NC climate justice hampered by fight over federal funding 

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Davidson West resident Letha Smith recalls difficulty breathing as a child in the historically Black and marginalized neighborhood, likely due to air pollution. “I was a kid who did have asthma,” she said, “and I was a kid who swam in a creek that was filled with asbestos, and then we were not able to have access to many things because we were Black.”

Letha Smith grew up on Davidson West pollution.

The historically Black neighborhood in north Mecklenburg County has long-term air and soil pollution from a now-shuttered asbestos mill where waste product was used to fill yards driveways. Smith’s grandmother lived there before Lake Norman was created by Duke Energy in 1959. And she has family in nearby Huntersville, where generations of ancestors lived since the early 1700s.

“We are tight with the land,” Smith said. “And the land is very important, because when you move, when you when you don't take care of the land, then the people are the ones who suffer for it because they’re missing minerals, vegetation, a lot of these things come from the land that you were born (on).”

To mitigate decades of environmental impact and subsequent neglect, the neighborhood is partnering with CleanAIRE NC, a Charlotte-based climate and environmental justice advocacy group. The nonprofit, which works primarily with underserved communities of color, launched air quality initiatives to detect pollution and educate residents in Huntington Green and Pottstown in Huntersville, Smithfield in Cornelius and Davidson West.

“In north Mecklenburg, we’re working with four underserved communities to address long standing environmental inequities, and we’ve been partnering with these communities to expand air monitoring, to provide educational resources and to equip the residents to advocate cleaner air,” spokesman Andrew Whelan said. “These communities, they're all, … what would maybe be called impacted communities or environmental justice communities. All four of these areas experienced higher pollution exposure than the more affluent neighborhoods surrounding them, resulting in vastly different experiences in health outcomes and so clean air.” 

When the Trump administration cut off funding previously approved by Congress, CleanAIRE NC’s budget took a hit, and those programs were scuttled or reduced as a result. In March, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Public Rights Project filed suit on behalf of 13 nonprofits, including CleanAiRE NC as well as six municipalities forced to furlough employees and pause programs that support communities, farmers, and public health. 

A federal judge last month sided with the plaintiffs. The government is appealing.

“Obviously, we’re very happy with the result,” Whelan said. “We’re excited by the result, and we believe that the ruling that the judge reached was the correct one. We feel that the government, during their arguments, were not able to produce any evidence showing that the grant has been terminated due to waste or fraud or abuse. They have no documentation on either us or any of the other nonprofits that were members of our legal coalition showing mismanagement of the funds. 

“We believe that this was the right ruling, and we believe that this ruling will hopefully yield real benefits to the communities of north Mecklenburg through the reinstatement of the funds, we're hoping that those become accessible again soon.”

“If these communities have been around long enough, this isn't the first disappointment they’ve experienced,” said Steve Justus M.D., a community health physician who collaborates with CleanAIRE NC. “It's unfortunately something that impacts their trust when it comes to government support. It's just the pendulum swinging back and forth over time and the forward movement and the backlash, and historically, that's just been the way that our country's told the story – three steps forward, two steps back, and this is a step back time frame. Over the course of the long haul, what you do hope is that the net progress is your you've made more steps forward in your lifetime than backward steps, so that at least you make some forward progress.”

“We were kind of just getting started, and we were just meeting on how to move forward in the community,” Smith said. “We still are working on getting out the awareness of the potential threats of air pollution, and we are still working on getting monitors in the community now that the budget cuts seem to have better news. We’re still moving forward.” 

So is CleanAIRE NC, through the lawsuit to force the Trump administration to return its funding.

“We believe it’s been illegal, and it’s been extremely disruptive to our critical air monitoring work and health work in north Mecklenburg,” Whelan said. “These funds were already appropriated by Congress and signed into law, and when that happened, we entered into a legally binding agreement with the federal government to do this work and to deliver specific services to the communities in north Mecklenburg. 

“The sudden disruption that resulted from at first our funds being frozen and then terminated, barred us from filling our legally binding commitments to both Congress and communities we serve, which ultimately left us with no choice but to file suit.”

In Davidson West, neighbors are still working to get air quality monitors as well as educate residents on how air quality affects people health – especially with major emission sources nearby.
CLEANAire NC earlier this month debuted, the AirKeeper Dashboard, an interactive mapping tool that allows communities to access real-time and historic air quality data, demographic information and health information.

“There’s too much pollution going on, like with construction we have” in Davidson West Smith said. “We are close to a highway, and so we get a lot of the runoff, and then we have a lot of construction going on.”
The impact of pollution also includes an economic cost. Lower income residents often don’t have the means to move while predatory developers move to snap up property to build more upscale neighborhoods as the region gentrifies. The result is often displacement of people who can’t keep pace with the cost of living.

“I grew up here, so when you’re in the predominantly Black neighborhood, they discourage you to build or add on or do any type of upgrades, and then they use that … against you,” Smith said. “Then they’ll come in and they’ll buy up land and then place condos and better houses, larger houses, more up to date houses in there with you, and it causes your property value to go up.”

Another project Davidson West residents hope to collaborate with CleanAIRE NC is locating health records that disappeared when the town doctor retired. Smith suspects those files could hold clues to environmental impacts over the years.

“I’m 52 years old, and my childhood records are gone because the town doctor that we went to when he went out of practice,” she said. “We don’t know what happened to our records or anything, but a lot of information containing our health and … any data is gone, and so it’s a lot of obstacles that also plays a part in segregation, or should I say, being segregated in this town. …

“We had to go to this doctor, then once this doctor was not practicing anymore, and I don't know about his how legit the practice was, but where did the records go? A lot of us had asthma growing up. I was a kid who did have asthma, and I was a kid who swam in a creek that was filled with asbestos, and then we were not able to have access to many things because we were Black.”
Justus, who lives in Davidson, believes the work of environmental justice will continue, although the scope – and funding sources – may change.

“Commitments not honored by following administrations and federal government level is a disappointing turn of events, to say the least,” he said. “But then, CleanAIRE is a good partner, and it’s not like they’re going to abandon the communities. I think there’s going to be some limitations due to lack of resources. 

“There are a number of things that they were going to implement, and during the course of this grant program, are still going to happen. It may have to be dialed back somewhat … but it’s not like it just completely shuts down their engagement with the community.”

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