CPA Meeting in Houston Focuses On Environmental Cleanup as a Job Creation Tool

Environmental cleanup not only makes communities safer, but creates jobs and builds economic self-sufficiency, concluded participants in CPA’s April 4-6, 1997 Community Policy and Leadership Forum in Houston, Texas. The conference, co-sponsored by CPA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and entitled Using Environmental Programs to Create Sustainable Communities, focused on the relation between environmental responsibility and economic development. Attendees included local and state elected leaders, environmental community advocates, and federal representatives. Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis, Chair of the Community Policy and Leadership Forum and CPA Board member, hosted the event.
Tammie Cosich, who works for South Carolina’s Harmony Project, described a working recycling project that offers new or used building supplies that would otherwise be discarded in local landfills to groups offering home improvement services to low income residents. Federal funding streams and community based organizations can have a tremendous impact on job creation in the community, noted Donald Sykes, Director of the Office of Community Services for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Environmental justice as a job creation strategy has special importance for traditionally at-risk communities. A 1994 CPA report entitled Toxic Waste and Race Revisited noted that people of color are 47 percent more likely than whites to live near a commercial hazardous waste facility. Often, communities of color face the additional hurdle of economic injustice. Gearing job creation strategies to increase environmental responsibility in these communities addresses economic as well as environmental needs.
Angela Park, from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, described the detrimental effect that urban sprawl is having not only on the environment, but on prosperity and economic opportunity as well. Shari Friedman, of the EPA Climate and Policy and Programs Division, discussed the impact that climate change issues have on economic development. Virginia Phillips, of the EPA Permits and State Programs Division, briefed the group on environmental justice issues and hazardous waste facilities.
For more information please contact Darold Johnson , Director of the Community Policy and Leadership Forum, at CPA (202-956-5135).