Environmental Justice 2002:
Saving Black Lives and Land

By Frank Dexter Brown
SeeingBlack.com Contributing Writer

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"[Environmental Justice…] affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction; demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias; calls for universal protection from…production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food; demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation…"
—From the preamble of the "Principles of Environmental Justice," the first National Summit for Environmental Justice, October 1991

One decade ago, environmental racism, and the lack of environmental justice, was strongly articulated as a new major threat to communities of color. Hundreds gathered nationally— residents of native reservations confronted with uranium and other mining activities on their land, Latino farm workers exposed to various forms of pesticide poisoning, African Americans fighting landfills and petrochemical production, and Asian Pacific communities fighting against military operations. These groups convened at the groundbreaking "The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit" in October, 1991 in Washington, DC. This historic meeting will be commemorated this October, as community groups come together again in Washington to continue efforts of those visionary grassroots activists.

And as environmentalists globally recognize the 32nd anniversary of Earth Day this month, and focus on these issues through June's environmental celebrations, it is not too soon to highlight our communities bearing the brunt of toxic industrial and disposal activities. As environmental justice activists warned some 10 years ago at the first national conference, communities of color nationally are being devastated. Indeed, the following three accounts are examples of little known distress and ruin occurring in thousands of communities throughout the United States.

Pensacola, Florida. Under pressure to escape from toxic contamination at the Escambia and Agrico Superfund Sites, most of the African-American families living in the Rosewood Terrace, Oak Park and Herman's Plat sub-divisions of Pensacola, Florida, have sold their contaminated properties to the federal government and moved away. After almost a decade of struggle, the community-based grassroots group Citizens Against Toxic Exposure (CATE) was successful in helping its members escape from the shadows of the toxic hill they called "Mt. Dioxin"—a huge dirt mound of excavated soil about 1,000 feet in length, 30-40 feet wide, and almost 60 feet high. Overall, the area is the size of four football fields and totals enough contaminated soil to fill an estimated 12,500 dump trucks. The contamination includes lead, PCPs (penta chlorophenol—a highly toxic wood preserver), creosote (another highly toxic wood preserver), asbestos, dioxin, benzo(a)pyrene benzene, copper, chromium, arsenic and PCBs. Even with this level of contamination, it took years to get the federal government to admit to the danger, and even longer to agree to relocate the families…

Eastern North Carolina. Since the early 1990s, North Carolina has been the fastest-growing hog production state in the country. In little more than a decade, the hog industry expanded at unprecedented levels—from 3.7 million head in 1991 to 10 million at the end of 1998—topping both tobacco and poultry farming as the state's largest industry. As a result of rezoningby state officials, most of these farms set up shop in the Eastern region where African American communities date back to the late-1800s. Today, in some of these areas, the ratio of hogs to people runs as high as 50 to 1.

With this expansion, has come the pollution of air, soil and water from massive increases in fecal matter, leading to the destruction of wildlife habitats, the polluting of streams, rivers and other tributaries, and the communities dependent on those resources. Elsie Herring lives next door to a hog farm in a home she shares with her 97-year-old mother. The land was purchased in 1897 by Herring's grandfather, a descendant of enslaved Africans. "Hog waste is sprayed on our house, all over the property, whatever—we live with this every day, she says. I've tried everything to take care of this problem and nothing has happened yet. Our records have been removed from the registrar of deeds office. I've spoken to the commissioner of water, to county commissioners and written to the governor. I've gone to the health department, and many other avenues. I've tried so many different things, and nothing has been done. We're still living with these hogs, and this hog waste, every day of our lives…"

Mossville, Louisiana: The story of Mossville is one of the petrochemical industry encroaching on an 130-year-old historic African American enclave, piece by piece taking over and then contaminating the land, forcing people out, altering ways of life, destroying health, even causing death, some say. It's a story of the state's solicitation of chemical companies with less than market value land, multi-million dollar tax breaks, inexpensive labor and loose regulatory policies, all the while, ignoring the needs of its communities, especially those predominately Black. It's a story of a multi-million dollar settlement for the historic levels of chemical-caused water and land contamination. Few of the people living in that contaminated zone, however, have received significant compensation—certainly not for resulting health problems and medical expenses. Instead, attorneys have earned huge fees, and the polluters have received protection from later suits regarding the community's health.

Consider the encroachment, the intrusion. Consider if a huge manufacturing plant, a hog farm or a landfill moved right next door to you without your having the right to say no, without tax dollars or any other benefit coming to your communities. The above are examples of the systematic siting of such production and waste disposal activities next to communities of color nationally. These types of accounts, however, are rarely heard of outside of each community's particular region or linked to show the pattern of the injustice.

"…There is a direct correlation between disrespecting the land, and disrespecting the environment, and disrespecting people," says Dr. Robert D. Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, in Atlanta, Georgia."It is not by accident that the same communities in terms of toxic contamination, in terms of environmental problems, are the same communities that have tremendous problems of racism— institutionalized racism and exploitation of people." Bullard, a leading researcher and activist around threatened communities, adds, "So when you look at this connection at the local level, domestically, whether its along the river corridor in Louisiana, or whether it's in Mossville in Lake Charles, you can see the devastation that is going on in terms of the environment. But you can also see the legacy of Jim Crow, the legacy of institutionalized racism that is still raising its ugly head."

Yes, these are the stories we are hearing little about, stories that so intricately tie into the lives of almost every U.S. household. For instance, the raw materials used in producing the plastics found around most of us—used in cars, furniture, packaging of goods, trash bags, or the toxic chemicals used in the production of arsenic-based wood protectors used on many wooden backyard decks—are produced in these areas.

As defined, environmental justice is achieved when all people have equal rights and entitlement to a healthy and productive environment. These issues are critical to the health and livelihood of African Americans and, more generally, people of African descent, and others of color, globally. Yet it is a rarely exposed fact that in the U.S., some populations have been disproportionately denied access to these rights or have borne the brunt of environmental degradation.

Communities of color, based on this disproportionate burden, should be the beneficiaries of the best thinking and activities of those committed to a clean environment and to sustainable development. Generally, however, the efforts of U.S. environmentalists to influence policy and alter behavior have not only ignored the desperate conditions of communities of color, but in working toward comprehensive national environmental and sustainable development objectives, have ignored the importance of residents in these communities as environmental advocates.

Environmental justice activists of all ethnicities have long noted the need for people of color from various backgrounds to be involved with community decision-making. This includes land use planning, transportation policy, housing, water policies, and public health. For national policies to be developed and implemented fairly, they argue, a broad cross-section of participants must be involved. Seeking the participation of workers, students, business leaders, financiers, attorneys, doctors, scientists, social justice groups, journalists, the elderly, legislators and policymakers must become part of this objective, they say.

What is to be done? Building on the Efforts of the Ancestors

Environmental problems must be embraced as primary everyday issues over which we struggle for social change. Overall, environmental concerns have not been priorities for the majority of communities of color. We must join together in changing this. The development of a broad environmental justice and sustainable development consciousness within the United States is imperative. As in the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements, the voices of tens of millions seeking environmental, social, and economic policy changes would be difficult to ignore.

Indeed, such efforts by the environmental justice movement have already proven effective. Criticism from environmental justice activists prompted the White House to give some attention to environmental justice issues in the 1990s. These efforts led to the passage of Executive Order 12898 signed by President Clinton in February 1994. The order required that federal agencies, including but not limited to health, housing, commerce, labor, interior, energy, science and technology, and even defense, make gathering, analyzing and sharing their information a normal function of each agency. It also led to the creation of the Office of Environmental Justice within the Environmental Protection Agency. The order reads that the previously mentioned agencies shall: "…make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States and its territories and possessions…"

Environmental justice actions also influenced the thinking of government officials, business leaders, and non-governmental organization representatives who formed the President's Council on Sustainable Development. The work led to the publishing in 1996 of Sustainable America: A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and a Healthy Environment for the Future. The report said, in part: "Future progress requires that the United States broaden its commitment to environmental protection to embrace the essential components of sustainable development: environmental health, economic prosperity, and social equity and well-being… Creating a better future depends, in part, on the knowledge and involvement of citizens and on a decision-making process that embraces and encourages differing perspectives of those affected by government policies…"

Under the Bush administration, the involvement of communities of color in policy-making is now worse off than under Clinton. Bottom-line, activists say, the situation calls for greater vigilance. The long-term warnings of EJ activists demand an expanded national effort.. "Environmental racism has been defined as the disproportionate siting and operation of toxic facilities and industries in communities of color and the inequitable applications of environmental policies and programs, including enforcement of environmental laws," says Connie Tucker, executive director of the Southern Organizing Committee, who was one of the activists at the first meeting. Closer examination, she warns, shows that environmental racism is even more multi-dimensional than siting issues, and she alerts groups to the very serious, generational concerns that communities need to be concerned with.

This is about our future, the future of our babies, Tucker says. "Our children suffer attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity and reduced learning due to their homes and schools being located near or on toxic sites. There is a substantial amount of scientific research to make the connection between the rise in violence and behavioral problems within communities of color and the poor, and exposure to pollutants.

"Our communities suffer from extremely high rates of diseases and other serious medical conditions, such as cancers, lupus, rashes, respiratory illnesses, chromosome damage and other genetic and reproductive disorders, she adds. Some of these negative health impacts we have come to learn are multi-generational, meaning that they re passed on as family inheritance. According to a large international body of research, persistent organic pollutants are the culprits and, if science is right, environmental racism's impact is genocide because it is an attack upon our gene pool."

Frank Dexter Brown's environmental reporting appears courtesy of EarthAfrica News.Service.

Related Links:

• Environmental Research Foundation—publishes the independent and well-researched environment & health weekly.
  http://www.rachel.org
  
  
• Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University—publishes extensive information regarding environmental justice issues. Center founded by Robert Bullard, one of the leading experts on environmental justice issues globally.
  http://www.ejrc.cau.edu
  
  
• Greenpeace USA—publishes vital environmental research and organizes actions globally.
  http://www.greenpeace.org

-- April 25, 2002

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