The environmental justice plan was a construct of the governor who charged the Department of Environmental Quality (which later became the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, DNRE). The plan sought to have more inclusivity and it recruited several stakeholders, including state agencies, justice advocates alongside others to conduct research and public focus group meetings.
The plan was realistic in its ambitions and objectives. Through the use of the working groups, the plan managed to reflect the fairness and avoid all forms of bias. Additionally, the multiple groups that were involved provided alternating opinions and provided an efficient base for information sharing. The plan received adequate funding to oversee the operations and manage the costs of running the working groups from various agencies cooperating toward the same benefits.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The plan involves the public to ensure they are incorporated in the decisions made regarding environmental justice affairs. The tribal and local governments are the best positioned authorities who can identify the issues in their area as well as act as the intermediary between the state and the community. The Interdepartmental Working Group (IWG) is the authority mandated with reviewing the environmental justice issues identified. Inter-agency partnerships enable the public outreach attempts to be more achievable when these work for the same goals while sharing resources.
The plan has also been considerate with respect to public outreach and reporting. It has provided structures to enable public participation through a variety of alternatives including communicating via email and public meetings, posting information on websites, and adding community member groups to their mail list, thus giving a chance to translate into local dialects. Communication is intertwined with public accountability seeing how the IWG has to issue notifications to the local and tribal governments before approving projects. The governments are then required to acquire local consent in environmental justice areas before awarding the IWG the right. Another involvement provision is the matrix tool, which provides public participation techniques to match the level of participation the listeners want to have.
The first indicator of progress is identifying the circumstance that shows where a disparate impact occurs or might occur. Tribal and local governments assist in identifying these areas. If a project is to be undertaken in this area, then the next milestone would be to engage the public. However, the DNRE has to ensure conformity with the legal mandates protecting the minorities. The next milestone is to understand the environmental justice principals so they may integrate and exercise these principals in their order of operation. The residents then have to participate in the decision making process, where the DNRE has to communicate with the leaders and community members to reach an agreement.
The Interdepartmental Work Group (IWG) has the greatest jurisdiction and it coordinates the actions of the state authorities on environment justice matters. The IWG is responsible for the environmental justice group that is presented. The role of the local and tribal governments is dependent on the activity of the IWG and DNRE to contribute to rectifying environmental justice issues.
Reference
Michigan.gov. (2019). [online] Available at: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/met_ej_plan121710_340670_7.pdf [Accessed 6 Aug. 2019].
