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SVM Project List SEPTA | |
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5.16 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE5.16.1 REGULATORY SETTINGTitle VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is the legal basis for Executive Order 12898 requiring federal agencies to incorporate environmental justice considerations into the NEPA planning process. The Executive Order prohibits federal financial assistance for programs and activities that use criteria, methods or practices that discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin. The order is also the basis for DOT Order S610, on Environmental Justice (62 FR 18377, 4/14/97).5.16.2 METHODOLOGYFor this project, an environmental justice impact was considered significant if a disproportionate amount of minority or low-income populations suffer adverse effects. Also important was whether minority and low-income populations would receive a fair share of the project's benefits. Adverse effects mean the totality of significant individual or cumulative human health or environmental effects, including inter-related social and economic effects. These effects were considered consistent with the categories listed within the definition of "adverse effects" in DOT Order S610. In order to assess whether the project footprint might disproportionately impact minority populations, minority population data were assembled for footprint-impacted census blocks by municipality. (Note that the relationship between minority population within a census block and actual impacts to minorities is made by inference, a property-by-property survey was not performed.) Minority population data for impacted census tracts were compared to minority population data for the municipality as a whole. Low-income population data were reviewed, but on a census tract basis. (Census income data are not provided on a census block basis.)5.16.3 AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT AND IMPACTSNo-Build AlternativeThere would be no new environmental justice impacts associated with the No-Build Alternative, as there would be no direct impact on any low income or minority residences or businesses. However, the benefits of the project, including increased mobility and access to jobs, would not be available to low-income or minority residents of the corridor. TSM Alternative The TSM Alternative would not involve the relocation of any low income or minority residences or businesses. There would be no significant environmental justice impacts in any of the categories of effects. Extension of the R6 Norristown commuter rail line to Port Kennedy would modestly improve access to the King of Prussia area employment center for minorities and persons of low-income in the Norristown to Philadelphia portion of the corridor. Build Alternatives Socioeconomic data for individual corridor municipalities and the corridor as a whole were presented in Section 5.3. Municipal minority populations range from 1% to 47% with the highest concentrations (greater than 10%) being in Philadelphia, Norristown, Pottstown, and Reading. There are considerable economic differences among corridor communities with mean annual municipal household incomes ranging from $27,000 to $107,000. Thirteen corridor municipalities have 5% or more of their populations living below the poverty level, the highest being in Philadelphia and Reading where the percentage exceeds 10%. Only six residential properties in the corridor will definitely need to be fully acquired. Depending on further evaluation during preliminary engineering, full acquisition of 23 additional residential properties may also be required. Only two residential properties, both full acquisitions potentially required only under Alternatives 1D, 1E, 5E, and 5ET, are located in a census block where the percent minority population exceeds that of the municipality as a whole. That block, located in Philadelphia, is 99% black. Based on this analysis, it does not appear that full acquisition impacts will disproportionately affect minorities. The minority characteristics of census blocks definitely or potentially impacted by full residential acquisitions and of their respective municipalities as a whole, are tabulated in Table 5.16-1. With respect to income levels, census blocks with residential properties subject to definite or potential full acquisition and having poverty rates higher than the municipality as a whole are located in Reading (34% in impacted blocks vs. 19% for entire municipality), Pottstown (11% vs. 8%), and Philadelphia (34% vs. 20%). Table 5.16-2 summarizes the potential adverse and disproportionate effects of the build alternatives for the full suite of human and environmental category of effects listed in USDOT S610.2. Due in large part to the use of existing right-of-way in Philadelphia and Reading (the largest centers of minority and low-income populations) and the limited general impacts throughout the alignment, no adverse and disproportionate effects to minority populations have been identified. SVM stations will serve minority populations in Philadelphia and Reading. A large share of the benefits with regard to access to work and potential revitalization of communities will occur in the large minority communities in Philadelphia and Reading. 5.16.4 MitigationNo adverse impacts were identified therefore no mitigation is necessary.
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