Just words: Rhode Island's environmental justice policy fails in its first major test
The plan to turn Morley Field into a parking lot is a textbook example of environmental racism, yet DEM continues to favor the developer over the community.
Update: This week’s meeting of the Pawtucket City Council has been delayed until next week.
Recently, Terrance Gray, Director of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), explained that his agency has determined that the City of Pawtucket’s submission to the National Park Service (NPS) concerning Morley Field and two other properties is ready to go. With state approval, the Administration of Mayor Donald Grebien can now officially petition the NPS for permission to sell around half of Morley Field to J.K. Equities.
“Over the past few months, the City of Pawtucket, through [its] environmental consultant Terracon,1 has been working to complete the application for conversion of the three recreation properties, including a portion of Morley Field, to comply with the requirements of the National Park Service (NPS) for such conversions,” wrote Director Gray to environmentalist Greg Gerritt, Watershed Steward at Friends of the Moshassuck. “In many ways, this is analogous to a permit application submitted to the Department. With each discussion and iteration, our team has carefully compared the City’s proposals to those NPS requirements. Last week, our team notified me that their final submission was compliant with NPS guidance. We then submitted the package with our determination to the NPS for their review and decision on Monday, which is our role in this review process.
“The final decision now rests with that federal agency.”
The plan to turn Morley Field into a parking lot is a textbook example of environmental racism. The Woodlawn neighborhood (just north of Providence, along I-95, west of Pawtucket Ave.) is approximately 74% people of color. 59% of the people live at or below the poverty rate, and 29% are children. Woodlawn is a working-class neighborhood where most people live in triple-deckers or multifamily units, often without backyards. Since the 1970s, families in Woodlawn have used Morley Field for Little League games, Pop Warner football, picnics and reunions, and as a place to relax and breathe. For families living in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Pawtucket, Morely Field is an invaluable green space and an escape from this densely populated corner of the city. Morley Field is the only large green space in the neighborhood, and also a rare public access point to the Moshassuck River, home to nesting osprey protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
In 2023, DEM issued an Environmental Justice Policy “to represent the Department’s commitment to the inclusion of equity and justice within all programs.”
Environmental Justice, wrote DEM in their policy, “means all Rhode Islanders – regardless of income, race, ethnicity, national origin, or zip code – have a right to live in a clean and healthy environment and to access environmental amenities like parks, playgrounds, and outdoor spaces.”
In the opinion of Greg Gerritt, “here is the first time that [policy was put to the test, and the department flunked.”
In a response to Director Gray, Gerritt wrote:
“Several years ago, RIDEM put out an environmental justice statement that was supposed to guide the work of the department. But here is the first time that [policy was put to the test, and the department flunked. Clearly, when push came to shove, the commitment to environmental justice went by the boards. The excuse that the federal government does not include that in their criteria is just that, an excuse, as the Feds put together their rules before anyone had ever used the words ‘environmental justice’ in public, and now you have tossed the people of Woodlawn under the racist bus of the Trump Administration.
“You also, in discussion with Save Morely Field, said that DEM would require [the city] to hold a public hearing, though I am guessing, because the Federal government could not comprehend that a city would throw its own communities under a bus, that they do not specifically require it, and therefore you let it slide. The fact that the City of Pawtucket chose to do this in secret tells us much about the racists running the city, and that DEM made no serious effort to bring any public discussion and open process to this demonstrates clearly that both the fix was in and that DEM has thrown out its environmental justice document. You were quite well aware of how much of an environmental injustice closing the park is, and how despicable it is that this process was allowed to go forward in secret, despite knowing how much it would harm the community.
“Before the final destruction of the park can continue, there is still a need for wetland and stormwater permits. Will the public be invited into those proceedings, or will we again see a secret process? Friends of the Moshassuck hereby gives formal notice that we call for a public hearing on wetland and stormwater permits for Morley Field and that we shall intervene. We also formally ask whether RIDEM’s statement on environmental justice, and the guidance within it that DEM should take environmental justice into account in all decisions, is considered valid, or is just another scrap of paper that RIDEM will ignore?
“I doubt anything I have written here really surprises you, but the people of RI expect better of RIDEM and feel that you have failed the people of Woodlawn and every other environmental justice community in Rhode Island.”
See also:
Friends of Morley Field will attend the Pawtucket City Council meeting on Wednesday, February 25, to address the issue during public comment. To participate, you must sign in by 6:30 pm.
Why are environmental consultants always working to enable environmental destruction rather than actually serving the community and the environment? Shouldn’t they be considered exploitation consultants?
Here I go again: I live in Pawtucket. I don't happen to live in Woodlawn, but Woodlawn is part of my town, and destroying Morley Field is an attack on my town.
I still don't understand how the city managed to sign a P&S agreement for land they had no legal right to sell. I still don't understand why (apparently) the mayor thinks that Pawtucket has some kind of bubble over it and that polluting the Moshassuck won't affect communities downstream, that the massive disruption of a truck distribution center won't affect Providence as the trucks drive through neighboring cities. I don't understand why the mayor claims that since "all the letters against this are the same" he can ignore them. (Would he ignore a petition, claiming only the first name counts?)
So many people have said all of these things over and over and over again. Can someone please buy a plot next to the mayor's house and put up a city dump?
I don't think I'll make it to the meeting. My street hasn't been plowed.
A truly shameful and environmental injustice, spearhead by the current Administration, for the sole benefit of an out-of-state private interest whose proposed development is entirely speculative. For this enormous warehouse project will create no jobs and will provide no tax base for the city. It will, most likely, remain vacant like most of the 100s of similar projects across the country. It is, thus, of zero utility to the affected Woodlawn community or Pawtucket.
Even more disturbing, is the proposed use of Morley as a toxic dump site, for the development, before being paved over as a parking lot for the private interest.
I am unable to conceive of any situation in which, the proposal to take away this community's and its children only youth athletic field/public recreational green space (for the stated purpose) would be considered morally or environmentally acceptable.