Glossary of Environmental Justice Terms

  • Adjacent Block Groups (ABGs): Any block group identified by the U.S. Census Bureau with a population of zero that are also immediately next to one or more statutorily defined overburdened communities. (EJ Rule )
  • Action Level Exceedance (ALE): When testing shows that at least 10 percent of homes on the same public water supply have more than 15 parts per billion of lead and copper (pbb). When tests show an ALE has occurred within a community, the water purveyor must take actions to reduce lead and/or levels in the water. Actions include water quality monitoring, adjusting water treatments and/or replacing pipes, as well as public education. (Refer to NJDEP’s Division of Water Supply and Geoscience Violation reports for more information)
  • Adverse cumulative stressors: When the combined stressor total of an overburdened community is higher than the 50th percentile non-OBC comparison point or would be made higher than 50th percentile non-OBC comparison point. (EJ Rule )
  • Adverse Health Effect: A change in cell structure, or body chemistry and/or function, that may cause disease or health issues. (Technical Support Document, EPA’s Air Toxics Screening Assessment )
  • Census block group: Statistical divisions of census tracts that typically contain between 600 and 3,000 people and are used to present data and control block numbering. Block groups consist of clusters of blocks found within the same census tract that share the same first digit of their four-digit census block group number. Block groups never cross state, county, or census tract boundaries. (Census.gov)
  • Combined Stressor Total (CST): The total number of adverse stressors in an overburdened community. (EJ Rule )
  • Compelling Public Interest: A demonstration by a proposed new facility that primarily serves an essential environmental, health, or safety need of the individuals in an overburdened community, is necessary to serve the essential environmental, health, or safety need, and that there are no other means reasonably available to meet the essential environmental, health, or safety need. The economic benefits of the proposed new facility shall not be considered in determining whether it serves a compelling public interest in an overburdened community. (EJ Rule )
  • Disproportionate Impact: Situations where a facility cannot avoid either: (1) creating adverse cumulative stressors in an overburdened community as a result of the facility’s contribution; or (2) contributing to an adverse environmental and public health stressor in an overburdened community that is already subject to adverse cumulative stressors. (EJ Rule )
  • Environmental Justice: The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
  • Environmental Justice Impact Statement (EJIS): A systematic, interdisciplinary and integrated assessment of environmental and public health conditions in an overburdened community that identifies and analyzes:
    1. existing environmental and public health stressors;
    2. any adverse environmental and public health stressors;
    3. the presence or absence of adverse cumulative stressors;
    4. potential environmental and public health stressors associated with a facility;
    5. whether the facility can avoid causing a disproportionate impact;
    6. the measures the facility will propose to implement to avoid or address any disproportionate impact; and
    7. where applicable, how the new facility serves a compelling public interest in the overburdened community.
  • Environmental Justice Mapping, Assessment and Protection (EJMAP) Tool: Interactive application that provides the public a visualization of OBC locations throughout the State, where existing facilities regulated under the law are located and what existing environmental and public health stressors currently impact these OBCs.
  • Environmental or public health stressors: Sources of environmental pollution, including, but not limited to, concentrated areas of air pollution, mobile sources of air pollution, contaminated sites, transfer stations or other solid waste facilities, recycling facilities, scrap yards, and point-sources of water pollution including, but not limited to, water pollution from facilities or combined sewer overflows; or conditions that may cause potential public health impacts, including, but not limited to, asthma, cancer, elevated blood lead levels, cardiovascular disease, and developmental problems in the overburdened community.
  • Expansion: A modification or expansion of existing operations or footprint of development that has the potential to result in an increase of an existing facility’s contribution to any environmental and public health stressor in an overburdened community, but shall not include any such activity that decreases or does not otherwise result in an increase in stressor contributions. (EJ Rule )
  • Facility: any –
    1. major source of air pollution;
    2. resource recovery facility or incinerator;
    3. sludge processing facility, combustor, or incinerator;
    4. sewage treatment plant with a capacity of more than 50 million gallons per day;
    5. transfer station or other solid waste facility, or recycling facility intending to receive at least 100 tons of recyclable material per day;
    6. scrap metal facility;
    7. landfill, including, but not limited to, a landfill that accepts ash, construction or demolition debris, or solid waste; or
    8. medical waste incinerator;

    except that “facility” shall not include a facility as defined in section 3 of P.L.1989, c.34 (C.13:1E-48.3) that accepts regulated medical waste for disposal, including a medical waste incinerator, that is attendant to a hospital or university and intended to process self-generated regulated medical waste.

  • Geographic point of comparison (GPC): The lower (e.g., most protective) of the non-OBC state or relevant county stressor values. If an OBC block group’s combined stressor total is higher than the 50th percentile non-OBC comparison point, that OBC is subject to adverse cumulative stressors. (TAG)
  • Limited English Proficiency: A household without an adult that speaks English “very well” as determined annually by the United States Census Bureau. (EJ Law )
  • Low-income Household: A household that is at or below twice the poverty threshold as determined annually by the United States Census Bureau. (EJ Law )
  • Major Source: A major source of air pollution as defined by the federal “Clean Air Act,” 42 U.S.C. s.7401 et seq., or in rules and regulations adopted by the department pursuant to the “Air Pollution Control Act,” P.L.1954, c.212 (C.26:2C-1 et seq.) or which directly emits, or has the potential to emit, one hundred tons per year or more of any air pollutant, or other applicable criteria set forth in the federal “Clean Air Act,” 42 U.S.C. s.7401 et seq. (EJ Law )
  • Minority Population: A population of people who do not identify as single race white and non-Hispanic. Minority populations include: Black, Hispanic, Asian-American, American Indian or Alaskan Native (EPA EJ Glossary and Definitions from 52:27H-21.18).
  • Overburdened Community: Any census block group, as determined in accordance with the most recent United States Census, in which:
    1. at least 35 percent of the households qualify as low-income households;
    2. at least 40 percent of the residents identify as minority or as members of a State recognized tribal community; or
    3. at least 40 percent of the households have limited English proficiency. (EJ Law )
  • Stressor: One of the twenty-six environmental and public health indices incorporated into New Jersey’s methods for its environmental and public health comparative impact analysis. (TAG )