In The Spotlight: Toxic Wastes and Race

Minorities Often a Majority of the Population Under 20
Foreshadowing the nation’s changing makeup, one in four American counties have passed or are approaching the tipping point where black, Hispanic and Asian children constitute a majority of the under-20 population, according to analyses of census figures released Thursday. Racial and ethnic minorities now account for 43 percent of Americans under 20. Among people of all ages, minorities make up at least 40 percent of the population in more than one in six of the nation’s 3,141 counties.

10% of U.S. Counties Now 'Majority-Minority'
Immigration and higher fertility among minorities have put the United States on a path to become "majority-minority," when less than 50 percent of the population will be non-Hispanic white. Racial and ethnic minorities,1 which currently account for one-third of the U.S. population, are projected to reach 50 percent by 2050. But new 2007 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that about 10 percent (302) of the country's 3,141 counties have already passed that mark.

U.S. blacks face harsher climate change impact
American blacks are likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change and they are willing to pay to combat it, a commission aimed at raising awareness about global warming said. Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in cities where the so-called heat island effect is expected to make temperature increases more severe, the newly formed group said at a briefing. More blacks also will be "fuel poor" as energy demand rises due to higher air-conditioning loads, population growth and urbanization, commission said.

Sign the UCC Petition to End Toxic Racism in Dickson, Tennessee
It has now been a year since the United Church of Christ released "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty." The 2007 UCC report profiled the failure of various levels of government to protect the African American Harry Holt family's in Dickson, Tennessee who's wells were contaminated with the toxic chemical TCE from a county owned landfill. To view and sign petition click HERE.

EPA sets tougher air-quality standards
The EPA's new smog limit is 75 parts per billion of ozone, down from the current level of 80.  Because of rounding, the old standard was effectively 84 parts per billion. The EPA failed to head the advice of its independent science advisory panel who unanimously had said the standard should be no higher than 70 parts per billion. In a March 2007 letter to the EPA, panelists said there is "overwhelming scientific evidence" for a reduction of that magnitude.

Local Citizens, Conservation Group File Suit Seeking Cleanup of Alleged Water Contamination in Dickson County, Tennessee
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and two residents of Dickson, Tennessee, Sheila Holt-Orsted and Beatrice Holt, today filed a lawsuit against the Dickson County and City governments. The Complaint alleges that trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial chemical disposed at the Dickson Landfill that has been linked to neurological and developmental harm and cancer, poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment.

MLK and the struggle for environmental justice
As we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and consider the effects Dr. King's work have had on the United States, I want to highlight an often overlooked aspect of that work, how Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle have influenced American notions of environmental health and justice.

NBEJN Joins HBCUs to Expose Environmental Racism in Tennessee
A half-dozen historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) joined forces with the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN) for the “Take Back Black Health Toxics Tour” in Dickson, Tennessee. The tour showcased a slam-dunk case of environmental racism. A broad coalition of environmental, civil rights, and faith-based groups met at Nashville’s Fisk University Race Relation Institute (RRI) and boarded two 30-passenger buses to Dickson, a small town of 12,244 residents located about 35 miles to the west.

Toxics Tour Planned to Highlight Environmental Racism: National Campaign to Spotlight the Deadly Mix of Toxic Racism and TCE Contamination on an African American Family
On Thursday, November 29, a coalition of national leaders, representing environmental justice, civil rights, scientists, women’s health, academia, faith-based and religious groups, legal, and elected officials, including congressional staffers, from around the country will meet at Nashville’s Fisk University and board a bus for Dickson, a small town located about 35 miles to the west. The national leaders will travel to Dickson and participate in the “Take Back Black Health Toxics Tour” and see for themselves in real time a slam-dunk, in-your-face case of environmental racism.

The environmental justice braintrust: A dispatch from the Congressional Black Caucus conference
Appropriately, the theme of this year's 37th annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., was "Unleashing Our Power." For the first time in history, the U.S. House of Representatives has four African-Americans serving as chairpersons of major committees. In addition, 17 African-Americans lead major subcommittees, and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina is the House Majority Whip. Activists and health experts hope that this change in leadership will help enact serious environmental justice legislation to promote safe and healthy communities.

Standing on Principle: The Global Push for Environmental Justice
Climate change, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, species extinction—all of these issues point to one thing: environmental health is a global issue that concerns all nations of the world. Now add environmental justice to the list. From South Bronx to Soweto, from Penang to El Paso, communities all over the world are finding commonality in their experiences and goals in seeking environmental justice.

Joint Center Forms Partnership to Bring More African American Voices Into Climate Change Debate
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (Joint Center) is launching an effort to engage the African American community on the issue of climate change. The move is being funded by the Bipartisan Policy Center which is providing the Joint Center with a $500,000 grant to expand its capacity to conduct climate change research and outreach.

Black Mayors’ Judgment Clouded by Smog: The Air is Tough to Breathe
Environmental racism has moved to the forefront of African American concerns, but some Black mayors have crawled into bed with the polluters. Desperate to get job-creating industry into their communities at any environmental cost, these city executives throw health issues to the winds, their minds clouded by dreams of "economic development." Sadly, the National Conference of Black Mayors' executive director is urging federal officials not to raise standards of allowable air pollution, in fear of chasing away investment in their cities. The result: the populations of Black-led cities will literally choke on the chimera of growth.

EPA Urged to Strengthen Ozone Standards to Protect the Most Vulnerable
Air pollution threatens the health of millions of Americans, especially those who live in urban areas. More than half of U.S. population lives in counties with unsafe air. Ground-level ozone or smog affects more than 158 million Americans in ten of the eleven most populous states (California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas). Air pollution claims 70,000 lives a year, nearly twice the number killed in traffic accidents.

Environmental racism takes Senate stage
Sheila Holt-Orsted sat quietly in the Senate hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building while before her a dream was fulfilled: the first Congressional hearing on environmental justice. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health, held the unprecedented hearing on July 25.

More than 100 Groups Call on U.S. Senate to Address Environmental Justice
On July 25, 2007, professor Robert D. Bullard (Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University) presented the Senate Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health “Oversight of the EPA’s Environmental Justice Programs" hearing, chaired by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, with a copy of a letter signed by more than one hundred environmental justice networks, civil rights and human rights organizations, faith based groups, and health allies, representing millions of Americans from New York to Alaska, endorsing the 2007 United Church of Christ Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007 report findings and recommendations.

EJ Scholars to Present 2007 Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty Report at USSF
The principal authors (Robert D. Bullard, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha, and Beverly Wright) of Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty 1987—2007 will present the report findings and policy recommendations at the United States Social Forum (USSF) scheduled in Atlanta, GA June 27 thru July 1, 2007.

Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty
The new United Church of Christ report finds African Americans and other people of color more concentrated near wastes facilities than two decades ago.  In 2007, people of color now make up 56 percent of the residents living in neighborhoods within two miles of the nation’s commercial hazardous waste facilities; they make up a whopping 69 percent in neighborhoods with clustered waste facilities. 

Warren County (North Carolina) Protests at Twenty-Five
It has now been twenty-five years since the 1982 protests against a controversial toxic waste dump in Warren County, North Carolina gave birth to the national environmental justice movement.  The protests also put environmental racism on the map.

A Well of Pain: Their Water Was Poisoned by Chemicals
Was Their Treatment Poisoned by Racism?  The Harry Holt family in Dickson, Tennessee wells were poisoned with trichloroethylene or TCE from the Dickson County Landfill while the government stood by and did nothing.  

Wrong Complexion for Protection in Post Katrina New Orleans
In August 2006, government officials gave Post-Katrina New Orleans a “clean bill of health,” while pledging to monitor a handful of toxic “hot spots.”  Officials caution residents to “keep children from playing in bare dirt.”  They also instruct homeowners to “cover bare dirt with grass, bushes, or 4-6 inches of lead-free wood chips, mulch, soil, or sand.”  On the other hand, Church Hill Downs, Inc., the owners of New Orleans’ Fair Grounds, cleaned up and hauled off soil tainted by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters and replaced it with clean soil. Certainly, if tainted soil is not safe for horses, surely it not safe for people, especially children who play and dig in the dirt.

The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century: Race, Power, and Politics of Place
This new book brings together key essays that seek to make visible and expand our understanding of the role of government (policies, programs, and investments) in shaping cities and metropolitan regions; the costs and consequences of uneven urban and regional growth patterns; suburban sprawl and public health, transportation, and economic development; and the enduring connection of place, space, and race in the era of increased globalization.