, most of the famous Selma to Montgomery March 
Trail goes through Lowndes County. It is where, in the early 
1900's, sharecroppers organized for jobs and justice. Many of 
its sons, and later, its daughters, including my father, three 
brothers, and myself served in the United States military. We 
have a deep legacy of holding up core democratic values.
    I stand on those values learned as a country girl that grew 
up with a healthy respect for nature, and I appreciate what our 
creator has provided for us, which includes the knowledge to 
know when we are out of balance with creation.
    That failure includes what we are seeing today, exemplified 
through fish kills, more powerful storms, higher groundwater 
tables, seas level rise, heat domes, wildfires, drought, 
floods, pollution, straight-piping of raw sewage, or failing 
wastewater treatment systems. I have often taken 
philanthropists and people from both sides of the aisle, like 
Jeff Sessions, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Doug Jones, and Bob 
Woodson to Lowndes County to see the infrastructure 
inequalities and to hear from local people what is needed to 
address them.
    At the height of the pandemic, Lowndes County had the 
highest death and infection rate per capita in the State of 
Alabama. Our national life expectancies are a reminder of what 
happens when poverty, inequality, failing or no sanitation 
infrastructure, and climate change comes together.
    The climate crisis impacts all of us. Throughout our 
Nation, we are dealing with failing infrastructure, and it also 
includes the most basic infrastructure, sanitation. In the town 
of Hayneville, Alabama, the county seat of Lowndes, for more 
than 20 years, Ms. Charlie Mae Holcombe has been telling people 
about the sewage from a nearby lagoon that is backing up into 
her home. She is paying a wastewater treatment fee, yet all the 
town can provide is a pump truck to pump the sewage out of her 
yard from time to time. The failure is more pronounced whenever 
there is a hard rain.
    This is indicative of the failing infrastructure and 
sanitation inequality that exists throughout the United States, 
whether in Montgomery, Alabama, where many older Black 
communities are on failing septic tanks, or Martin County, 
Kentucky, where poor white families are also seeking sanitation 
and environmental justice, as well as good-paying jobs. During 
a recent visit to the town of Mount Vernon, New York, I met 
families that have been unable to flush their toilets for more 
than 20 years.
    The American Jobs Plan provides an opportunity to deal with 
the climate crisis head-on in forgotten communities. It is a 
chance to create jobs, to build infrastructure, and create 
sustainable economic development, and make America a model of 
ingenuity where we can all have clean air and water in every 
community.
    With this funding should come guardrails that will ensure 
that Ms. Charlie Mae of Lowndes County of Linda McNeill from 
Mount Vernon, New York will no longer get sewage in their yards 
or homes, lagoons are not built next to schools, and any 
sanitation system comes with the same performance and parts 
warranty we have come to expect from a car, a hot water heater, 
or a heating and cooling system.
    I am requesting that you all support investment in 
resilient infrastructure, including sanitation for all, and I 
request that we come together and confront this climate crisis, 
and to ensure the future of our children, grandchildren, and 
seven generations to come.
    I thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today, 
and I look forward to continuing conversation about 
environmental justice and climate justice for all Americans. 
Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Flowers follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much.
    Now, we will turn to Tracy Harden. Welcome.

     STATEMENT OF TRACY HARDEN, OWNER OF CHUCK'S DAIRY BAR

    Ms. Harden. Chairman Merkley, Ranking Member Wicker, thank 
you for the opportunity to testify today.
    My name is Tracy Harden. I live in Rolling Fork, 
Mississippi, and I own and operate Chuck's Dairy Bar. In my 
testimony, I would like to provide the committee a real-life 
example of how Federal actions or inactions have 
disproportionately impacted minority and low-income 
populations.
    The South Mississippi Delta is one of the poorest areas of 
the Nation. Twenty-seven percent live in poverty, and more than 
62 percent of residents are minorities. Floods, or the 
preparation for floods, are a constant fixture in our lives. 
Growing up, I can remember packing every spring and being ready 
to leave home at any moment if the water would rise.
    My mother was a school bus driver. When the water would 
rise, she would have to drive her route on the river levees 
hours out of the way to get us to school. But the South Delta 
flooding of my childhood has been a regular occurrence even 
now, as I see my nieces having to take these long bus rides to 
school on unsafe levees.
    One of the earliest documented South Delta floods was in 
1927, after which the Federal Government assumed responsibility 
for managing the Mississippi River system and constructing 
structures, including 22 other pumping plants. Later, Congress 
expanded the government's responsibility, including in 1941 
when it authorized the Yazoo Backwater Project.
    The Yazoo Backwater Project is comprised of three key 
features: levees along the Yazoo River, completed in 1978 that 
keep the water within the river during high water; the Steele 
Bayou gates----
    Senator Merkley. Hold on just a moment; let us see if we 
can get a technical fix to that echo.
    Ms. Harden. OK. If I can go back just a little bit, the 
Yazoo Backwater Project is comprised of three key features: 
levees along the Yazoo River, completed in 1978 that keep the 
water within the river during high water, the Steele Bayou 
Gates on the Yazoo, completed in 1969 to prevent the 
Mississippi from flowing backwater into the South Delta; and 
the final, unfinished feature, a set of pumps to pump water 
over the levee when the gates are closed. This system is 
interconnected, and without all three functioning features, it 
just doesn't work.
    My husband Tim and I purchased Chuck's Dairy Bar when our 
family farm sold in 2006. Chuck's has been in business since 
1977, and it is a fixture in Sharkey County, one of the few we 
have to serve our small community. It is a local hangout for 
everyone in Rolling Fork. We try to keep our prices low to make 
sure all of our neighbors, over a third of whom are living 
below the poverty line, feel welcomed.
    However, since we purchased Chuck's in 2007, we have seen 
seven of the 12 worst backwater floods on record since the 
levees were completed in 1978. This year, water rose to almost 
92 feet. We also had floods in 2008, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2020, 
and the worst of all, 2019, when the waster devastatingly rose 
to over 98 feet.
    The 2019 flood inundated 548,000 acres: 231,000 acres of 
cropland, and 686 homes. Water was so high, we were fractions 
of an inch away from losing critical infrastructure, like our 
sewer systems. We call it the Forgotten Backwater Floods 
because it received so little national attention, despite 
shattering so many records.
    Annual flooding has an enormous lasting impact on our 
region well beyond folks not being able to frequent my 
restaurant. Because they are not making a paycheck, populations 
are decreasing, economic opportunity is fleeting, lives and 
livelihoods are being lost. My friend, Anderson Jones, has been 
displaced from his home since 2019. Even though he had Federal 
flood insurance and built three levees around his home, each 
one failed, which highlights the lack of understanding of 
environmental extremists who advocate alternatives to the 
pumps. If you can't get to your home because it is surrounded 
by water, you cannot maintain a levee, and even then, what way 
is that to live?
    In 2019, we saw the worst of it. Two residents even lost 
their lives in that flood. But unfortunately, the residents of 
the South Delta know we haven't seen the last of it.
    What we desperately need to stop the annual flooding in the 
Yazoo Backwater Basin is the final component of the project: we 
need the backwater pumps. This project is comprised of and has 
the support of environmental groups, including the Mississippi 
Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy. In its 
environmental justice analysis, the Army Corps concluded that 
the backwater pumps would specifically benefit the community of 
color.
    We have been blessed with strong support from our 
representatives, Congressman Thompson, Senator Hyde-Smith, and, 
of course, Senator Wicker. Thank you.
    Today, I am appealing to the rest of Congress and the Biden 
Administration to help fulfill the promise that was made to the 
people of the South Delta 80 years ago to complete this 
essential project. Not doing so unfairly impacts people of 
color and the poor. It is the definition of an environmental 
injustice, and we need your help to finish the pumps.
    On behalf of my family, my neighbors, my friends, and my 
community, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Harden follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Ms. Harden.
    Mr. Rexford.

 STATEMENT OF DELBERT REXFORD, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF UKPEAGVIK 
                      INUPIAT CORPORATION

    Mr. Rexford. Good morning. For the record, Mr. Rexford. 
Chairman Merkley, Ranking Member Wicker, and members of the 
subcommittee, I am honored to testify before you today. Senator 
Sullivan, thank you for affording me this opportunity.
    My name is Delbert J. Rexford. I am a member of the Inupiat 
Native Tribe of Barrow. I have lived in the North Slopes since 
August 17th, 1959, when we moved from Kotzebue to Borough. That 
is a very, very vivid memory in my mind. I am a shareholder and 
have been involved with Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation for over 
40 years, fighting for the rights of our people and creating 
opportunities to provide economic, sustainable projects for 
future generations.
    I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to provide a 
unique perspective, a firsthand perspective, of the impact 
Federal Government activity has had on our environment, our 
community, our food, our water sources, work force, and human 
lives.
    In 1971, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act, better known as ANCSA. Through ANCSA, the 
Federal Government agreed to covey to 12 Alaska Native regional 
and over 200 village corporations 44 million acres of land and 
compensation of $962.5 million in settlement of aboriginal land 
claims of Alaska's Native people in fee simple. I want to 
emphasize: Alaska Native people gave up 88 percent of their 
traditional and customary lands through these settlements.
    The Inupiat people of the Arctic Slope were the only people 
who did not support ANCSA. We were fighting for 99,000 square 
miles of traditional and customary lands, pristine land that 
sustains our life. We as a people are heavily dependent on 
subsistence resources consisting of migratory birds, caribou, 
fish, marine mammals that sustain our culture and healthy way 
of life, that supports our spiritual link to nature. It is our 
cultural belief in traditional Inupiat values that taking care 
of our environment and respecting it will continue to sustain 
our way of life for future generations.
    Under the terms of ANCSA, Alaska Native Corporations are 
mandated, I repeat, mandated to provide for the economy, 
social, and cultural well-being of their shareholders in 
perpetuity. This means throughout their lifespan.
    Today, Alaska Native Corporations have over 100 
shareholders who have been impacted by contaminants and 
pollutants left behind by certain Federal agencies throughout 
decades of occupancy. As detailed in my written testimony, in 
1991, Congress also directed the Department of the Interior to 
submit a report on contaminated lands conveyed through ANCSA. 
Importantly, the Department of Interior report asserted that 
ANCs would not be held liable for prior contamination and 
reinforce the CERCLA law that requires the Federal Government 
to clean the abandoned, contaminated properties left behind by 
Federal agencies of the United States.
    In 1998, the Department of Interior agreed to take the 
leadership role to facilitate the cleanup of ANCSA contaminated 
lands. A 2016 update proposed that the Alaska Department of 
Environmental Conservation and Environmental Protection Agency 
oversee cleanup of the sites. This 2016 update also stated that 
BLM does not, I repeat, does not have the authority to provide 
liability relief under CERCLA, for previous landowners that 
consisted of Federal agencies occupancy during that period 
contaminating the properties.
    Also detailed in my written testimony is this report, and 
details on historical failure of numerous government agencies 
to accept the leadership role to take the lead to clean up our 
lands contaminated by the U.S. Government and their agencies.
    I am here today to share my firsthand knowledge as a 
lifelong Alaska resident, proudly born in the territory of 
Alaska, prior to Statehood of the State of Alaska. I am proud 
of that, and I have seen that change over my lifetime. I have 
grown up on this land. I have hunted; I have fished; I have 
whale. I have also worked on cleanup projects that the 
government has done over the years on those sites that the 
Federal agency abandoned. This land, the Federal Government 
contaminated and left behind for previous generations, further 
risking human lives. That causes a little emotion in me.
    When I was a child, we swam in the lake. Little did we know 
that there was contaminants disposed of in the lake that 
contained solid waste, transformers, petroleum products. We 
were just kids, but we didn't know. We just wanted to have fun 
in the water. We didn't know the government had contaminated 
this lake.
    In 1963, we had a 100-year storm, severely damaging the 
Department of Navy's 2.5 million gallon fuel farm. That went 
all over what is now the former Naval Arctic Research Facility. 
Furthermore, there was heavy equipment that was staged, that 
was pushed into the Elson Lagoon. Hubert Harpton and Morgan 
Solomon were nearly killed when their boats hit those objects, 
and luckily, today, Mr. Harpton is still with us. This is just 
an example of things that we live with.
    Another example of the Department of Defense's abandonment 
of Alaska's North Slope: on occasion, hunters will come across 
explosive devices left by the military, which are likely 
decades old, and pose a dangerous threat to human life. To my 
colleagues and friends in King Cove, Alaska, cumbersome 
permitting problems have prevented a 12-mile access road from 
being built that would allow local residents to the only life-
saving hospital within 30 miles. Yet people died because they 
can't get there. People died. Currently, King Cove residents' 
only access to health care are either by air transport or 
telehealth.
    Thawing permafrost is revealing solid waste burial sites 
that were previously unknown. When I walked across the land 
with the Bureau of Land Management and the Alaska Department of 
Environmental Conservation, we could smell the diesel in the 
fields, and our feet went through the ground, and there was 
debris under the ground. This is the kind of contaminants that 
we are dealing with that we can't even develop this land. We 
can't disturb it.
    According to the Alaska Department of Environmental 
Conservation, they have an estimate of approximately 2,400 
unknown sites that we don't know of, but they have only 
documented what are known and reported and documented.
    As many of you are aware, the presence of PFAS on abandoned 
military property continues to expose our community to severe 
public health threats, where our drinking water sources are 
compromised by surface and sub-surface contaminants. Case in 
point, Imiaknikpak Lake, the drinking water source for the 
United State Air Force since 1959, and drinking water source 
for the Barrow Whaling Captain's Association and their whaling 
crews where there is no glacial ice available. That is a 
contaminated lake now, recently reported with PFAS. Sorry for 
my emotions.
    This land that they transferred to my people without 
complete cleanup and removal of contaminants and debris are a 
life-threatening condition. This land where we hunt, fish, 
gather subsistence resources, butcher our whales, which is the 
most precious activity that we have, are contaminated and needs 
to be cleaned up.
    The cost of cleaning up the contamination is astronomical, 
but we cannot put a price on the health of families, not even 
on one human life that could be saved. I know for a fact that 
80 percent of a family I know, I personally know, subsist on 
contaminated sites from the National Petroleum Reserve of 
Alaska, legacy whales, and 80 percent of their family passed 
away from cancer. This is a fact. This is a very devastating 
fact.
    ANCs are the largest private landowners in Alaska, but 
burdensome regulatory permitting challenges impede our 
environmentally sound economic development plans. We devised a 
way to get rid of the contaminants with ADEC, but environmental 
permissions allow us to permanently dispose of them in an 
approved area. It costs millions of dollars to ship them out of 
Alaska.
    Senator Merkley. Mr. Rexford, can you wrap up your 
testimony?
    Mr. Rexford. Yes. In closing, thank you for being patient 
with me. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with each of you 
today. I am hopeful can work together to ensure contaminated 
lands are cleaned up to the benefit of all Americans, without 
threats to human life.
    Thank you for your patience and understanding.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Rexford follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Senator Merkley. Great. Thank you very much, for both of 
you, providing firsthand testimony of the challenges.
    We will go to 5-minute rounds of questions. I will ask 
people, myself included, to adhere to that so that we can get 
in as many folks as possible.
    Ms. Harden, you cited an article, and I think it is this 
one, but I wanted to ask. It is called, ``The Real Damage: Why 
FEMA is Denying Disaster Aid to Black Families that have Lived 
for Generations in the Deep South.'' Yes. The article cites 
that many, many families are being denied aid by FEMA because 
essentially, people have inherited properties through 
generations, but they don't have paperwork to show that it is 
inherited.
    I was down in Puerto Rico after the Hurricane Katrina, and 
this was a terrible problem there. We pushed very hard to have 
it remedied, and FEMA worked out a fix allowing people to self-
certify, after enormous pressure. But this article says that 
FEMA has been unwilling to extend the same fix to the Deep 
South. I think that is a part of your testimony, that this 
results in deeply discriminatory impact on communities of 
color.
    Is it your sense that this is something we have to make 
sure FEMA addresses?
    Ms. Harden. Yes, we definitely do. Just the fact that we 
have already dealt with the floods, the flood has gone down, 
and we are trying to get back to some normalcy of life. We are 
a strong community, and we support each other fully. But we, in 
ourselves, don't have the funds to help each individual family 
get back on their feet. FEMA denying them this because of some 
paperwork, it makes it even more devastating. We need this 
help, and it seems that it continues to be overlooked.
    Senator Merkley. We are having the same problem in Oregon 
right now for families that were routinely denied help after 
the devastating Labor Day Fires of last year, families that 
don't have the same documentation that wealthier families might 
have, so thank you for pointing that out.
    Mr. Rexford, in your testimony, you note that the 2016 
report included three recommended steps, the first of which is 
just getting that comprehensive inventory of these, I think 650 
sites, so that a plan can be developed. Has that inventory been 
completed yet?
    Mr. Rexford. Not to my knowledge. Again, it has been a 
subject of funding availability, according to the Federal 
Government.
    Senator Merkley. So, are any of the sites, have any of the 
sites been cleaned up?
    Mr. Rexford. Some of the sites have been cleaned up, but 
there are still remnants of contaminants and pollutants, in 
many cases, called persistent organic pollutants.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you, and I know dealing with 
contaminated brownfield sites in my home State, it can be very, 
very difficult to get those cleaned up, and part of the reason 
we are holding this hearing is to give voice to these types of 
challenges, so thank you for sharing your story today.
    I want to turn to Professor Pulido, and Professor, I think 
we still have you, hopefully, online. Can you address why 
certain groups are more impacted by pollution and are more 
vulnerable to climate change?
    Ms. Pulido. Well, there are different reasons, depending 
about which groups we are talking about, and what the specific 
problems are. I know there is an effort, oftentimes, just to 
talk about disenfranchisement or they are not at the table, but 
the reasons and purposes really go far deeper than this.
    As some of the other witnesses testified, there is deep 
processes of colonization, which are very different, for 
example, from why a farm worker experiences pesticide exposure 
and illnesses and death, even, in California, or in the cases 
around Cancer Alley, the areas around the Mississippi River, 
like Louisiana, where there are very high levels of oil 
refinery. Those are a different set of reasons.
    What we have to do, I think, is always be looking at the 
historical processes of what created these problems, but we do 
see the consistency of both different forms of racism, as well 
as exclusion that is happening that are causing the problems.
    So we can codify them in broad terms, but there is always 
very specific ones for each group that we are talking about, in 
terms of both environmental problems as well as in terms of the 
various population that we are talking about, including, for 
example, like poor white populations, as well.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much. Since we are going to 
stick to the 5-minutes, Senator Wicker.
    Senator Wicker. Drat, that means I have to stick to the 5-
minutes.
    I want to thank our witnesses. Professor Pulido helps make 
my point. She agrees with me that we ought to call this 
environmental injustice. Thank you for that. Also, in her 
testimony, she says in places like Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
South Carolina, it is the poorest who are the most impacted by 
hurricanes and flooding, so I appreciate the professor agreeing 
with me in that regard.
    For Ms. Coleman Flowers, it occurs to me, and I think you 
will agree, Ms. Harden, that Sharkey County, where you live, 
sounds an awful lot like Lowndes County, Alabama, which was 
described in her testimony.
    Ms. Harden. Right. Yes, sir.
    Senator Wicker. She mentions fish kills, floods, pollution, 
that is exactly what we are experiencing and more in Sharkey 
County, Mississippi. Is that correct?
    Ms. Harden. Yes, it is.
    Senator Wicker. I would just note, Mr. Chairman and my 
fellow Senators, that the population loss during the time that 
the Mississippi Rivers and Tributaries Program has been 
promised has been astounding. In 1940, the population of 
Sharkey County was 15,000, Mr. Chairman. In 2018, the latest 
figures I have, just under 4,400 people. The entire population 
of Sharkey County, it has gone from 15,000 plus to 4,400 plus 
since 1940, the very time when the residents of the South Delta 
have been crying out to complete this.
    Ms. Harden, let us make sure we understand. This was a 
three-part promise?
    Ms. Harden. Correct.
    Senator Wicker. Levees, the gate at Steele Bayou, and what 
else?
    Ms. Harden. The pumps.
    Senator Wicker. The pumps. So the Federal Government, in 
its wisdom, was able to complete two parts of this, leaving the 
pumps undone. There will still be flooding after we have the 
pumps. It is just that we will know where the flooding will 
stop, and there will be the certainty. Can you elaborate on 
that, Ms. Harden?
    Ms. Harden. Just a sense of knowing for us, and we do know 
if those pumps are in, the floods would not be as high. Our 
farmers would be able to be in the fields working, which means 
they are able to employ some of the lower income people.
    If the farmers can't plant, then they can't hire, so it 
becomes hectic on some other employees, some other businesses, 
to try and make sure that these people working for us, their 
husbands are working on these farms. We are trying to ensure 
that if they don't have a job, how do we get more income into 
their home so that they can still live sufficiently until the 
flood is gone again?
    Senator Wicker. Thank you for that.
    And I appreciate Senator Merkley mentioning the problem we 
have with title to property. I think large families without a 
will, the laws of descent and distributions, sometimes, back 
when I was trying to eke out a living as a small-town lawyer, 
it was very difficult to find all the heirs. So I appreciate 
Senator Merkley's efforts with self-certification there with 
FEMA.
    It is fair to say, though, Ms. Harden, that once we get 
this third leg of the project done, there will be less need for 
FEMA to come in, because the flooding will be in an area where 
people will know in advance that you shouldn't build there, you 
shouldn't plant there. If you do, you are assuming the risk.
    Ms. Harden. Because you know, and we have dealt with this 
all these years, and people say, well, move. This is our home. 
It has been our home for many years. We can't just up and move. 
Then, a lot of the lower income, how are they going to move? 
They are stuck.
    Senator Wicker. It has been their property for generations.
    Ms. Harden. Exactly.
    Senator Wicker. Let me ask you briefly, because the chair 
is going to wield that gavel. Would this project benefit or 
harm wildlife? Would it benefit or harm aquatic species?
    Ms. Harden. It is going to benefit the wildlife. We saw so 
much devastation in 2019 where you would travel somewhere down 
the roads, and you would see all the dead animals on the side 
of the road: the deer, the turkeys, just everything. Some 
turkeys were extinct.
    It should not be. People saying that this will harm 
wildlife, well, all they had to do was come to Rolling Fork, 
come to the Delta, and look and see how this flooding harmed 
our wildlife.
    Senator Wicker. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you. Senator Carper.
    Senator Carper. Thank you. Thank you both. Good to see you. 
Thanks for joining us today. Tell me where you are from, both 
of you?
    Ms. Harden. I am from Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
    Senator Carper. I would have guessed Boston, but OK.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Carper. And how about you, sir?
    Mr. Rexford. Pardon, sir?
    Senator Carper. Where are you from?
    Mr. Rexford. Barrow, Alaska, top of the world, as far north 
as you can go in the United States.
    Senator Carper. Who would you say is your favorite Senator?
    Mr. Rexford. Pardon?
    Senator Carper. Who is your favorite U.S. Senator in 
Alaska?
    Mr. Rexford. Right over there.
    Senator Carper. You got a couple of good ones, a couple of 
good ones. Let me just say to our Chairman and Ranking Member, 
thank for convening this hearing today, and we thank both of 
you for joining us. We have a couple of other witnesses who are 
going to come as well.
    Today I believe is the first Senate Environment and Public 
Works Committee hearing in almost 15 years on this subject of 
environmental justice, first one. The first since the 
Subcommittee has been renamed to include the words 
environmental justice.
    As we all know, this topic and the need for government to 
address it is far from new. For decades, minority communities 
and low-income Americans have shouldered much of the burden 
from pollution and other environmental problems that impact our 
Nation.
    It is often hard to illustrate the enormity of a problem 
such as this. But there is one statistic, one statistic that 
stands out in my mind. That is a report last year that found 
that 70 percent of the Nation's most environmentally 
contaminated sites are located within just one mile of 
federally assisted housing. Think about that. Seventy percent 
of our Nation's most contaminated sites are all located within 
one mile of federally assisted housing. That is just one drop 
in the bucket, one funding of myriad, marred, that all paint 
the same picture crystal clear. We are long overdue for a 
reckoning here.
    So when we say environmental justice, it is not a buzz word 
or talking point. Environmental justice means that we have a 
moral obligation to put justice and fairness at the forefront 
of all the work that we do. When I talk about environmental 
justice, I say it is another way of saying golden rule, treat 
other people the way we want to be treated.
    This has to be a top priority for all of us, Democrats, 
Republicans, Independents. I could speak for myself to say that 
is certainly the case as I approach our work on this committee, 
which I am privileged to chair, and through the Environmental 
Justice Caucus, which I co-founded with our colleagues Senator 
Duckworth and Senator Booker.
    So I am pleased that our committee is leading by example. 
In April, our committee led Senate passage of the bipartisan 
Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act by a margin of 
89 to 2. We don't do many things around here by 89 to 2. Our 
legislation makes overdue investments in our Nation's water 
infrastructure so that our most vulnerable communities will 
have access to reliable clean water and the means to pay for 
it.
    One part of our bill that I am especially proud of, 40 
percent of the funds in the legislation are designated to go to 
underserved rural and tribal communities, including communities 
in Alaska. This funding will be crucial in helping 
disadvantaged communities make necessary upgrades and to ensure 
families access to clean water and a healthier brighter future 
for their kids.
    With measures like this, we can start to do right by our 
neighbors and help those most in need, whether they are 
neighbors around the block, across town, in another community 
or county, those are our neighbors, too.
    Through the American Rescue Plan, we need to set aside $50 
million for environmental justice grants. We also set aside 
some $50 million for environmental justice grants at the EPA 
and another $50 million to improve air quality monitoring for 
our communities most threatened by dangerous air pollutants.
    Now, as this body is in the final sprint working on 
expansive legislation to invest in our Nation's infrastructure 
and economy, we must keep our focus on this core principle of 
fairness to fulfill the moral obligation to lift those in 
greatest need and pursue justice in all that we do.
    This is especially true when it comes to providing a 
nurturing environment so critical to livelihoods and prospects 
for generations to come. We must make sure that we are working 
to create a better future for all of our neighbors, whether 
they live, again, in our community or in some other community 
or across the town.
    That is why I am pleased to have this hearing and 
discussion that explores this important issue. We thank you for 
coming today.
    Now, a long wind-up for a short question. In your 
testimony, you mentioned that you wrote a book about how rural 
communities have traditionally been denied access to 
sustainable and resilient infrastructure. With natural 
disasters and extreme weather events on the rise, investing in 
these communities as well as other communities that have 
suffered from historic disinvestment will become even more 
important. Here is the question. How can the Federal Government 
help environmental justice communities prepare for climate 
change and its effect?
    Senator Merkley. Senator, is this for Ms. Flowers?
    Senator Carper. This is for Ms. Flowers.
    Senator Merkley. Ms. Flowers is online.
    Ms. Flowers. Thank you. Thank you for that question.
    I think the way the Federal Government can help 
environmental justice communities adjust to climate change is 
to pass the American Rescue Plan. I think that it is a start in 
making sure that 40 percent of those investments are going to 
those communities that are the front-line communities and the 
most overburdened. I think we have seen some examples of that 
today with the other witnesses.
    I support that effort. I was just in a community where 
people are dealing with raw sewage running into their homes for 
over 20 years. But I think this is the first time that I have 
heard, since I have been doing this work, an effort to try to 
address this in all of America, but certainly rural 
communities.
    Senator Carper. Thank you for that response, Ms. Flowers.
    Can I just mention a question for the record? I will ask 
our witnesses to respond for the record. The question would be, 
please tell us more, this is for Ms. Pulido. Here is the 
question. Please tell us more about how threats to water access 
impact environmental justice communities, especially those in 
rural areas and how does this threat compare to the threats 
from cumulative pollution releases that you mentioned in your 
testimony? That is my question, and we will just ask you to 
respond to the question for the record.
    Again, our thanks to all of you for testifying today, and 
for holding this hearing and letting me participate.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Chair Carper. Now, 
Co-Chair, the floor is yours.
    Senator Capito. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank 
you all for being here today.
    In order to support environmental justice communities, I 
think it is imperative that rulemaking and permitting processes 
still allow these communities to have economic opportunities. 
You have spoken about that. I have supported bills like the USE 
IT Act, which helps to maximize development of carbon capture 
technology. Those promising technologies are essential to 
reducing emissions while protecting jobs.
    President Biden has recognized that reducing power sector 
emissions requires ``leveraging the carbon pollution free 
energy potential of power plants retrofitted with carbon 
capture.'' So Ms. Flowers, I was surprised when I read the 
recommendations from the White House Environmental Justice 
Advisory Council, of which you were the Vice Chair, I think, 
that group stated in their report, ``that any support for 
carbon capture utilization and storage would harm disadvantaged 
communities.''
    I am asking you, Ms. Flowers, do you personally agree with 
that recommendation that the Administration should stop 
supporting carbon capture and utilization technology?
    Ms. Flowers. First of all, I don't speak on behalf of the 
WHEJAC, I am here as a private citizen.
    But I will give you my personal opinion. My personal 
opinion is based on my conversations with environmental 
activists living in communities in California and other places 
that could potentially deal with carbon capture. They are 
concerned that carbon capture will harm their communities. I 
think that the position of the other folks in the WHEJAC that 
made sure that that was there was based on the lived 
experiences of people who dealt with carbon capture who believe 
that it will do harm. Part of one of the tenets of 
environmental justice is to do no harm.
    But in my personal opinion, I would like to see air quality 
monitoring in Cancer Alley, and whatever needs to happen to 
make sure that those plants are either shut down or they are 
not polluting those communities as they are today. I don't have 
enough information about carbon capture to be able to make an 
educated opinion about it. Basically, what I am looking for is 
whatever kinds of technologies that will make sure that we all 
have access to clean air and clean water.
    Senator Capito. Thank you. I appreciate that. The reason I 
am interested in this obviously is where I am from, I am from 
West Virginia. The report that came from the White House 
Environmental Justice Advisory Council is different than what 
the actual Administration and Council of Environmental Quality 
is saying, that CCUS has a critical role to play in 
decarbonizing the global economy.
    I think that is a juxtaposition there of two different 
positions coming from the same Administration.
    I would like to know from Ms. Harden and Mr. Rexford, this 
is something I struggle with, again, being a West Virginian, 
because we have so many people that are heavily impacted by 
regulations or by new policies that have come forward, or by 
the inability to fix the problems. Where my frustration comes 
from, and I think I hear this from both of you, is that you 
actually go to the people who live there, who actually, Mr. 
Rexford, you said it well in your statement, nobody is going to 
care for your environment, your property, your part of the 
world that is so deep in your culture better than you. Nobody 
knows how to care for that better than you.
    Is that a frustration for you, that sometimes all these 
decisions are made and your voice is never heard?
    Mr. Rexford. Thank you for the question. We truly believe 
that at heart we are by nature, by culture, by how we live off 
the land, we are the best stewards of the land.
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Mr. Rexford. We walk the land, we tend it, we fish, we 
hunt, we trap. All these things bring a spiritual link and a 
personal link to the land that we care for. That sustains our 
way of life.
    In terms of the rest of Alaska, I truly believe that the 
138,000 Native Alaskans share that philosophy of life. Many of 
them are being directly or indirectly impacted by these 
contaminants and pollutants.
    Senator Capito. Thank you. You would believe that West 
Virginians are right there with you, and I think a lot of 
people in the Country, and Mississippians, the same. Ms. 
Harden, you mentioned, people say, just leave, just go away. 
You can't leave, you can't, you don't want to, it is part of 
who you are.
    Ms. Harden. Yes. And you go out into your community, well, 
most of the time the community comes to us.
    Mr. Rexford. Yes.
    Ms. Harden. Because our Dairy Bar is the center of our 
town.
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Ms. Harden. You get the farmer coming in and telling you 
how things are, and how hard it is going to be for their life, 
and then you get the farmer's employees coming in and letting 
them know how hard it is going to be for their lives. It goes 
on and on, from the top to the bottom. I see it all and I hear 
it all.
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Ms. Harden. My job isn't just to be a business owner. My 
job is to care for these people and take care of these people, 
because they are who takes care of me.
    Senator Capito. Thank you. Thank you very much.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Senator Capito.
    Senator Duckworth is next, joining us online.
    Senator Duckworth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Flowers, thank you for your work as a fierce advocate 
for environmental justice, especially in functional sanitation 
for our communities across the United States. Your testimony 
has very clearly demonstrated the very urgent needs to address 
our failing infrastructure, especially in sanitation and 
equality.
    As Chair of the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and 
Water, I agree and believe that access to clean, safe water is 
a basic human right. It is unacceptable that these very 
vulnerable communities are impacted by poor water quality and 
access.
    Just look at the town of Centreville, Illinois, to see that 
oftentimes these issues occur in neighborhoods of minority or 
low-income communities. It takes far too long for the public to 
hear about it and for people to get involved. For decades, we 
have turned a blind eye to the water issues in this Country and 
failed to provide adequate funding for these systems.
    My Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act would 
invest over $35 billion Federal dollars to assist these 
vulnerable communities in receiving the funding they need to 
modernize their water and wastewater infrastructure. I know 
that this amount of funding would be a great start. But this 
must be a continuing legacy in order to really make a 
difference.
    Ms. Flowers, would you agree that access to safe, reliable 
drinking water and wastewater is an environmental justice 
issue?
    Ms. Flowers. Yes, Senator Duckworth, it is an environmental 
justice issue. Clearly, what we saw in Lowndes County, we did a 
parasite study. We actually collected fecal blood and water and 
soil samples. We found evidence of hookworm and other tropical 
parasites in areas, especially in areas where people are not 
dealing with proper sanitation. This is a problem throughout 
the U.S.
    Yes, I went to Centreville, actually saw it first-hand. I 
am happy that you are sponsoring this type of fix. There needs 
to be a continuous effort, because the problems are worse than 
we even know, because there is no central data base that 
documents sanitation issues across the U.S.
    Senator Duckworth. Thank you. I think that is a very good 
point.
    Do you think that major Federal investment in water 
infrastructure should be a top environmental justice priority?
    Ms. Flowers. Yes, because water is life. None of us can 
live without water. We have seen what happens when we really 
don't deal with the health consequences of these issues, 
especially how it impacts the public. It could very well be 
that typhoid and all the other kinds of things that come about 
as a result of inadequate sanitation could happen again. COVID 
has taught us when it comes to public health that we cannot 
turn a blind eye to it, because we are all impacted by it.
    Senator Duckworth. Water is life. You are so, so right.
    In Illinois, we have more known lead service lines than any 
other State in the Country. As you know, there is no known safe 
blood level for lead in our children. Therefore, these outdated 
pipes are a threat to our children's health. This threat is 
especially higher for minority children.
    The Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 
2021, which passed the full Senate with 89 votes on the floor, 
would invest Federal dollars into the testing for and 
replacement of lead pipes. The President has made it one of his 
top priorities to fund billions of dollars for national full 
lead line replacement.
    Ms. Pulido and Ms. Flowers, do you think the Federal 
Government should prioritize billions of Federal dollars to 
remove all of the lead service lines in this Country?
    Ms. Flowers. Yes.
    Ms. Pulido. Yes.
    Senator Duckworth. Thank you. I know it sounds like a no-
brainer to you and me, but let me tell you, there are others 
who would argue otherwise.
    People of color are one and a half times more likely to 
live in an area with poor air quality. This can lead to major 
health problems like asthma, heart attacks, cancer, and 
reproductive issues. In fact, if you are in Chicago and you go 
just 10 stops on our rapid transit system, the El, from the 
heart of Chicago, the Magnificent Mile where you have shops 
selling $1,000 Gucci purses, and you go 10 stops on the El to a 
black and brown neighborhood, just 10 stops, the life 
expectancy drops by 18 years. Not from gun violence, but from 
health issues like asthma, heart attacks, cancer. I have been 
pushing for efforts to increase air monitoring on a hyper-local 
level.
    Ms. Pulido, to address the infrastructure inequity, would 
better implementation of mapping and screening tools help 
address these shortcomings, by identifying the communities that 
need it most and connecting them with policy solutions? 
Furthermore, what other tools do you think are necessary to 
ensure the Federal infrastructure investments that are being 
discussed get to the correct, most vulnerable communities they 
are intended for?
    Ms. Pulido. Thank you, Senator, for the question. Yes, we 
have to begin by simply having the right data. We don't have 
that. It is a problem on multiple levels. Oftentimes we have 
poor quality data, so that needs to be really improved. A lot 
of times community scientists or organizations, they do ground 
truthing to try to verify the data, like, is there a pollution 
source there, and things like that. So improving the quality of 
data is really, really important.
    Second of all, as I said earlier, we need to address the 
cumulative impacts, versus the individual facility or emitter, 
which certainly is important but does not capture what is 
happening, those stops that have an 18-year difference in 
longevity. So that is this cumulative environment that we are 
talking about, and we have very limited ability, although I 
note Illinois is one of the States that has made steps to begin 
talking about cumulative impacts. So we need to absolutely see 
that across the board.
    And this becomes really very urgent, particularly in 
cities, in urban areas, more so than many rural areas, although 
not entirely. That is not the case.
    One of the last things that you said is what else does the 
Federal Government need to be doing. One of the things I think 
is really important is to think about, I frankly feel that on 
the part of the Federal Government, as well as many other 
government agencies, there has been a lack of political will to 
really go after and enforce existing environmental laws. We are 
not even talking about people that are outside the scope of the 
law. We can't even enforce the existing laws.
    We have had cases, for example, in Los Angeles of major 
polluters such as Excide, their lead emissions were 50 times 
over the regulatory limit. It took them decades, and they would 
not actually solve the problem. They were forced to finally 
close down, after which they decided to declare bankruptcy, 
leaving the entire State of California with the cleanup bill 
for acres and acres of lead contamination.
    So it has to be a higher level of political will to 
actually enforce existing laws.
    Senator Duckworth. Thank you. I am over time, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Merkley. Yes, thank you very much, Senator 
Duckworth.
    We will turn to Senator Sullivan.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
holding this hearing.
    I think we already have one unanimous agreement from here, 
and that is on water and the issues that Senator Duckworth just 
mentioned. I will mention in Alaska, and Mr. Rexford certainly 
knows this, we have over 30 communities that don't have any 
running water. No flush toilets, nothing. No running water. 
They are almost all Alaska Native communities. These are 
American citizens. I think it is just completely inappropriate.
    By the way, some of the most patriotic Americans in the 
Country, Alaska Natives. Like the lower 48, Native Americans 
serve at higher rates in the military than any other ethnic 
groups in the Country. Yet, they don't have water. That is just 
unacceptable. I think we all need to work on it. I think there 
is bipartisan support to do that.
    Mr. Rexford, thank you again, sir, for being here, 
traveling very far for this meeting. I appreciate your 
mentioning King Cove in your testimony as well. It is very 
magnanimous of you to be talking about a Native community that 
is probably 1,000 miles away from your Native community. But it 
makes the point, and I think it was a really good point.
    Let me go back to your issue of contaminated lands. For my 
Senate colleagues here, this is the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act, the biggest Native settlement act probably 
certainly in American history, maybe world history, 44 million 
acres. Yet so much of the land was contaminated.
    We have made some progress here. We have clarified, thanks 
to the work of Chairman Carper recently, that the CERCLA 
liability will not apply to ANCs. Finally clarified that. But 
Mr. Rexford, what other types of assistance do communities such 
as your need from the Federal Government to address this issue? 
Forty-five years, almost 50 years where there hasn't been 
cleanup by the Federal Government, which clearly is responsible 
for cleaning up these contaminated lands. What more assistance 
and other types of assistance would you recommend?
    Mr. Rexford. Thank you, Senator Sullivan. In one word it 
would be commitment.
    Senator Sullivan. Commitment.
    Mr. Rexford. Commitment to clean up. I have a reference 
docket I have prepared for the committee, referencing to 
relative issues that have substance on our continued efforts to 
work with the Navy on cleanup. But the message is, we will give 
it to you as is, where is, and you are liable for cleanup.
    Senator Sullivan. Good.
    Mr. Rexford. We cannot live with that. We can't afford it.
    Senator Sullivan. Consistent commitment. Your testimony 
does a really good at kind of showing how the Feds sometimes 
are engaged and they are not engaged. So you want consistent 
commitment to this issue.
    Mr. Rexford. Yes, commitment.
    Senator Sullivan. Great. Let me ask you another question. I 
mentioned the resource development opportunities. Senator 
Capito mentioned some of the regulatory issues. Can you tell us 
how, just one example, the Barrow Natural Gas Field discovery 
had a very big beneficial impact on your community?
    Can you speak to that as just one example of how resource 
development has provided opportunities, provided energy, low-
cost energy, and other things in your community that I think a 
lot of times people just take for granted in the lower 48, but 
can be very important in Alaska?
    Mr. Rexford. Yes. Senator Sullivan, and committee members, 
as a child growing up, one of my tasks was to get firewood from 
the beaches or from the landfill in order to heat the home and 
cook, melt water, et cetera. That escalated to a coal bag I had 
to put on a sled and take home from the Indian Education 
Service Barrow Native Co-Op Store. That was the process.
    Then that escalated to heating oil. They made heating oil 
No. 1 to put two and a half gallons into a stove that is on the 
back of a heater. And you had to be very careful. And those 
were my tasks in our household.
    One day I went home and two, 3 days passed by, I was about 
8, 9 years old. And I didn't have to go pick up that fuel oil 
to heat the house. I said, Mom, are we going to run out of 
fuel? She said, no, we have natural gas now.
    This is the benefit that we have now, is that we have cost 
effective, natural gas to heat our homes.
    Senator Sullivan. Clean burning, too, correct?
    Mr. Rexford. Yes. It took years for the Native village of 
Barrow and the city of Barrow Council to advocate for it from 
the Federal Government. But they did. It took a long time. But 
it has been resourceful for us in that it has--I would like to 
make a comparison.
    Senator Sullivan. Please.
    Mr. Rexford. When you go into the villages, you are going 
to pay up to $2.50 a gallon or $3.50 a gallon to heat a home 
for three or 4 days. This is reality in the villages. In the 
outlying villages outside Barrow, we are fortunate that through 
negotiation and through advocacy in the 1960's that we were 
able to get natural gas hooked up to the community.
    That made a world of difference. Then we could melt water, 
we could have showers and we were fortunate. But still many 
today don't have that luxury. We call it a luxury because it is 
taken for granted.
    Senator Sullivan. A luxury, but people in the lower 48, 
they don't view it as a luxury. You do, though.
    Mr. Rexford. Let me just put it in this analogy. When I 
woke up in the morning, the water basin would be frozen. That 
is my analogy of water service that needs to be corrected. For 
those communities you mentioned earlier that simple, life-
saving water source that is healthy and sanitary.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you, Senator Sullivan. Senator 
Kelly?
    Senator Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Rexford, I want to followup on Senator Sullivan's first 
question about cleanup. Specifically regarding Superfund 
cleanup. I appreciate the focus in your testimony on the ways 
that tribes are often left behind in the Superfund cleanup 
process.
    Like Alaska Native Corporations, many tribes in Arizona 
have struggled for decades to compete for funding in the 
Superfund process. For example, there are more than 500 
abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. Despite years of 
work on the part of tribal leaders and repeated commitments 
from Federal leaders to work to clean up these sites, only four 
sites, only four out of 500 are currently undergoing 
remediation, in large part because for many sites, it has been 
impossible to locate a responsible party with the ability to 
pay.
    Mr. Rexford, can you expand upon your testimony for why the 
existing process used by EPA for prioritizing Superfund cleanup 
sites may put tribes at a disadvantage?
    Mr. Rexford. In terms of the Superfund or funding programs 
for contaminated pollutant cleanup, either we have to work 
directly with the Native village of Barrow or the Inupiat 
community of the Arctic Slope to receive those funds. We can do 
a partnership with the North Slope Borough, a borough-wide home 
rule government. The reason why we are not getting what we need 
is priorities set by EPA, priorities set by regulation, don't 
quite get to our villages.
    Now, when an accident occurs, that seems to be the time 
that we get a drop in the bucket. Like the Valley of 10,000 
Barrows, someone gets hurt, and then they provide NALED 
funding. They were able to clean up in a period of 4 years, in 
four summer seasons. Or when we applied for CERCLA funds we 
didn't qualify because we weren't a tribe.
    The White Owl sites and Dulang sites that are infested with 
asbestos, PCBs and are still on the ground, when the EPA and 
ADEC and BLM called on me to identify the site locations at 
Camp Lonely, we had to show them, map out where those locations 
were. I worked a lot of those sites in my lifetime with the 
labor union, with the Teamsters. We need our share of money to 
clean those up.
    Now, residuals, in the villages, you can see sheen. I will 
use Point Hope as an example. At the North Slope Borough 
mayor's office, I was taking the lead on the radioactive 
isotopes that were left behind by the Atomic Energy Commission 
of the United States in the 1960's. They left isotopes in the 
ice, in the sole body of water that the local people use for 
water. They had the highest cancer rates in the Nation at the 
time. The community couldn't understand why everyone was 
getting sick when they were not being exposed to anything they 
knew of.
    Yet this drinking water source had radioactive isotopes 
that the Atomic Energy Commission left buried and said, leave 
it alone. Ogotoruk Creek was a water source for the community. 
We have had to bury many, many of our relatives in Point Hope 
over the years because of that very fact. That has been noted 
in reports to the Atomic Energy Commission and the Federal 
Government. That is just one example.
    Now, the Tupaluk [phonetically] site, National Petroleum 
Reserve of Alaska site, a family subsisted there, and 80 
percent of that family directly died of cancer. Cancer. People 
of promise, people that were very productive in how we support 
the community through whaling, through subsistence. Eight of 
their family members of 12 died from cancer, 8. This is 
devastating. These are facts that we live with.
    We need the money. We would like to be able to clean up 
Inupiaq Lake that was a water source for the community for 
decades. The Air Force used it as a water source. The 
Department of the Navy used it as a water source. However, the 
contaminants from the 1963 100-year flood devastated that water 
source, and now paths are known to be in there. So we are 
putting up signs, do not drink water from Inupiaq Lake. After 
centuries of access to this water source, we are telling our 
own people, do not drink this water source.
    So how do you get the money to the impacted community, to 
the impacted agency that is responsible for that? They want us 
to sign on a document that says we are going to receive it as 
is, where it is, and we foot the bill of millions of dollars of 
cleanup? We can't do that. We would deprive our next generation 
of shareholders opportunities for education, opportunities for 
health care and benefits for travel when they need it in 
emergencies. This is how we put back what little economic 
profit that we have so that we can continue to support them, 
especially for those that are needy.
    My colleague and my peer to my right has very eloquently 
described the very things that we are faced with in the rural 
community. We share the same concerns. We have the same 
problems. But how do you get Federal Government to say, OK, 
this is a priority, we have 3,500 people that are being 
affected, we have 8 of 12 people in a family that have died? 
How do you balance that in the name of cleanup, or the loss of 
a life?
    I am passionate about this because they are my people, my 
community, and I represent them. But I live with them; I grew 
up with them. And I have seen them go.
    Thank you for your questions. I do hope I didn't miss your 
question.
    Senator Kelly. No, you didn't. It is apparent that there 
needs to be more direct funding where you do not have to apply 
to multiple, or to agencies, that the funds need to get to the 
communities to do this cleanup. I appreciate your examples. 
They are compelling. We have similar examples all over Arizona 
where this cleanup needs to be done. We have to do better. Four 
abandoned uranium mines, I mean, 4 out of 500? It is 
unacceptable.
    Thank you, Mr. Rexford.
    Mr. Rexford. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you, Senator Kelly.
    Senator Markey.
    Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
having this very important hearing.
    Environmental justice populations have been burdened over 
and over again by pollution, disinvestment and designed 
neglect, not benign neglect, designed neglect. As discussed by 
Professor Pulido, it is critically important to address not 
just individual sources of pollution, but the cumulative 
impacts of each alongside socio-economic conditions.
    In drafting the Environmental Justice Mapping and Data 
Collection Act, Senator Duckworth and I worked closely with 
environmental justice advocates to create a framework for a 
Federal method to map these cumulative impacts and ensure that 
communities that are most at risk from environmental injustices 
are prioritized as we address the climate crisis.
    Professor Pulido, and Ms. Flowers, would you agree that it 
is important to consult with communities in the process of 
creating these maps as well as in addressing any gaps in data 
that would make it harder to understand and tackle 
environmental justice issues?
    Ms. Flowers. Thank you, Senator, for that question. I think 
yes, we have to consult those communities. Just to give you a 
quick example, in a lot of the rural communities, if you don't 
go down those dirt roads and know that people are there, they 
will not be counted. I think it is very important that the 
people that are impacted are also part of the data collection. 
That is why we have so many gaps.
    Senator Markey. Thank you.
    Ms. Pulido. I would agree with that. I think it is really 
essential. One of the things that we have seen, I haven't seen 
the Federal model, what it will look like.
    But I know in cases like EJ Screen, which has been one 
prototype that has been developed, where they go and involve 
local community members, they can point out sensitive land uses 
that will also impact how we understand cumulative impacts. So 
for example, is there a childcare center there, or is there an 
elder care facility there, or schools. Those all have big 
differences. So it is very essential for this to happen.
    Senator Markey. Thank you. And to both of you, again, would 
dedicated funding for community engagement, cumulative impact 
mapping and data collection make it easier to prioritize and 
properly value communities' contributions to these efforts?
    Ms. Pulido. Yes.
    Ms. Flowers. Yes. I agree.
    Senator Markey. Excellent.
    Professor Pulido highlighted in her testimony extreme heat 
is an environmental justice issue, even within the same city, 
due in part to historic redlining and differences in tree 
cover. Some neighborhoods, often lower income communities, or 
communities of color, can be up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit 
warmer. Despite the fact that most heat-related deaths and 
illnesses are preventable, extreme heat events kill more 
Americans than any other weather event.
    As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure. That is why I will soon be reintroducing my 
Preventing Heat Illness and Deaths Act to strengthen 
interagency efforts to address extreme heat and provide 
financial assistance for projects that reduce the health 
impacts of extreme heat events such as urban tree plantings, 
cool roofs and streets, and cooling centers. Climate change is 
only going to worsen the extreme heat crisis. We need 
prevention now.
    Professor Pulido or Ms. Flowers, would you agree that 
additional investment in extreme heat prevention could help 
address historic inequities and protect public health?
    Ms. Pulido. Absolutely. It is urgently needed. People are 
dying.
    Ms. Flowers. Again, Senator, I concur that this is 
definitely needed, yes.
    Senator Markey. Thank you both for that.
    Finally, in the grips of a respiratory pandemic, healthy 
air shouldn't even be determined by zip code. But even within a 
single neighborhood, air quality can vary up to 800 percent. We 
can't manage what we don't measure, and Federal funding levels 
for air quality support have remained unchanged for nearly two 
decades, which is unbelievable. That is why I am working on 
legislation that provides grant and contract funding for hyper 
local air quality monitoring in environmental justice 
communities.
    Professor Pulido and Ms. Flowers, would you agree that it 
is important for us to be able to identify, communicate about, 
and finally, work to resolve air pollution hot spots all across 
our Country?
    Ms. Pulido. Yes, I would agree, absolutely.
    Ms. Flowers. Yes, I also agree. I think that the people in 
Cancer Alley would welcome that.
    Senator Markey. Yes. And again, Cancer Alley is just one 
example that has proliferated across our entire Country. It is 
time for us to have environmental justice at the core of any 
piece of legislation which we pass this year. Because if we 
don't map it, it is impossible then to rectify the historic 
injustices.
    So thank you both for your work historically, and thanks to 
both of our panelists as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for 
conducting this hearing.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you, Senator Markey. We are going to 
have a second round in which each Senator is allowed one 
question. So if you would like to stay and you have something 
else, I know Senator Sullivan has a question, and I understand 
Senator Wicker might return for an additional question.
    So my additional question goes to you, Ms. Flowers. You 
refer in your testimony to Cancer Alley along the Mississippi 
River, where residents combat very high cancer rates due to 
pollution. What is the source of that pollution that is 
affecting residents in Cancer Alley?
    Ms. Flowers. Thank you for that question, Senator. I had 
the opportunity to visit Cancer Alley and was taken on a tour 
through the communities, and met with community people, led by 
Retired General Russell Honore. I was shocked by what I saw. It 
was almost like a Disneyland of petrochemical plants sitting 
along the Mississippi River. Even thought I was only there for 
several hours, I myself had respiratory issues once I left 
there. I had to really go to bed for a week, trying to figure 
out what was going on with me.
    To me, it made me feel that it is even harder for people 
that have to live there. These plants are located next to 
homes, they are located next to schools. The people have been 
trying out for the longest about getting air quality monitors 
there, so they can monitor what is there and be able to show 
the correlation between what is being emitted in the area and 
the illnesses that they are dealing with.
    So that is so needed. Cancer Alley is just one example, as 
you stated earlier. But clearly, we have to use that maybe as 
an example of how get local people involved and be able to 
monitor and track what is happening there.
    Senator Markey. Thank you very much for sharing that. I 
will just note that one of the side effects of natural gas is 
climate change that is driving the tremendous fires out in 
Oregon. But another side effect is natural gas is the feedstock 
for the petrochemical industry making plastics and results in 
very high cancer rates for those who are located nearby.
    Senator Sullivan.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to 
raise an issue that I have raised a number of times in this 
committee. The Biden Administration's stated focus on racial 
equity and environmental justice in my view has not fully 
considered the welfare of Alaska Natives, which are certainly 
our biggest minority group in Alaska, who have seen great 
advances in life expectancy, life expectancy because of the 
opportunities and health benefits of resource development.
    So this is a chart that shows, that is from an American 
Medical Association study on changes in life expectancy in 
America from 1980 to 2014. The dark blue and purple are the 
biggest increases, up to 13 years, and the yellow and red are 
unfortunately for our Country decreases. That is a lot of where 
the opioid epidemic has hit communities very hard.
    But Alaska had the highest life expectancy increases of any 
place in the Country, by far. The reason is twofold. One is 
unfortunately the Alaska Native people had a very low life 
expectancy to begin with.
    But resource development started happening on the North 
Slope, the Northwest Arctic Borough, the Aleutian Island Chain. 
I am worried that as this Administration starts to focus on 
shutting down those opportunities in our rural communities that 
these incredible advances, 13-year life expectancy increases, I 
don't think there is anything more important than that in terms 
of an indicator of policy success than are the people you 
represent living longer. And in Alaska, they are living longer 
because of these opportunities.
    I am worried that we are going to go backward in this 
important area if this Administration focuses on shutting down 
resource development opportunities in our State, particularly 
the rural areas.
    Mr. Rexford, you have a lot of experience with this general 
issue, seeing life expectancies increase, the economic 
opportunity that comes with resource development. Would you 
like to comment on this? Do you have concerns that if these 
opportunities are shut down, we are going to be going backward?
    Mr. Rexford. Yes, thank you, Senator Sullivan, committee 
members. In my entire lifetime, my father was with the 
Teamsters Union and worked resource development going to remote 
sites for 6 months out of a year, and would come home, through 
Arctic Constructors and USGS seeking oil and gas exploration, 
so that we can have resources to develop. Then he was there 
during the discovery of the pipeline at Parson Camp in Dead 
Horse, in Prudhoe Bay. I worked the pipeline. There was a 
benefit to economic jobs. Also, the State of Alaska enjoyed the 
royalties that allowed us to get in some cases basic services, 
water, wastewater treatment. Yet today, there are struggles.
    The benefits that I have directly seen since 1974 in my 
short lifetime after graduating from high school in 1973 is our 
ability to tax oil and gas properties. We don't have a royalty. 
Don't get me wrong. We don't have royalty. But we had to file a 
lawsuit so that we could generate revenue to build roads, to 
build health clinics, to build fire stations, to build 
airports, high school and junior high facilities. Every program 
and service, behavioral health, that comes with infrastructure 
needs.
    That is basically just from the ad valorem tax of 
approximately 2.5 percent, 1.8 to 2.5 percent annually. That 
helps support economic jobs, safe water, health clinics so that 
we can get better health care, and detect illnesses before it 
went too bad.
    Now, when we talk about the eight villages, Barrow being 
the hub, and the eight villages are still struggling because 
infrastructure is now 45, 50 years old. We continue to upgrade 
them with what little money that we have to keep them going, to 
continue the level of services.
    But these are the benefits that we have received. The 
subsidy of heating oil to the villages is very crucial, 
especially in the economically depressed zone and several of 
the villages that have no economy. But there is the North Slope 
Borough, the Native villages that tribes and the city, that 
provide minimal job opportunities. They have to go outside of 
the community to support their families, to provide for their 
families. Otherwise, it is welfare. And we are not a welfare-
driven community.
    Senator Sullivan. No.
    Mr. Rexford. We like to be industrious, industrial. We like 
to be productive and give back with our own, with our dignity, 
with our self-respect, in the name of a job and employment. 
That is what we seek.
    Senator Sullivan. Thank you. Very powerful. Best government 
program is a good job.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you. Senator Markey.
    Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    To any of our witnesses, President Biden's plan for job 
creation is to have 40 percent of programs, of the revenues, go 
toward communities that are environmental justice communities. 
What in your opinion is the best way to ensure that 40 percent 
of all of the funding goes into those communities? What would 
you like to see put in place in order to accomplish that goal?
    Senator Merkley. Do we want to direct that to someone? Ms. 
Harden, you are ready to speak to that? Go ahead.
    Ms. Harden. The money is great, and it is needed. But what 
we need to see in the Delta are the pumps. Because without 
those pumps----
    Senator Markey. The what?
    Ms. Harden. The pumps, the backwater pumps. We need those 
pumps put in. Without those pumps, we are not able to have many 
job opportunities. The businesses are closing. People are 
moving. We need to be able to keep the people there.
    So with us getting those backwater pumps, that money would 
be greatly needed in our area. But we need the pumps before 
that.
    Senator Markey. Great. Very helpful. Yes, Mr. Rexford?
    Mr. Rexford. Yes, Senator Markey, my ears are ringing, 
would you repeat the question so I can understand it?
    Senator Markey. President Biden intends on 40 percent of 
all the funding in his Jobs Creation Act to go to environmental 
justice communities. What is the best way to ensure that that 
money gets to those communities?
    Mr. Rexford. In order to have direct access to those 
communities, we need to have an entity that will receive them, 
administer and implement the programs intended for it. Now, if 
there are provisions in there of that funding, how is it going 
to filter down and put back into the community and sustain it? 
That is the question; can we sustain after the funding is 
available to sustain the program to future generations?
    With all due respect, the Sunshine State of Florida has a 
lot of sun. But 6 months out of the year, we nearly have none. 
So solar energy is limited.
    What type of program would generate, what kind of 
infrastructure would generate sustainability? That would be a 
goal that we could set, this will definitely be sustainable for 
future generations and yet reduce the ability to maintain and 
operate it to a minimum that it sustains itself. I do hope I 
answered your question.
    Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Rexford. If you could, my 
time is about to expire, Professor Pulido, Ms. Flowers, would 
you have any quick insights that you would like to give to the 
committee as to how to make sure that funding does go to 
environmental justice communities?
    Ms. Flowers. First of all, we should have a scorecard to 
make sure that it does in fact go to those communities. 
Guardrails should be put in place to make sure that the 
business opportunities that are created will be created for 
people that live in those communities as well.
    Senator Markey. Beautiful. Great. Ms. Pulido.
    Ms. Pulido. One of the things I would say is by working 
directly with already existing community organizations, groups 
doing environmental justice work, that would be a really good 
kind of conduit [indiscernible] that are oftentimes already 
doing it, like weatherization projects and things like that.
    Senator Markey. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you all for 
your contributions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Senator Markey, and 
to my colleagues for the variety of questions exploring this 
issue of economic justice and economic injustice.
    There was a gathering back in 1991, and this gathering was 
a significant landmark in the national discussion about 
environmental justice. There was a 4-day summit attended by 
over 1,000 individuals from all 50 States. It was sponsored by 
the Commission for Racial Justice and the United Church of 
Christ.
    Out of that came a set of four principles for environmental 
justice that have continued to reverberate through the last 
three decades. One is that public policy must be based on 
mutual respect and justice for all people. Second, that the 
environmental justice communities have the right to participate 
as equal partners in decisionmaking, including needs 
assessment, implementation, enforcement, and evaluation. That 
is the seat at the table.
    The third is the use of land and renewable resources must 
be ethical, balanced, and responsible in the interest of a 
sustainable planet for both humans and other living things. And 
fourth, it is important to consider the cumulative impact of 
every source of pollution in a community rather than looking at 
each source in isolation.
    So I wanted to close with those thoughts, as I am sure we 
will be continuing the conversation about environmental 
justice. It is so important to make sure that we do.
    Now, some thank yous, to Professor Pulido, Ms. Coleman 
Flowers, Ms. Harden, Mr. Rexford, for your contributions based 
on the experiences and knowledge you have accumulated through a 
lifetime.
    I would like to ask unanimous consent to submit for the 
record a number of reports and articles related to today's 
hearing. Hearing no objection, thank you.
    [The referenced information follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Senator Merkley. Additionally, Senators will be allowed to 
submit questions for the record through the close of business 
on August 5th. We will compile those questions; we will send 
them out to our witnesses and ask our witnesses to reply by 
August 19th. So if we have questions for you all, in addition 
from other members, or members who are here today, we will get 
those to you. We would appreciate your sending us the answers 
back, and we will make them part of the record.
    With that, the hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:56 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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