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118-399: Environmental justice health issues have been an ongoing concern for the community and waste facility. The Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility is frequently criticized for its alleged health threats by the local organization 'The Town for Clean Air and Water' ( El Pueblo para El Aire y Agua Limpio ), and by environmental groups such as Greenaction . Waste Management, Inc. counters that it

236-548: A banned pesticide. The community of Kettleman City has suspected negative health effects caused by the Waste Facility multiple times. In 2007, the surrounding community in Kettleman City voiced their concerns regarding potential health effects in response to Chemical Waste Management's application for a federal permit renewal in the same year. The permit was to allow the facility to continue storing and disposing PCB waste at

354-401: A big impact on our business here, and it has had an impact in the economy in this county." In 2012, it was reported that the company paid approximately $ 312,000 in fines as a result of not reporting waste spills that had occurred. Aside from the company, the county also stands to gain $ 1.5 million in fees from the truckloads of waste deposited annually, as well as $ 17.5 million to the economy of

472-598: A comprehensive global movement, introducing numerous concepts to political ecology, including ecological debt, environmental racism, climate justice, food sovereignty, corporate accountability, ecocide, sacrifice zones, and environmentalism of the poor. It aims to augment human rights law, which traditionally overlooked the relationship between the environment and human rights. Despite attempts to integrate environmental protection into human rights law, challenges persist, particularly concerning climate justice. Scholars such as Kyle Powys Whyte and Dina Gilio-Whitaker have extended

590-425: A concept David Pellow calls “Indispensability”. Joen Márquez introduces the concept of “racial expendability” in his book Black and Brown Solidarity , in which he argues that “black and brown bodies are, in the eyes of the state and its constituent legal system, generally viewed as criminal, deficient, threatening, and deserving of violent discipline and even obliteration.” Critical EJ builds on this work by countering

708-530: A conversation of equity. Bullard writes that equity is distilled into three board categories: procedural, geographic, and social. From his publication “Confronting Environmental Racism in the Twenty-First Century,” he draws our the difference between the three within the context of environmental injustices: Procedural equity refers to the “fairness” question: the extent that rules, regulations, evaluation criteria and enforcement are applied uniformly across

826-474: A crossroads of all their identities, with privilege and marginalization in the intersection between their class, race, gender, sexuality, queerness, cis- or transness, ethnicity, ability, and other facts of identity. As David Nibert and Michael Fox put it in the context of injustice, “The oppression of various devalued groups in human societies is not independent and unrelated; rather, the arrangements that lead to various forms of oppression are integrated in such

944-461: A flourishing community is a further criteria for a just society. However, initiatives have been taken to expand the notion of environmental justice beyond the three pillars of distribution, participation, and recognition to also include the dimensions of self-governing authority, relational ontologies, and epistemic justice. Robert D. Bullard writes that environmental justice, as a social movement and ideological stewardship, may instead be seen as

1062-554: A formal public hearing. In February 1994, Executive Order 12898 was implemented which addressed issues of minority and low-income groups bearing the burden of disproportionate negative environmental and health effects. It states that “each Federal Agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low income populations.” It also set forth

1180-541: A genocidal kind before federal recognition. Origins of the environmental justice movement can be traced to the Indigenous Environmental Movement, which has involved Indigenous populations fighting against displacement and assimilation for sovereignty and land rights for hundreds of years. The terms 'environmental justice’ and ‘ environmental’ racism ’ did not enter the common vernacular until residents of Warren County, North Carolina protested against

1298-406: A landfill designed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls in the 1982 PCB protests . Thirty-thousand gallons of PCB fluid lined 270 miles of roadway in fourteen North Carolina Counties, and the state announced that a landfill would be built rather than undergoing permanent detoxification. Warren County was chosen, the poorest county in the state with a per capita income of around $ 5,000 in 1980 , and

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1416-406: A large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology , environmental law , and theories on justice and sustainability . The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to

1534-458: A lesser degree, lower income levels were significantly more likely to live within a mile of a polluting facility. Greenaction , a San Francisco-based environmental justice organization, has been working with the local community to document the cases of infant deaths and believes there are issues of environmental injustice due to the city's demographics. Within Kettleman City 's population that

1652-628: A long and troubling history, with many examples dating back to the early 20th century. For instance, the practice of "redlining" in the US, which involved denying loans and insurance to communities of colour, often led to these communities being located in areas with high levels of pollution and environmental hazards. Today, environmental racism continues to be a significant environmental justice issue, with many low-income communities and communities of colour facing disproportionate exposure to pollution and other environmental risks. This can have serious consequences for

1770-463: A modification of their current permit by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control in order to expand the facility by the requested 14 acres to make room for the disposal of more waste. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), passed in 1976 worked to regulate the sale and use of chemicals in the U.S, but its primary focus was on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Its effects on

1888-458: A permit modification that would allow Waste Management, Inc. to increase the capacity of the hazardous waste landfill. This modification would add about 14 landfill acres and increases the capacity by 50 percent, or approximately 5 million cubic yards. The effect of this expansion would add an estimated 4.6 billion pounds of toxic waste to the site. On May 21, 2014, the DTSC issued a final permit approving

2006-500: A permit to McKay Trucking for the disposal of oil field wastes in the Kettleman Hills area. Subsequently, in 1979, the land was bought by Chemical Waste Management, Inc., a subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc . In 1982, Chemical Waste Management, Inc. received a permit for the processing of PCBs (known carcinogens), and soon after a Class I waste disposal permit that allowed for the processing of nearly any type of hazardous waste. At

2124-439: A preliminary hearing on the incinerator and were concerned that a potential health risk would be placed so close to their town. This trial marked the beginning of a community-led grassroots environmental justice movement in Kettleman City, as well as the beginning of the ongoing conflict between the people of Kettleman City and Chemical Waste Management, Inc. In 1989, more than 200 residents from Kettleman City showed up to testify at

2242-435: A rational desire to place new facilities in areas that have been zoned industrial, these wind up disproportionately in communities composed primarily of people of color because of past discriminatory decisions about where to line industrial zones. Current decisions that may seem facially neutral may have discriminatory outcomes because of past discriminatory actions In 2008 Waste Management applied to expand their landfill for

2360-566: A result; when sea life suffers from exposure to toxins such as mercury, we find that human beings also endure the effects of mercury when they consume those animals; and the intersecting character of multiple forms of inequality is revealed when nuclear radiation or climate change affects all species and humans across all social class levels, racial/ethnic groups, genders, abilities, and ages. David Pellow applies his concept of Critical EJ towards modern-day movements in his publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies , in which he applied

2478-404: A safer source of drinking water for Kettleman City, as well as to continue investigation into the effects of the trace presence of contaminants. A further update was released in 2011 stating that the level of birth defects in Kettleman City had dropped below their 2008 levels. During the birth defects controversy, Chemical Waste Management, Inc. was fined $ 402,000 on November 29, 2011 for violating

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2596-603: A series of steps for assisting and aiding federal organizations in addressing environmental injustice. Requirements of the executive order, such as translating documents into the native language of a community have been key issues for groups such as Greenaction in the dispute with the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility. Issues of environmental justice are pertinent to the largely minority population Kettleman City community as studies show that blacks and respondents at lower educational levels, and to

2714-640: A series of “genuine solutions” that echoed the Bali Principles. Initially, the environmental justice movement focused on addressing toxic hazards and injustices faced by marginalized racial groups within affluent nations. However, during the 1991 Leadership Summit, its scope broadened to encompass public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, and other issues. Over time, the movement expanded further to include considerations of gender, international injustices, and intra-group disparities among disadvantaged populations. Environmental justice has evolved into

2832-626: A significant contribution from movements in the United States, and recognized that economic inequality, ethnicity, and geography played roles in determining who bore the brunt of environmental pollution”. At the 2007 United Nations Climate Conference , or COP13, in Bali, representatives from the Global South and low-income communities from the North created a coalition titled “ Climate Justice Now! ”. CJN! Issued

2950-465: A small sample size and no significant sources of environmental exposure were found in the city. However, the pesticides found in homes warranted further investigation. On January 20, soon after the initial findings had been released, Greenaction filed a lawsuit against the Kings County Board of Supervisors. Greenaction alleged that in light of the inconclusive and possibly flawed birth defect report,

3068-479: A social movement addresses environmental issues that may be defined as slow violence and otherwise may not be addressed by legislative bodies. Slow violence exacerbates the vulnerability of ecosystems and of people who are poor, disempowered, and often involuntarily displaced, while fueling social conflicts that arise from desperation. Drawing on concepts of anarchism , posthumanism , critical theory , and intersectional feminism , author David Naguib Pellow created

3186-439: A statement alleging a possible correlation between the recent high number of birth defects in the region, with 14 cases in 2007-2008, five of which were cleft lip and/or palate , and the presence of the waste disposal facility. The residents of Kettleman City voiced opposition to Chemical Waste Management, Inc.'s facility with a community-led movement. The Kings County's Public Health Officer was skeptical, stating that he understood

3304-447: A total of 11 eligible children born with major, structural birth defects between 2007 and March 31, 2010 to mothers who had lived in the Kettleman City area during their pregnancies. Through a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews and supplementary medical history reports the CDPH did not find a specific cause or environmental exposure among the mother that would explain the increase in

3422-612: A way that the exploitation of one group frequently augments and compounds the mistreatment of others.” Thus, Critical EJ views racism, heteropatriarchy, classism ,nativism, ableism, ageism, speciesism (the belief that one species is superior to another), and other forms of inequality as intersecting axes of domination and control. The organization Intersectional Environmentalism, founded by Leah Thomas in 2020, builds from this theory to argue that intersectional environmentalism means that “social [and] environmental justice are intertwined and environmental advocacy that disregards this connection

3540-469: Is 25 years or older, only 30% have completed high school or its equivalent, and 56.4% have less than a 9th grade education. The majority of residents are from Mexico and are Spanish-speaking. In the 2000 Census , the median household income was $ 22,409 and 43.7% of the population was living below the poverty level. Compared to the US population, Kettleman City residents are younger, and are more likely to rent rather than own their homes. Environmental justice

3658-449: Is Critical Environmental Justice that while “a molecule of carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide can occur in an instant, … it remains in the atmosphere for more than a century, so the decisions we make at one point in time can have dramatic ramifications for generations to come”. Pollution does not stay where it starts, and so consideration must be taken as to the scale of an issue rather than solely its effects. The third pillar of Critical EJ

Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility - Misplaced Pages Continue

3776-521: Is a significant local employer, and donates funds to the local community, including Kettleman City Elementary School. The facility manager, Bob Henry, pointed out in a 2007 newspaper interview that it is periodically inspected by as many as nine federal, state, and local agencies. In 2007, Maricela Mares-Alatorre, a leader of 'People for Clean Air and Water,' was quoted as saying: "Are we supposed to be happy that they're getting more trash? Donations don't buy you health." In June 1975 Kings County, CA issued

3894-532: Is also discussed as environmental racism or environmental inequality . Environmental justice is typically defined as distributive justice , which is the equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits . Some definitions address procedural justice , which is the fair and meaningful participation in decision-making . Other scholars emphasise recognition justice , which is the recognition of oppression and difference in environmental justice communities . People's capacity to convert social goods into

4012-474: Is also happening unevenly, with people of color, the poor, indigenous peoples, peoples of the global South, and women suffering the most.”   Pellow further contextualizes scale through temporal dimensions. For instance, how does the emergence and use of coal-fired power plants and petroleum-based economics develop and change over historical periods, and in turn unveiling the social causes of our ecological crises. Pellow observes in his 2017 publication What

4130-473: Is harmful and incomplete.” The second pillar of Critical EJ is a focus on the role of scale in the production and possible resolution of environmental injustices. Critical EJ embraces multi-scalar methodological and theoretical approaches order to better comprehend the complex spatial and temporal causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles. Julie Sze writes, “thinking globally and acting locally also demands that people more fully comprehend

4248-495: Is inequitably distributed. The movement began in the United States in the 1980s. It was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries. The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginalized groups. As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to

4366-453: Is no evidence that PCB congeners would migrate off-site at concentrations that would adversely affect the neighboring environment and communities. In 2009, the community suspected birth defects caused by the waste facility. However, CDPH has not determined Kettleman Waste Facility to be the cause of health effects. The Kings County Department of Public Health stated that it would continue its investigation but that their preliminary determination

4484-442: Is principally concerned with people's and communities’ entitlement to equal protection of environmental and public health laws and regulations. There are three separate perspectives on why environmental injustices exist: economic, sociopolitical, and racial. However, the three categories are not mutually exclusive, considering that, for example, economic motives may coincide with sociopolitical factors. Economic explanations argue that

4602-597: Is the view that social inequalities - from racism to speciesism - are deeply embedded in society and reinforced by state power, and therefore the current social order stands as a fundamental obstacle to social and environmental justice. Pellow argues in his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice that social change movements may be better off thinking and acting beyond the state and capital as targets of reform and/or as reliable partners. Furthermore, that scholars and activists are not asking how they might build environmentally resilient communities that exist beyond

4720-627: The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil. The 17 Principles have a likeness in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. In the summer of 2002, a coalition of non-governmental organizations met in Bali to prepare final negotiations for the 2002 Earth Summit . Organizations included CorpWatch, World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth International, the Third World Network, and

4838-893: The EPA and the TSCA enforcement committee. The EPA reports that the facility committed environmental violations every year between 1990 and 1995, as well as in 1998. In 2004, a TSCA compliance inspection of the Kettleman Hills Facility reached the conclusion that there had been no monitoring of certain PCBs since 1995, and that the failure to dispose of PCBs within the legal time limit had gone unreported on two occasions. That same report concluded that from 2002-2003 there were 16 spills of hazardous waste, and six instances of waste being stored in unsealed containers. The facility also underwent numerous permit expansions under Class I and Class III waste disposal during

Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility - Misplaced Pages Continue

4956-987: The Global South (as for example through extractivism or the global waste trade ). The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by the United Nations . The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment . The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. Environmental justice scholars have produced

5074-464: The Cal EPA and the CDPH to launch a full investigation into the correlation between the disposal facility and the health issues experienced by the residents of Kettleman City. The full 160-page report was released on November 22, 2010, and found that none of the possible exposures to hazardous materials could be correlated to an increase in birth defects. The report's recommendations were to continue to pursue

5192-527: The California Waste Management Board that suggested placing waste disposal sites and incinerators primarily in the communities that would be least able to resist. In 1988, a phone call from Greenpeace organizer Bradley Angel revealed to the Kettleman community that Chemical Waste Management, Inc. was planning to add a toxic waste incinerator to the disposal facility. Several residents attended

5310-459: The EPA. They rely on distributive justice , centered around the nature of private property. Native Americans do not fall under the same statutory frameworks as they are citizens of Indigenous nations, not ethnic minorities. As individuals, they are subject to American laws. As nations, they are subject to a separate legal regime, constructed on the basis of pre-existing sovereignty acknowledged by treaty and

5428-481: The Environmental Equity Work Group (EEWG) in 1990 in response to additional findings by social scientists that “racial minority and low-income populations bear a higher environmental risk burden than the general population’ and that the EPA's inspections failed to adequately protect low-income communities of color”. In 1992, the EPA published Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities -

5546-922: The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, held in Washington, DC. The four-day summit was sponsored by the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice. With around 1,100 persons in attendance, representation included all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Marshall Islands. The summit broadened the environmental justice movement beyond its anti-toxins focus to include issues of public health, worker safety, land use, transportation, housing, resource allocation, and community empowerment. The summit adopted 17 Principles of Environmental Justice , which were later disseminated at

5664-557: The Indigenous Environmental Network. They sought to articulate the concept of climate justice. During their time together, the organizations codified the Bali Principles of Climate Justice , a 27-point program identifying and organizing the climate justice movement. Meena Raman, Head of Programs at the Third World Network, explained that in their writing they “drew heavily on the concept of environmental justice, with

5782-520: The Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. The working group sought to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations. David Pellow writes that the executive order “remains the cornerstone of environmental justice regulation in the US, with the EPA as its ventral arbiter”. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, grassroots movements and environmental organizations advocated for regulations that increased

5900-401: The Kettleman City community during the 60-day comment period. The Cal EPA granted them the permit to expand, pending the findings of the birth defects investigation, on December 21, 2009. The initial findings of the Cal EPA and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) were released in community meetings in early 2010. The report found that the birth defect rate was inconclusive due to

6018-449: The Kettleman Hills Facility. On January 29, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the Cal/EPA and California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to assess the potential for a relationship between environmental contaminants and health defects. This was spurred by community concerns regarding a recent outbreak of birth defects . The Chemical Waste Management Kettleman Hills facility

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6136-513: The Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility is similar to the RCRA by requiring permitting by the EPA in order to make the requested 14 acre expansion into a site which allows for the dumping of PCBs. During this permitting process, the TSCA PCB permit application requires the EPA to issue a public notice once a decision has been reached, as well as hold a 60-day formal comment period for the public, as well as

6254-556: The Kings County Planning Commission hearing on the incinerator project. When the incinerator project was approved, the residents of Kettleman City filed a lawsuit against Chemical Waste Management, Inc., alleging that their environmental impact report did not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act . A trial court ruled that Chemical Waste Management, Inc. had not sufficiently analyzed

6372-555: The PCB dumping after reading newspapers meant for their garden mulch, and days later he and Rev. Leon White led a “humane blockade” to prevent trucks from arriving at the landfill. After being arrested for the demonstration, Furriccio continued his defiance against the county by refusing to post bail and going on a nineteen-day hunger strike. Rev. Benjamin Chavis was serving for the United Church of Christ (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice when he

6490-463: The TSCA. The investigation concluded that they had been using improper disposal techniques for carcinogenic PCBs and other hazardous material wastes without treatment. Waste Management, Inc. was further ordered to set aside $ 600,000 for the purpose of physical and operational improvements to the facility. On July 2, 2013, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control—DTSC released a draft decision on

6608-681: The U.S. Constitution. Environmental justice to Indigenous persons is not understood by legal entities but rather their distinct cultural and religious doctrines. Environmental Justice for Indigenous peoples follows a model that frames issues in terms of their colonial condition and can affirm decolonization as a potential framework within environmental justice. While Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences vary from place to place, David Pellow writes that there are “common realities they all share in their experience of colonization that make it possible to generalize an Indigenous methodology while recognizing specific, localized conditions”. Even abstract ideas like

6726-522: The US escalated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Many impacted countries do not have adequate disposal systems for this waste, and impacted communities are not informed about the hazards they are being exposed to. The Khian Sea waste disposal incident was a notable example of environmental justice issues arising from international movement of toxic waste. Contractors disposing of ash from waste incinerators in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania illegally dumped

6844-403: The US, race is the most important determinant of environmental injustice. In other countries, poverty or caste (India) are important indicators. Tribal affiliation is also important in some countries. Environmental justice scholars Laura Pulido and David Pellow argue that recognizing environmental racism, as an element stemming from the entrenched legacies of racial capitalism , is crucial to

6962-401: The addition of a waste facility. The ensuing negative health and environmental impacts result in a flight of affluent residents to more desirable neighborhoods, subsequently driving land values even lower. Thus, the depression of property values results in an influx of poor and people of color as housing becomes more affordable. Sociopolitical explanations argue that industry and government seek

7080-572: The aforementioned pillars towards the Black Lives Matter movement and the problem of state violence. Pellow argues that within conventional studies, “the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle against environmental racism … is a connection that many scholars might not make at first glance because police brutality and environmental politics would appear to be only tangentially related.” Following his four pillars of Critical EJ, his ties

7198-472: The anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective , which was co-created by Scott Crow to provide services for survivors of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in 2005. Crow gave insight as to what change outside of state power looks like, telling Pellow: We did service work, but it was a revolutionary analysis and practice. We created a horizontal organization that defied the state and did our work in spite of

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7316-472: The approval of Chemical Waste Management, Inc.'s expansion permit violated the CEQA and state civil rights laws. That same week, California Senator Barbara Boxer issued a statement saying that "the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility should not be expanded until there is more conclusive results on the potential health impacts on the local community." Within a week of the lawsuit, Governor Schwarzenegger ordered

7434-475: The birth defects. The issue in Kettleman City has resulted in much discussion over the financial implications for the county, city, and company. The Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility initially requested the expansion due to the near filling of their 10.7 million-cubic-yard site. Lily Quiroa, a spokeswoman for Waste Management, Inc. has stated that as a result of the denial of expansion, “we have laid off more than two-thirds of our employees. There has been

7552-728: The board and in a non-discriminatory way. Unequal protection might result from nonscientific and undemocratic decisions, exclusionary practices, public hearings held in remote locations and at inconvenient times, and use of English-only material as the language in which to communicate and conduct hearings for non-English-speaking publics. Geographic equity refers to the location and spatial configuration of communities and their proximity to environmental hazards, noxious facilities and locally unwanted land uses (Lulus) such as landfills, incinerators, sewage treatment plants, lead smelters, refineries and other noxious facilities. For example, unequal protection may result from land-use decisions that determine

7670-431: The community's concern, but believed the birth defects were a "statistical anomaly". However, the state promised to conduct a wide range investigation into the high number of birth defects as well as into the water quality and the frequency of asthma and cancer. Not long after the birth defects controversy began, Chemical Waste Management, Inc. applied for a permit to expand the facility, and was met with heavy resistance from

7788-448: The community, the health of my family, I’m going to choose the health of my family.” Environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste , resource extraction , and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm

7906-603: The company's planned expansion to allow an additional 5.2 million metric tons of capacity. Appeals of the permit issuance were filed by Greenaction together with People for Clean Air and Water of Kettleman City and by the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment. On October 14, 2014, the Department of Toxic Substances Control denied both appeals. Bradley Angel of Greenaction was quoted as saying that his group would continue to challenge

8024-531: The concept of Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ) in his work What is Critical Environmental Justice . Critical EJ is a perspective intended to address a number of limitations and tensions within EJ Studies. Critical EJ calls for scholarship that builds on research in environmental justice studies by questioning assumptions and gaps in earlier work in the field, embracing greater interdisciplinary, and moving towards methodologies and epistemologies including and beyond

8142-514: The concept to the Black Lives Matter movement and associated movements, demonstrating: (1) how attention to multiple categories of difference and inequality (including more-than-human species and the built environment); (2) an emphasis on the role of scale as a way of understanding the violence of racism and the promise of resistance movements; (3) a focus on linking the entrenched character of social inequalities with transformative, anti-authoritarian and anarchist perspectives; (4) and an application of

8260-506: The concepts of racial and socioecological indispensability can produce an enriched account of that movement's core concerns, its limitations, and its possibilities. The first pillar of Critical EJ Studies involves the recognition that social inequality and oppression in all forms intersect, and that actors in the more-than-human world are subjects of oppression and frequently agents of social change. Developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality theory states that individuals exist in

8378-442: The costs of hazardous waste disposal in the US and other industrialized nations. However, this led to a surge in exports of hazardous waste to the Global South during the 1980s and 1990s. This global environmental injustice, including the disposal of toxic waste, land appropriation, and resource extraction, sparked the formation of the global environmental justice movement. Environmental justice as an international subject commenced at

8496-498: The county from the facility's operation. The residents of Kettleman City have been promised financial benefits as well if the expansion is passed. Chemical Waste Inc. has offered to provide numerous donations as well as payoff the remaining debt that the Kettleman City Community Services District owes on its water system, an estimated $ 552,000, which would allow for the community to receive grant money from

8614-437: The creation and disposal of hazardous waste. Under this program, treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDFs) must meet specific criteria in order to be permitted or be allowed interim status to continue operating while un-permitted. The Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility is governed under the RCRA and thus is subject to these permitting requirements. As a result, the Kettleman Hills Facility has been required to request

8732-529: The degree to which scholars should place emphasis on one or more social categories of difference (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, species, etc.) versus a focus on multiple forms of inequality; (2) the extent to which scholars studying EJ issues should focus on single-scale versus multi-scalar analyses of the causes, consequences, and possible resolutions of EJ struggles; (3) the degree to which various forms of social inequality and power—including state power—are viewed as entrenched and embedded in society; and (4)

8850-440: The development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socio-economic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies Environmental justice

8968-666: The discourse on environmental justice concerning Indigenous peoples and settler-colonialism. Gilio-Whitaker critiques distributive justice, which assumes a capitalistic commodification of land inconsistent with Indigenous worldviews. Whyte explores environmental justice within the context of colonialism's catastrophic environmental impacts on Indigenous peoples' traditional livelihoods and identities. The environmental justice movement seeks to address environmental discrimination and environmental racism associated with hazardous waste disposal, resource extraction, land appropriation, and other activities. This environmental discrimination results in

9086-401: The early 1990s. Although the people of Kettleman City continued to protest against Chemical Waste Management, there were no major environmental justice battles in Kettleman City during these years, apart from the continued criticism of activists that the location of hazardous waste exhibited structural racism . The 1990s also saw the Kettleman Hills facility facing regular scrutiny and fines from

9204-545: The eighties you couldn't just say there was discrimination. You had to prove it.” Fighting for change, not recognition, is an additional factor of environmental justice as a social movement.   In response to the Warren County Protests, two cross-sectional studies were conducted to determine the demographics of those exposed to uncontrolled toxic waste sites and commercial hazardous waste facilities. The United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice studied

9322-562: The environmental aftermath of war can be characterized as slow violence . The term “slow violence” was coined by author Rob Nixon in his 2011 book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor . Slow violence is defined as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all”. Environmental justice as

9440-460: The environmental and health impacts of the incinerator, and had failed to provide a full Spanish version of their impacts report, preventing participation from Kettleman City residents. The company appealed the court's decision, but dropped the plans for the incinerator before an appeal decision had been reached. Following the controversy over the incinerator, the waste disposal site continued to operate and reached its economic peak of operation during

9558-720: The facility. The EPA responded by ordering the facility to conduct a PCB Congener study. The facility collected soil, vegetation, and air samples at the perimeter of the CWM Facility to be tested in a State-certified laboratory. The findings concluded that concentrations of PCB congeners measured in soil samples are 2,000 times below the EPA's risk-based levels residential clean-up levels. The risk of health impacts from soil, vegetation, and air were within an acceptable range as with other rural areas without any known PCB activity. Concentrations of PCB congeners measured in soils, vegetation and air do not adversely affect ecological species, and there

9676-647: The first time the agency embarked on a systematic examination of environmental risks to communities of color. This acted as their direction of addressing environmental justice. In 1993 the EPA founded the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). In 1994 the office's name was changed to the Office of Environmental Justice as a result of public criticism on the difference between equity and justice. That same year, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 , which created

9794-456: The health and well-being of these communities, leading to higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other illnesses. Addressing environmental racism requires a multifaceted approach that tackles the underlying social, economic, and political factors that contribute to its persistence. More particularly, environmental justice scholars from Latin America and elsewhere advocate to understand this issue through

9912-705: The human/nonhuman divide and their relationships to one another. Pellow expands writing in Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “racial indispensability is intended to challenge the logic of racial expendability and is the idea that institutions, policies, and practices that support and perpetrate anti-Black racism suffer from the flawed assumption that the future of African Americans  is  somehow  de-linked  from  the  future  of  White  communities.” Traces of environmental injustices span millennia of unrecorded history. Indigenous peoples experienced environmental devastation of

10030-438: The ideology of white supremacy and human dominionism, and articulating the perspective that excluded, marginalized, and other populations, beings, and things - both human and nonhuman - must be viewed not as expensable but rather an indispensable to our collective futures. Pellow uses racial indispensability when referring to people of color and socioecological indispensability when referring to broader communities within and across

10148-457: The importance of including their perspectives and needs in environmental decision-making. Martinez-Alier's work also introduces the concept of "ecological distribution conflicts," which are conflicts over access to and control of natural resources and the environmental impacts that result from their use, and which are often rooted in social and economic inequalities. The violence wrought by climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and

10266-411: The industry is not intentionally discriminating against racial, ethnic, or poor minority groups. The industry is only trying to maximize profits and siting a new facility in areas where the land is cheap serves to maximize profits. Industrial labor pools and manufacturing materials tend to be cheaper in this aspect as well. The racial and socioeconomic composition of a community may subsequently change with

10384-537: The investigation have been contended by Greenaction and the local community group "El Pueblo para El Aire y Agua Limpoio" ("People for Clean Air and water"). Bradley Angel of Greenaction in Kettleman City argues that the investigation was not thorough enough, neglecting to test blood and tissue samples of those affected. He also notes that the investigation did not adequately test for pesticides inside homes. The reported defects were also evident in areas around California and elsewhere. The findings concluded that, coupled with

10502-480: The lack of any shared unusual exposures, the birth defects were not caused by a common factor. A California Department of Public Health (CDPH) update for 2009-2011 concluded that the rates of birth defects in Kettleman City in 2010 and 2011 appear to be returning to the lower rates seen prior to 2008. CDPH reviewed the Birth Defects Registry data from Kettleman City and still did not find a common cause for

10620-507: The largely unexamined question of the expendability of human and non-human populations facing socioecological threats from states, industries, and other political economic forces. In his 2017 publication What is Critical Environmental Justice , David Pellow writes as an example of the four pillars working in-tandem: Where we find rivers dammed for hydropower plants we also tend to find indigenous peoples and fisherfolk, as well as other working people, whose livelihoods and health are harmed as

10738-499: The lens of decolonisation. The latter underlies the fact that environmental racism emanates from the colonial projects of the West and its current reproduction of colonial dynamics. As environmental justice groups have grown more successful in developed countries such as the United States, the burdens of global production have been shifted to the Global South where less-strict regulations make waste disposal cheaper. Export of toxic waste from

10856-420: The location of residential amenities and disamenities. The poor and communities of colour often suffer a “triple” vulnerability of noxious facility siting, as do the unincorporated—sparsely populated communities that are not legally chartered as cities or municipalities and are therefore usually governed by distant county governments rather than having their own locally elected officials. Social equity assesses

10974-570: The loss of land-based traditions and economies, armed violence (especially against women and indigenous people) environmental degradation , and environmental conflict . The global environmental justice movement arises from these local place-based conflicts in which local environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. There are many divisions along which an unjust distribution of environmental burdens may fall. Within

11092-407: The mid to late 2000s, many of which were accompanied by public hearings that were well represented by Kettleman City community leaders. The year 2009 marked the resurgence of the environmental justice movement in Kettleman City, as well as the renewal of the conflict between the people of Kettleman City and Chemical Waste Management, Inc. The environmental justice advocacy group Greenaction released

11210-717: The movement, with white supremacy continuing to shape human relationships with nature and labor. Environmental racism is a pervasive and complex issue that affects communities all over the world. It is a form of systemic discrimination that is grounded in the intersection of race, class, and environmental factors. At its core, environmental racism refers to the disproportionate exposure of certain communities, mostly those that are marginalised, to environmental hazards such as pollution, toxic waste, and other environmental risks. These communities are often located near industrial sites, waste facilities, and other sources of pollution that can have serious health impacts. Environmental racism has

11328-471: The nearby waste disposal site attracted the attention of the environmental justice movement . Advocates argued that Chemical Waste Management, Inc. and the local government were practicing environmental racism , pointing out that the nearest communities to all three major waste disposal sites in California were poor and almost entirely non-white. Environmental Justice groups also cited the 1984 Cerrell Report by

11446-488: The number of children born with birth defects. It was found that some children had multiple abnormalities, while others had single defects. All the birth defects represented different underlying conditions, but a few shared some features. None of the mothers interviewed during the investigation used tobacco , alcohol , or other drugs that could cause the birth defects. Furthermore, the mothers were all in good health and did not have suspect medical histories. The conclusions of

11564-679: The path of least resistance when siting new hazardous waste facilities. In an effort to avoid controversy, sites are located in areas where communities are least capable of mounting an opposition. More plainly, facilities are located in areas where communities are not capable to politicize and oppose the new factory. Further, communities without a high degree of pre-existing social capital as well as low levels of voting behavior, home ownership, wealth, and disposable income are more vulnerable to high concentrations of polluting facilities than other communities. Racial discrimination explanations illustrate that although present-day siting decisions may be based on

11682-479: The permit with a lawsuit and by filing administrative civil rights complaints in both state and federal courts. Waste Management, Inc. was fined in March 2013 for failing to report more than 70 toxic waste spills at the Kettleman Hills facility to the DTSC, which the company claimed was irrelevant to its prospect for expansion. It was later extended to October 11, 2013. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

11800-495: The placement of hazardous waste facilities in the US and found that race was the most important factor predicting placement of these facilities. These studies were followed by widespread objections and lawsuits against hazardous waste disposal in poor, generally Black, communities. The mainstream environmental movement began to be criticized for its predominately white affluent leadership, emphasis on conservation, and failure to address social equity concerns. The EPA established

11918-601: The purpose of storing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an investigation of a variety of invertebrates, fish, reptiles, mammals, and plants were in order to determine an environmental impact, if any. The EPA's July 2009 report followed that two species may be affected by the expansion: the San Joaquin kit fox and the blunt-nosed leopard lizard . Furthermore, in 1984, Waste Management discovered groundwater contamination underneath two formerly unlined ponds. Pond P-09

12036-408: The relationship between the local and the global or, in other words, to consider scale”. Scale is deeply racialized, gendered, and classed. While the conclusions of climate scientists are remarkably clear that anthropogenic climate change is occurring at a dramatic pace and with increasing intensity. David Pellow writes in his 2016 publication Toward A Critical Environmental Justice Studies that “this

12154-535: The right to a clean environment, a human right according to the United Nations, contradicts Indigenous peoples understanding of environmental justice as it reflects the commodification of land when seen in light of property values. Joan Martinez-Alier 's influential concept of the environmentalism of the poor highlights the ways in which marginalized communities, particularly those in the Global South, are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and

12272-533: The role of sociological factors (race, ethnicity, class, culture, life styles, political power, etc.) on environmental decision making. Poor people and people of colour often work in the most dangerous jobs and live in the most polluted neighbourhoods, their children exposed to all kinds of environmental toxins in the playgrounds and in their homes. In non-Native communities, where toxic industries and other discriminatory practices are disproportionately occurring, residents rely on laws and statutory frameworks outlined by

12390-547: The site was set for the predominantly Black community of Afton. Its residents protested for six-weeks, leading to over 500 arrests. That the protests in Warren County were led by civilians led to the basis of future and modern-day environmental, grassroots organizations fighting for environmental justice. Deborah Ferruccio, a contributor to the protest, explained in an interview with The Warren Record that those present were ordinary people. Her husband Ken Ferruccio learned of

12508-514: The social sciences. Critical EJ scholars believe that since multiple forms of inequality drive and characterize the experience of environmental injustice, the EJ field would benefit from expanding in that direction. Differentiation between conventional environmental studies and Critical EJ studies is done through four distinctive "pillars". These include, in David Pellow's writing: (1) questions concerning

12626-485: The soil cleanup and removal was the final step in protecting human health and the environment as there was no longer a threat. Under the direction of the Kings County Planning Agency, in March 2008 CH2M Hill , an independent engineering and consulting firm, prepared an impact report aimed to identify and evaluate potentially significant adverse environmental impacts associated with the proposed expansion of

12744-510: The state … not only did we feed people and give them aid and hygiene kits and things like that, but we also stopped housing from being bulldozed, we cut the locks on schools when they said schools couldn't be opened, and we cleaned the schools out because the students and the teachers wanted that to happen. And we didn't do a one size fits all like the Red Cross would do – we asked the communities, every community we went into, we asked multiple people,

12862-411: The state, but rather how they might do so with a different model of state intervention. Pellow believes that by building and supporting strongly democratic practices, relationships, and institutions, movements for social change will become less dependent upon the state, while any elements of the state they do work through may become more robustly democratic. He contextualizes this pillar with activist

12980-400: The state. Other such examples of donations include $ 150,000 to create safe pedestrian crossing spaces for residents to use on Highway 41 . Maricela Mares-Alatorre is in opposition to such funding however, stating that “I know Chem Waste likes to frame it as they’re being good neighbors, but the truth is that they’re buying good will. If you give me a choice between my good will and the health of

13098-424: The street sex workers, the gangsters, the church leaders, everybody, we talked to them: what can we do to help your neighborhood, to help your community, to help you? And that made us different because for me, it's the overlay of anarchism. Instead of having one franchise thing, you just have concepts, and you just pick the components that match the needs of the people there. The fourth pillar of Critical EJ centers on

13216-551: The time, the establishment of this facility and its repurposing to a full Class I hazardous waste disposal site went unnoticed by the residents of Kettleman City within 4 miles away from the facility. Community opposition and awareness of the facility emerged in the early 1980s; motivated in part by articles published in local newspapers about multimillion-dollar fines levied against Chemical Waste Management, Inc. for violating environmental laws. Because of its low average socioeconomic standing and 95% Latino population, Kettleman City and

13334-603: The waste on a beach in Haiti after several other countries refused to accept it. After more than ten years of debate, the waste was eventually returned to Pennsylvania. The incident contributed to the creation of the Basel Convention that regulates international movement of toxic waste. Cleft lip and palate Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

13452-475: Was "that to the extent that a cluster may exist, it is most likely a random event unrelated to any environmental exposure unique to Kettleman City." Even though “scientifically rigorous studies of causes of human birth defects generally require evaluation of hundreds of birth defects or more", the CDPH's objectives were limited and largely focused on evaluating risk factors because of the fewer than dozen cases of birth defects in Kettleman City. The CDPH investigated

13570-508: Was enacted in 1976 to govern the disposal of solid and hazardous waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency , the goals of the RCRA are to focus on protecting human health and the environment from waste disposal as well as conserving natural resources and reducing waste generation. The “cradle to grave” provision of Subtitle C established a management program which required a strict permitting and control process for

13688-672: Was found to not be the single direct causal factor in the recent birth defects.The Cal/EPA tested the air, soil, and water at agricultural operations, the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility, the Kettleman City Elementary School, and possible illegal dump sites for 27 pesticides , air pollutants , arsenic , lead , soil and soil gas contaminants . The Cal/EPA found higher than normal levels of arsenic in tap and well water, low levels of lead in town and school wells, benzene in air near treatment unit that removes chemical from well water, one home yard that had high levels of

13806-429: Was lined in 1985 and cleanup began in 1988. Pond P-12 stopped receiving waste in 1985 and was closed in 1997. Groundwater cleanup began in 1985. Waste Management has 48 monitoring wells in the surrounding and impacted areas as of December 2012. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) ordered the facility to clean up spills of PCBs around the storage building, and as of February 2012, DTSC reported that

13924-628: Was sent to Warren County for the protests. Chavis was among the 500 arrested for taking part in the nonviolent protests and is credited with having coined the term “environmental racism” while in the Warren County jail. His involvement, alongside Rev. Leon White, who also served for the UCC, laid the foundation for more activism and consciousness-raising. Chavis would later recall in a New Yorker's article titled “Fighting Environmental Racism in North Carolina” that while “Warren County made headlines … [he] knew in

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