Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice is defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, concerning the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment to live, learn, and work.
During the 1980s, minority groups protested that hazardous waste sites were preferentially in minority neighborhoods. In 1987, Benjamin Chavis of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racism and Justice coined environmental racism to describe such a practice. The charges generally failed to consider whether the facility or the area’s demography came first. Most hazardous waste sites are located on a property used as disposal sites long before modern facilities and disposal methods were available. Areas around such sites are typically depressed economically, often due to past disposal activities. Low-income people are often constrained to live in undesirable but affordable areas. The problem more likely resulted from insensitivity rather than racism. Indeed, the ethnic makeup of potential disposal facilities was most likely not considered when the sites were chosen.
Decisions in citing hazardous waste facilities are generally made based on economics, geological suitability, and the political climate. For example, a site must have a soil type and geological profile that prevents hazardous materials from moving into local aquifers. The cost of land is also an important consideration. The high cost of buying land would make it economically unfeasible to build a hazardous waste site in Beverly Hills. Some communities have seen hazardous waste facilities as a way of improving their local economy and quality of life. Emelle County, Alabama, had illiteracy and infant mortality rates that were among the highest in the nation. A landfill constructed there provided jobs and revenue that ultimately helped to reduce both figures.
There would be no hazardous waste facilities in an ideal world, but we do not live in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we live in a world plagued by rampant pollution and the dumping of hazardous waste. Our industrialized society has necessarily produced waste while manufacturing products for our basic needs. Until technology can find a way to manage (or eliminate) hazardous waste, disposal facilities will be necessary to protect both humans and the environment. By the same token, this problem must be addressed. Industry and society must become more socially sensitive in selecting future hazardous waste sites. All humans who help produce hazardous wastes must share the burden of dealing with those wastes, not just people experiencing poverty and minorities.
Indigenous People
Since the end of the 15th century, established nations have claimed a