This document discusses the topics of environmental justice, race, class, and the built environment. It provides examples of how low-income and minority communities have been disproportionately impacted by the siting of hazardous facilities and infrastructure projects. Specifically, it describes how highways were built through African American neighborhoods in the 1950s, destroying communities. Urban renewal projects also displaced many low-income and minority residents. The environmental justice movement arose from communities demanding change regarding the locations of landfills and industrial sites. Overall, the key points are that social inequities have environmental dimensions, and that minority and low-income groups tend to live near higher pollution levels and bear the brunt of local environmental risks.

1. PLAN 1900: Sustainable Cities
Week 5: Race, Class & Environmental Justice
Anuradha Mukherji
Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE / EQUITY
SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Belief that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and
opportunities regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, income
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
a. Environmental Equity – Idea that environmental hazards should not be
disproportionately distributed among specific segments of population
b. Environmental Racism – Any policy or practice should not differentially affect
the environment of individuals or communities based on their race
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA):
Plays a key role in addressing environmental justice issues in the US
Key EPA Goal: Provide an environment where all people enjoy the same degree
of protection from environmental and health hazards

3. CITY AS ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL
CONSTRUCT
1. City is a complex ecological system – inputs & outputs
2. Social artifact – embodies & reflects power relations & social differences
3. How do class, race and gender interconnect with environmental issues
This image is attributed to the Dnpatton @ 2011 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

4. SUBURBS, HIGHWAYS & CENTRAL CITIES
1. New suburbs on agricultural land: Result – movement away from cities with
longer commutes to work
2. Construction of highway systems: Result – increased miles travelled, traffic
congestion, pollution emissions
3. Social Impact – Destruction of urban neighborhoods, to construct new highways
predominantly through minority African-American communities – destroying stable
self-reliant neighborhoods
4. 1940-50s: Outward movement of white working class population to suburbs &
inward movement of minorities to central cities: Result – social and class
segregation
5. Old industrial sites in central cities – abandoned & contaminated with toxic
chemicals – brownfields – predominantly near minority communities

5. URBAN RENEWAL
1. City led redevelopment projects
Use of eminent domain to acquire private property
Demolition of structures
Relocation of people and businesses
2. Policy based on destruction of historic districts in cities
3. Replaced residential and business districts with super blocks and high rises
4. Objective – To remove perceived ‘slums’ by city elites
5. Driven by federal policies
Housing Act of 1949
Federal Highway Act of 1956

6. URBAN RENEWAL IN BOSTON
1. Boston Historic West End District Demolished
New highway
Low- and moderate income high rises
New government and commercial buildings

7. URBAN RENEWAL IN BOSTON

8. URBAN RENEWAL IN BOSTON

9. URBAN RENEWAL IN BOSTON

10. ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE
TOXIC WASTES AND RACE AT TWENTY 1987-2007
DUMPING IN DIXIE: RACE, CLASS & ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
1. Minority and low-income populations more heavily concentrated around facilities
that use, store, or generate contaminants.
2. 56% of minorities live within two miles of hazardous waste facilities, while
constituting only 30% of national population
3. In US, most commercial hazardous waste sites and landfills are in areas with
highest number of racial and ethnic minorities – 60% of African Americans and
Hispanics reside in such neighborhoods
4. Toxic facilities (e.g., solid waste facilities) are predominantly and
disproportionately concentrated in lower-income and minority dominated areas of a
city
5. Infrastructure projects (e.g. highways) with negative environmental impacts found
in minority and poor neighborhoods

11. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT
1. Presence of dangerous toxins in minority neighborhoods gave rise to
Environmental Justice movement of 1970s and 80s.
2. Minority communities fed up – accusations of environmental racism because
they were disproportionately exposed to higher environmental risks that other
communities
3. Groups began questioning locations of landfills, hazardous waste facilities,
industrial activities, other land use practices in their communities
4. Converged with the Civil Rights Movement

12. CASE OF CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA
1. Industrial town outside Philadelphia
2. Deindustrialization eroded manufacturing base & workers left
3. Town became predominantly poor, older, and black (74% black)
4. One-third live below poverty line
5. City government sought to redevelop old factory sites & attract business,
jobs & tax revenue
6. Chester had cheap land available, limited political power, poor
This image is attributed to Justindula @ 2006 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

13. CASE OF CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA
By 1990s Chester had nation’s largest concentration of waste facilities:
A trash transfer business
An incinerator
A medical waste sterilizing facility
A contaminated soil burning facility
Waster water plant to treat effluent from factories & a refinery
Two million tons of waste processed in the city each year
Cancer rates 2.5 times higher than state average
A local citizen group pursued took case to court
Argued that DEP approved permits for 2.1 million tons of landfill in black areas,
and only 1400 tons in white areas
Federal judge ruled against lawsuit in 1996, stating there may be a
discriminatory effect but residents cannot prove a discriminatory intent

14. Facility Map, Chester, Pennsylvania
This image is attributed to DeLorme Mapping @ 1993 (http://www.ejnet.org/chester/map.html)

15. LESSONS
Difficult to untangle the intent and effect of environmental racism
In Chester, effect was clear, intent was difficult to prove (extreme case)
Not a formal legal issue since permits were issued correctly and formal
procedures followed
Legal redress difficult if procedures followed properly
Counter Argument: City so poor that it needed tax paying operations
More a moral issue, vulnerable and poor residents dumped on
Publicity and activism led to clean up of waste sites

16. DISCUSSION POINTS
Housing Markets:
Immigrant, minority communities may develop around toxic areas
because of housing markets
Not always necessary that toxic sites are knowingly located in
minority neighborhoods
Could be the other way around: Poorest get the least choice and
worst neighborhoods
If a hazardous site is located in a minority community, does it imply
environmental racism?
Cost-Benefit Analysis:
Unfair cost-benefit analysis, health of residents vs city coffers
Rhetoric of Environmental Racism:
Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism can be
powerful rhetoric. Have to be careful about the casual use of term
environmental racism

17. LOVE CANAL
Suburban development built
on toxic waste site
Site contained dioxin and
carcinogens
Contaminated local soil and
water
Making children sick
Lois Gibbs, a suburban
housewife, mobilized
community & public opinion
Site evacuated in 1980
This image is attributed to Vlad Marinkovic @ 2010 (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

18. LOVE CANAL SUPERFUND SITE
This image is attributed to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Public Domain)
Superfund legislation established after Love Canal – federal mandate to clean up toxic
waste sites

19. GENDER & URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

20. GENDER & URBAN ENVIRONMENTS
Women often at forefront of local environment issues
Urban toxicity experienced by women in
households & neighborhoods
Role of caregiver & tend to children, connect with
local community
Young children and elderly often most vulnerable
to urban quality but have the least voice
Cities by and large designed by and for affluent
males
This image is attributed to the United States Environmental Protection Agency @ 1978 (Public Domain)

21. BROWNFIELDS & SUPERFUND SITES
This image is attributed to the Petr Vilgus – Vlastni dilo @ 2007 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

22. 1. Brownfields: Abandoned or underused properties consisting of industrial or
commercial facilities because of real or perceived environmental contamination.
2. EPA estimate: 45,000 idle brownfields in US - from acres of abandoned factories
in old industrial cities to rural towns built around mines, timber mills .
3. Examples – Deserted gas stations, vacant automobile repair shops, old factories,
mills and foundries, landfills, dump sites, junkyards
4. Brownfields Program: Funding for assessment and cleanup of brownfields
5. Superfund Sites: ‘Abandoned or uncontrolled place where hazardous waste is
located affecting local ecosystem or community’ (www.epa.gov/superfundsites/).
- The worst hazardous waste sites
- Extremely toxic and targeted for cleanup
- Listed on National Priorities List
- Eligible for superfund monies from EPA Superfund Program
BROWNFIELDS & SUPERFUND SITES

23. NUCLEAR WASTE SITES IN THE UNITED STATES
This image is attributed to the United States Department of Energy @ 2006 (Public Domain)

24. CONCLUDING NOTES
Siting of Hazardous Facilities:
Hazardous facilities often sited at place with least power to resist.
Poor may lack wealth to generate political power and bargaining strength, can
try to create organized resistance
Economy vs Environment – A zero sum game?
Environmental quality discounted in favor of economic growth &
jobs. False divide between environmental quality and jobs. In the industrial
city smoking chimneys signified good well-paying jobs. Low-grade
environments have negative health impacts. Not a case of jobs vs
environmental quality, RATHER jobs & environment
Healthy Cities Initiatives:
Connections between issues of social justice, participatory
democracy, and urban environmental quality as a right