On February 17th, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHA), alongside the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, hosted a two-part session of the CalEnviroScreen and Valley Plan forum.
The session discussed ongoing efforts to measure pollution in vulnerable communities throughout California and how future climate funding should be utilized specifically for the Central Valley. It is suggested that at least 5 percent of funding be used for projects in low-income communities and that 25 percent of funds be allocated to disadvantaged communities. Attendees joined either virtually or in person to gather information and shared input with the panel speakers.
The first portion of the forum included learning about the recent CalEnviro Screen 5.0, a health screening database tool that identifies disadvantaged communities affected by pollution across the state. The Central Valley has a record high in comparison to other areas.
For example, in Delano, the pollution burden on its communities has a high percentile of 79.97 and a percentile of 91.03 in water contaminants. The screening tool also identifies environmental, sensitive populations, and socioeconomic factors across Delano.
The tool also includes two new indicators: diabetes prevalence and small air toxic sites, which measure the population of adults with diabetes and how natural gas wells and oils remain a heavy burden on communities.
In Kern County, improvements have been recorded (-29), which research suggests may be due to lower diesel and PM2.5 percentiles.
Miguel Alatorre, Executive Director of Unidos Network Inc in Kettlemen City, was among the first speakers to address the audience and expressed his gratitude for being able to attend the event. Alatorre’s mother was one of the first to work on the language and terminology of the CalEnviro Screen mapping tool.
“I’m really happy to be here as a third-generation justice dynasty that my family has created, and when it comes to the CalEnviro Screening tool its important for our communities to have this information to change them for the better,” said Alatorre.
He also noted the importance of making these resources and materials available in Spanish to make them accessible to community members.
Although he realises that it can be difficult to translate some of those materials, he emphasized that it’s important for them to have the knowledge of the vulnerable state communities face because of pollution.
He then addressed and thanked staff over at OEHA and the UC Merced Community and Labor Center for integrating the feedback from Kettlemen City residents into the database for an accurate representation of what needs to be changed in their community.
With the assistance of Dr. Paul Almeida, a professor of sociology and environmental systems and founding member of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, and other individuals, they were able to construct a survey and reach out to residents directly regarding ongoing issues. The main focus was to get these issues prioritized for the Kettlemen City constituents.
“With the data we collected, we were able to advocate for multiple changes within our community,” said Alatorre, “One of the main things we saw from the survey was that the city had no sidewalks, curves, or gutters, and that was something people from bigger cities may take for granted.”
Kettlemen City, an unincorporated area located in Kings County, has dealt with environmental injustice since the 1970s, when a waste landfill was approved without any consultation from its residents. Air pollution, pesticides, and other environmental challenges are still prevalent today for the community.
Despite this, a positive outcome has been achieved through the surveys provided by OEHA and UC Merced
Margaret, an educator from Fresno, was one of the many participants who spoke in the online session and shared her feedback with the OESHA drinking water indicator expert, asking if specific scores for different contaminants could be implemented in the 5.0 screening since the prior CalEnviro screening 4.0 previously used it.
“It wasn’t maps on four; it used to be that there was a list of 15 different chemicals that they were testing for, and what the sentence tracked was percentile scores for each one. Is there a way to show those individual census tracts for this version?” asked Margaret.
OESHA noted that this is something that they can add to, in order to make information more accessible and easier to read what is actually being represented in these indicators.
Currently under SB 535, disadvantaged communities in California are being prioritized for climate and environmental investments. Since its inception in 2012, the program has allocated $9 billion to these communities.
Alatorre explained that they were able to advocate for additional funding for 2027, which would be used to begin construction on gutters and sidewalks in Kettlemen City. The use of data provided by the CalEnviro Screen 5.0 is one example of why these resources can be pivotal for many disproportionately affected communities in the Central Valley.
