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According to locals, two different types of odors emanate from the , which sits just outside Rochester, New York. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 the gas odors, and then there鈥檚 the garbage odors coming from when they open the landfill and are actually dumping, or the trains unloading from New York City,鈥� Gary McNeil  City, a local news site. 鈥淭hat gets a little worse in the summer, you鈥檒l smell a much more pungent waste odor.鈥�

McNeil heads , a nonprofit that has been organizing against the landfill, which residents say emits foul, . The organization  the town in which the landfill resides as well as the waste management company that runs it.

But in January 2022, the group took a new approach. It filed , claiming the site violated residents鈥� newly enshrined constitutional right to 鈥渃lean air and a healthy environment.鈥� 

Just two months earlier, after years of advocacy, New Yorkers had voted 2-to-1 in favor of  to add a green amendment to the state constitution, making New York the third state to do so. (Pennsylvania and Montana passed green amendments through their own political processes in 1971 and 1972, respectively.)

Advocates say these amendments can be a powerful tool in advancing environmental justice. 

鈥淭he green amendment necessarily refocuses the government,鈥� said Maya K. van Rossum, an environmental lawyer and founder of Green Amendments For the Generations. 鈥淚t鈥檚 no longer [a question of] accepting pollution as a foregone conclusion and deciding what permit to issue for it. Government actually has to refocus its efforts to ensure they鈥檙e not infringing on this constitutional right.鈥�

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued  that limits the Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 ability to restrict emissions. The court鈥檚 decision drives home the urgency of such constitutional protection, van Rossum said. 

Organizers and lawmakers are currently advancing green amendments in at least a dozen states across the U.S., including New Mexico, Maine, Hawai鈥榠, Washington, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. 

New Mexico State Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, who introduced a resolution to adopt a green amendment in her state, agrees with van Rossum. 鈥淲ith the recent West Virginia v. EPA decision, I鈥檓 worried about the Supreme Court gutting our federal agencies,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important that the state step up, and this is one of the tools that we can use.鈥�

In order to be most effective, van Rossum said legal rights to a healthy environment need to be included in states鈥� Bills of Rights. 鈥淚f you have an amendment that says the people have a right to clean water and clean air, as determined by the State General Assembly, you haven鈥檛 changed anything. You just put in place pretty language,鈥� she said. Inclusion in the Bill of Rights would make clean air and a healthy environment an inalienable right, like freedom of speech. (These amendments do not include  defining or quantifying what it means for air to be clean or an environment to be healthy.)

The push to secure the constitutional right to a healthy environment comes amid a growing awareness that pollution and climate change do not affect all communities equally. Black, Hispanic, and Native communities are exposed to higher levels of  than the general population and suffer higher rates of childhood asthma. They are also more likely to live in areas more vulnerable to  and .

In New Mexico, mining, fracking, and drilling operations, such as those taking place in the , are typically sited near communities of color, Sedillo Lopez said. 鈥淚 actually had a colleague say, 鈥榃rite off the Permian Basin, just call it a sacrifice zone and walk away.鈥� Well, the [communities near the] Permian Basin are ,鈥� she said, adding that another  facing similar issues is majority Native American.

Sedillo Lopez said a green amendment would obligate the state legislature to assess the potential health and environmental impact of certain activities鈥攆or example, installing a fracking pipeline鈥攂efore they begin. 鈥淭he state, before granting the permits for a pipeline, would have to examine, is this pipeline strong enough?鈥� she said. 鈥淲here is it going through? Is it near schools? Is it near farms? What is the impact if this were to leak? What [would be] the impact if this didn鈥檛 just leak, it exploded?鈥� 

In January 2020,  near Carlsbad, New Mexico, contaminating the water on at least one family farm, sickening members of the family and their animals. Sedillo Lopez said a green amendment might have prevented the pipeline from being installed near the family鈥檚 water source in the first place.

Like green amendments around the country, New Mexico鈥檚 faces a difficult path forward. Sedillo Lopez  the legislation in 2021, and opponents have voted it down twice.

New Mexico鈥檚 prominent oil and gas industry poses a challenge to the proposed amendment, said Sedillo Lopez. 鈥淯nfortunately, oil and gas revenue is very important to the state. And that鈥檚 the headwind we鈥檙e facing,鈥� she said, adding that the power of such special interests underscores the importance of transitioning to wind, solar, and other cleaner sources of energy and employing people in those fields.

Sedillo Lopez said she expects the legislation to go before the state legislature again when the next session starts in January.

As in New Mexico, environmental justice advocates in Maryland have been pushing for a green amendment of their own for years. In April, opponents of the proposed Environmental Human Rights Amendment prevented the legislation from advancing beyond committee for the fourth time,  broad language used in the amendment would 鈥渦nleash a flood of litigation.鈥� 

Del. Kumar Barve, the chair of Maryland鈥檚 Environment and Transportation Committee,  about the amendment to Maryland Matters, a local news site.

鈥淚t鈥檚 better to have environmental regulations and enforcement handled by the executive and legislative branches of government, rather than the court system and juries decide these things, because these are complex issues that are not absolutist in their nature,鈥� Barve said. 

Supporters of the legislation, like  of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust, say they are undeterred. 鈥淔or people, especially communities of low income and of color, [a green amendment] is a way to say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e not crazy,鈥欌�� Campbell said. 鈥淵our right to clean air is just a basic, bare minimum.鈥� 

Like New Mexico, Maryland鈥檚 proposed green amendment could be brought before the state legislature again when the next legislative session begins in January.

New Jersey鈥檚 proposed green amendment has faced similar challenges, with opponents there also saying such legislation could open companies up to frivolous litigation. 

There, advocates like Kim Gaddy of Clean Water Action are pushing to get enough legislative support to put a green amendment on the ballot in the state鈥檚 .

鈥淲hen you think about how we want future generations to be protected, we can鈥檛 have environmental sacrifice zones where, just because it鈥檚 Newark or a community that is low income or people of color, we can鈥檛 protect them,鈥� Gaddy said. 鈥淲e need a green amendment in the state of New Jersey to bring some relief to these communities who have suffered for too long.鈥�

Montana and Pennsylvania show what is possible when citizens are given inalienable rights to a safe and healthy environment, van Rossum said, adding that those states have not seen a deluge of frivolous lawsuits. In those states, the law has been used, for example, to  and . Youth climate activists are currently , arguing that the state鈥檚 energy policy, which relies on fossil fuel exploration, infringes on their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. The trial of  is scheduled to begin in February of next year.

(According to van Rossum, advocates in Montana and Pennsylvania have only begun to effectively use green amendments to address environmental injustice in the past decade or so.)

Enacting a green amendment is only a first step to ensuring citizens actually enjoy their newly enshrined rights, supporters say. 鈥淲e can look at the right to free speech and freedom of religion, and we will still see abuses,鈥� said van Rossum. 鈥淏ut because the constitutional right is there, we have a check on that misuse of power.鈥�

Van Rossum said she plans to organize state by state. 鈥淸Eventually,] we鈥檙e going to reach a tipping point. That鈥檚 when we鈥檒l go for the federal green amendment.鈥�

This article originally appeared in and was made possible by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. is an editorially independent, nonprofit news service covering climate change. Follow .