Environmental justice seeks to establish more equitable mitigation and dispersion of the negative environmental impacts that have historically plagued lower income people and people of color. In Warren County North Carolina, the community rallied together to oppose a landfill that would bring enormous amounts of PCBs into the area. As the poorest county in the state, the community felt they were being targeted because of their lack of resources to oppose the landfill. As Gerald Waneck points out, Warren County was selected for political, not scientific reasons as the water table in the county is very close to the surface. This poses a serious risk to human health because “landfills inevitably leak." The community was further inspired to protest when they discovered that they would be housing multiple sources of industrial waste in the future in their area if the landfill were constructed. Though they were not able to stop the landfill, in the end the community proved that they would not simply roll over. Communities of color have disproportionately been “experimented on” as Ken Ferruccio is quoted saying in the reading. The story of Warren County is one more example clear environmental racism. In the case of the Duwamish River and the Portland Harbor the environmental justice issues center around race as well. At both Superfund sites Native Americans and other communities of color use the rivers as a source of fish for food. Fish consumption is the primary route for contaminants to affect people and these populations are much more likely to consume unsafe levels of fish. It is especially concerning that none of the cleanup techniques would allow the communities that use the river for fishing to do so as they wish safely. The environmental justice EPA review paper describes the proposed alternatives to ensuring the fish are safe to eat. The suggestions essentially entail the informing of minority populations that the fish are unsafe and assisting them in finding alternative sources of fish and other food. If the solutions in the Duwamish and Willamette rivers do not take care to ensure the protection of indigenous and minority communities while allowing them to participate in cultural activities they will join the long list of environmentally racist practices that further the inequality that these communities already experience. -Kirk Gilliland, A. (2014) A Review of EPA’s First Environmental Justice Analysis in Conjunction with a CERCLA Remediation Plan. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/events/environment_energy_resources/2014/03/43rd-spring-conference/conference_materials_portal/12-gilliland_alexandra-paper.authcheckdam.pdf Waneck, G. (1983). PCBs and Warren County. Science for the People. Retrieved fromhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gerald_Waneck/publication/244483263_Special_w ater_issue_PCBs_and_Warren_County/links/00b7d51d3baae218ad000000.pdf?origin=publication_detail
1 Comment
Kristen
5/15/2016 10:51:19 am
Kirk, I’m glad you chose to define environmental justice in the less “safe” way by identifying groups most impacted by environmental racism. The EPA’s definition blankets over those most impacted by saying “regardless of race and class.” I am also glad you brought up the fact that Warren County was not an environmentally-sound place to put a landfill. In a similar case in Kettleman City, the area chosen was in a place that experienced constant inversions where polluted air was unable to leave its localized place.
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