Law Commons^™

Old And New Environmental Racism, Tseming Yang

Utah Law Review

Over the past five decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) moved from purposeful disregard of environmental racism to a public embrace of environmental justice as an organizational priority. Unfortunately, its efforts to address environmental discrimination remain a work-in-progress. This Article posits that the Agency’s core difficulties have arisen out of its reluctance to accept the continuing salience of race and the substantive implications for its regulatory work. It has blinded the Agency to the evolving manifestations of environmental discrimination and associated harms. The effect has been to impede the aggressive enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, particularly the discriminatory effects regulations …

Waste: One Woman’S Fight Against America’S Dirty Secret By Catherine Coleman Flowers (The New Press, 2020), Deanna Warren

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Environmental Racism: How Governments Are Systematically Poisoning Indigenous Communities & The U.N.’S Role, Maia Dombey

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This note examines the practice of toxic waste dumping on indigenous lands and how it fits within the broader concept of environmental racism. It further evaluates the international human rights framework and how the United Nations and other international bodies interact with this concept and provide means for protection against this illicit practice. Further, it examines the role of the Special Rapporteur on the Implications for Human Rights of the Environmentally Sound Management and Disposal of Hazardous Substances and Wastes and how he, in his role as Special Rapporteur, can provide relief to indigenous communities suffering the effects of this …

Food Aid To The Developing World: The Subversive Effects Of Modern-Day Neo-Colonialism, Shreya Ahluwalia

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

The United States has the power and resources to benefit citizens across the world. Many politicians have embodied this goal. Now it is time to move away from this approach. This article exposes the harm surrounding foreign aid from the United States, poses questions related to the foreign policy decisions of the United States and other world powers, and proposes unique solutions through the lens of environmental racism.

Reviving The Environmental Justice Potential Of Title Vi Through Heightened Judicial Review, Rachel Calvert

University of Colorado Law Review

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act has unrealized potential to correct the racialized distribution of environmental hazards. The disparate impact regulations implementing this sweeping statute target the institutional discrimination that characterizes environmental injustice. Agency decisions routinely deny claims that federal funds are contributing to projects that disproportionately pollute minority communities, allegedly in violation of Title VI disparate impact regulations. These dismissals are effectively final, as trends in civil rights jurisprudence have essentially foreclosed would-be litigants' opportunities for meaningful judicial review. Their last remaining avenue for recourse is to trigger an arbitrary and capricious review of agency actions, but the …

Economics V. Equity: Do Market-Based Environmental Reforms Exacerbate Environmental Injustice?, Stephen M. Johnson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Racism And Hazardous Facility Siting Decisions: Noble Cause Or Political Tool?, Christopher Billias

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Is Title Vi A Magic Bullet? Environmental Racism In The Context Of Political-Economic Processes And Imperatives, Steven A. Light, Kathryn R.L. Rand

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article examines avenues of redress and pollution prevention for impoverished people of color that flow from Title VI litigation strategies within the larger context of the environmental justice movement. Environmental justice issues can serve as tools with which to question status quo distributive policymaking processes and outcomes. Specifically, this Article concerns itself with practical routes toward increasing distributive justice and democratic efficacy.

The Proposed Environmental Justice Act: "I Have A (Green) Dream", Claire L. Hasler

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment addresses the concept of environmental racism, the tools that have been used to fight it, and the proposed Environmental Justice Act of 1993. Part II begins with an examination of the evidence minority communities have relied on as proof that environmental racism exists. The evidence contained in numerous articles clearly shows inequalities in the amounts of environmental and health hazards minority communities bear, and this evidence validates the existence of pervasive environmental injustice in our society. Part III addresses the limited case law involving attempts by minority communities to challenge perceived environmental racism and assesses the effectiveness of …

Planning, Power And Politics: A Case Study Of The Land Use And Siting History Of The North River Water Pollution Control Plant, Vernice D. Miller

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay discusses one example of environmental racism in New York City – the planning and construction of the North River Water Pollution Control Plant in West Harlem. This case study of the West Harlem community depicts how race-based land use planning and environmental policy-making transformed West Harlem, one of this city’s most beautiful communities, into a giant dumping ground. Since 1968, the North River Water Pollution Control Plant has irritated the residents of West Harlem. Initially, countless public hearings and community meetings were held to address why this facility was being built in this community. After the Plant was …

Balancing The Scales Of Environmental Justice, Charles J. Mcdermott

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay discusses various ways to weave principles of justice and equity into solving the problem of environmental racism. This Essay also demonstrates the enormous potential of the waste management industry to act as an agent for environmental equity. Part I identifies problems that have led to accusations of environmental racism and conditions that have contributed to the definition of environmental racism. Part II discusses issues of the actual and perceived risks posed by waste treatment facilities, and the need for an understanding of these risks. The Essay next considers the issues raised in siting facilities, and the importance of …

Proving Environmental Inequity In Siting Locally Unwanted Land Uses, Michael Greenberg

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

This paper advances a process for determining whether, e.g., waste-to-energy facilities are disproportionately located in minority and poor communities, and the author asks others to join in searching for a scientifically sound and fair process of resolving conflicting interests in locating LULUs. He also discusses some difficult issues and argues that they need to be addressed by a representative panel.

Remedies For Environmental Racism: A View From The Field, Luke W. Cole

Michigan Law Review

The Michigan Law Review's recent Note, Remedying Environmental Racism, is an important and timely analysis of a civil rights law-based approach to environmental justice work - one of the first to emerge from legal academia. It correctly points out the high hurdles that toxic racism's victims must overcome to successfully pursue such a strategy. Godsil's piece will hopefully spur more academic and on-the-ground work in this nascent legal field, which I call "environmental poverty law" - that is, representing low-income communities (often, in this field, communities of color) facing environmental hazards. As a practitioner of environmental poverty law …

Remedying Environmental Racism, Rachel D. Godsil

Michigan Law Review

This Note addresses the equity issues that arise in the placement of commercial hazardous waste facilities. Currently, minorities are shouldering an unequal share of the burdens of hazardous waste16 while the benefits of production that results in hazardous waste are dispersed throughout society. Studies demonstrate that poor whites are overburdened as well. While inequitable distribution of wastesites along class lines is troubling and deserving of attention, this Note focuses specifically on the burdens facing racial minorities.

This Note contends that all races should share equitably the burdens and risks of hazardous waste facilities. Part I documents the disproportionate burden of …