NCD980602163_19980301_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Governing article Environment - Regulation and Racism-OCR

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ENVIRONMENT ■ TIM ARIANDAU .:, ..
":"!
Regulation and Racism
NOBODY who remem• dally the ones who live closest .to commercial corridors.
·. hers the struggle to end There are many reawns why the poQrest citizens live near-..
:racial segregc1-tion doubts C5t the railroads, highways and riveffi-onb where pollution .
that the U.S. government sources historically have been_ concentrated. That's w~ere land ..
. · should be ever-vigilant is cheapest and industrial infrasovc;tµre already ~~-roteo-
.· about protecting Ameri-tially, civil rights argumen\s_.cbuld bring st.ate and ~"efforts to
. can5' civil rights. Thi:\t' s i-edevelop the abandoned indu~t::rial 5itc5 that blight inner cities
_:clearly the duty of the to a screeching halt. That certainly wouldn't benefit the jobless
.national government. Nev-urban poor who minority activists say they represent
, ertheless, it doesn"t mean Federal lawyers won·t 1mvrove en\otronrnental quality fur any•
· that the current crop of fed-body by turning permit decisions into ~ oh2rged ooclronta-
. eral regulators should be lions. Frankly, se!f-[)roclaimed oommunity leaders aren't improv·
oca po u ··on control rules to enforce ing the discourse when they label anybody woo doesn't see thing,
vngue notions about .. environmental justice.~ their way as racist 1hat' s a killer charge fnpoli!K'S today. & one state
Clinton administration attorneys are trying to do j,1st that, .,,.---1'egulator Jl()tes; ''just the £.ling of an environmental justice c.ise is
however. Siding with local activists who see racism at work;' an indictment of the stite govemment"
th~ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year overturned You'd hope some governors and mayors would challenge that
a permit that Lo'Uisiana officials had granted to a facility on the kind of simplistic and, yes. prejudiced thinking. Certainly, reg-.
grounds that the surrounding black neighborhood .llre.ldy 1,l]ators: need to lis:ten more dosely t-o what local residfflts w.mt
endures too much pollution. Now, EPA and l".S. Justice and do better at explaining environmental risks to minority
Department officials say that any state regulatory decision that groups. Local governments should be talcing pollution impacts
increases the envil'onmentil burden on a minority community into account in land-use planning, and they need to bring the
could violate the rederal Civil Rights Act of 1964. irnpoveri(d-ied and the powerless into the discussion along with
Title VI of th.at ~w prohibits anybody who receives federal economic elites. lt' s not enough to hold a few public meetings
funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national and see who shows up. Business lobb}ists, em-ironmentalists
origin. State pollution control programs get
EPA grants to implement national environmen-
tal laws, and administration lawyers contend
that means regulators cannot grant permits
which could augment the pollution already bur-
cltming minoritiei. who liw near indusbiiil fucil-
itie~. the way the tr.S. Sutirem~ Court has
interpreted the Law, the language applies even
though governments haven't made delibentte
d1;-cil.'ions to conce:ntrare development close to
di:;.,Jvantaged neighborhoods.
"ff an environmental c1gency director could think up his or her
worn nightmare, this would be it," says one smte pollution control
chiu£ In just the ~ few ye.u-s, :regulators have begun olearing
new paths through EPA' s oversight requirement<; and public par-
ticipution procedures that have bogged down the environmenbll
d~-is1on-mak1ng process. Not much w1Il get done If lawyers and
loletMsts now tum pollution control agencies into federal deputies
charged with righting economic and social wrongs.
111ere's no question that poor communities with large minor-
ity populations have borne dlsproporttonate shares ofhealth-
thrrJ11tening pollution horn fu.ct.orlas clustered near their homes.
Ytit. re~tory agencies are no more to blame thbln the rest of
socit:ty for the situation. Not many minority group members
hav,; entered tinvironment.al science fields, and not many have
rist:11 r.o policy-making po:rition.,, either in EPAvr ~te and ~
bun:aucracies. For too long. communities have been so eat!er
fur ,my kind of industrial growth that they've never considered
what the consequences might ht! fur all their residents, espe-
86, S Jew
and minority activists will be ~ure to apPfiar, but they don't
really represent neighborhoods affected by regulatory decisions.
Th:\t's what legislatures, city councils, and county commis-
sions are supposed to ,fo_ In the past 30 ye-.u-s, v~ rights laws
have held them increasingly accountable to all their con-
stituents. Communities now have plenty of chances to have
then-suy in legisl~ve md regulatory d~sions. Of coui:se, state
and local environmental agencies need to focus on correcting
serious pollution problems-wherever they occur. But they
shouldn't also be saddled With solving the country"s long and
anguished debate over how to &n,JJy achieve racial eq"U9.lity.
Unfortunately, environmental inequities will persist, and it's
impoitant to note dlal: they afflict poor neighborhoods of every
color. 1hat' s not the result of racism, ru1d it doesn't justify mud•
dling the regu.latory proce~3 by turning every dec~ion into a
feder..il case testing rivil rights issues. Pollution threatens us all
and splitting communities even further ittto·rac:w camps won't.
solve our common environmental prol,)leins. 1!1
Marcil 1998 G;,00 V E R N Vt'.C _ 63
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