Brentwood Bus Depot in D.C. and How it Affects Communities of Color

The D.C. area has been strug­gling with waste dis­pos­al and pol­lu­tion from indus­tries dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impact­ing com­mu­ni­ties of col­or and low­er eco­nom­ic sta­tus. As of 2021, the D.C. gov­ern­ment has autho­rized a school-bus ter­mi­nal to be built in 2023 in the Brent­wood enclave that is his­tor­i­cal­ly black. The bus ter­mi­nal will be a hub for 230 bus­es with an esti­mat­ed con­struc­tion cost of $20 mil­lion dol­lars. This com­mu­ni­ty cur­rent­ly shares space with a city garbage truck fleet, a recy­cling cen­ter, a con­struc­tion com­pa­ny, auto repair facil­i­ties, and a paving oper­a­tion which all con­tribute to pol­lu­tion in the com­mu­ni­ty. Brent­wood is part of ward 5 in D.C. where near­ly half the land in the ward is zoned for indus­tri­al use. 

Con­cerns sur­round­ing the bus ter­mi­nal from the local com­mu­ni­ty include the lack of envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment done for the bus ter­mi­nal and its effect on the local area. Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers also feel that they are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by pol­lu­tion due to the num­ber of indus­tri­al prac­tices in the area when oth­er wards in D.C. do not face such con­cerns. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive offices in sup­port of the bus ter­mi­nal claim that it is replac­ing one that already exists in Ward 5 and the land in Brent­wood that the new one will occu­py was pur­chased by D.C. five years ago for com­mer­cial pur­pos­es. Locals still feel their con­cerns are not being heard as it’s less about the land being used but how the land is used and the impacts it will have. Bus­es in D.C. typ­i­cal­ly run on diesel which is one of the most tox­ic vehi­cle emis­sions, but plans are in place to replace some of the bus fleet with elec­tric vehi­cles. The promise of elec­tric bus­es elim­i­nat­ed the need for a col­lec­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment, but com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers are still request­ing an assess­ment since there is no promise or set plan for the elec­tric bus­es. Addi­tion­al­ly, the whole fleet would not be tran­si­tioned all at once and diesel exhaust fumes may still be esca­lat­ed in the area. Two tight­ly focused stud­ies were con­duct­ed that ana­lyzed air qual­i­ty at a ter­mi­nal not yet oper­a­tional and how it might impact the area’s traf­fic. The stud­ies did not account for the cumu­la­tive effects already in place around the project from indus­tries and how the pro­posed project could aggre­gate those effects. 

Brent­wood did not always face the issues of pol­lu­tion as it does today. In the ear­ly 1930s and 1940s, Brent­wood was dom­i­nant­ly white until 1948 when the area was deseg­re­gat­ed. This is when indus­tries also took advan­tage of the new area and have since sparked con­tro­ver­sy over the years. The dis­pro­por­tion­ate effects of pol­lu­tion on under­rep­re­sent­ed and dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties, who pol­lute less than major­i­ty com­mu­ni­ties, has sparked con­cern in local groups includ­ing at George­town who would prof­it off of the bus sys­tems that are stored in sim­i­lar com­mu­ni­ties to Brent­wood. Since the announce­ment of the bus depot, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers of Brent­wood have filed a suit against D.C. for their lack of a com­pre­hen­sive envi­ron­men­tal analy­sis report. This is an ongo­ing case in addi­tion to oth­er con­cerns in ward 5 in regard to waste man­age­ment and disposal. 

While the deci­sion to place the bus depot in Brent­wood is not moti­vat­ed by explic­it racist inten­tions, this is an exam­ple of a com­mu­ni­ty being unhap­py with a deci­sion made by law­mak­ers that direct­ly impacts their liveli­hood. The com­mu­ni­ty is con­cerned by poten­tial pol­lu­tion in the area and peo­ple who hold the pow­er to cor­rect this con­cern have not tak­en the action to mea­sure the effects the deci­sion will have. 

CEE sub­jects: Con­struc­tion Engi­neer­ing and Man­age­ment, Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­cy and Sus­tain­able Infrastructure

Com­ments: This link describes the geog­ra­phy of envi­ron­men­tal tox­ins in D.C. and could be used as fur­ther research to bet­ter under­stand how com­mu­ni­ties are affect­ed by tox­ins differently.

• What steps can be tak­en when devel­op­ing plans that will account for com­mu­ni­ty impact?
• What roles do civ­il and envi­ron­men­tal engi­neers play in cre­at­ing a bet­ter, safer, and health­i­er com­mu­ni­ty? Do you think­ing the pro­posed plan­ning achieved this role regard­less if any civ­il or envi­ron­men­tal engi­neers played a role?
• What are some solu­tions to the cur­rent prob­lem in Brentwood?

• Pop­u­lar media/news references
  • A Black com­mu­ni­ty in North­east D.C. is sur­round­ed by indus­tri­al pol­lu­tion. The city plans to add more.
  • Brent­wood neigh­bors file suit to stop school bus depot
  • Assess­ing Direct Com­mu­ni­ty Impact from Pro­posed 250-Bus Depot
  • DC’s Waste and Envi­ron­men­tal Racism