Wasted People: Environmental Racism, a 20-Year Saga
by Dr. Robert D. Bullard
"9 out of 10 EPA regions have racial disparities in the
location of hazardous waste sites."
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the United
Church of Christ
landmark 1987 Toxic
Wastes and Race in the United States report. As part of the celebration, the UCC
commissioned a new study, Toxic Wastes
and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots
Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism, led by the nation's leading
environmental justice scholars from Clark Atlanta University,
and Paul
Mohai (University of Michigan), Robin
Saha (University of Montana), and Beverly
Wright (Dillard University of
Louisiana).
The new report is the first to use 2000 census data, a
current national database of commercial hazardous waste facilities, and
Geographic Information Systems to count persons living nearby to assess
nationally the extent of racial and socioeconomic disparities in facility
locations. Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty also examines racial disparities by
region and state, and for metropolitan areas, where most hazardous waste
facilities are located.
Study Findings
People of color make up the majority (56%) of those living
in neighborhoods within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of the nation's commercial
hazardous waste facilities, nearly double the percentage in areas beyond 3
kilometers (30%).
People of color make up a much larger (over two-thirds)
majority (69%) in neighborhoods with clustered facilities.
Percentages of African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and
Asians/Pacific Islanders in host neighborhoods are 1.7, 2.3, and 1.8 times
greater in host neighborhoods than non-host areas (20% vs. 12%, 27% vs. 12%,
and 6.7% vs. 3.6%), respectively.
9 out of 10 EPA regions have racial disparities in the
location of hazardous waste sites.
Forty of 44 states (90%) with hazardous waste facilities have disproportionately high percentages of people of color
in host neighborhoods- on average about two times greater than the percentages
in non-host areas (44% vs. 23%).
Host neighborhoods in an overwhelming majority
of the 44 states with hazardous waste sites have disproportionately high
percentages of Hispanics (35 states), African Americans (38 states), and
Asians/Pacific Islanders (27 states).
Host neighborhoods of 105 of 149 metropolitan
areas with hazardous waste sites (70%) have disproportionately high percentages
of people of color, and 46 of these metro areas (31%) have majority people of
color host neighborhoods.
Study Conclusions
Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the location of the
nation's hazardous waste facilities are geographically widespread throughout
the country.
People of color are concentrated in neighborhoods and
communities with the greatest number of facilities; and people of color in 2007
are more concentrated in areas with commercial hazardous sites than in 1987.
Race continues to be a significant independent predictor of
commercial hazardous waste facility locations when socioeconomic and other
non-racial factors are taken into account.
Recent Attempts to Dismantle
Environmental Justice
The 1987 UCC report provided the impetus for the EPA
creating its Office on Environmental Equity in the early 1991 and its 1992 Environmental
Equity report, and the 1994 presidential EJ Executive
Order 12898 that mandated federal agencies to incorporate
environmental justice into all of their work and programs.
"The EPA
met a firestorm of public resistance when it proposed dropping race from its draft Environmental Justice Strategic
Plan."
Many environmental justice
initiatives implemented in the 1990s stalled beginning in 2000 under the George W. Bush administration. A March 2004 EPA Inspector General report concluded that the agency
"has not developed a clear vision or a comprehensive strategic plan, and
has not established values, goals, expectations, and performance
measurements" for integrating environmental justice into its day-to-day
operations.
In July 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office criticized EPA for
its handling of environmental justice issues when drafting clean air
rules. That same month, the EPA met a
firestorm of public resistance when it proposed dropping race from its draft Environmental Justice
Strategic Plan.
The agency then attacked community right-to-know
by announcing plans to modify the Toxic Release
Inventory (TRI) program-widely credited with reducing toxic
chemical releases by 65 percent. In
July 2006, EPA's Science Advisory
Board Committee opposed these changes in a harsh letter to EPA
administrator Stephen L. Johnson. In
December 2006, the EPA announced final rules that undermine this critical
program by eliminating detailed reports from more than 5,000 facilities that
release up to 2,000 pounds of chemicals every year; and eliminating detailed
reports from nearly 2,000 facilities that manage up to 500 pounds of chemicals
known to pose some of the worst threats to human health, including lead and
mercury.
"Critics claim EPA budget reductions could expose more
minorities and the poor to pollution."
In September 2006, EPA's Inspector General issued another report chastising the agency for falling to "conduct environmental
justice reviews of its programs, policies, and activities." A month later, EPA's Region 10 in Seattle
announced the elimination of its environmental justice office.
The Bush Administration FY08 budget recommends a
28.4 percent cut to the budget of EPA's Office of Environmental Justice
(proposing $4.58 million, down from $6.34 million). Critics claim EPA budget
reductions could
expose more minorities and the poor to pollution. The steep budget cuts
will result in fewer EPA grants for communities and will no doubt hinder
environmental justice implementation.
Reversing the Tide
Amid these attacks, the authors
of Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty and a chorus of environmental justice activists and civil rights
leaders are calling for steps to reverse the dismantling of federal
environmental justice initiatives. In
addition to calling for reinstating the TRI report requirements, EJ leaders are
pushing for Congressional oversight along with a clear legislative mandate for
the EPA. Related measures include:
Hold
Congressional Oversight Hearings on
EPA's dismantling of environmental justice policies and programs and its
willful neglect of Executive Order 12898 and its own Inspector General's
reports.
Implement EPA Office of Inspector
General's Recommendations to develop
a clear vision and a comprehensive strategic plan to establish goals and
performance measures for integrating environmental justice into the agency's
day-to-day operations as required under Executive Order 12898.
Enact
New Legislation Codifying the EJ Executive Order to
strengthen compliance and enforcement of environmental justice objectives at
the federal level, ensure discriminatory agency decisions and actions are
addressed, provide leadership to the states, and establish an unequivocal legal
mandate requiring federal responsibility to advance equal protection under law
in minority and low-income communities.
Robert D. Bullard directs
the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. His most books include, The
Quest for Environmental Justice: Human
Rights and the Politics of Pollution (Sierra Club Books, 2005) and Growing
Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities,
Environmental Justice, and Regional Equity (MIT Press, 2007).
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