1. Environmental Justice

2. Environmental Injustice Observed by early 1980s:
Most incinerators, landfills, hazardous waste dumps are located in poor communities or communities of color.

3. Environmental Racism is a Component of Environmental Injustice
“Environmental Racism” coined 1993:
Any policy or practice that disadvantages individuals or communities based on race or color
Need NOT be intentional to be wrong

4. Environmental Justice
Broader than environmental racism:
All people and communities are entitled to equal protection from environmental hazards, regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, income, social class, or any other factor.

5. Environmental Justice
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Executive Order (Bill Clinton) in 1994: no environmental injustice is acceptable

6. Environmental Injustice: Examples
PCB-contaminated soils dumped, poor county of North Carolina, 1982

7. Environmental Injustice: Examples
Houston: new landfill situated in middle-class black neighborhood
Congressman voted out

8. Environmental Injustice: Key Examples
Nuclear waste dump on Colorado River: Mojave Indian reservation

9. Environmental Justice: Key Examples
Lead smelter built near school in poor area of Dallas
300 kids injured by the lead
$26 million settlement against smelter

10. Environmental Justice Tour Newark, NJ
Madison
Population 220,000
Largest NJ city
65th largest US city
Newark

11. Newark, NJ: Waste-to-Energy Incinerator
Burns 1 million tons of trash per year
From 21 counties + Manhattan
Releases 132 lb of mercury/year
25% of Newark children have asthma

12. Newark’s “Waste to Energy” Incinerator: highest mercury emissions in the state – many other violations of Clean Air Act
Lawsuit by community organizations settled 2010
Company agreed to install NOX filters, fully 20 years after such filters were standard equipment
No promises for SOX, CO, PM

13. Port of Newark: Trucks: Heavy Traffic in Neighborhoods, and Idling at Port

14. Port of Newark: Trucks: Heavy Traffic in Neighborhoods, and Idling at Port
Changes promised by Port Authority have not been implemented
Requiring and subsidizing cleaner diesel trucks

15. “Chemical Row” since 1900 Today: spills, fires, emissions near schools and public housing

16. Newark: New Community Center
Land contaminated with PCBs
Former plastics manufacturing plant
20 years to remediate
Built on stilts
Above-ground pool
Pumping system runs 24/7

17. Newark: playing field adjacent to Superfund site

18. Superfund site fenced off from ball field only after publicity

19. Even worse: Diamond Alkali/Shamrock Site Agent Orange  dioxin: superfund site

20. Dioxins: from pesticide manufacture, waste incineration, bleaching paper pulp
Carcinogenic
Biomagnification

21. It gets worse: the dioxin site has contaminated the Passaic River

22. Passaic River: 17 mile long Superfund site

23. Diamond Alkali/Shamrock Superfund Site in Newark
Court-ordered cleanup underway
Removal of poisoned sediment in river
Costly and still being resisted

24. Newark: NJ Largest City
Polluted air
Polluted water
Toxic earth
Not unique to Newark
Not unusual : heavy pollution burden on high-density, poor, racially and ethnically diverse communities

25. Worldwide: Environmental Devastation: impacts heaviest for people of minority ethnicities, color, poverty
Mountaintop removal
Native American reservations

26. Why Environmental Injustice?
NIMBY: wealthier, politically-astute are better able to fight
Segregation in housing  increased likelihood that minorities carry heavy environmental burden
Americans of color often lack family wealth because of past discrimination and slavery
Economics and marketplace: better locations cost more money
Land costs low in poor communities
Should all people have clean and healthy air, water, land?