Kimberly Gutierrez (Environmental Justice/Racism)

Environmental Racism - Kimberly Gutierrez

     Environmental Racism is a social issue that affects many low income communities, including my own. For example, I live in the Los Angeles County, and there is a waste facility constructed in my community, known as a trash transfer. The waste facility pollutes the air because of the chemicals and tools they use to destroy the trash. Many of the residents in my community, are unaware of the waste facility being constructed in the neighborhood because it is not discussed about more often as it should be. In addition, many residents in my community are people of color and I want to bring awareness towards waste facilities targeting my neighborhood, but other low income communities as well because it is important to discuss about the damage that these facilities can do to the environment. A waste facility is a facility that may contain chemicals, heavy metals, or transfer trash.


Waste Facilities causes:

• Respiratory diseases
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Memory loss
• Anxiety

Research
    Waste facilities target low income communities in some parts of the United States. For instance, the community of Kettleman City, is a neighborhood located in San Joaquin Valley, California that are people of color. Cole and Foster, authors of "From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement," state that "Ninety-five percent of Kettleman residents are Latino" (Cole and Foster 1). The community is known to be a host to "The largest toxic waste dump west of Alabama" (Cole and Foster 2). The air pollution in Kettleman City was contaminated because of the toxic dump and "Is considered the second-worst polluted air basin in the United States" (Cole and Foster 3). The community of Kettleman City was targeted because they are poorly funded, which Waste Managements often target, the residents of Kettleman City did everything to inform other people in the neighborhood about waste facilities targeting their community. They formed a group called ("El Pueblo") which translates to The Community, to help raise awareness and fight against waste facilities targeting their neighborhood.
   
    In a different community, the southeast side of Chicago, and in other urban areas, which have developed health issues such as cancer and asthma from breathing in dangerous chemicals that can physically harm the body. According to Sarah Rothschild, she states that the community of southeast side of Chicago "Have been fighting against pollutants for years, from soil contaminated with heavy metals on the near southwest side to petcoke storage" (Rothschild). Rothschild further discusses that specifically on the southwest side of Chicago, "Was cited for dangerously high levels of manganese dust, a heavy metal used in steelmaking that can permanently damage the nervous system and trigger learning difficulties, memory loss, and anxiety" (Rothschild). Some people are not aware of how dangerous waste facilities can be when constructed near one's neighborhood. Another community who is also, badly affected by waste facilities and experienced some similarities is Tonawanda, New York. In the community, they have the largest facility known as the "Tonawanda Coke facility, which supplies raw materials for steel production" (Rudchyk). Mykola Rudchyk notes that in the community of Tonawanda, New York, residents have been awfully affected by the pollution in the air because of the black smoke coming from the facility. Some men have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and a few women "Suffer from uterine cancer at a much higher rate than the rest of the state" (Rudchyk). In addition, the community of Tonawanda, New York are much more likely to be diagnosed with respiratory diseases and leukemia.

    Robert D. Bullard, who is a professor at the University of California, Riverside discusses that in the United States, lead is a major "Environmental health problem in children" (Bullard). Studies show that "Lead affects 3 to 4 million children in the United States, most of whom are African-American and Latinos who live in urban areas" (Bullard). Bullard notes that not much has been done in preventing children from getting lead poisoning due to toxic waste facilities.
Environmental racism is real social issue that has affected many low-income communities. It is important for low income communities to speak against waste facilities from targeting their neighborhood to prevent any harm spreading in to the community. Waste facilities only targeting lower class neighborhoods is very unfair because they are not fully aware how constructing a facility next to homes can badly affect one's health and emotional being.


The EPA
   The United States Environmental Protection Agency's purpose is to protect communities from any environmental hazards. They are responsible for "For enforcing many of the environmental statutes and regulations of the United States" (EPA). The EPA usually works with government officials to inform the public about any concerns an individual may have. The EPA has environmental policies such as on water, land, and clean air. Not only that, but the EPA has "Federal laws protecting human health and the environment" (EPA). The EPA is important because they help with low income communities, regards to environmental hazards and keeping people safe. For example, the EPA responds to environmental issues such as waste facilities causing
harm to the air people breathe from. The EPA has
beneficial information that is accessible for individuals
to look at their website, regarding environmental
hazards. According to the EPA, there are certain
laws, city officials must follow to prevent any
danger towards communities.



Why It Matters
    Environmental Racism is an important social issue to me because I strongly believe it is unfair that Waste Managements construct toxic waste facilities in low income neighborhoods because of one's ethnicity or cultural background. How I became aware of the waste facility constructed in my neighborhood was through conducting research and finding more information about the facility. I was not surprised that there was a trash transfer facility in my community because Waste Managements usually like to target low-income communities. A waste facility constructed in my community affects me because it pollutes the air, causing residents to develop health concerns such as respiratory diseases. In my Environmental Justice class, I learned so much about the history and the circumstances that urban communities had to encountered to speak against these waste facilities targeting their neighborhoods. Learning about the past struggles of low-income communities and coming together to raise awareness upon these environmental issues, has definitely inspired me to use my voice for good as well as getting involved in my community. In addition, I want to bring more awareness towards environmental racism because, many neighborhoods continue to be targeted by waste facilities. Not only that, but environmental justice is important because many individuals have fought for their community's rights and equality of land. 

Ways To Help

• Get involved with your community
• Help out the environment/ community
• Be involved and engaged with city councils meetings
• Inform those that might be affected by waste facilities in their community

Interviews

Blanca Macias 

"I think it is unfair that low income communities are affected by this issue because it can cause a lot of harm to people and damage their health. Low income communities have the same right as upper class neighborhoods and should not be the only ones affected by this environmental issue. They need to change this problem and think about how it's affecting us, it is unfair to have us risking our health because of these waste facilities."


Sopheakneath Heng

"I think that's such an unfair thing to happen to low income communities because of waste facility's action to target poor neighborhoods. In my opinion, the reason that these waste facilities may target low income communities is because they do not want any damage or health affects to happen to high class neighborhoods. Specifically, it means that upper class communities have to be clean and healthy, which money can do everything."


Amalia Mendoza

"I do not think it's fair waste facilities, target low income communities because they matter as well as the rich. Why don't they target the rich as well, everybody's health matters no, no matter their economic status, race, ethnicity, gender etc. They should put the waste facilities in far places away from homes and where people live by. Especially by children's school where they tend to put them and has happened. Maybe its cheaper for them to put them by low income communities, but people have gotten sick and keep getting sick due to the lead poisoning. There needs to be a change and lower class communities need to speak up."


Nuvia Diaz

"Of course it's not fair, they can always try to look for new places where it's less populated away from people. In the long run it affects human health, children being more vulnerable to these pollutants. Most people are not familiar with this and might not be educated and know about the side affects of waste facilities. Like myself, I didn't know about living near one until Kimberly brought it up to my attention and was able to do some research and found out that I live a few blocks away from a waste facility."


Roxana Rodriguez

"It's unethical that waste facilities target low income communities, but it's nothing new. All the unsavory facets of life are usually found in low income communities. These waste companies tend to target communities where they will face the least resistance. Unfortunately low income communities tend to have community members that are rarely involved in community politics; therefore, waste companies know they will face little to no challenges in opening a waste facility in these communities. Los Angeles in general has the most contaminated air in the United States. All of the pollutants in the air lead to several health concerns from low to high severity. For people who have grown up in the greater Los Angeles area, pollution is just a matter of fact. We accept it and move through our daily lives without ever thinking about it until the day we or one of our loved ones get sick. Only then we become energetic to take a stand. These companies know that low income communities often have members that don't have the times nor money to invest into engaging in social justice issues. So no, it's not fair that waste facilities target low income communities, but I understand the corporate logic behind it."




References

Bullard, Robert D. "The Threat of Environmental Racism" American Bar Association. Vol. 7, No. 3, Facility Siting (Winter 1993), pp. 23-26, 55-56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40923229?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Cole, L.W and Foster, S.R. (2000). "From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement" NYU Press, (13) 20-33.

Rothschild, Sarah. "Environmental Racism Puts Our Students at Risk" A Just Chicago. May 9, 2018. https://ajustchicago.org/2018/05/environmental-racism-puts-students-risk/

Rudchyk, Mykola. "Air pollution in Tonawanda (N.Y.) sickens and kills, according to pending civil suits" Sustainability & Environmental Justice. Feburary 15, 2015.
http://sustainabilityjjay.org/2015/02/air-pollution-in-tonawanda-n-y-sickens-and-kills-according-to-pending-civil-suits/

United States Environmental Protection Agency. EPA. (2019).
https://www.epa.gov/