Publication Date
1-1-2022
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
Sturm College of Law
Keywords
Legal History, Property Law, State and Local Government Law, Race and Law, Environmental Law
Abstract
This article is rooted larger racial justice conversations that became amplified in 2020 as the United States, and indeed the world, was literally and figuratively on fire as the interconnected pandemics of COVID-19, racial violence, and climate change-induced wildfires raged. These interconnected disasters helped reveal the ways that racial and ethnic minoritized communities disproportionately bore the brunt of economic dislocation, deadly health outcomes, and physical dislocation. For many local and state government entities, particularly those in the water sector, it also catalyzed a response to be more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and indeed color-conscious in service of racial and social equity within future policies and practices. This Article takes seriously the commitment of government entities dealing in the acquisition and distribution of water to achieve their aspirational goals to further racial and social equity in substantive ways. Because water utilities interact with customers and citizens every time a person turns on a water tap, it is arguably the most important local government entity shaping disparate and equitable racial outcomes in the United States. For this reason, this Article advocates for the adoption of racial impact statements ('RIS') in local government decision making, particularly among water utilities. Situated in the larger history of water and climate injustice in Colorado and the arid American West, this Article examines ways that racially minoritized communities engage and contest legal and political water regimes. The Article then explores how water utilities could use RISs in the acquisition, treatment, and delivery of drinking water. If made a part of the everyday work of water utilities, RISs provide a useful tool to center the history and lived experiences of racially minoritized communities battling the many water inequities threatening their homes, schools, and places of work and worship.
Publication Statement
Copyright held by the authors. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Originally published as Tom I. Romero, The Color of Local Government: Observations of a Brown Buffalo on Racial Impact Statements in the Movement for Water Justice, 25 CUNY L. Rev. 241 (2022).
Recommended Citation
Tom I. Romero, The Color of Local Government: Observations of a Brown Buffalo on Racial Impact Statements in the Movement for Water Justice, 25 CUNY L. Rev. 241 (2022).