When a new polluting facility is built in a community, nearby residents don't experience the pollution from that facility in isolation. They breathe the pollution from it as well as from every other polluting facility together, with the environmental and health damages of all of the pollution compounding together. For centuries, polluting facilities have been disproportionately and deliberately sited in minority and economically distressed communities in Maryland. That means that today, low-wealth, Black, and other communities of color in Maryland face greater cancer risks and exposure to air toxics due to the higher pollution burden.
But despite how nearby residents experience the pollution of all nearby facilities all at once, Maryland's system for issuing permits for polluting facilities doesn't reflect that reality. The Maryland Department of the Environment only considers each facility and its emissions in a vaccum - not considering the existing burden of pollution or concentration of polluters in the surrounding community.
The CHERISH Our Communities Act will change this unjust system. For specific permits being considered for specific types of facilities (identified by environmental justice communities in Maryland as the most important to address), in designated geographic areas (the 25% of MD census tracts most impacted by environmental injustice according to MDE), the CHERISH Our Communities Act will require environmental justice review and community input. And if the Maryland Department of the Environment concludes that issuing the permit would harm nearby communities, the CHERISH Act will protect the community: either by ensuring the permit is denied, or requiring additional controls for the facility and benefits for the community.
The CHERISH Our Communities Act is HB1484/SB978, sponsored by Delegate Jazz Lewis and Senator Clarence Lam, covering most types of relevant permits for facilities identified by environmental justice communities in Maryland as priorities. Its companion bill, HB1406 sponsored by Delegate Dylan Behler, covers Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity issued by the Public Service Commission for energy-generating facilities.
Other states like New Jersey, New York, and Minnesota have already passed and begun to implement similar legislation, but Maryland is falling behind! Contact your legislators and Governor Moore today and urge them to support the CHERISH Act and make Maryland a leader in environmental justice.
