Environmental Justice Initiative

Team Project 2022-23: The Environmental Justice team’s goal is to assist Mississippians, particularly those individuals located in rural and under-served communities, in understanding and advocating for their rights to clean drinking water and effective wastewater systems. The team will continue to build on their work from previous years by researching how federal funds are disbursed to support Mississippi water infrastructure systems and how to facilitate access to these funds.

Past Work: The Environmental Justice team is excited to share the release of their report, Funding Disparities Among Mississippi Local Water Systems, linked below. The report is a culmination of 2 years of research and analysis on access to and distribution of funding for water infrastructure projects. Toolkits for local leaders to support access to the Mississippi state revolving loan funds for water projects are linked below.

Members of the Environmental Justice Team, as well as our faculty supervisor, Emma Scott, took a trip to Mississippi in the fall of 2022 to present on this work at a forum about safe drinking water.
The Environmental Justice Initiative began in Fall 2017, working with Cooperation Jackson to develop a Zero Waste policy for Jackson, MS, to help the City of Jackson to manage its waste disposal in a sustainable way.