Illustration by Jess X Snow, via Justseeds
NLG-SFBA | Committees
Environmental Justice Committee
The Environmental Justice (EJ) committee of the NLG-SFBA seeks to support the organizing of frontline communities in the Bay Area most impacted by poor environmental conditions and to fortify their efforts by providing legal defense and support such as impact litigation, activist defense, legislative analysis, submission of public records acts and consultation based on needs of the EJ movement. The EJ committee launched in February 2021 and seeks to be a political home for EJ minded lawyers and legal workers.
Our committee meets the second Friday of the month at noon. For more information on how to join and support the EJ Committee, contact us below. Organizations seeking support from the Committee can also reach out to us at this contact email and fill in our survey link!
Quick Links
Environmental Justice Webinar
Environmental Justice Webinar
Quick Links
Current Projects & Recent Activity
- The EJ committee is researching challenges to the unjust approval of the India Basin Mixed Use Development project in Bayview Hunters Point. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the development despite the cumulative impacts to regional air quality and unavoidable health risks for residents.
- Several San Francisco agencies have admitted to violating the city’s Language Access Ordinance (LAO) barring necessary community access to decision-making. The EJ Committee is researching these ongoing violations and seeks to hold agencies accountable to complying with their own regulations.
- The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) allows several cement and aggregate plants that have been operating in violation of air quality regulations within Bayview Hunters Point for years to continue to seek permits. The BAAQMD’s enforcement of permit violations is woefully inadequate, and the EJ committee drafted and submitted comments addressing the ongoing procedural, health, and environmental injustices in June 2021.
- The EJ Committee provided support for the community-organized People’s Earth Day Rally in April 2021 by drafting legal background comments and conducting outreach for the event. Contaminated sites such as the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard continue to plague community and environmental health regionally, and advocates sought to challenge the hazardous Lennar Shipyard Development project, calling for a moratorium on excavation by the Lennar company.
- Bayview Hunters Point Environmental Justice Webinar [embedded video above]
Get Involved
We welcome any and all members of the National Lawyers Guild to join us. As EJ Committee members, some of our work includes:
- Legal strategizing and consultation with community groups, organizations, and campaigns in the Bay Area on a diversity of EJ issues
- Supporting and/or initiating impact litigation in partnership with EJ organizations and frontline communities
- Providing legal defense for EJ activists and organizations against state repression
- Supporting EJ legislation and policy work at local and statewide levels through legislative and legal analysis
- Drafting public comment letters in response to environmental and land use decision
- Obtaining Public Records of government agencies to increase transparency and to support EJ campaign and policy work
The EJ Committee has many opportunities for law students to engage, whether as committee members, partnering through on-campus clinics, or even working with us as an intern. If you are interested in an internship, please fill out our Internship Interest Form, send us references as instructed in the form, and email E Conner at econner@nlgsf.org.
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