EPA to Investigate Waste Dumping in Poor U.S. Communities

With the news about Britain getting caught dumping toxic waste in Brazil and Ghana, the injustice of hazardous dumping in third-world countries is getting some much-deserved press and analysis. But what about poor communities right here in the U.S. that are experiencing the same thing? Industry polluters abuse low-income and minority communities across the country, something that activists like Robert Bullard and Irma Muñoz often refer to as ‘environmental racism’.

According to the L.A. Times, this practice will finally be getting some attention from the federal government. The EPA has announced its intention to look into the impact of hazardous waste recycling plants in poor communities.

From the L.A. Times:

The move hearkens back to a Clinton-era executive order that required federal agencies to consider the impact of their policies on disadvantaged communities. Although the Bush administration largely ignored the mandate, Obama-appointed EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson has promised to analyze those impacts.

Under the Bush administration, hazardous waste recycling plants had a free pass to process more than 1 million pounds of toxic material without federal oversight. In Los Angeles and other areas, such plants are disproportionately located in low-income communities and communities largely populated by non-whites, maps created by Earthjustice show.

For example, coal ash from a spill in east Tennessee last December has been relocated to areas largely populated by black people in Alabama and Georgia, noted Robert Bullard of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.

That last bit is pretty shocking. The TVA already ruined the lives of hundreds of people in Harriman, Tennessee when the coal ash spill occurred last December and their idea of cleaning it up is to move it to poor Southern communities? It’s an outrage.

The EPA needs to tackle the problem at the source  – making life hell for the companies that carry out these injustices in the first place. A little karma would do them some good.

Link [LA Times]
Photo credit: WeAct.org

Related Posts:

Britain Gets Caught Dumping Toxic Waste
Ghana, an E-Waste Graveyard
White House Preventing EPA From Testing Toxicity of Chemicals
Who’s Who in Green: Robert Bullard
One LA Guy’s Almost-Zero-Waste Year