At #MACoCon state and local government officials discussed how they are working, across multiple agencies, to put a new environmental justice screening tool to work for residents. 

Counties currently are facing a climate where federal administration and US Supreme Court actions have rolled back and even eliminated environmental programs, grants, and the like, including those intended to promote and further environmental justice. Despite these challenges, state and local representatives in Maryland are looking for and developing more tools and resources to protect land and neighboring communities from adverse environmental effects. This is particularly the case with a new tool in Maryland called the MDEnviroScreen, that was discussed by state and local officials during a session at the 2025 MACo Winter Conference.

The session, moderated by Delegate Regina T. Boyce, hosted environmental justice specialists including Aneca Atkinson, Assistant Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment, Dawn Hawkins-Nixon, Associate Director of the Department of Environment for Prince George’s, and Asha Smith, Director of the Office of Equity and Human Rights in Anne Arundel. Secretary Atkinson started of the session helping audience members understand how the screening tool was developed and what the applications are from a state level perspective. She shared that the major goal in building out the tool was for it to inform state and local decisions on siting, permitting, enforcement, and infrastructure improvements while considering how certain communities can be disproportionately impacted by their proximity to known environmental stressors. This could include proximity to active high air emission facilities or wastewater treatment facilities.

Next the audience heard from two county officials on their use of the tool. Associate Director Hawkins-Nixon, a professional engineer with over 30 years of experience in flood management and environmental protection, has used the state tool to gain a better understanding of the undeserved, overburdened, and vulnerable communities impacted in various regions of Prince George’s. This information has helped inform their community engagement strategies particularly in her work on coastal flood modeling, green infrastructure design, sustainable agriculture, and the county’s climate action initiatives, environmental justice, and resiliency programs.

While Associate Director Hawkins-Nixon shared a local government perspective from a division that has a more direct touch point with the planning and development process, those are not the only local agencies and divisions that can leverage environmental justice tools as part of their service delivery. Director Smith was able to share a perspective from an entirely different tier of the local government. From the Office of Equity and Human Rights, their office is able to proactively identify sensitive areas even before they come on the radar for an environmental or development project. Having this information readily available helps to educate the agencies in charge of the initiatives that affect these communities. This essentially functions as a way to pull the entire planning process under an equity lens moving forward. This proactive approach can prevent potentially detrimental projects from getting into the pipeline at all.

• Title: Environmental Justice Screening – Building Equity Into Communities
• Speakers: Aneca Atkinson, Assistant Secretary, Maryland Department of the Environment, Dawn Hawkins-Nixon, Associate Director, Department of Environment, Prince George’s, Asha Smith, Director, Office of Equity and Human Rights, Anne Arundel
• Moderator: The Honorable Regina T. Boyce, MD House of Delegates

More about MACo’s Winter Conference: 

• Full Program 

• #MACoCon Twitter Coverage