As state officials and business leaders line up to support a planned expansion of Tweed New Haven Airport, the two neighboring cities – New Haven and East Haven – are in a battle over an unequal share of the economic benefits and environmental costs of the project. Both New Haven and East Haven qualify as “environmental justice” communities – a term that takes into account poverty and the racial composition of a census tract – and under a federal executive order dating to 1994, projects like the Tweed expansion must identify and address “disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.” Edith Pestana, the state official in charge of overseeing environmental justice for DEEP, acknowledged that she has received numerous complaints about airport emissions from residents neighboring Tweed, but said that because the environmental assessment is under the purview of FAA, her jurisdiction is limited.
Tweed Expansion Pits Lamont’s Economic Agenda Against Environmental Justice Goals