As Black History Month continues, the effects of environmental injustice are being woven into conversations about the ways Black communities are left behind, including in Minnesota.

Even prior to the current racial reckoning, Minnesota drew attention for stark disparities in education and wages.

Minister JaNaé Bates, communications director for the group, ISAIAH, said climate issues are no different, noting Minnesota has abundant resources to make sure everyone can live in a safe and healthy community, but policy and planning decisions over time have left out some Black populations.

"We deserve to have, you know, clean air, clean water, healthy land," Bates outlined. "What we've found is that is often not the case."

She pointed to St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood and North Minneapolis as areas suffering as a result of interstate construction and heavy industrial settings. The Biden administration has prioritized environmental justice in the new infrastructure law.

Bates acknowledged some movement to reverse the problems, but pointed out Black communities often are not made aware of policy developments. For example, Bates pointed out initiatives to provide subsidies for solar panels are not heavily advertised in Black communities.

She argued the gap goes beyond whether the programs are affordable.

"Not just the financial means," Bates explained. "But that they have the knowledge of what's going on when you consider that lower-income families often are also working multiple jobs, and don't usually have the time or space to absorb all the things happening in civic life around them."

She added Black-led groups are doing their part by creating greater awareness of climate issues in their communities.

Bates emphasized environmental racism can be tied to other historical inequities in Black neighborhoods, and while it may take a long time to fully overcome barriers, she contended recent history of political willpower provides hope.

"When COVID-19 became very prominent and very real in our lives, there was a bunch of legislation that passed that people had been working on for years," Bates remarked. "It was able to pass in almost the blink of an eye, because we recognized the urgent need."

And with more urgency behind environmental matters, she hopes it translates to expanding the types of infrastructure to make marginalized communities more climate resilient.

With a historic budget for parks and recreation, New York City is crafting strategic plans to increase tree canopy through an environmental justice lens.

New York City's $624 million parks budget includes funding for capital projects such as planting 20,000 new trees. City Council recently held an oversight hearing on increasing tree canopy, which gave residents the chance to provide input on shade access in their community.

Council Member representing Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, Shekar Krishnan - who chairs the Committee on Parks and Recreation - said the hearing can inform solutions to addressing disparities of tree presence in different neighborhoods.

"In particular, low-income communities of color have far less tree-canopy coverage than other neighborhoods do," said Krishnan, "and that directly results in hotter temperatures known as the 'urban heat island' effect. And so the brunt of the lack of tree-canopy coverage isn't shared equally."

The budget also includes funding for stump removal, which can make way for new trees. A report from The Nature Conservancy found that as of 2017, the city's overall tree canopy was about 22%.

Victoria Sanders - research analyst with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance - said as New York City moves forward with plans for improving tree-canopy equity across the city, communities that have long been disinvested due to racially discriminatory policies such as redlining must be prioritized.

"There's all this red tape that impacts the way funds can be used," said Sanders. "A lot of the trees that are being planted are replacing trees that already exist. So I think there needs to be maybe some pushback so that a larger amount of the money can be put toward making sure there's equitable tree distribution."

Emily Nobel Maxwell - New York Cities program director for The Nature Conservancy - said she's excited by the budget investments in urban forests, but said there's more work to be done.

"We know that to better ameliorate the impacts of extreme heat, we need more tree canopy," said Maxwell. "It would mean protecting and maintaining the canopy we have. And that requires maintenance funding, laws to protect our canopy, it requires enforcement."

The Forest For All NYC coalition has called for a citywide goal of 30% tree coverage by 2035.

Environmental groups are pushing for changes to North Carolina's industry-permitting process, which they say does not account for the cumulative impacts of environmental pollution.

People exposed to multiple chemical and environmental stressors tend to have higher rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other health problems.

Sherri White-Williamson, environmental justice policy director for the North Carolina Conservation Network, said currently, the state Department of Environmental Protection does not consider cumulative impacts when approving or denying permits for facilities often located in vulnerable communities.

"Within a five-mile range of a particular community in Sampson County, there are two facilities now that have been permitted to convert hog waste into biogas," White-Williamson observed. "There are active concentrated feeding operations, they are within very close proximity to an interstate highway."

Earlier this year North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order to create an Environmental Justice Lead position at each state agency tasked with collecting feedback on pollution from residents living in underserved communities. The order also directed state agencies to use federal and state funding to clean up impacted communities.

Daisha Williams, environmental justice manager for CleanAire NC, said while fostering conversations with impacted residents is important, state officials should be working toward implementing policies to incorporate and measure cumulative impacts when deciding where to site new polluting sources.

"Communities are still suffering, and we need to have tools and solutions," Williams argued. "Not just something that is kind of there to check off a box in the permitting or remediation process."

Accruing stressors from air pollution and climate change can also affect mental health. Research in the New England Journal of Medicine shows natural disasters and climate-related displacement can increase the risk of mental health disorders, anxiety and depression.

The Infrastructure Act is providing $1.2 trillion for improvement projects across water, energy, building and transportation sectors. A new report looks at how officials can use funds to address environmental justice.

Authored by the National Wildlife Federation, the report provides a framework for front-line and fenceline communities experiencing environmental-justice issues such as frequent flooding to finance solutions through infrastructure dollars.

Tatiana Eaves, an environmental and climate justice policy specialist for the federation, said the Infrastructure Act is an opportunity for decision makers.

"We must always let community leaders speak for themselves," said Eaves, "and trust them as the experts of their own lived experience and for us to listen as many communities already know what the solutions are. They just need the resources to bring them into reality."

This November, New Yorkers will vote on a ballot measure for approval of the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.

The bond would leverage federal infrastructure dollars to support land conservation, environmental justice and water-quality improvement.

Shawyn Patterson-Howard is mayor of Mount Vernon, New York. For almost two decades, Mount Vernon residents have lived with raw sewage backing up into their homes, flooding streets and polluting local waterways due to old and corroded clay sewer pipes.

Patterson-Howard said the infrastructure dollars could help the Black-majority city with pipe replacement.

"Without proper maintenance and investment over the last few decades, the sewer system and the stormwater system has begun to collapse," said Patterson-Howard. "So we have to find a way to improve regionally our stormwater system, which is definitely being impacted in light of climate change."

Patterson-Howard estimates replacement will cost between $250 and $300 million.

In April, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $150 million for this project. The report suggests federal infrastructure dollars also could support grants to help low-income homeowners repair failing septic systems.