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Q&A
DEP's impact and investments in environmental justice communities
1:17:58
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102 sec
Council Member Avilés inquires about DEP's project spending and impact on environmental justice communities. Commissioner Aggarwala discusses the agency's presence and efforts in these areas.
- 13 out of 14 DEP wastewater treatment plants are located in environmental justice neighborhoods
- DEP considers state of good repair of treatment plants as an environmental justice initiative
- Efforts made to reduce truck traffic generated by treatment facilities
- Emphasis on being an 'esteemed partner' in communities where DEP has a presence
Alexa Avilés
1:17:58
Great.
1:17:58
So we'll we'll again continue to track closely and expect that the city will continue to commit and invest sufficient resources to make this a success.
1:18:09
In terms of environmental justice communities, we're seeing again a national assault on environmental justice programming across the country.
1:18:21
I was curious if DEP is tracking its project spending with regard to environmental justice and disadvantaged communities.
Rohit Aggarwala
1:18:30
I do not have data, I don't believe on that.
1:18:34
We do pay close attention to it and the reality is that 13 of our 14 wastewater treatment plants are in environmental justice neighborhoods.
1:18:43
You know, I believe very strongly that we should be thinking about the state of good repair of our treatment plants as an e j initiative.
1:18:55
The reality is when something goes wrong in one of our treatment plants, the first people who suffer are our staff.
1:19:01
But the second people who suffer are the neighbors who deal with the the odor or whatever that comes from something going wrong.
1:19:09
I'm really proud of the work we do.
1:19:11
I think in general we are a good neighbor.
1:19:12
We've also made a lot of effort in recent years to reduce the truck traffic that our treatment facilities generate which is of course a huge issue for those same neighborhoods.
1:19:24
But I would argue that the investments in maintenance and state of good repair in our treatment plants is one of the key things that we do to be the way we we describe it in the long range vision we're about to publish, an esteemed partner in all of the communities where we are present.