Jodi Rave: Environmental racism expert in Montana

Thursday, March 1, 2007  

"The majority of hazardous waste facilities are located near poor communities of color, and the numbers have increased since a groundbreaking study on environmental racism was first released 20 years ago. “When we think of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we think society has made great strides towards equality, justice and fair treatment of people of all stripes,” said Robin Saha, a University of Montana professor who helped update the original report, which is now titled “Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007.”

The study, said Saha, shows “we still have a long way to go.”

The environmental racism report was spearheaded by Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark University in Atlanta. The full report, which was sponsored by the United Church of Christ, will be released in mid-March.

An executive summary of the report shows that more than 9 million people live within two miles of the nation's 413 commercial hazardous waste facilities, which includes byproducts from chemical manufacturing companies.

More than 5.1 million Hispanics, blacks, Asians and Native people live in neighborhoods with one or more commercial waste facilities. The following states have the highest disproportionate numbers of minorities living in waste-host neighborhoods: California, Nevada, Illinois, Alabama, Michigan, Tennessee, Washington, Arkansas, Kentucky and Kansas.

An estimated 2.5 million Hispanics, 1.8 million blacks, 616,000 Asians and 62,000 American Indians live near hazardous waste sites, and 83 percent of the locations are in metropolitan areas."

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Environmental racism expert to speak at UM (The Missoulian 3/1)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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