Lincolnville Landfill

One of the first influences on the deliberation on Environmental Justice was The Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. fought hard to ensure that social transformation and power be established for African Americans, especially those in the southern states as well as those in the northern inner-city parts. Activists like King altered the philosophy on Environmental Justice arguing that there was a lopsided effect that proved that environmental hazards were not accidental. What environmentalists advocated instead was that environmental dangers resulted from racial segregation that placed power plants, nuclear plants, and other potential ecological hazards in areas with a high concentration of minority and low income groups. Several activists defined this as “environmental racism.”

Assessments began to take place in the mid 1980’s, shortly after the site made the National Priorities list in 1983. Relevant standards and guidance levels were used to measure the effect of the Helen Kramer Landfill. The initiation of the EPA’s remedial investigation and feasibility study deemed the nature of the Helen Kramer landfill as an extreme risk to the environment, characterizing the site “by randomly placed, uncompacted, and uncovered refuse, with numerous settlement cracks which vented methane and water vapor” (2). According to the EPA, several million gallons of chemical wastes and over two million cubic yards of solid waste were estimated to have been disposed of at the landfill (2). Studies were performed by the EPA, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, federal natural resource trustees in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to evaluate the onsite and nearby environmental effects due to the landfill. During these studies, contaminants were detected in air, sediments, and aquifers, including high levels of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals in the air and sediments. VOCS and heavy metals expose humans to carcinogens, developmental toxicants, and reproductive toxicants. The assessments also detected numerous contaminants such as (but not limited to),

The definition of “environmental racism” is laid out in Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer’s “Race in America” as, “any environmental policy, practice, or directive, that disproportionately disadvantages (intentionally or unintentionally) nonwhite communities” (Desmond and Emirbayer 196). These communities are often in close proximity to environmental hazards, are targets for waste dumps, and are at higher risk for harmful air and water pollution (196). Environmental racism has been formed over the decades, through the processes of redlining, blockbusting, and other housing discrimination practices, in efforts to keep people of

This could apply to Enbridge through their choice to engage with Native American advocates but weakening the arguments by maintaining control over the medium and format of that engagement. While this isn’t an equitable strategy, nor one that would solve the controversy, it elucidates the problem for Enbridge on both sides. By refusing to engage with dissent, Enbridge weakens their own argument for the pipeline while strengthening the unity and potency of the opposition’s arguments. Finally, Phaedra Pezzulo examines how Native American advocates and environmental justice advocates alike subvert existing power structures to assert their arguments. In reference to the emergence of the Environmental Justice Movement within Warren County, NC, Pezzulo cites the theory of critical interruptions. Essentially, through the case study of corporations discarding toxic waste in a low-income mostly black community, this article observes the importance of narratives within environmental discourse. Pezzulo identifies the importance of narratives constructed by either the Environmental Justice movement as a whole or of the state

In the early 1980s, Environment Justice activist prioritized their efforts to focus on the unequal amounts of waste dumps in minority communities. The increased awareness of these situations led to the development of EJ from the civil rights movement that happened around the same time. Environmental Justice is defined by its recognition that, “disparate and disproportionate environmental impacts occur among different communities across racial and socio-economic lines, affected communities should be appraised of environmental issues affecting them, and these communities should be incorporated in any decision-making process.” (Middendorf, 2007)

This discussion for this week’s forum post provided room for great discussions and arguments on if these decisions are solely economic or prejudice. While you argue it is economic, I argue prejudice exists in these decision making processes. Although, I can see and understand your point of view. It hits closer to home for me. It appears too coincident that there is 55+ hazardous waste sites in the Metro-Atlanta area when the average number of waste sites in a Georgia county is three (GreenLaw, 2011). The majority of the Metro-Atlanta area has 90%, or more, non-white population. Studies also show that there is a disproportionate availability of fundamental resources in minority and low-income communities (GreenLaw, 2011). In addition, on my way to work, in the Metro-Atlanta area, I see hazardous waste sites, landfills, scrap yards, and train tracks all

They have increased attention to the problem through media outlets and policy makers, and the number of organizations have increased to fight environmental injustices (9) One of the first major environmental justice events that sparked the attention of the environmental justice movement was the 1982 PCB landfill in Warren county North Carolina located in a predominantly African American community. The landfill ignited protests and over 500 people were arrested (2). Patterns of environmental injustices were studied and results concluded that “race was the single most important factor in predicting the location of hazardous facilities” (9). The studies showed that 3 out of 4 hazardous waste landfills were placed in predominantly African American communities and it took nearly two decades to get the landfill cleaned up. It took 1.8 million dollars to detoxify the contaminated soil and dig up and burn the soil at over 800 degrees F to remove the PCBs contaminating it (2). The soil was then put in a pit the size of a football field and seeded to grow grass over it (2). The federal government under President Clinton in 1994, who issued an executive order, required federal agencies to include environmental justice considerations in policy issues and assessments when

By the 2000s, Bayview-Hunters Point had spoken up for itself loudly in the form of community activism. In his journal article “No More Power Plants”, Joshua Arce (2009) reports on the recent, successful activism of Ms. Espanola Jackson, a well-known community activist who lived in Bayview-Hunters Point since 1948. In 2006, Ms. Jackson called for the closure of the coal-burning Hunters Point Power Plant which caused adverse health effects to district residents. Through Ms. Jackson’s consistent pressure and support from environmentalists and other activists, the plant was eventually closed down in 2006. All along, Ms. Jackson was fighting for the rights of the low-income communities of color who had, for a long time, been politically segregated from the rest of the city.

When landfill, waste, and chemical corporations, plant toxic chemicals, waste, and landfill residue into impoverished, heavily populated minority communities, those acts could be viewed as institutionalized racism. The term, institutionalized racism, is the pattern of intentional acts of discrimination towards marginalized groups of individuals through the means of legislation and practices. The landmark battle that argued that institutionalized racism had relations to environmentally injustice was the case of Bean vs. Southwestern Waste Management Corp of 1979. This case pertains to a group of African American residents who decided to file a class action lawsuit against the Northwood Manor area, claiming that the company’s

My report is on Environmental Justice across Class and Race. Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and fair distribution of environmental protection. It is the meaningful involvement of all people regardless or face, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. It is the civil right of all people to be able to enjoy equally high levels of environmental protection. Environmental justice supporters have shown that this is no accident. Those communities of African American and Latinos, which are often low income, are regularly target to host hazards facilities that have negative environmental impacts.

Environmental racism is the “targeting of minorities and low-income communities to bear a disproportionate share of environmental costs. It refers to any policy or practice that differently affects or disadvantages individuals, groups or communities based on race or skin color” (Schill & Austin 1991). Pollution is disproportionately distributed across the country; it is also distributed unequally within individual states, within counties, and within cities (Schill & Austin 1991). Hazardous waste sites, municipal landfills, incinerators, and other hazardous facilities are disproportionately located in poor and minority neighborhoods (White-Newsome 2016). Each year, America produces 275 million metric tons of hazardous waste. Environmental regulations only regulate 40 million tons of the waste leaving the rest to be sent to landfills and waste sites (White-Newsome 2016). According to research done by The Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ, Zip code areas containing at least one hazardous waste site had, on average, 24% people of color, compared to 12% in areas without a hazardous waste site. Additionally, “zip code areas containing either two or more facilities or one of the five largest hazardous waste landfills in the nation had, on average, 38% people of color “(White-Newsome 2016). One of the largest dumping grounds is located in Emelle, Sumter County, Alabama. Sumter County houses the nation’s largest hazardous landfill facility. The landfill

The placement of companies deleterious to the environment and well-being of humans is something that prosperous communities are not quite familiar with; in contrast, it is something well-known to less affluent communities. The imbalance of classification shows a lack of environmental justice in low-income and minority communities. According to the EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, “environmental justice is the fair treatment… of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies,” (EPA, n.d.). However, the environmental justice, the EPA mentions is not prevalent in communities of color, but rather its counterpart is: environmental injustice. Environmental injustice, or environmental racism, being the excessive placing of perilous waste and contaminating polluters near communities of color (Cha, 2016). Although often overlooked, environmental racism is an extensive problem that negatively affects minority communities in Southeast Los Angeles.

Our environment is often abused in our world. People choose to take advantage for what it 's worth, and over time, the quality of nature is destroyed. After reviewing the case concerning tar sands in Canada, it is apparent that once again, there needs to be a change. Money only goes so far in the world, and if there is no action taken to help improve their environment, they will lose other aspects of society that contribute to the well-being of all individuals. The results from the video show that the Alberta community is in environmental danger that is increasing rapidly. The power from the upper classes, specifically the oil industries, are manipulating the people who make up the lower classes. They are prioritizing the amount of money

Since the industrial revolution, packaging materials and organic waste have become more ubiquitous that ever. With 220 million tons of waste being produced each year from the US alone, landfills and other sanitary disposal areas are pushed to maximum capacity. As the organic waste decays, noxious methane gas bubbles to the surface of the rotting piles and pollutes the atmosphere and insecure waste can infiltrate a local lake or aquifer, producing disastrous consequences that the ecosystem simply cannot function with. In an impecunious region of Paraguay, 25,000 families live off the scraps of the Cateura landfill. Asides from its deleterious impacts on the environment, the colossal landfill also contributes toward the poverty and destitution of the local families. Favio Chavez, a musical teacher, opened a small music school in Paraguay in 2007. At the time, he only had five instruments to share. After requesting the service of Nicolas Gomez the orchestra gathered old garbage materials and meticulously assembled a variety of

For WM the fuel, environmental charge included on a customer’s invoice is determined by first putting in the percentage of the WM Collection Fuel Surcharge Table or WM Disposal Fuel Surcharge Table into the overall invoice charges (excluding taxes). Next the environmental percentage is put in the sum of the total invoice charges and fuel surcharge calculation (excluding tax). Landfills produce harmful gases that if breathed in by people can cause serious health issues. The gases they let off also can ignite huge fires. If the water gets contaminated, then there is a long process to get to clean again and it cost 10 million dollars. Landfills also create a toxic soup of industrial and home-cleaning chemicals. These are just some of the impacts that solid waste management has on people and environments. My group has come up with different ways to solve these