This document discusses the history of the environmental justice movement in the United States and ongoing issues of environmental racism and inequity. It notes that people of color are disproportionately exposed to various forms of pollution and environmental hazards. While recognition of these issues has grown since the 1980s, racial disparities persist in terms of where toxic sites are located, pollution exposures, and in government response to disasters like Hurricane Katrina. The document advocates for applying a racial equity lens and addressing longstanding inequities in order to build sustainable, just and livable communities for all.

1. Environmental Health and
Racial Equity in the U.S.
Strategies for Building Environmentally Just
Sustainable and Livable Communities
July 3, 2012
Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D.
School of Public Affairs
Texas Southern University
Houston, Texas USA

2. Books That I have Written: It’s Just
One Book, But Don’t Tell Anybody
• Invisible Houston • Just Sustainabilities
• Dumping in Dixie • Highway Robbery
• In Search of the New • The Quest for
South Environmental Justice
• Growth and Decline of a
Sunbelt Boomtown • Growing Smarter
• Confronting • The Black Metropolis in
Environmental Racism the Twenty-First Century
• Residential Apartheid • Race, Place, and
• Unequal Protection Environmental Justice
• Just Transportation After Hurricane Katrina
• Sprawl City • The Wrong Complexion
for Protection

4. IT’S ALL ABOUT HEALTH

5. Dr. King Speaks in Support of
Garbage Workers - 1968

6. Environmental Justice -Memphis
Garbage Strike

7. The Houston Backdrop - 1978
• Houston Protests
against the
Whispering Pines
Sanitary landfill
(1978)
• Bean v. Southwestern
Waste Management
(1979)
• Houston Waste Sites
and Black Community
Study (1979)

8. Bean v. Southwestern Waste
• The 1979 Bean v.
Southwestern Waste
Management Corp. case was
the nation’s first lawsuit to
challenge environmental
discrimination using civil
rights law
• Northeast Community Action
Group (NECAG) hired Linda
McKeever Bullard to
represent them in the class
action law suit
• BFI hired the Fulbright and
Jaworski law firm to defend it
in the case

10. Warren County, NC - 1982
• The environmental justice
movement was born in
rural Warren County, NC
• Triple “whammy” of rural,
poor, and mostly black
• Over 500 demonstrators
were arrested protesting
the siting of a hazardous
PCB landfill

12. Toxic Wastes and Race in the
United States - 1987
• The United Church of
Christ Commission for
Racial Justice
produced the first
national study linking
race and the location
of hazardous waste
sites

13. Legacy of “Jim Crow” - 1990
• The “Deep South” is
stuck with a unique
legacy of slavery, Jim
Crow segregation, and
resistance to equal justice
for all
• The South is the most
environmentally befouled
region of the United
States
• It is no accident that the
modern civil rights
movement and the
environmental justice
movement were born in
the South

14. People of Color Summit
Washington, DC, Oct., 1991

15. Defining the Environment
• Where We Live
• Where We Work
• Where We Play
• Where We Learn
• Physical and Natural
World

16. Environmental Justice Principle
• Environmental justice
embraces the
principle that all
people and
communities are
entitled to equal
protection of our
environmental,
health, employment,
education, housing,
transportation, and
civil rights laws

17. APPLYING A RACIAL EQUITY LENS
• Race maps closely with the
geography of social inequality
and ecological vulnerability
• More 100 studies now link
racism to worse health
• More than 200 environmental
studies have shown race and
class disparities
• Discriminatory housing, land
use, and development policies
have resulted in limited
mobility, reduced
neighborhood options, and
elevated environmental and
health risks to poor people and
people of color

18. Government Response

19. Environmental Justice
Executive Order - 1994
• On February 11, 1994,
President Clinton signed
Executive Order 12898
• After 15 years and more than
a half-dozen studies by several
federal agencies, Executive
Order 12898, Federal Actions
to Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations
and Low-Income Populations,
has yet to be fully
implemented

21. Response of State Governments
• In 1993, New Hampshire
passed its pioneering
environmental justice policy
• By 2007, 41 states had a policy
or program in place that paid
attention to the issue of
environmental justice
• In 2009, all 50 states and the
District of Columbia had
instituted some type of
environmental justice law,
executive order, or policy

22. Environmental Health and Racial
Equity in the U.S. - 2012
• African Americans are 79
percent more likely than whites
to live in neighborhoods where
industrial pollution is suspected
of posing the greatest health
danger
• African Americans in 19 states
are more than twice as likely
as whites to live in
neighborhoods with high
pollution and a similar pattern
was discovered for Hispanics in
12 states and Asians in 7
states

23. Healthy People and Healthy Places
• Healthy places and healthy people
are highly correlated
• The EPA’s most recent National-
Scale Air Toxics Assessment
reported that millions of
Americans living in nearly 600
neighborhoods are breathing
concentrations of toxic air
pollutants that put them at a
much greater risk of contracting
cancer
• The poorest of the poor within the
United States have the worst
health and live in the most
degraded environments

24. WHY RESEARCH MATTERS

25. Toxic Wastes and Race in the
United States – 1987, 1994
• The 1987 United Church of
Christ study Toxic Wastes and
Race found race to be the
most potent variable in
predicting where the location
of hazardous waste facilities—
more powerful than poverty,
land values, and home
ownership
• The Toxic Wastes and Race
study was revisited in 1994
using 1990 census data study
and found that people of color
were 47 percent more likely to
live near a hazardous waste
facility than white Americans

27. Toxic Wastes and Race - 2007
• Race continues to be a significant independent predictor
of commercial hazardous waste facility locations when
socioeconomic and other non-racial factors are taken
into account
• People of color make up the majority (56%) of those
living in neighborhoods within two miles of the nation’s
commercial hazardous waste facilities, nearly double the
percentage in areas beyond two miles (30%)
• People of color make up a much larger (over two-thirds)
majority (69%) in neighborhoods with clustered facilities
• People of color in 2007 are more concentrated in areas
with commercial hazardous sites than in 1987

28. Disparities by EPA Region
• Racial disparities for people of
color as a whole exist in 9 out
of 10 EPA regions (all except
Region 3)
• Disparities in people of color
percentages between host
neighborhoods and non-host
areas are greatest in: Region
1, the Northeast (36% vs.
15%); Region 4, the southeast
(54% vs. 30%); Region 5, the
Midwest (53% vs. 19%);
Region 6, the South, (63% vs.
42%); and Region 9, the
southwest (80% vs. 49%)

29. Expansion of Research Since 1990
• In 1991, when the First
National People of Color
Summit was held in
Washington, DC there
was only one book on
environmental justice,
Dumping in Dixie (1990)
• The second EJ book,
Race and the Incidence of
Environmental Hazards,
was published in 1992
• In 2009, there were more
than 200 EJ books in
print

30. Living with More Pollution
• People of color and poor people
live with more pollution than the
rest of the nation
• African Americans are 79 percent
more likely than whites to live in
neighborhoods where industrial
pollution is suspected of posing
the greatest health danger
• African Americans in 19 states are
more than twice as likely as whites
to live in neighborhoods with high
pollution and a similar pattern was
discovered for Hispanics in 12
states and Asians in 7 states

31. Dumping on the Black Middle Class
• A 2008 study by researchers at
the University of Colorado found
that “blacks experience such as
high pollution burden that black
households with incomes between
$50,000 and $60,000 live in
neighborhoods that are, on
average, more polluted than the
average neighborhood in which
white households with incomes
below $10,000 live” (Downey and
Hawkins 2008)
• African Americans are 79 percent
more likely than whites to live in
neighborhoods where industrial
pollution is suspected of posing
the greatest health danger
(Associated Press 2005)

32. Health Benefits of Addressing
Pollution “Hot-Spot” Areas
• Pollution “hot spots” pose
real environmental,
economic, and health
threats to the nation’s
low-income, people of
color, and indigenous
communities
• Many “fenceline”
communities are in the
direct path of accidents,
spills, explosions, and
routine toxic emissions

33. Wrong Side of the Tracks

34. Toxic Public Housing Threats
• A 2000 Dallas
Morning News
study found that
870,000 of the 1.9
million (46%)
housing units for
the poor, mostly
minority families,
sit within one mile
of TRI reporting
factories

48. ON THE FENCELINE WITH
DIRTY POWER

50. “Dirty Power” and Children
• Over 78% of African
Americans live within 30 miles
of a power plant—the distance
within which the maximum
effects of the smokestack
plumes are expected to occur,
compared with 56% of whites
and 39% of Latinos
• Over 35 million American
children live within 30 miles of
a power plant, of which an
estimated two million are
asthmatic

51. It’s Raining Down Mercury
• Coal-fired power plants are the
single largest source of
mercury air pollution,
accounting for roughly 40
percent of all mercury
emissions nationwide
• Much of the mercury stays
airborne for two years and
spreads around the globe
• The Centers for Disease
Control has found that roughly
10 percent of American
women carry mercury
concentrations at levels
considered to put a fetus at
risk of neurological damage

54. Selected Health Impacts from Air Pollution
from Power Plants in the United States
Health Effect Incidence
Cases Per Year
Mortality 23,600
Hospital Admissions 21,850
Emergency Room Visits for Asthma 26,000
Heart Attacks 38,200
Chronic Bronchitiss 16,200
Asthma Attacks 554,000
Lost Work Days 3,186,000
Source: Conrad G. Schneider, Dirty Air, Dirty Power (Washington, DC: Clear the Air, June 2004), based on Abt
Associates Inc., et al., Power Plant Emissions: Particulate Matter-Related Health Damages and the
Benefits of Alternative Emission Reduction Scenarios (Boston: June 2004).

56. Cleaner Air Extends Lifespan
• A recent study published in the
January 22, 2009 New England
Journal of Medicine, found
Americans are living longer
because the air they breathe is
getting cleaner
• The average drop in pollution
seen across 51 metropolitan areas
between 1980 and 2000 appears
to have added nearly five more
months to people's lives
• Residents of cities that did the
best job cleaning up air pollution
showed the biggest jump in life
span

58. Ground Level Ozone and Health
• Over 27 million children under
age 13 live in areas with ozone
levels above the EPA standard
• Half the pediatric asthma
population, two million
children, live in these areas
• Ground level ozone sends an
estimated 53,000 persons to
the hospital, 159,000 to the
emergency room and triggers
6,200,000 asthma attacks each
summer in the eastern half of
the United States.
• Ozone pollution is responsible
for 10 percent to 20 percent,
and nearly 50 percent on bad
days, of all hospital admissions
for respiratory conditions

59. Geography of Air Pollution
• Nationally, 57% of whites, 65%
of blacks, and 80% of Hispanics
live in counties with
substandard air
• Over 61.3% of Black children,
69.2% of Hispanic children and
67.7% of Asian-American
children live in areas that
exceed the 0.08 ppm ozone
standard, while 50.8% of white
children live in such areas
• Air pollution costs Americans
$10 billion to $200 billion a year
• Air pollution claims 70,000 lives
a year, nearly twice the number
killed in traffic accidents

60. VULNERABLE POPULATION

62. Rising Health Costs of Asthma
• U.S. asthma cases
more than tripled
from an estimated 6.7
million in 1980 to 25
million in 2009.
• Asthma costs the US
about $56 billion in
medical costs, up
from $53 billion in
2002.

63. Asthma Epidemic and Race
• The African American asthma rate
is 35 percent higher than whites.
The hospitalization rate for African
Americans and Latinos is 3 to 4
times the rate for whites.
• African Americans and Puerto
Ricans are three times more likely
to die from asthma-related causes
than whites.
• Although African Americans
represent 13 percent of the U.S.
population, but account for 26
percent of asthma deaths.

64. GOVERNMENT REPSONE TO
DISASTERS

69. Levee Breeches Cause Flooding
• Much of the flooding that
drowned 80 percent of
New Orleans was caused
by levee breaches—a
man-made disaster
• The Army Corps of
Engineers has spent
billions for New Orleans
levee repairs
• The 200-mile repaired
and reinforced levee
system is not guaranteed
to hold when a Category
4 or 5 hurricane strikes

78. Rebuilding on Inequity
• It is unlikely that a
healthy, sustainable, and
“green” New Orleans and
Gulf Coast can be
achieved without
addressing longstanding
legacy issues that revolve
around racial, economic,
social, and environmental
justice
• Special care needs to be
taken so not to rebuild on
past inequities

79. Unequal Recovery & Reconstruction
• Racial disparities exist in disaster
recovery and reconstruction
• Race plays out in disaster
survivors’ ability to rebuild, replace
infrastructure, obtain loans, and
locate temporary and permanent
housing
• Generally, low-income and people
of color disaster victims spend
more time in temporary housing—
shelters, trailers, mobile homes,
and hotels—and are more
vulnerable to permanent
displacement
• People of color communities face
discrimination in clean-up
standards, management of storm
debris, siting of disposal facilities,
and rebuilding of damaged
neighborhoods

80. Katrina Leaves New Orleans
Richer, Whiter, and Emptier
• New Orleans lost 140,845
residents, a 29 percent drop
between 2000 and 2010
• The percentage of black
population fell to 60.2 percent
from 67.3 percent
• The loss in New Orleans
translates into one fewer
congressional seat for
Louisiana, now six instead of
seven
• It also means that almost $1
billion in lost federal funds
over 10 years to the local
government

81. Unequal Flood Protection
• The Army Corps of Engineers has
spent $5.7 billion for New Orleans
levee repairs
• Increased levee protection maps
closely with race of neighborhoods
with black neighborhoods such as
the Ninth Ward, Gentilly, and New
Orleans East receiving little if any
increased flood protection
• These disparities could lead
insurers and investors to think
twice about supporting the
rebuilding efforts in vulnerable
black areas
• The Lakeview area resident can
expect 5½ feet of increased levee
protection

84. IT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL
• New zoning and
building codes in New
Orleans (which is
below sea level)
require some
residents to elevate
their houses three
feet—even though
they may have gotten
eight feet of water

87. WHO GETS LEFT BEHIND BEFORE
AND AFTER DISASTERS STRIKE?
• People of color
• Poor People
• Elderly
• Disabled
• Sick People
• Children
• People without Cars
• Transit Dependent
• Non-Drivers
• Homeless People

88. Washed Away by Katrina

89. Waiting for Government Response
• Long before Katrina
devastated the U.S.
Gulf Coast, African
Americans learned
the hard way that
waiting for
government to
respond can be
hazardous to their
health and the health
of their communities

90. NO AUTOMOILE, NO ESCAPE
FROM KATRINA
• Two in ten households in the
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in
Katrina disaster area had no car
• People in the hardest hit areas were
twice as likely as most Americans to
be poor and without a car
• Over one-third of New Orleans’ African
Americans do not own an automobile
• Over 15 percent of New Orleans
residents rely on public transportation
as their primary mode of travel
• Between 100,000 to 134,000 New
Orleans citizens do not have means of
personal transportation to evacuate in
case of a major storm
• An estimated 15,000 to 17,000 New
Orleanians were homeless
• Another 102,122 disabled persons
lived in New Orleans at the time of the
hurricane

91. Failed Emergency Transport Plan
• The New Orleans Rapid Transit
Authority (RTA) emergency
plan was woefully inadequate
to transport an estimated
100,000 to 134,000 transit
dependent residents out of
harms way
• Given the size of transit-
dependent population, some
transportation experts
estimate that at least 2000
buses would have been
needed to evacuate all New
Orleans residents who needed
transportation

92. FLOODED TRANSPORTATION
• Most of the city’s 500
transit and school buses
were without drivers
• About 190 city transit
buses were flooded
• Most of the 1,300 transit
employees are dispersed
across the country and
many are unemployed
and homeless

93. Forced to “Ride Out” Storm

95. Private Car Ownership
• Car ownership is almost
universal in the United States
with 91.7 percent of American
households owning at least
one motor vehicle
• Nationally, 7 percent of white
households own no car,
compared with 24 percent of
black households, 17 percent
of Latino households, and 13
percent of Asian-American
households
• Blacks with No Car: Pittsburgh
(48.6%), Baltimore (44.4%),
Washington, DC ( 42.1%), St.
Louis (36.2%), New Orleans
(34.8%), Atlanta (34.6%),
Cleveland (31.7%)

96. You Can’t Get There from Here

97. Public Transit in New Orleans
• In August, 2010, the New
Orleans Regional Transit
Authority (NORTA)
operated 30 routes, just
43% of its pre-Katrina
level
• It had only 69 buses, or
just 19% of 368 buses it
operated in July 2005
• NORTA carries an
average of 28,590 daily
riders, down from an
average of 71,543 in July
2005

98. The “Mother of All Toxic
Cleanups” in the U.S.
• Katrina floodwaters left miles of
sediments laced with cancer-
causing chemicals, toxic metals,
industrial compounds, petroleum
products, and banned insecticides,
all at levels that pose potential
cancer risk or other long-term
hazards
• Government agencies have
chosen not to clean up the
contaminated topsoil where 80%
of New Orleans flooded homes sit
• Since Katrina struck, more than
100 million cubic yards of debris
have been removed in Alabama,
Louisiana, and Mississippi

104. Katrina’s “Toxic Soup”
• Katrina caused six major oil spills
releasing 7.4 million gallons of oil,
or 61 percent as much as the 11
million gallon that leaked into
Alaska's Prince William Sound
from the Exxon Valdez in 1989
• The storm hit 60 underground
storage tanks, five Superfund
sites, 466 industrial facilities that
stored highly dangerous chemicals
before the storm
• It disabled more than 1,000
drinking-water systems, creating a
"toxic soup with e. coli in the
floodwaters far exceeding EPA's
safe levels.

106. Clean Enough for Horses . . .
• Although government officials
insist the dirt in New Orleans
residents’ yards is safe, Church Hill
Downs, Inc., the owners of New
Orleans’ Fair Grounds, felt it was
not safe for its million dollar
thoroughbred horses to race on
• The owners scooped up and
hauled off soil tainted by
Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters
and rebuilt a grandstand roof
ripped off by the storm’s wind
• The Fair Grounds opened on
Thanksgiving Day 2006
• The Fair Grounds is the nation’s
third-oldest track—only Saratoga
and Pimlico have been racing
longer

107. Arsenic on School Playgrounds
• In November 2005, EPA found
arsenic in 95 percent of the
sediment samples it collected
in the greater New Orleans
area high enough to pose a
significant cancer risk under its
current guidelines
• Thirty percent of samples
could trigger cleanup under
the weaker Louisiana
guidelines
• Two years after the storm,
arsenic levels were still present
in the soil at 25 percent of the
35 New Orleans playgrounds
and schoolyards tested by
NRDC—classified as arsenic
“hot spots”

108. New Orleans Gets Clean Bill of Health
• On August 17, 2006, nearly a year
after Katrina struck, the federal
EPA gave New Orleans and
surrounding communities a clean
bill of health, while pledging to
monitor a handful of toxic hot
spots
• EPA officials concluded that
“Katrina did not cause any
appreciable contamination that
was not already there”
• Although EPA tests confirmed
widespread lead in the soil, a pre-
storm problem in 40 percent of
New Orleans, EPA dismissed
residents’ calls to address this
problem as outside it’s mission

109. DEBRIS FROM GUTTED HOMES

111. Indoor and Outside Mold Threats
• A number of asthma triggers are
associated with excess moisture and
mold
• Independent tests conducted by the
Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) have also found dangerously
high airborne mold levels inside and
outside of homes, especially in the
New Orleans neighborhoods that
flooded
• Such high concentration of mold
spores is likely to be a significant
respiratory hazard
• Unfortunately, federal agencies,
including the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS), and the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), have not monitored
mold levels in areas that flooded, and
have done little to assist residents
cope with the mold problem

114. The “Katrina Cough” and Mold
• Health officials saw a large
number of evacuees afflicted
with "Katrina cough," an
illness believed to be linked to
mold and dust
• Many individuals returned to
their flooded homes without
the necessary protective gear
and ended up getting sick
• Mold spores can trigger
asthma attacks and set up life-
threatening infections when
normal immune systems are
weakened

115. Living on a Toxic Dump
• Residents of New Orleans’ Press
Park neighborhood were living
on top of the Agricultural Street
Landfill Superfund site
• The landfill was reopened in
1965 for the disposal of debris
from Hurricane Betsy
• Moton Elementary School was
also built on the landfill site
• Before Hurricane Katrina,
residents of Agricultural Street
had been fighting a legal battle
for decades to get relocated
from the site
• The lawsuit was finally settled in
January 2006 where the judge
declared the neighborhood
“unreasonably dangerous” and
“uninhabitable”

117. FEMA’s Toxic Travel Trailers
• In February 2008, more than two
years after residents of FEMA
trailers deployed along the
Mississippi Gulf Coast began
complaining of breathing
difficulties, nosebleeds and
persistent headaches, CDC
confirmed that the FEMA trailers
pose a serious danger to residents
still living in them
• CDC trailer tests revealed average
formaldehyde levels of 77 ppb
(parts per billions), significantly
higher than the 10 to 17 ppb
concentration seen in newer
homes Levels were as high as 590
ppb
• Levels of formaldehyde gas in 519
trailer and mobile homes tested in
Louisiana and Mississippi were
about five times what people are
exposed to in most modern homes

118. CDC’s Flawed FEMA Trailer Study
• People exposed to as little as 30
parts of formaldehyde per billion
parts of air for more than two
weeks can suffer constricted
airways, headaches and rashes
• However, instead of 30 parts per
billion, CDC said health dangers
wouldn’t occur until the substance
reached 300 ppb, 10 times
greater than the long-term
standard
• Exposure to 300 ppb for just a few
hours can trigger respiratory
problems and other ailments
• More than 38,000 families, or
roughly 114,000 individuals, were
living in FEMA-provided travel
trailers or mobile homes along the
Gulf Coast as late as September
2008

119. THE BP OIL DISASTER

121. Environmental Minefield in the Gulf
• More than 27,000 abandoned
oil and gas wells lurk in the
hard rock beneath the Gulf of
Mexico
• More than 3,500 of these wells
are classified by federal
regulators as "temporarily
abandoned," but some have
been left that way since the
1950s, without the full
safeguards of permanent
abandonment
• The Minerals Management
Service (MMS) has 56
inspectors in the Gulf of
Mexico to oversee 3,500
production facilities that
operate 35,591 wells

122. BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• The April 20, 2010 BP
Deepwater Horizon oil
disaster killed eleven
workers and leaked more
than 200 million gallons
of crude into the Gulf of
Mexico—making it the
worst offshore oil disaster
in U.S. history
• More than 1.8 million
gallons of dispersants
were used—whose health
and environmental effects
are not known

124. CLEANING UP THE MESS

137. WHERE DOES BP CLEAN UP
WASTE GET DUMPED?

138. Location of Landfills in Costal Counties

142. Dumping on People of Color
• Although people of color make up
26 percent of the coastal counties
in AL, LA, FL, and MS, nearly 60
percent of the BP cleanup waste
was disposed in landfills located in
people of color communities as of
July 2010
• Six of the nine EPA approved
landfills are located in areas where
the percentage of people of color
is larger than the people of color
percent in the corresponding
county—amounting to more than
80 percent of the total BP waste
disposed July 2010

145. BP Oil Waste Disposal Trends
• As of 11/7/2010, all approved landfills have received a total of
82,589 tons of waste from the BP spill.
• As of 11/7/2010, landfills in areas where the minority population is
larger than 50% of the total population received 33,259 tons or
40.3% of the waste from the BP spill.
• As of 11/7/2010, landfills in areas where the minority population is
larger than the county’s minority population received 62,017 tons or
75.1% of the waste from the BP spill.
• As of January 9, 2011, a total of 93,434 tons of BP waste went to
11 landfills in the five Gulf Coast states, of which 39,608 (42.4
percent) tons went to landfills in minority communities, and 78,732
tons (84.3 percent) went to landfills located in communities whose
minority population exceeded the county’s percent minority.

146. Tar Ball Still Washing Ashore
• On Sept. 6, 2011, tar balls
washed up on beaches in
Gulf Shores, Alabama after
Tropical Storm Lee
• The tar balls are suspected
to be from a tar mat left
over from the BP oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico
• The tar balls were likely
sent to the Chastang
Landfill in Mobile County
for disposal

148. BP Oil Waste Disposal Trends
• As of 4/1/2012, all approved landfills have received a total of
110,695 tons of waste from the BP spill.
• As of 4/1/2012, landfills in areas where the minority population is
larger than 50% of the total population received 39,399 tons or
35.6% of the waste from the BP spill.
• As of 4/1/2012, landfills in areas where the minority population is
larger than the county’s minority population received 94,463 tons or
85.3% of the waste from the BP spill.
• On 7/25/2010 (first fata report), a total of 39,399 tons of BP waste
went to 9 landfills in the five Gulf Coast states, of which 18,329
(46.5 percent) tons went to landfills with more than 50 percent
minority population, and 30,338 tons (77.0 percent) went to landfills
located in communities whose minority population exceeded the
county’s percent minority.

152. Health Impacts of Diesel Trucks
• Truck traffic and diesel engine
emissions contribute to serious
public health problems, including
premature mortality, aggravation
of existing asthma, acute
respiratory symptoms, chronic
bronchitis, and decreased lung
function.
• More than 30 health studies have
linked diesel engine emissions to
increased incidences of various
cancers
• Diesel particulate matter alone
contributes to 125,000 cancers in
the U.S. each year.

153. Multidisciplinary Movement Building
• The number of people of color environmental groups has grown
from 300 groups in 1992 (when the People of Color Environmental
Groups Directory was first published) to more than 3,000 groups
and a dozen networks in 2012
• In 1990, there was not a single university-based environmental
justice center or program that offered a degree in environmental
justice
• In 2012, there are 13 university-based environmental justice
centers, four of which are located at Historical Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs), 22 legal clinics that list environmental justice
as a core area, and 6 academic programs that grant degrees in
environmental justice, including one legal program

154. Recognition of the Work
• Environmental justice leaders
are beginning to win awards
and recognition for their work
• From 1990-2012, more than
two-dozen environmental
justice leaders were singled
out for prestigious national
awards that included the Heinz
Award, Goldman Prize,
MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship,
Ford Foundation Leadership for
a Changing World Award,
Robert Wood Johnson
Community Health Leaders
Award, and others

155. Funding Trends, Challenges and
Opportunities for Advancement
• Strategic foundation support has
enabled the success of the
Environmental Justice Movement
• Yet, the movement is still under-
funded after three decades of
proven work
• The number of foundations that
have funded designated
environmental justice programs
has been shrinking in recent years
• There are hopeful signs, however,
from a number of foundations that
are funding multidisciplinary work
that intersects environment,
health, and racial equity
• Government funding has be spotty
and highly politicized in last
decade

156. Just and Sustainable
Communities for All
• Sustainability must
address equity and social
inequality, i.e., equitable
development, families
below poverty,
households without
livable wage, and
widening health and
income/wealth gap
• It is unlikely that we can
achieve sustainability
without addressing these
equity issues

157. For More Information Contact:
Robert D. Bullard, Dean
Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland
School of Public Affairs
Texas Southern University
Houston, TX 77004
Phone: 713/313-6849
Fax: 713/313-7153
E-Mail: Bullardrd@tsu.edu