Juneteenth celebrations this month commemorated freedom, but Black and Brown people are still disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices based on their ZIP Code - including chronic disease.

Heather McTeer Toney, vice president for community engagement with the Environmental Defense Fund, is working to advance environmental justice based on 100% clean electricity and transportation.

She said from landfills to coal mines to polluting incinerators, minority communities historically have been saddled with environmental oppression. But she also noted that those same communities were often the first to reuse and recycle items others discarded.

"More of our polluting industries are in Black and Brown communities," said McTeer Toney. "We're also the very spaces where solutions have been a part of our cultures."

McTeer Toney said the intersection between racial justice and climate is becoming more pronounced - with wildfires, hurricanes and extreme weather events more likely to devastate marginalized communities.

Chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, asthma and heart disease are among the top health problems in the U.S. and affect minorities at twice the rate of white people.

Almeta Cooper, national manager for health equity for Moms Clean Air Force, said the Juneteenth spirit is about recognizing that even while waiting for liberation, people maintained hope.

"Climate and environmental injustices can be a really big issue that sometimes is difficult for people to wrap their arms around," said Cooper. "We want to say you can start right at home."

Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. It commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863.

The proclamation remained a secret in Galveston until June 19, 1865 - when federal troops arrived, informing the enslaved population that they were free.

Conservation groups along several states on the East coast stretching from North Carolina to northeast Florida are working through a plan to conserve one million acres of salt marsh nearly the size of Grand Canyon National Park.

When it comes to Mother Nature, state boundaries are non-existent - so environmental groups, scientists, native communities and state and federal agencies are working together on the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative Project.

It's a voluntary, collaborative plan to help states protect channels of coastal grasslands that do more than meets the eye.

Kent Smith - a biological administrator with the Aquatic Habitat Conservation and Restoration Section of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - said salt marshes are extremely good at sequestering carbon from the atmosphere by forming a thick peat to trap the CO2 in the sediments below.

"They also stabilize the shorelines in coast areas," said Smith. "So they keep sediments in place and they protect properties from the impacts of climate change, sea-level rise, tropical storms, things like that."

Smith said coastal development threatens the natural protections salt marshes provide, and their hope is to spread awareness so communities and developers can work together to protect these natural habitats.

Jim McCarthy - president of the North Florida Land Trust - is part of the initiative and works to buy salt marshes to preserve and protect them. He said manmade solutions to protect areas from things like storm surges don't always work.

He said one example is in Jacksonville, where marsh grasses were taken out of an area and replaced with concrete bulkheads. He said that was disastrous during Hurricane Irma.

"And as the St. Johns River turns east," said McCarthy, "it literally went over its banks because there is nothing to make the energy out of it and there is nothing to absorb it, if you will, as there would be if you had had natural marsh grasses. "

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the U.S. loses 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands, including salt marshes, each year, driven by development and sea-level rise.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

West Virginia has received federal Infrastructure Bill funding to complete the Corridor H Highway, a four-lane route beginning in Tucker County and connecting with Interstate 81 in Strasburg, Virginia.

Some environmental groups and local residents argued the project's current route could disrupt wildlife habitat and local economies based on outdoor recreation and tourism.

Hugh Rogers, board member and chair of the highways committee for the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, said small towns around Blackwater Falls would feel the impact from increased traffic and congestion.

"The people on the mountain who live in Thomas and Davis, they don't want a four-lane slamming right between their towns," Rogers emphasized. "And causing a whole different kind of development probably from the kind that has been very successful."

More than 120 miles of Corridor H is now open, with around 30 miles left to complete, according to the West Virginia Department of Transportation. The state maintains the project will open up remote areas in Grant, Tucker and Hardy counties to economic development and shorten travel times through the mountains.

But Rogers countered the outdoor tourism small businesses and residents have worked to build up around Blackwater Falls is at stake. He pointed out travelers come to the area to escape major development.

"And there's just all this opportunity for recreation," Rogers explained. "As you know, mountain biking is very big around here. Lots of hiking, of course. Rafting and kayaking on the river, it's just a wonderful playground"

He added nearly 2,000 residents have signed an online petition calling for the highway's path to be diverted from the Blackwater region to an alternate route.

"For years, people thought, we have to take whatever the Department of Highways gives us; we just 'want' the changes that it will bring," Rogers noted. "Now, more and more people are getting the idea that we don't have to settle for a lousy version of this."

Research from the Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance shows the highway could potentially impact threatened and endangered species such as Cheat Mountain salamander, Indiana bat, Virginia big-eared bat and West Virginia flying squirrel.

Idaho has issued its first major permit for a gold mine east of McCall. Conservation groups and the Nez Perce tribes say the project raises alarm bells.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued an air-quality permit to Perpetua Resources Idaho for its Stibnite Gold Project, an open-pit mine proposed at the headwaters of the East Fork of the South Fork Salmon River.

Josh Johnson, senior conservation associate for the Idaho Conservation League, said there are concerns about particulate matter from the mining, especially the carcinogen arsenic, which the area's rocks naturally contain in high levels.

"The arsenic gets attached to what's called the fugitive dust," Johnson explained. "The dust that is just getting thrown into the air by different operations or by vehicle traffic, and that arsenic is one that can obviously have big impacts on human health if it's in high enough concentrations."

The Idaho Conservation League, Save the South Fork Salmon and Nez Perce Tribe have appealed the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality's decision, arguing officials violated the federal Clean Air Act and state regulations. Perpetua Resources countered it will be mining for antimony, which is used for storage batteries, and noted the mine will create jobs.

Fred Coriell, a board member for Save the South Fork Salmon, said the conditions in the air quality permit are essentially voluntary and not legally enforceable.

Coriell emphasized without stringent controls, his organization is concerned the project could have health consequences for people who use the area.

"There's a lot of recreation that our members do up there: hunting, fishing, floatboating, berry picking, hiking, family camping," Coriell outlined. "They pass through the mine site to access areas that are in and around Frank Church Wilderness."

The Nez Perce Tribe said the mine would be within its "aboriginal homeland where the Tribe has treaty-reserved rights and natural resources, cultural resources and sacred sites."

Other permits and regulations are required for the project to move forward, including an environmental review by the U.S. Forest Service.