Lake County

Some of Indiana’s most environmentally burdened communities can be found in northern Lake County (“the Region”), in the cities of Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago and Gary. The Region is home to approximately 187,000 people, an enormous concentration of heavy industry, and a host of environmental problems.

The Region has around 1,000 inventoried environmental concerns, including hundreds of hazardous waste sites and hundreds of underground storage tanks. The Region’s air quality also ranks among the nation’s worst. Poor air quality has a host of documented adverse effects on children and teenagers, and aggravates the difficulties that many of the Region’s young people face in becoming productive members of society.

These environmental issues thus compound the multitude of social and economic problems faced by the residents of these majority-minority cities, each of which has a poverty rate that is dramatically higher than state and national averages.

Overall, the Region is a powerful example of a recurrent problem in environmental justice: poverty begets pollution and pollution begets poverty. Learn more about HEC’s environmental justice work in Lake County.

Marion County

A degraded environment impacts health, reduces neighborhood morale, and discourages economic development. Part of the solution to improving conditions in overburdened communities is establishing a land use policy framework that addresses prevention, mitigation, participation, and revitalization.

The burden of air, water, and land pollution varies from one Indianapolis neighborhood to another.  One may be burdened because of air pollution from heavy traffic while another may be burdened by contaminated brownfields. Each one would need a different solution, but some land use policies can help improve environmental justice regardless of the type of environmental burden.

Addressing Equity With Land Use Controls

Many environmental issues are about land use. Land use controls like zoning regulations and comprehensive land use plans can mitigate environmental hazards that degrade the quality of residential life. Land use plans set policies for future land use development and is used as a guide for decisions on zoning or zoning variances. Zoning is the law that permits specific types of activities in designated geographic areas.

The inclusion of enhanced measures in land use plans can greatly improve environmental equity. Ensuring effective participation of those who will be most affected by a land use decision has shown to be an effective measure. Bringing additional environmental assets like trees or green spaces into environmental justice areas is another. Buffer zones that improve environmental conditions can be used to reduce potential health risks in communities.