ORS 182.555 Environmental justice mapping tool

The Environmental Justice Council with staff support from the Department of Environmental Quality, in collaboration with the office of Enterprise Information Services, the Institute for Natural Resources, the Portland State University Population Research Center, and natural resource agencies with staff support from the department and the Oregon Health Authority, shall develop an environmental justice mapping tool.

When developing the environmental justice mapping tool, the council shall develop and conduct an inclusive community engagement process to receive input from communities across this state and consult with natural resource agencies. The council shall hold at least six meetings in different regions of this state, including at least one meeting in a remote community, to:

Present a work plan and proposals for the environmental justice mapping tool; and

Receive input and feedback from communities throughout this state about:

Environmental, health, socioeconomic and other factors that should be considered in the development of the mapping tool;

How the mapping tool should be used to help distribute resources to communities that have experienced underinvestment;

How socioeconomic benefits and burdens could be mapped and considered in addition to environmental, health and other data;

Other uses for the mapping tool that can provide community benefits and diminish community burdens;

Geospatial layers to further define environmental justice communities based on the prevalence of specific factors; and

Community-generated data that may be included in the mapping tool.

The mapping tool must:

Be based on factors that are derived from direct input through the inclusive community engagement process described in subsection (2) of this section;

Be sufficiently detailed to allow the assessment of environmental justice benefits and burdens;

Include geospatial data layers that may be used to help better understand the nature of environmental justice communities;

Include data from natural resource agencies or be compatible with other mapping tools developed by other state agencies; and

Be accessible to the public.

The office of Enterprise Information Services shall recommend data quality standards and methodologies for the development and maintenance of the mapping tool.

The council shall enter into an agreement with the Institute for Natural Resources that provides that the institute will maintain the mapping tool and make the mapping tool publicly available in electronic form through the Oregon Explorer.

The council shall review the mapping tool at least once every four years using the inclusive community engagement process described in subsection (2) of this section and update the mapping tool as necessary.