In March of 2024, Tri-Valley CAREs was an inaugural recipient of the Environmental Justice Action Grant from the California Environmental Protection Agency (“CalEPA”) to support community member involvement in environmental and climate decision-making in San Joaquin County. Along with several other community-oriented initiatives supported by this grant, Tri-Valley CAREs has developed the Environmental Contaminant Map of the Tracy Area, highlighting community perspectives on air and water pollution.
While CalEPA has developed several statewide mapping tools to track environmental concerns, important gaps remain. The risks experienced by Tracy residents are not comprehensively represented, and relevant information is scattered across multiple platforms, making it difficult to access and use. Informed decision-making on environmental and public health not only requires ready access to this information, but also the perspectives of the communities most affected.
Through talking with Tracy residents, gaps in the State’s environmental surveys became more clear. Residents pointed to familiar places within Tracy where they regularly witness concerns such as hazardous materials, idling trucks, or pesticides being sprayed. Additionally, some residents shared concerns about environmental hazards that were left from historical developments. Many of these community-sited concerns were not covered by CalEPA databases. This gap in environmental surveying can potentially cause inadequate attention directed towards environmental cleanup.
The Environmental Contaminant Map of the Tracy Area intends to meet the unmet need of creating a community-driven, intuitive, and interactive visual tool to understand the intersection of pollution, community risk factors, and potential health risks in the Tracy area. The map combines CalEPA datasets in one convenient location and incorporates local knowledge gathered through tabling at Tracy Farmers’ Markets, partnerships with community leaders, and conversations with residents. Tri-Valley CAREs will continue to update the map with new data and incorporate future user feedback in our attempt to make environmental risks more visible and to empower residents in making decisions on their health and environment.
The Environmental Contaminant Map is available here on the Tri-Valley CAREs website.
We hope students, researchers, decision makers, and community members at large can use this tool to support their decisions on environmental health. We invite you to explore the map and give us feedback on areas for improvement or features you would like to see.
