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--- title: 'Project documentation template' disqus: hackmd --- THE EFFECTS OF REDLINING IN CALIFORNIA === :::info **[GitHub Repository](https://github.com/pcarl006/Capstone-Project)** ## Project Contributors **Graduate Students at School of Public Policy [University of California, Riverside](https://spp.ucr.edu/mpp/current-students)** |[Haley Welch](https://github.com/hay1997) | [Wajiha Noor](https://github.com/WawNun) | [Peter Carlstrom](https://github.com/pcarl006) | |--------| -----------|--------------------| | <img src="https://spp.ucr.edu/sites/g/files/rcwecm1611/files/haley%20welch%20headshot.png" alt="Haley" title="Haley" width="120" height="" /> | <img src="https://spp.ucr.edu/sites/g/files/rcwecm1611/files/wajiha%20headshot.png" alt="Wajiha" title="Wajiha" width="120" height="" /> | <img src="https://spp.ucr.edu/sites/g/files/rcwecm1611/files/spp%20logo%20placeholder.png" alt="Peter" title="Peter" width="120" height="" /> | | **Research Interest:** Health Policy, Urban Policy, and Environmental Policy| **Research Interest:** Environmental Policy, Health Policy, and Water Policy| **Research Interest:** Environmental Policy, Geopolitics, and Health Policy | ::: --- ## :book:Table of Contents [TOC] --- Overview --- The aim of our project is to study the association between historic redlining lead and school water lead contamination. The main purpose of 1930’s Home Owner Loan Corporation (HOLC) federal policy maps was to determine the creditworthiness of the neighborhoods. The language used in the HOLC appraisal documents and the resulting maps reflect that neighborhoods with racial minorities were disproportionately rated as “hazardous” and coded as red compared to all white neighborhoods. Contrary to its intended purpose HOLC maps have served as a tool to segregate and redline neighborhoods of color. Racism followed by years of neglect and disinvestment has contributed to socioeconomic, environmental and health disparities in these neighborhoods.These disparities compound over generations, bounding these neighborhoods into poverty and despair. The legacy of historic redlining prevails to date and manifests in the form of disinvestment and infrastructure decay. In most disadvantaged communities aging water infrastructure (lead pipes, faucets, and plumbing fixtures )is a cause of concern. Moreover, lead rarely occurs naturally in California’s drinking water sources[[1]](:https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reducing_Lead_in_Drinking_Water_in_Californias_Childcare_Facilities-Full_Report.pdf). For this reason, lead contamination in drinking water can serve as a proxy for neighborhood disinvestment. According to California law (Assembly Bill 685), every person has a right to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water. To ensure safe drinking water Governor Jerry Brown passed Assembly Bill 746 in 2017, mandating all K-12 schools in California to test their drinking water for lead. Secondary data on lead samples from roughly 7000 schools is available on the California Water Resource Board’s website along with information on school names and addresses. Using advanced statistical tools and `geosnap` we will interpolate school location points onto HOLC graded neighborhoods. A comparative analysis of lead exposure in redlined versus non-redlined schools will be conducted to demonstrate the long-term effects of redlining in perpetuating disparities. Past literature documents higher concentration of racial minorities and disadvantaged communities in historic redlined neighborhoods compared to the other HOLC graded neighborhoods in California [==?==]. In most instances schools in these neighborhoods mirror the ethnic and racial composition. Hence, the burden of lead exposure is likely to fall disportionately on the children of color. Exposure to toxins such as lead can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the school attending population. There is mounting evidence of the harmful effects of lead exposure on human health and cognitive development [==?==] .The Center for Disease Control disclosed that the detrimental effects of lead exposure are irreversible[==?==]. Given the severity of this issue our research has implications for multiple policy domains. Thus, through an exploratory lens we aim to highlight socioeconomic, health, and environmental injustices in the historic redlined neighborhoods of California. ### Research Question Do schools in historically redlined neighborhoods have higher water lead concentration than schools outside of historically redlined neighborhoods? - Are there similar patterns in neighborhoods composed of POC? - Are there similar patterns in neighborhoods with low household income? ### Steps in Analysis #### 1. Identifying Redlined Neighborhoods - Using 1930’s color-coded HOLC maps for California chart out neighborhood boundaries. - Compare the redlined versus non-redlined neighborhoods. #### 2. Identifying School Locations - Locate and identify schools and school districts boundaries or catchment zones inside each of the redlined and non-redlined neighborhoods. - ADD-ON: SES, Racial composition, and educational performance of the sampled schools in redlined versus non-redlined neighborhoods. #### 3. Examining the Lead Water Sample Data - How many school points are located in redlined versus non-redlined neighborhoods? - The level of lead concentration found in water samples of each school in a given redlined and non-redlined neighborhood. California has set 15 parts per billion as a standard for action level exceedance. “Public health advocates, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the consumer group CALPIRG, say no amount of lead is safe and have pushed for lead limits to be lowered to 1 part per billion”[[2]](https://edsource.org/2018/gaps-in-california-law-requiring-schools-to-test-for-lead-could-leave-children-at-risk/602756). It might be useful to look at levels below 15 parts per billion to highlight additional at-risk schools. - What are the characteristics of schools exempted from the lead sample data set? - The number of samples collected at the locations.What types of schools have higher sample numbers? Examine the spatial distribution of schools that have action level exceedance (ALE) in their samples. - TO BE DECIDED: The techniques used for statisitcal analysis. Difference-in-Differences or fixed effects. ### Potential Limitations - The data does not include all the schools (certain schools were given exemptions). - Tests in the California Water Resources Control Board database do not specify exact lead levels under 5 parts per billion. - Data quality issues: - Problem of Outliers:“Some schools recorded very high lead levels that officials said were misleading, because they were taken from fixtures that had been shut down for several weeks, months and even years, allowing lead to accumulate in the stagnant water"[[3]](https://edsource.org/2018/search-lead-in-school-water/602783). - Missing values. - HOLC data limitations (HOLC grades were only applied to a certain size of population) ### Policy Implications There are numerous gaps in Assembly Bill 746 that are open to interpretation. For example, the bill does not specify the number of samples that need to be collected at each school. The California Water Resource Control Board (agency enforcing the water-testing law) has set an arbitrary number from 1 to 5 samples on a case-to-case basis from each site. The law only mandates one round of testing done at the schools by July 1, 2019. In most other states with similar laws, the samples have to be collected from all fixtures in schools annually. California’s standard for lead exposure is also set too high at 15 parts per billion. This means “No action is required at hundreds of schools across California where tests found lead in drinking water at levels at or under 15 parts per billion.” Since the health of children is at stake, there is a need to push for stringent standards on lead concentration to be implemented across the state. ### Potential Recommendations As part of the $100 billion California Comeback Plan, Governor Newsom announced a $5.1 billion package for water Infrastructure and drought response[[4]](https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/05/10/governor-newsom-announces-5-1-billion-package-for-water-infrastructure-and-drought-response-as-part-of-100-billion-california-comeback-plan/). We recommend that additional money should be set aside to restore and improve the deteriorating conditions of water supply outlets in public schools across the state. --- Data Sources ---- The empirical analysis will be performed using secondary data collected from: [Division of Drinking Water](https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/programs/) at the California Water Resource Control Board - The latest monthly updated data for lead exposure can be retrieved from the California State Water Resources Control Board's “Lead Sampling in Schools” website. [Center for Geospatial Sciences](https://spatial.ucr.edu/) at University of California, Riverside - The data for 1930’s HOLC map boundaries for California can be retrieved from the Center for Geospatial Sciences along with geographic information on school location points. --- :calendar: Proposed Project Timeline* --- :dart: **November:** Proposal Submission and Literature Review. **December:** Literature Review and Methodology **January:** Data Retrieval and Cleaning **February:** Data Cleaning and Preliminary data analysis **March:** Statistical Analysis **April:** Writeup Results **May:** Final Paper Draft **June:** Presentation and Paper Submission **Note: Subject to change* ---