Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Cleanup Site Distribution topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State Water Board analysis: roughly one-third of cleanup sites are in the most burdened California tracts
Summary
Steve McMasters of the State Water Resources Control Board presented a statewide analysis using CalEnviroScreen showing approximately 60,000 historic and existing cleanup sites, with about 18,000 in tracts scoring 75% or higher; he flagged disparities in open vs. closed site distributions across demographic groups and historic redlining areas.
Steve McMasters, a supervising engineering geologist with the State Water Resources Control Board, presented a statewide analysis of waterboard cleanup programs and their distribution relative to CalEnviroScreen burden scores.
McMasters said the waterboards’ geotracker dataset includes roughly 60,000 historic and existing cleanup sites and that about one-third—approximately 18,000 sites—fall inside census tracts with CalEnviroScreen scores of 75% or greater. He said the board used CalEnviroScreen 4.0 and census tract data to examine population and race demographics and observed that Hispanic/Latino communities bear a higher share of cleanup sites in the most burdened areas.
McMasters reported program counts and differences: the underground storage tank (UST) program had "over 200 open cases" as of December of the prior year, while the site cleanup program had about 55 open cases. He described the site cleanup workload as more complex and noted funding constraints and higher-risk contaminants such as chlorinated solvents.
The presentation also drew links to historical housing policy: McMasters described how 1930s redlining overlays correlate with concentrations of cleanup sites, and he showed that roughly 3,000 cleanup sites sit within historical redlined areas. He flagged disparities between open and closed cases by demographic group and said the next phase is to work with regional boards and local agencies to understand why disparities exist.
Why it matters: the analysis quantifies how contaminated sites and ongoing open cases are distributed across communities and supports targeted outreach and program adjustments. McMasters called for additional work to explain closure disparities and to refine programmatic responses in the state’s most burdened areas.
