Minnesota legislators must act to protect environmental justice communities from highway pollution.

Major highway projects have a storied history rooted in systemic racism that continues to harm marginalized communities today, dividing and severely polluting minority and low-income neighborhoods at disproportionate rates.

Urban highways have many harmful health impacts, including increased rates of asthma, dementia, cancer, and stunted lung growth. Currently, there are few protections in Minnesota law that require the Minnesota Department of Transportation to prioritize public health, environmental justice and racial equity when planning highway projects that run through designated environmental justice communities.

In 2023, the legislature passed a groundbreaking cumulative impacts law to protect marginalized communities from disproportionate exposure to pollutants. The law defines environmental justice areas and requires the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to conduct a rulemaking process to address the cumulative impacts of pollution during permitting processes for permitted facilities (i.e. a factory or trash incinerator). However, this new law does not apply to transportation projects, leaving one of the biggest sources of environmental injustice unaddressed.

A cumulative impacts law for transportation would protect environmental justice communities.

Legislators must address this issue this session by creating a new regulation that requires the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to conduct a similar cumulative impacts process for major highway projects that run through environmental justice communities.

This law would add long-overdue protections for communities that have been poisoned by highway infrastructure. If it was determined that a MnDOT trunk highway project would have a disparate impact on surrounding residents, the agency would not be able to proceed until those impacts were remedied and a community benefits agreement was agreed upon.

Momentum is building!

In 2024, legislation to create a Cumulative Impacts Law for Transportation were introduced in the House (HF 4627) and Senate (SF 4676). Thank you to Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura and Senator Omar Fateh for leading on this important legislation.

Moving forward, we are focused on continuing to build support and pass the transportation cumulative impact law during the 2025 legislative session.

Take action today to ask your legislator to sign-on! Your email will be sent to your state senator, state representative, and Governor Walz.