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  The Case of Hyde Park

  I strongly agree that existing laws do not provide contaminated minority communities with an opportunity for recourse against environmental injustices.

  I am currently studying the Hyde Park neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia in a college course on environmental justice.  The contamination that this African American community has faced through the incessant citing of toxic facilities around the neighborhood illuminates the challenges described in this article.  Despite some victories of the Hyde and Aragon Park Improvement Committee (HAPIC), a strong community organization, the neighborhood constantly faces new battles over the citing of facilities, often distracting resources from their cry for remediation of current contamination.

  The health effects of contamination are clear to most community members in Hyde Park, who experience high rates of asthma, cancer, and other diseases that often lead to death.  But this anecdotal evidence has been overshadowed by conflicting scientific studies on the level of risk facing the community. When a company or the government does not want to pay to clean up contamination, it is not hard to produce studies to prove that there is no risk to the community.  Facts are conveniently disputed with other facts, regardless of the toxic smell and appearance of the land, air, and water in a community.

  As the article states, Hyde Park proves that it is unfair that communities are burdened with proving that  "contamination is directly affecting their lives, livelihoods, and the environment."  To prove that a community is targeted because of its racial make-up is even more difficult, given that law requires proof that a specific person or group was deliberately targeted for contamination because of race.  

  Thus, communities have been relegated to fighting the poisoning of their neighborhoods on technicalities.  For example, rather than claiming environmental racism, Hyde Park has tactically filed procedural claims against local government for failing to comply with the public participation requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.  

  I support the article's suggestion of a threshold for the number of facilities that can be located in a community.  But for Hyde Park, even this bold measure would be too little, too late. Federal and state governments must begin to truly enforce new and existing regulations and ensure corporate compliance with laws.  In communities where the health effects of contamination are clear, epidemiological studies should trump estimates of risk.  Impoverished minorities communities should be more often granted benefit of the doubt than burdened with providing proof.  In the shameful cases of communities that already bear the burden of waste and industry, America must act immediately and generously to remediate the damage and support the establishment of quality infrastructure, economy, and education.

  Reference:

  Checker, Melissa. Polluted Promises : Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town. New York, NY, USA: New York University Press, 2005. p 117.
  On A dispatch from the Congressional Black Caucus conference posted 1 year, 2 months ago 2 Responses