By: Staci Hartwell, as told to the Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
The opinions shared in this piece are those of the speaker and/or the person being featured in the story. They do not necessarily reflect those of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.
Covered in this story
Prince George’s County, just outside Washington, D.C., faces a range of pressing environmental challenges, including air pollution, industrial encroachment, and inequitable access to green spaces. Industrial facilities, highways, and waste sites are often concentrated near residential areas, contributing to longstanding public health issues. These issues also drive climate change and exacerbate the impacts of weather disasters, hitting Black and Brown communities first and hardest.
In response to these injustices, communities have organized and fought for change. One example is The South County Environmental Justice Coalition (SCEJC), a community-based organization in Prince George’s County that advocates for environmental and climate justice, guiding policy to address systemic inequities and promote healthy environments for all. Working beyond the county, they have developed statewide frameworks for climate and environmental justice reform, contributing to the passage of important state legislation, including the Climate Solutions Now Act and the POWER Act. Some of the pressing environmental justice issues they face include transportation equity, data center expansion, and food equity.
Transportation Equity
Throughout Virginia’s portion of the Capital Beltway are express lanes—paid toll roads that allow some drivers to have a faster commute for a price. In 2022, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) weighed expansion of those toll roads into southern Prince George’s County.
This plan was introduced despite evidence that toll roads have consistently failed to reduce congestion and can even make traffic more dangerous as drivers are bottlenecked and pushed onto local streets. These impacts can accumulate, reducing air quality, housing values, and overall quality of life.
Image by Virginia Department of Transportation. https://www.vdot.virginia.gov/projects/northern-virginia-district/i-495-southside-express-lanes-study/
SCEJC’s response to these proposals is simple: invest in public transit to serve all residents regardless of income. In white, wealthier communities, 22 metro stations extend past 495, while in predominantly Black and Brown communities, there is only one. Making public transport accessible is necessary to reduce the cumulative impacts of car dependency and create healthier, safer, and more connected communities for all. As of summer 2026, this proposal is stalled and not moving forward.
A photo taken at a house near I-495 shows that the highway’s air pollution accumulates into a thick, soot-like ash (PM2.5 residue). Image by Staci Hartwell, SCEJC. (September 2025)
Data Center Expansion
In 2024, the Prince George’s County Planning Board approved a hyperscale data center project in Landover, which would affect the Maples Ridge, Palmer Park, and Glenarden communities—Black and Brown communities that have disproportionately high rates of asthma and bronchitis. Landover already faces significant air, light, and noise pollution, compounded by a nearby football stadium, daily traffic from tens of thousands of vehicles, and two landfills. Community members expressed concern that adding a hyperscale data center, spanning 4.1 million square feet, could not only exacerbate pollution and raise utility costs, but also devalue surrounding properties.
Feeling that the Planning Board had failed to consult local residents adequately, Landover community member Taylor Frazier McCollum launched a petition on June 21, 2025—eventually signed by tens of thousands of people—calling attention to these concerns. The petition emphasizes:
“Our right to be informed and to have a say in our living spaces must be respected. The approval of the Data Center without proper community consultation is unacceptable and must be revisited.”
On September 10, 2025, dozens rallied at the Landover Mall site against the data center project, emphasizing that it had been given the green light without any transparency or community input.
PG County residents protest proposed data center at Landover Mall site. Image by WTOP/John Duman (September 10, 2025). https://wtop.com/maryland/2025/09/dozens-rally-against-data-center-project-at-abandoned-mall-site/
In response to community organizing, the county paused the project. In October 2025, County Executive Aisha Braveboy issued an executive order halting the issuance of new data center construction permits until a task force could develop comprehensive guidelines for such developments—yet another example of community organizing driving meaningful change, even when some institutions lag.
The Prince George’s County Qualified Data Center Task Force published its findings in its Final Report. SCEJC was the only dissenting vote on the report. SCEJC’s action opposing the report drew national attention from the NAACP. In response to the gaps in the report, the NAACP, with support from CEEJH, co-released a comprehensive counter-report. The People’s Report: A Gap Analysis of Data Center Infrastructure in Prince George’s County, Maryland argues that the task force report failed to adequately examine environmental justice and civil rights implications, as well as assess the negative air quality, energy justice, and water usage impacts. Developed through a collaborative effort of public health, policy, and law academic experts, as well as community leaders and residents, the report evaluates gaps in the Task Force report’s policy recommendations and offers alternative recommendations. The report’s name, “The People’s Report,” reflects the nationwide community members’ lived experiences residing near existing centers in Loudon, Virginia, and Memphis, Tennessee, and includes direct responses from surveyed community members in Prince George’s County, as reported by the NAACP.
Food Equity
Highlighted in blue are Healthy Food Priority Areas where residents do not have access to healthy food. Image screenshot of https://princegeorges.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/9f9202c51cc345ab9e0e1aa21a23bb76
Environmental justice doesn’t just address pollution, but also access to healthy lifestyles, including nutritious, fresh food. 44% of Prince George’s County residents live in a food desert, where many of the food options that are available are unhealthy. Here is an example of the food disparities: in all of Prince George’s County, a jurisdiction of nearly 1,000,000 residents spanning more than 490 square miles, there is only one Whole Foods Market, located in the predominantly White community of Riverdale Park Station. For many residents, access to fresh, nutritious food remains out of reach unless they have reliable transportation to such locations or can cross the bridge into Virginia. By contrast, Alexandria, with approximately 161,000 residents across just 15 square miles, has its own Whole Foods Market and is less than two miles from two additional Whole Foods stores in neighboring jurisdictions.
Staci Hartwell, Legislative and Strategic Advisor for SCEJC and Board Member of Maryland LCV, emphasizes the connection between these environmental injustices and racial disparities. “People often characterize Black and Brown communities automatically as poor, but we’re on par economically with the white communities around us,” Hartwell expresses. “It’s not just about the money or education; race is the overall indicator of a lack of public accountability.” Addressing environmental injustice requires more than awareness—it demands centering racial equity in every policy and project, ensuring that frontline communities have the power to shape the solutions that affect their lives.