亚利桑那州温斯洛--这座曾经繁华的亚利桑那州北部城市与雨水的关系一直不太好。温斯洛需要它，但仅仅一点点就可以淹没一个官员多年来恳求联邦政府修复的堤坝系统。
当地官员认为，拜登政府推动资助帮助弱势群体的项目，使他们今年获得了优势。美国陆军工程兵团最近宣布将向温斯洛的防洪项目拨款6500万美元。
纳瓦霍县公共工程主任约翰·奥斯古德说:“在他们能够引入识别其他社会影响和社会经济水平以及环境影响的标准之前，这只是一个数字游戏。”“在你达到一定水平之前，你不会有竞争力，也不会得到资助。”
总统乔·拜登去年承诺，在气候变化等可能增加洪水风险的领域，联邦投资收益的40%将流向弱势社区，包括那些高贫困率和高失业率的社区。白宫称这一努力是公正的。
拜登政府最近宣布了140亿美元的环境恢复和基础设施项目支出，比如温斯洛的项目，那里的大多数居民是美国原住民或西班牙裔，家庭年收入中值不到38，000美元，四分之一的居民生活贫困。他们说这些花费符合司法公正，但是没有详细说明如何进行。
这是因为Justice40的一些规则仍在编写中，这引发了人们对政府如何执行该政策以及该政策的应用是否实现了其承诺的担忧。甚至温斯洛和更广泛的纳瓦霍县也不知道数学是如何计算出来的。
“在我们回顾过去并说‘我们在多大程度上实现了这一目标’时，必须要有责任感。”环境保护基金会的娜塔莉·斯奈德说。
在联邦紧急事务管理局于2008年取消了一座堤坝的认证后，温斯洛三分之二的地方——包括医院、疗养院、学校和公共设施——都处于洪泛区。一场大洪水可能会影响一座40号州际公路大桥和小科罗拉多河上的一条铁路线，这条铁路线运载着运往西海岸的350亿美元的货物。
老鹰乐队的歌曲《放轻松》(Take it Easy)中著名的66号公路的拐角处，有一句歌词“站在亚利桑那州温斯洛的一个拐角处”，该市表示，它看起来更像一条小溪，而不是洪水中的人行道。
从历史上看，环境正义在联邦项目审查中被用来考虑对弱势群体的潜在危害。拜登关于司法40的行政命令指示联邦机构思考他们的决定和支出如何能够造福于被忽视的社区。
通常，陆军部队在权衡项目的收益和成本时，会考虑防止财产损失和创造就业机会等因素。在基础设施法案中，国会表示，有利于弱势群体的提案应该优先用于防洪减灾等领域的一些项目。
陆军军团的140亿美元资金包括温斯洛的堤坝项目，新墨西哥州Espanola山谷土著河岸栖息地的恢复，该地区有大量的西班牙裔和土著美国人，以及穿过波多黎各圣胡安的潮汐通道，该通道被废物和碎片堵塞。
埃斯特雷拉·圣地亚哥·佩雷斯(Estrella D. Santiago Pérez)是一个长期推动波多黎各疏浚项目的组织的环境事务经理，他说，1.63亿美元的联邦资金将有助于改善圣胡安湾河口的健康状况。它还将改善martín pea海峡附近居民的生活条件，这些居民因频繁的洪水将污水带进家中而遭受痛苦。一些居民必须搬迁。
不太清楚的是，社会、环境或经济公正在资助决策中扮演了多大的角色。管理和预算办公室去年7月向联邦机构发布了临时指南，并表示最终版本正在制定中。
周五，拜登政府发布了一个初步工具，确定弱势群体应受益于司法40。该工具考虑了贫困率和社区对气候变化的敏感性等因素，将温斯洛视为弱势社区。它不包括种族因素。官员们表示，这是为了抵御潜在的法庭挑战。
拜登政府仍在开发记分卡，以跟踪各机构执行司法的情况。
“在那之前，我们无法评价拜登-哈里斯政府，”白宫环境正义顾问委员会成员、密歇根大学教授凯尔·威特说。
加利福尼亚州的纳瓦霍和圣克鲁斯等农村县多年来一直在推动社会正义在陆军部队的资助中发挥更大的作用，以便弱势社区的项目更具竞争力。
“这还没有完全纳入计算之中，”圣克鲁斯县的防洪经理马克·斯特鲁德利说。
斯特德利列举了大量移民劳动力、大量讲西班牙语的人口和不断增长的贫困率，作为联邦政府应该资助帕哈罗河附近防洪项目的理由。
去年，当州政府决定提供全部非联邦费用时，圣克鲁斯和蒙特雷县的项目得到了推动，但它不在陆军最近的资金接受者之列。
当地官员还表示，贫困、小型和农村社区缺乏他们学习所需的资源。
“你最想帮助的社区是那些最没有能力争夺资金的社区，”密西西比河城镇倡议的执行主任科林·韦伦康普说。
即使有资金支持，当地赞助商有时也必须努力完成费用分担。
在亚利桑那州，纳瓦霍县和温斯洛必须拿出堤防工程设计和建设费用的35%，即3500万美元。城市经理约翰·巴克利说，城市有一些储蓄，正在探索其他选择，但不想对居民征收额外的税收。
沿着小科罗拉多河延伸数英里的温斯洛大堤被取消认证，迫使一些居民购买洪水保险。联邦应急管理局的数据显示，温斯洛邮政编码有超过250个现行政策。
根据2018年发布的一项陆军研究，如果100年一遇的洪水袭击温斯洛，高达10英尺(3米)的水可能会淹没一些地区，给公共安全和健康带来风险。
小科罗拉多河有它自己的生命，因为它携带着洪水带来的大量沉积物和碎片而选择了不同的路径。多年来，居民们用旧汽车、泥土和水泥建造堤坝。
“那条河，你无法告诉它该走哪条路，”维吉尔·内兹说，他是纳瓦霍人，住在附近。“每年都有变化。”
该市和县表示，老年居民、儿童以及一群纳瓦霍人和霍皮人最容易受到洪水的影响，他们是几十年前作为两个部落之间土地纠纷的一部分被联邦政府重新安置到温斯洛的，并且最难恢复。
该县公共工程主任奥斯古德说，与气候变化相关的天气鞭打可能会导致更频繁的洪水。当地官员计划安装一个警报器，如果河水泛滥，警报将在全市响起，因为他们正在建设防洪堤系统。
“我们已经为此奋斗了很长时间，所以只要我们有可能开始，我们会的，”奥斯古德说。
White House spending targets social justice; criteria vague
WINSLOW, Ariz. -- This once-bustling city in northern Arizona has a troubled relationship with rain. Winslow needs it, but just a little can overwhelm a levee system that officials have pleaded with the federal government for years to fix.
Local officials believe a push from the Biden administration to fund projects that help disadvantaged communities gave them an edge this year. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced $65 million is going to Winslow's flood control project.
“Until they were able to introduce criteria that recognized other social effects and socioeconomic level of communities and environmental impacts, it was just a numbers game,” Navajo County Public Works Director John Osgood said. “And until you could reach a certain level, you weren’t going to be competitive, you weren’t going to receive funding.”
PresidentJoe Bidenpromised last year that 40% of the benefits of federal investments in areas such as climate change that can increase flood risk would flow to disadvantaged communities, including those with high rates of poverty and unemployment. The White House calls the effort Justice40.
The Biden administration recently announced $14 billion in spending on environmental restoration and infrastructure projects like the one in Winslow, where most residents are Native American or Hispanic, the median household income is less than $38,000 a year and a quarter of residents live in poverty. They say the spending is in line with Justice40 but have not detailed how.
That’s because some of the rules for Justice40 are still being written, raising concerns about how the administration is carrying out the policy and whether it’s being applied in a way that fulfills its promise. Even Winslow and the broader Navajo County don’t know how the math works out.
“There has to be accountability where we look back and say, ‘How well did we meet this objective?’" said Natalie Snider of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Two-thirds of Winslow — including a hospital, nursing homes, schools and utilities — is in a flood plain after the Federal Emergency Management Agency decertified a levee in 2008. A massive flood could affect an Interstate 40 bridge and a rail line over the Little Colorado River that carries $35 billion in cargo destined for the West Coast.
And the corner off Route 66 made famous in the Eagles song “Take it Easy,” with the line “Standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,” would look more like a stream than a sidewalk in a flood, the city said.
Historically, environmental justice has been used during federal project reviews to consider the potential harm to a disadvantaged community. Biden’s executive order on Justice40 directs federal agencies to think about how their decisions and spending can benefit communities that have been ignored.
Typically, the Army Corps considers factors such as preventing property damage and job creation when it weighs the benefits and costs of projects. In the infrastructure bill, Congress said proposals that benefit disadvantaged communities should be prioritized for some projects in areas like flood mitigation.
The Army Corps' $14 billion in funding includes the levee project in Winslow, the restoration of native riparian habitat in New Mexico’s Espanola Valley that is heavily Hispanic and Native American and work on a tidal channel through San Juan, Puerto Rico, that is clogged with waste and debris.
Estrella D. Santiago Pérez, an environmental affairs manager for a group that has long pushed for the Puerto Rico dredging project, said the $163 million in federal funding will help improve the health of the San Juan Bay Estuary. It also will enhance living conditions for residents near the Martín Peña Channel who suffer when frequent flooding sends sewage-infested water into their homes. Some residents must relocate.
What’s less clear is how much of a factor social, environmental or economic justice plays in funding decisions. The Office of Management and Budget released interim guidance to federal agencies last July and said a final version is in the works.
On Friday, the Biden administration released a preliminary tool that identifies disadvantaged communities that should benefit from Justice40. That tool, which considers factors like the poverty rate and a community's susceptibility to climate change, identifies Winslow as a disadvantaged community. It does not include race as a factor. Officials say it was designed to withstand a potential court challenge.
The Biden administration is still developing scorecards to track how well agencies are carrying out Justice40.
“Until that happens, we won’t be able to judge the Biden-Harris administration,” said Kyle Whyte, a University of Michigan professor who is on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Rural counties such as Navajo and Santa Cruz in California have pushed for years for social justice to be more of a factor in funding from the Army Corps so that projects from disadvantaged communities would be more competitive.
“It's not fully baked into the calculus yet,” said Mark Strudley, the flood control manager in Santa Cruz County.
Strudley cited a largely migrant labor force, a significant Spanish-speaking population and a growing poverty rate as reasons the federal government should fund a flood control project near the Pajaro River.
The project in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties got a boost last year when the state decided to fund the full non-federal cost, but it wasn't among the Army Corps' most recent funding recipients.
Local officials also have said that poor, small and rural communities struggle without the resources they need for studies.
“The communities that you want to help the most are the communities that have the least capacity to compete for the money,” said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative.
Even with funding granted, local sponsors sometimes must scramble to fulfill the cost share.
In Arizona, Navajo County and Winslow must come up with 35% of the cost for design and construction of the levee project, which is $35 million. The city has some money in savings and is exploring other options but doesn't want to impose additional taxes on residents, City Manager John Barkley said.
The decertification of the Winslow levee that runs several miles alongside the Little Colorado River forced some residents to buy flood insurance. Data from FEMA showed the Winslow ZIP code has more than 250 active policies.
If a 100-year flood hit Winslow, up to 10 feet (3 meters) of water could inundate some areas, putting public safety and health at risk, according to an Army Corps study released in 2018.
The Little Colorado River has a life of its own, taking different paths as it carries heavy sediment and debris from flooding. Residents have crafted dikes over the years using old cars, dirt and cement.
“That river, you can't tell it which way to go,” said Virgil Nez, who is Navajo and lives nearby. “Every year, it changes.”
Elderly residents, children, and a group of Navajos and Hopis whom the federal government relocated to Winslow decades ago as part of a land dispute between the two tribes are most vulnerable to flooding and would have the hardest time recovering, the city and county say.
Weather whiplash associated with climate change could lead to more frequent flooding, said Osgood, the county public works director. Local officials plan to install an alarm that will sound throughout the city if the river floods as they work on the levee system.
“We’ve been fighting for this for a long time, so as soon as we possibly can get started, we will,” Osgood said.
