2030 Wisconsin State Airport System Plan

8.0 Environmental Justice 8.1 Chapter Purpose and Content Wisconsin is committed to integrating the principle of environmental justice into all transportation planning programs and activities. For purposes of this chapter, environmental justice populations are defined as including minority, low-income, children (age 17 and under), seniors (age 65 and older) and zero-vehicle household populations. These environmental justice populations have been assessed in relation to their geographic location, and the presence and operations of the statewide airport system. The information contained in this chapter includes an evaluation of the relationship between the Wisconsin State Airport System Plan (SASP) recommendations and environmental justice populations. This environmental justice chapter also supplements the system plan environmental evaluation included in Chapter 9, which discusses the potential environmental and community impacts of implementing the SASP. Lastly, this chapter identifies areas for consideration during future planning and project-level activities. It is important to note that this evaluation discusses the SASP recommendations at a state-wide system level. Prior to implementation of each individual project, individual project specific environmental reviews will be completed which will include an environmental justice evaluation. The implementation of any specific improvement identified in this plan remains the responsibility of local airport sponsors, and the projects identified do not constitute a commitment of either state or federal funding. The approval and project justification of local master planning efforts, environmental review processes and funding approvals remain a sponsor responsibility. Similar to Wisconsin’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (Connections 2030), the SASP is a policy- based plan developed to be flexible and responsive to shifts in investment priorities. While the SASP’s recommendations provide the framework for decision making and for prioritizing investments, plan recommendations may be implemented as proposed, modified as BOA responds to changing statewide and local aviation needs, or delayed due to insufficient resources (staff and funding) or changing priorities. As a result, analysis of aviation-related decisions and investments that may disproportionately affect minority populations, low-income populations, children (age 17 and under), seniors (age 65 and older) and households with no vehicles is limited at the system level. 8.2 Environmental Justice Overview Presidential Executive Order 12898, issued in 1994, directed each federal agency to “make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.” The order builds on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. There are three fundamental principles of environmental justice: To avoid, minimize or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority and low-income populations. Wisconsin State Airport System Plan 2030 8-1 To ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially-affected communities in the transportation decision-making process. To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations. The executive order and subsequent orders by the U.S. Department of Transportation define minority and low-income populations as: Black – a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. American Indian and Alaskan Native – a person having origins in any original people of North America and who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition. Asian – a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander – a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and other Pacific Islands. Hispanic – a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture of origin, regardless of race. The executive order also defines low-income populations as persons whose total household income (or in the case of a community or group, whose median household income) is at or below the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines. While not specifically identified by title VI or the executive order, WisDOT chose to expand its environmental justice analyses to include children (age 17 and under), seniors (age 65 and older), and households with zero vehicles because these additional population groups have unique needs that could be affected as a result of implementing the SASP. 8.3 Summary of Wisconsin’s Environmental Justice Populations According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Wisconsin’s total population was approximately 5.68 million persons in 2010. The chart below depicts Wisconsin’s 2010 population based on race alone. Chart 8-1 and Table 8-1 on the following page depicts the state’s population by race, ethnicity, age (17 and under, and 65 and older), income (below the poverty level) and zero-vehicle households. It is important to note that 2010 Census data does not list Hispanic/Latino as a racial category. Instead, Hispanic or Latino heritage is considered an ethnicity; a person of Hispanic or Latino origin can be identified with any racial group. Therefore, to avoid double counting, those individuals identified as having Hispanic or Latino ethnicity were subtracted from the appropriate racial category to generate the total Hispanic/Latino minority population. Wisconsin State Airport System Plan 2030 8-2 Chart 8-1 Wisconsin Demographics, 2010 0.1% 1.5% 2.3% 0.9% 5.9% White 6.2% Black American Indian/Alaska Native Asian Native Hawaiian 83.3% Hispanic or Latino Other Table 8-1 Wisconsin Demographics, 2010 Percent of Total State Population Group Number of Persons (2010) Population State of Wisconsin 5,686,986 100% White 4,738,411 83.3% Black 350,898 6.2% American Indian/Alaska Native 48,513 0.9% Asian 128,052 2.3% Native Hawaiian 1,565 0.1% Hispanic or Latino 336,056 5.9% Other (including two or more races) 83,493 1.5% Children (age 17 and under) 1,339,492 23.6% Seniors (age 65 and older) 777,314 13.7% Persons Below Poverty Level 725,797 13.1% Zero-Vehicle Households1 169,751 7.5% Notes: 1 Wisconsin had 2,279,769 households in 2010 Sources: US Census Data (2010) and ACS Data (2011) Wisconsin State Airport System Plan 2030 8-3 As shown in Table 8-1, approximately 83 percent of Wisconsin’s population is white. The largest minority population is black accounting for approximately 6.2 percent of the population, followed by Hispanic or Latino at 5.9 percent of the total population. More than 37 percent of the state’s population falls within the age categories of children (23.6 percent) and senior (13.7 percent). According to the census data, approximately 13.1 percent of persons are below the State poverty level and 7.5 percent of total households do not have a vehicle. While Table 8-1 provides a statewide overview, population is not evenly distributed across the state. Tables 8-2 through 8-5 provide a breakdown of these populations based on the five WisDOT regions (Northwest, North Central, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast). Figure 8-1 illustrates the boundaries of the five WisDOT regions. The breakdown and calculation by region were necessary for establishing appropriate thresholds to determine readily-identifiable environmental justice populations located within 75 miles of medium/large hub airports (General Mitchell International Airport, Minneapolis St. Paul International, and Chicago - O’Hare International) and 25 miles of small/non-hub commercial service airports. As shown in Figure 8-1, there are vast areas of the state that do not fall within an airport study area, but only 16 of the 72 Wisconsin counties don’t have at least a small portion of the county falling within one or more of the airport study areas. These counties are generally rural, less populous and could be considered as lacking sufficient air services. However, other shuttle, air charter or air taxi services at smaller airports across the state have the potential to provide the missing connections (services) to these areas. Wisconsin State Airport System Plan 2030 8-4 Figure 8-1 – Base Map Wisconsin State Airport System Plan 2030 8-5 The stacked chart below and Table 8-2 provide a breakdown of minority and ethnic populations within each of the five WisDOT regions. Table 8-2 Racial Populations Within Each WisDOT Region (2010) Hispanic WisDOT Region American Indian Native Other White1 Black1 Asian1 or Region Population Alaska Native1 Hawiian1 Race1 Latino1 954,664 13,679 11,892 25,620 284 43,607 596 Northeast 1,067,017 89.5% 1.3% 1.1% 2.4% 0.1% 4.1% 0.1% 548,364 3,593 12,705 11,595 173 12,600 214 North Central 597,198 91.8% 0.6% 2.1% 1.9% 0.1% 2.1% 0.1% 639,100 4,696 11,166 7,817 141 11,731 270 Northwest 684,157 93.4% 0.7% 1.6% 1.1% 0.1% 1.7% 0.1% Southeast 1,437,105 288,550 7,917 50,831 595 185,947 1,968 2,019,970 (Milwaukee) 71.1% 14.3% 0.4% 2.5% 0.1% 9.2% 0.1% 1,159,178 40,380 4,831 32,189 372 57,252 1,047 Southwest 1,318,644 87.9% 3.1% 0.4% 2.4% 0.1% 4.3% 0.1% Note: 1 The percentage of the racial population for each Region was used to establish environmental justice thresholds, as described in Section 8.4 As shown in Table 8-2, the southeast region of Wisconsin, which includes the Milwaukee metropolitan area, has the largest minority population and the highest percentage of minorities, while the northwest region has the lowest percent of minorities making up the total population for that region of the state.

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