Description: This layer represents areas of consideration for MPCA environmental justice efforts. Our goal is to highlight regions where community members are disproportionately impacted by environmental issues. The data fields in this layer are a mix of American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates and calculations performed by MPCA staff. Margins of error are not considered when determining potential areas of consideration.
As an attempt to highlight environmental justice areas, we show census tracts where the estimated percentage of the population that identify as people of color is 40% or greater, the estimated percentage of economically disadvantaged community members is 35% or greater, as well as the estimated percentage of the population that has limited English proficiency is 40% or greater. We also include language information for each census tract and highlight the top three estimated languages spoken by those who report that they do not speak English well.
Income Threshold:
The federal government defines poverty thresholds on an annual basis (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html ). For MPCA use, we show an income threshold at 2 times the federal poverty threshold. 2022:
2 x $13,590 = $27,180 (individual)
2 x $27,750 = $55,500 (family of four)
Description: The Census Tribal Areas represent areas of consideration for MPCA environmental justice efforts. MPCA considers communities within Tribal boundaries as Environmental Justice areas of concern. The spatial data for these boundaries are derived by combining the geographic areas represented in two data sources. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2022 TIGER/LINE Shapefiles, Current American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Areas for United States; and the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Tribal Government in Minnesota.
U.S. Census Bureau, original file: "tl_rd23_us_aiannh.shp" Minnesota Department of Transportation, original file: "Tribal_Government__in_Minnesota"
The following metadata has been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau: The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation.
The American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian (AIANNH) Areas file includes the following legal entities: federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land areas, state-recognized American Indian reservations, and Hawaiian home lands (HHLs). The statistical entities included are Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs), and state designated tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs). Joint use areas included in this file refer to areas that are administered jointly and/or claimed by two or more American Indian tribes. The Census Bureau designates both legal and statistical joint use areas as unique geographic entities for the purpose of presenting statistical data. Note that tribal subdivisions and Alaska Native Regional Corporations (ANRCs) are additional types of American Indian/Alaska Native areas stored by the Census Bureau, but are displayed in separate files because of how they fall within the Census Bureau's geographic hierarchy. The boundaries for federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands are as of January 1, 2023, as reported by the federally recognized tribal governments through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).
The boundaries for state-recognized American Indian reservations and for SDTSAs were delineated by state governor-appointed liaisons for the 2020 Census through PSAP.
The following description is provided by Minnesota Department of Transportation: Minnesota interpretation of the boundaries of the federal recognized tribes within Minnesota. For the 12 tribes witin the State of Minnesota. This layer is derived from legal descriptions, but should not be used for survey-grade applications.