EPA, IU Northwest team up to create environmental justice resource center

The Gary-based Northwest Indiana Environmental Resource Center will be up and running in six months, a partnership between Indiana University Northwest and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"There are many environmental problems in the area, but most people don't know how to begin looking for solutions," said Earl Jones, chair of the Department of Minority Studies at IU Northwest. All that will change with the development of the center.

Lower-income and minority communities tend to share a disproportionate amount of a region's pollution burdens. IUN is one of 12 institutions nationwide to receive a grant to establish an environmental justice research center.

With a $271,000 grant from the EPA, IUN will create the resource center to help find remedies for the problems and explore issues surrounding environmental justice. The center will help municipalities in northwest Indiana inform residents about pollution. The center also will help other local groups connect with national agencies working on environmental issues.

Jones pointed out that pollution and segregation are linked concerns because lower-income and minority areas tend to have a disproportionate share of a region's pollution burdens.

There is also an important educational component in the project, Jones said. The center plans to provide educational programs for local students, thus creating an informed public for the future.

IUN, one of only a dozen educational institutions in the nation to get this kind of grant, will receive the money over the next two years.

For more information on this topic, go to the EPA's Environmental Justice Web page:

http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/ej/

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