C AL E NVIRO S CREEN : A N EW T OOL FOR E VALUATING C ALIFORNIA C - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

C AL E NVIRO S CREEN : A N EW T OOL FOR E VALUATING C ALIFORNIA C OMMUNITIES F EBRUARY 14, 2014 John Faust & Laura August, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

C AL E NVIRO S CREEN  Screening tool that can be used to help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution  Identifies 17 indicators of environmental and socioeconomic conditions  Latest version September 2013 2

E NVIRONMENTAL J USTICE IN C ALIFORNIA : S TATE L AWS ▪ “The fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws and policies.” ▪ “…identify and address any gaps in existing environmental programs, policies, or activities that may impede the achievement of environmental justice.” ▪ Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice ▪ California Environmental Justice Advisory Committee 3

F OCUS OF C AL E NVIRO S CREEN “…exposures, public health or environmental effects from the combined emissions and discharges in a geographic area, including environmental pollution from all sources, whether single or multi-media, routinely, accidentally, or otherwise released. Impacts will take into account sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors, where applicable and to the extent data are available.” -- Working definition of “cumulative impacts” by Cal/EPA Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice 4

B ASIS OF C ONCERN FOR C UMULATIVE I MPACTS ▪ Numerous studies have shown that multiple pollution sources are disproportionately concentrated in low-income communities with high-minority populations. ▪ Studies have reported communities with certain socioeconomic factors (i.e. low-income, low-education) have increased sensitivity to pollution. ▪ Combination of multiple pollutants and increased sensitivity in these communities can result in higher cumulative pollution impacts. ▪ Issues reviewed in: ▪ California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. “Cumulative Impacts: Building a Scientific Foundation”, (2010) Sacramento, CA http://oehha.ca.gov/ej/pdf/CIReport123110.pdf 5

D EVELOPMENT OF C AL E NVIRO S CREEN 1.1 2008+ December 2010 July 2012 Nine public meetings Framework report of the Cumulative released First CalEnviroScreen Impacts and Cumulative Impacts: draft report released Precautionary Building a Scientific for public comment. Approaches Work Foundation Group. January 2013 Summer-Fall 2012 April and September 2013 Revised draft 12 public workshops, released. academic workshop, 65 written CalEnviroScreen 1.0 1,000 oral and submissions with and 1.1 finalized. written comments. comments. 6

O BJECTIVES ▪ Keep it relatively simple (!) ▪ Geography-based assessment ▪ Roughly community-scale ▪ Contributions to impact from multiple media ▪ Air, water, soil ▪ Find data to represent each of the components ▪ Exposure, environmental conditions, population sensitivity, and socioeconomic factors ▪ Combine the information

THE HEALTH RISK MODEL Industrial emissions inventory; Traffic data; Brownfield locations; Source or Use Solid waste sites & landfills; Pesticide use reporting; Fate & transport Hazardous materials spills Concentration Activities Air quality data; Drinking water quality Exposure Uptake Biomonitoring data Dose Interaction Pesticide illness surveillance; Health statistics (cancer Health Effects mortality, birth defects, etc.) 8

C RITERIA FOR INDICATOR SELECTION ▪ Provide a good measure of environmental or socioeconomic conditions ▪ Pollution indicators should relate to issues that may be actionable by Cal/EPA ▪ Publicly available ▪ Statewide ▪ Location-based information (e.g., address, latitude/longitude) ▪ Good quality data (e.g., covers the state, accurate, current) 9

I NDICATORS U SED Pollution Burden Population Characteristics Environmental Sensitive Socioeconomic Exposures Populations Factors Effects  PM 2.5  Cleanup sites  Prevalence of  Educational concentrations children and elderly attainment  Groundwater  Ozone  Asthma emergency  Linguistic isolation threats (Leaking concentrations underground tanks department visit  Poverty: Percent and cleanups) rate  Diesel PM residents below 2x  Impaired water  Rate of low birth emissions national poverty bodies weight births level  Pesticide use  Solid waste sites  Toxic releases from and facilities facilities  Hazardous waste  Traffic density facilities and  Drinking water (in generators progress) 10

G EOGRAPHIC U NIT : ZIP C ODES  Census ZIP Codes: ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA)  Familiar scale  Public recognition  Not too large: can see differences  Not too small: can use data  Moving to census tracts in 2014 11

H OW TO STANDARDIZE INDICATORS TO A GEOGRAPHIC UNIT ? ▪ Indicator datasets exist in different formats ▪ Tabular, vector-based, spatial models ▪ Every indicator is summarized at ZIP code ▪ For example, each ZIP was assigned a PM 2.5 concentration ▪ Unique methods implemented for each indicator 12

S CORING Example indicator Number of ZIP Codes ▪ For each indicator, ZIP codes are assigned percentile values based on where they fall in the statewide distribution Magnitude of Indicator (i.e. percent poverty, ozone conc.) Components Maximum Score Exposures & 10 Environmental Effects (½) Sensitive Populations & 10 Socioeconomic Factors CalEnviroScreen Score Up to 100 (= 10 x 10) 13

INDICATOR EXAMPLE: PESTICIDE USE Data source: Pesticide Use Reporting (CA Department of Pesticide Regulation) Indicator: Pounds of selected* agricultural-use active pesticide ingredients per square mile Raw data: ▪ Pounds of pesticides applied in a ~ 1 sq. mile grid from the Public Land Survey System ▪ Subset more toxic and higher exposure potential pesticides were used *For a complete listing of the pesticides used, see our report: http://oehha.ca.gov/ej/ces11.html 14

INDICATOR EXAMPLE: PESTICIDE USE Analysis: ▪ 1 sq. mile grid (Sections) overlaid on all ZIPs across California ▪ Area-apportioned relationship file in ArcGIS created to associate Sections with multiple overlapping ZIPs • ‘R’ used to allocate proportion of PUR lbs per ZIP based • Total pesticides summed per ZIP 15

PESTICIDE USE RESULTS ▪ Percentiles calculated across ZIPs based on lbs of agricultural pesticides, data was symbolized into deciles. 16

INDICATOR EXAMPLE: ASTHMA RATES Data source: Emergency Department and Ambulatory Surgery Data (CA Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development & CA Environmental Health Tracking Program) Indicator: Spatially modeled, age- adjusted rate of emergency department (ED) visits for asthma per 10,000 (2007-2009) www.niehs.nih.gov Raw data: CEHTP obtained records for ED visits occurring during 2007- 2009 for asthma codes by ZIP Code 17

INDICATOR EXAMPLE: ASTHMA RATES Analysis: ▪ Age-adjusted rates were spatially modeled to provide estimates for ZIP codes with fewer than 12 ED visits ▪ Metric calculated based on assumption of perfect overlap between postal ZIPs and census ZIPs Example of Postal ZIP and Census ZIP Code boundaries 18

ASTHMA RATES RESULTS Percentiles calculated across ZIPs based on average % asthma rate, data was symbolized into deciles. 19

INDICATOR EXAMPLE: CLEANUP SITES Data source: EnviroStor Cleanup Sites Database (CA Department of Toxic Substances Control & (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) Indicator: Sum of weighted cleanup sites within each ZIP code. (Sites include Federal Superfund, State Response, etc. categories) Raw data: Facility locations (points) and site boundaries (polygons) 20

INDICATOR EXAMPLE: CLEANUP SITES Analysis: ▪ Sites weighted based on type and status ▪ 250m buffer applied to all sites ▪ ZIP codes given score based on overlap with buffer ▪ Scores summed within ZIPs 21

CLEANUP SITES RESULTS Percentiles calculated across ZIPs based on weighted cleanup sites, data was symbolized into deciles. 22

P UBLICLY A VAILABLE R ESULTS ▪ CalEnviroScreen Report ▪ Maps for individual indicators ▪ Description of each indicator ▪ Excel spreadsheet ▪ “Raw” values and percentiles for each indicator ▪ Overall CalEnviroScreen scores ▪ Grouped scores (e.g., Top 5 and 10% scoring ZIPs, etc.) ▪ Google Earth results (overall; Top 5 & 10%) ▪ ArcGIS geodatabase ▪ On-line mapping tool (ArcGIS On-Line) www.oehha.ca.gov/ej

H IGHEST 10% CalEnviroScreen C AL E NVIRO S CREEN Scores: S CORES Statewide 176 of 1769 ZIP codes in • California. Covers 7.7 million • people (~21% of California’s population). 24

C AL E NVIRO S CREEN CalEnviroScreen S CORES Scores: Statewide • All 1769 ZIP codes in California • Each color represents ~10% of all ZIP codes 25

O NLINE TOOL Available at: oehha.ca.gov/ej/ces11.html 26