And Justice for All: Across New England, CLF is working to pass environmental justice laws that address the unfair share of pollution and climate change burdens some communities face.

• Author: Reynolds, Pamela

By the time Tropical Storm Irene blasted through Vermont in August 2011, the 120 mph winds that had initially defined the system as a Category 3 hurricane had diminished by half.

Still, the storm was brutal. In less than 24 hours, Irene unleashed eight inches of rain, sweeping hundreds of homes and businesses off their foundations, washing out roads and bridges, and soaking crops.

Vermonters living in mobile homes--about 8% of the state's population--suffered the hardest hit. Floodwaters spilled into trailers and drenched carpets, leaving behind a residue of thick mold on soggy walls. By the time the rain eased, one statistic stood out: 40% of those affected by storm flooding lived in a mobile home or trailer.

"They [constituents living in mobile homes] had been saying for years that they were experiencing degraded conditions in flood-prone areas," says Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a Vermont state senator who heard from those grappling with flood hazards. Their persistent problems in the storm's aftermath included sewage backup and a lack of clean drinking water.

Last year, after years of advocacy by Hinsdale, and in partnership with CLF and other allies, the Vermont legislature passed a law meant to help communities like those devastated a decade before by Irene. The state's first environmental justice law provides a framework for protecting vulnerable communities that get hit hardest by extreme weather or endure the fallout stemming from the polluting infrastructure too often concentrated in their neighborhoods. These communities not only bear a higher burden of harm but also lack equal access to benefits such as green space, healthy homes, and public transit.

In most states, such communities are predominantly Black and Brown, low-income, or neighborhoods where people speak a language other than English. In rural, mostly white Vermont, the environmental justice community is made up of white, low-income residents. Some are migrant farm workers. Many live in mobile homes.

"Our mobile home parks have been a source of understanding what rural environmental injustice can look like," says Hinsdale, a California native who moved to Vermont for college and has since become a fervent advocate for low-income residents, immigrants, and people of color.

After Irene, many mobile home residents were left on their own to rebuild. They organized and were eventually able to obtain funding to salvage their homes. But, like so many environmental justice communities...