Growth of the Environmental Justice Movement: Organizing the Grassroots

AuthorBarry E. Hill
Pages99-156
Page 99
Chapter 2
Growth of the Environmental Justice
Movement: Organizing the Grassroots
2.1 Overview
is chapter examines the growth of t he multiracial, community-based environmental justice movement,
how it has begun to challenge the approach of mainstream environmental organizations, and how its strat-
egies and tactics are markedly dierent from the traditional environmental movement.
Instances of environmental injustice are many and varied. ey may be disputes over the siting of
pollution-generating facilities or over the methods of cleanup at contaminated sites. ey may also involve
a community’s lack of access to environmental lawyers and technical expertise, or its exclusion from the
decisionmaking processes of federal and state government regulators. ese instances may involve argu-
ments rega rding addressing single versus multiple sources of contam ination as a result of short-term or
long-term exposure. ey may be disputes over which populations a re most aected by pollution—the
resident population, for example, or seasonal agricultural workers, or transients (individuals visiting shop-
ping centers, or minority youth having to play soccer on elds at a former municipal landll that reg ula-
tors know is contaminated). ey may involve the notion of proximity, that is, t he eects of pollution on
nearby populations, or the adverse health eects on populations living downstream from industrial plants,
or populations aected by o-site operations. And they may involve allegations that government regulators
are not enforcing environmental laws, regulations, and policies equa lly.
Whatever the situation, the premise of the environmental justice movement is that minority and/or
low-income individuals, c ommunities, and populations are disproportionately exposed to environmental
harms and risks. e question, then, is: Who in the community has addressed or has attempted to address
instances of environmental injustice, and what tactics have they employed, thus far, to be successful?
2.2 The Grassroots Environmental Justice Movement
To a large extent, t he mainstrea m environmental movement has been supported primarily by middle-to-
upper cla ss whites.4 Moreover, the stas of the major national environmental organizations are dispro-
portionately white and middle class, as are their members.5 Historically, these orga nizations, such as the
Natural Resources Defense Council, the Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, and the National Wildlife
Federation, have focused on wilderness and wildlife preservation, wise resource use and management, pol-
lution abatement, and population control—not on goals of environmental justice.6 As Professor Bullard
has written: “For the most pa rt, they have failed to adequately address environmental problems that dis-
proportionately impact people of color.7 Professor David Hall of Northeastern University School of Law
has stated:
e same pas sion, leadership and insights that are needed to conquer the nagging a nd sometimes f rustrating
problems of environmental protection, are needed to overcome this society’s unfor tunate history of exclu-
4. Robert D. Bullard, Anatomy of Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement, in C E R,
supra note 1, at 15-39, 22.
5. John H. Adams, e Mainstream Environmental Movement, EPA J., Mar./Apr. 1992, at 25. For a comprehensive examination of the lack of
diversity in mainstream nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and government agencies, see the report by Dorceta E. Taylor, Ph.D,
e State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations (July 2014), available at http://diversegreen.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2014/07/
FullReport_Green2.0_FINAL.pdf.
6. Robert D. Bullard, Anatomy of Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement, in C E R,
supra note 1, at 22.
7. Id. at 30.
Page 100 Environmental Justice: Legal Theory and Practice, 3rd Edition
sion, and its present reality of passive indierenc e. If we do not take this approach then we w ill end up in the
unfortunate position of having clean air, but a violent and segregated society. We will have saved the rainforest
but lost a generation of urban youth. We will have enforced our environmental laws, but disrespecte d the very
people those laws were passed to protect .8
In sum, the traditional environmental organizations have not made a strong connection between social
justice issues a nd environmental issues. Professor Bullard has explained that “[t]he crux of t he problem is
that the mainstream environmental movement has not suciently addressed the fact that social inequality
and imbala nces of socia l power are at the heart of environmental degradation, resource depletion, pollu-
tion, and even overpopulation.”9
Critics of t he mainstream organi zations contend that despite all thei r good work, these group s are
not well su ited for t he eorts by people of color to address insta nces of environmental injustice . e
grassroots groups pursuing environmental justice have been compelled to take action independent
of the established environ mental organ ization s on env ironmental issues that are to them a mat ter
of survival. One of the foundations of the environmental justice movement is the dedicat ion of its
communit y-based activists.
A signicant goal of the environmental justice movement is the empowerment of grassroots communi-
ties and their community-based organizations. e question is: How successful, as a practica l matter, will
these minority and/or low-income grassroots community-based organizations be in changing land use pat-
terns; siting decisions; the activities of federal, state, and local environmental regulatory government agen-
cies with respect to policy, and the implementation of policy; as well as the private sector, etc., in addressing
their environmental justice concerns? e articles that follow discuss how grassroots activism has e volved
over time; the importance of religious institutions in the growth of the environmental justice movement;
and the various tactics that have been used by community-based environmental justice organizations to
have their environmental justice concerns addressed.
2.2.1 Grassroots Activism
e strug gle for environmental justice has produced many unique leaders willing to make persona l sac-
rices to organize politically against proposed or existing locally undesirable land uses. Because African
American churches have long been a foc al point of political activity in their communities, some com-
munity leaders have come out of neighborhood churches. Professor Bullard ha s said: “In many instances,
grassroots leaders emerged from groups of concerned citizens (many of them women) who [saw] t heir
families, homes and communities threatened by some type of polluting industry or governmental policy.10
Seeing such threats, many people of color began confronting corporate and governmental authorities a nd
demanding change. Minority women have been especially visible in the environmental justice movement.
Hazel Johnson of Chicago’s infamous Altgeld Gardens, for example, ha s been ghting environmental
injustice for many years.
Altgeld Ga rdens is a 10,000-person housing project on Chicago’s Southside, built direc tly on top of a
landll that began operating in the 19th century. It is alleged that for more tha n 50 years the Pullman
Palace Car Compa ny dumped hu man and industri al waste in the area. Since then, many other com-
panies, and the city of Chicago itself, have continued to locate landlls nearby, giving Altgeld Gardens
and its environs the dubious di stinction of being the location of t he country’s largest concentration of
hazardous wastes. Residents of the complex have allegedly experienced a high rate of children born
with brain tumors; a high rate of fetuses that had to be a borted because their bra ins were developing
outside their sku lls; a higher-tha n-normal rate of children and adults w ith upper respiratory problems;
and higher-tha n-normal rate s of cancer, puzzling birth defects, ast hma, ring worm, and other ailments.11
8. e Environmental Imperatives of Leadership and Diversity, Speech at the U.S. EPA Senior Executive Service Annual Conference (May 24,
2006).
9. Robert D. Bullard, Anatomy of Environmental Racism, and the Environmental Justice Movement, in C E R,
supra note 1, at 23.
10. Id. at 8.
11. Marianne Lavelle, Community Prole: Chicago, An Industrial Legacy, N’ L.J., Sept. 21, 1992, at S3.
Growth of the Environmental Justice Movement: Organizing the Grassroots Page 101
A 1984 study by Illinois ocials concluded t hat the area h ad an e xcessive rate of prost ate, bladder, a nd
lung cancer.12
EPA has described A ltgeld Gardens a s being in the middle of a “toxic donut” because it is su rrounded
by at least 12 pollution-generating facilities. e residents live in the midst of dozens of landlls, contami-
nated lagoons, steel slag beds, a huge chemical waste incinerator, buried metal drums, and piles of loose
trash.13 Metal-plating shops, paint companies, and a sewage treatment plant are also nearby.14 ere are
50 abandoned dumps of toxic factory waste in a n area of six square miles.15 One observer has written: “So
potent are the disca rded mixt ures that stunned Illinois inspectors aborted one expedition in a dumping
lagoon when their boat began to disintegrate.”16
Mrs. Johnson has been called the “grandmother of toxics resistance in America and a voice of conscience
from the grassroots.”17 Frustrated by the condition of her environment at A ltgeld Gardens and concerned
with the high rates of death by c ancer and other serious illnesses within her own fam ily and other fami-
lies in the community, in 1979 she founded People for Community Recovery (PCR), which has gained a
national reputation for its grassroots focus and approach. As a small community-based nonprot organiza-
tion, PCR has operated over the years with a permanent sta of 3 and about 50 regular volunteers, Vol-
unteers in Service to A merica (VISTA) volunteers, and a membership of nearly 1,000 residents.18 Johnson
started her quest for environmental justice by gathering information in her neighborhood, attending local
EPA meetings, knocking on doors, and educating herself and her community. It is not always an easy task
to organize residents in a community rife with crime, drugs, and unemployment. Despite these obstacles,
in 1992, President George H.W. Bush awarded PCR the President’s Environmental Conser vation Award,
12. Josh Getlin, Bucking the System, L.A. T, Feb 18, 1993, at E2.
13. Id.
14. Id.
15. Lavelle, supra note 11, at S3.
16. Id.
17. Getlin, supra note 12, at E2.
18. Debra Hale, Environmental Activist Applauded for Work, Woman Has Crusaded Against Area Pollution, S. L P-D, Dec. 14,
1992, at 4.

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