Environmental Justice

Environmental justice means the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability, in decision-making and other activities that affect human health and the environment.

The Cheverly Area Environmental Justice Action Team 

Background

The Cheverly Area Environmental Justice Action Team (EJAT) is a sub-group of the Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the Environmental Justice (EJ) partnership* in and around the Towns of Cheverly, Fairmount Heights, Seat Pleasant and Bladensburg in Prince George's County, Maryland.  This area has a very high EJ score.  The partnership was initiated in 2020 by the communities and the University of Maryland’s Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health (CEEJH).  Since that time the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) & Prince George’s County (PGC) have become partners. 

Purpose

The EJAT focuses on implementing “real-world’ action to reduce air pollution, noise and other issues linked to EJ.  The actions are driven by the community-based, hyper-local air monitoring network that has been set up by the communities.  Examples of the real-world actions include:

• An enhanced, targeted inspections and enforcement program

• An aggressive effort to reduce diesel emissions

• An initiative to minimize emissions of toxic fugitive dust from businesses and roadways

• A community air monitoring network. A hyper-local network of about 30 monitors is now in place.  Data is used to ensure public health is protected and to use data analysis tools to assist in targeting problematic business and mobile emission sources

• A series of actions to expand and improve the process that has been used and will be used in the future to ensure that new emission sources that are being planned will not increase environmental risks to residents and that other EJ issues are addressed

• Efforts to address nuisances like late-night explosions and noise. 

These efforts are all community-driven.  MDE, EPA, CEEJH and PGC have important roles.

Team Membership

• Ray and Julia Mosely, Team Leaders

• Tad Aburn, Volunteer, Convenor, Team Secretary

• Karen Moe, Air Monitoring Lead

• Dylan Galloway, Cheverly Town Manager

• Sheila Salo

• Laila Riazi

• Tovoia Bing-Young 

• Vivek Ravichandran, CEEJH

• Sophia Riazi-Sekowski

• The Team receives advice from Cheverly Mayor Kayce Munyeneh, Fairmount Heights former Mayor Lily Martin, CEEJH Founder and EJ expert Dr. Sacoby Wilson, MDE and EPA 

• Participation on EJAT is open to anyone who wants to volunteer their time.

The team meets virtually every other Thursday. Meeting summaries will be posted here.

Contact Information… Join us! … Phone: (443) 829 -3652 … Email: tadaburn@gmail.com 

* Read about the Cheverly Partnership here​.​