Mercer County Environmental Justice Community Engagement Session
June 4th, 2024
Community Organizer Shereyl Snider advocating for Environmental Justice where the Darlene C. Mcknight school resides.
On June 4th, 2024, officials from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) visited the East Trenton Neighborhood as part of their tour of all overburdened communities in the state with the goal to prioritize voices from these locales.
The session started with a walking tour of locations in East Trenton that community members deemed environmental justice (EJ) sites. Shereyl Snider, Community Organizer from the East Trenton Collaborative (ETC), lead the environmental officials, Mayor Reed Gusciora, plus about 10 other people to 7 notable EJ locations. Along the way, they stopped to say hello or talk to community members who voiced their environmental concerns as well.
At 6pm people were welcomed at the Mt Zion Church to voice their environmental concerns to a panel consisting of: Alyssa Arcaya, EPA Region 2 Deputy Regional Administrator; Katie Angerone, NJDEP Assistant Commissioner for Watershed & Land Management; and Kandyce Perry, NJDEP Director of the Office of Environmental Justice.
Around 30 people attended in-person and people were also able to attend virtually. The event was live translated in Haitian Creole and Spanish to make it accessible to those populations. 12 concerned Mercer County residents presented questions to the EPA/NJDEP panel. Many were longtime residents or worked for groups in Trenton such as Clean Water Action, City of Trenton Parks and Rec, East Trenton Collaborative, NJ Future, Trenton Cycling Revolution, and Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
Common EJ themes that came up were about making streets safe for pedestrians and biking, trees, lead education and awareness, air pollution and asthma.
On the topic of safe streets, Kathleen Dieal, President of Trenton Cycling Revolution stated how, “Only 46% of Trenton households have access to a car so safe walking and access to bikes is essential”.
Matt Larkin, an engineer born and raised in Trenton, cited numbers from the EPA EJScreen resource that “400,000 cars go through Trenton per day and the city is in the national 95-100% percentile for asthma. In addition, asthma levels are 16 times more prevalent for black people than white people in Trenton”.
Adding to the list of environmental health hazards, Vanessa Sullivan and Shereyl Snider, both long time residents of Trenton, talked on the health and quality of life effects lead has on children and also how there is alot of fear surrounding lead that prevents people from engaging with their city’s green spaces. Alyssa Arcaya, EPA Region 2 Assistant Administrator, suggested that there needs to be better communications on practical things that people can do to reduce their lead risk or exposure so there is less fear.
Lead Free NJ has been working to do education and outreach and there are many lead testing services available in Trenton. Shereyl noted how she was proud of the community science program she led in partnership with Rutgers School of Health to provide lead testing and assessments free to East Trenton Residents plus training and paying people to help with this. She stated how “we need to equip community members with knowledge and resources so they can go out and get jobs and support themselves”.
The East Trenton Community was glad to welcome a helpful and receptive panel plus be able to get Alyssa Arcaya, Katie Angerone, and Kandyce Perry out onto the streets to see what the neighborhood really needs assistance with and to meet the tight knit community.
Mayor Reed Gusciora walking along Cortland St. where children need to walk every day to get to school.