Abstract
Expanding participation of marginalized groups within decision-making could help address environmental injustice and increase equity. This article assesses the potential and challenges of expanded engagement by examining community steering committee (CSC) processes of three communities in the San Joaquin Valley participating in California’s Assembly Bill 617 program to engage local stakeholders to mitigate pollution hotspots. Researchers use case study and interview analysis to assess CSC resident experiences prioritizing, approving, and monitoring implementation of one community-identified strategy: the installation of vegetative barriers (VB) between hazardous facilities (e.g., freeways) and sensitive uses to mitigate pollution exposure. Although residents successfully directed substantial funding toward community-identified VB priorities, the researchers find that the scale of adopted VB projects was modest relative to resident aspirations for a more robust, community-wide protective VB network. Findings point to the opportunities and challenges of using a steering committee model to integrate impacted residents into emissions reduction planning processes.
