TELL U.S. OFFICIALS TO ACT SWIFTLY TO END TOXIC RACISM
Sign on to the Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty Report

 

ATLANTA, GA, June 7, 2007 -- Environmental injustice in people of color communities is as much or more prevalent today than twenty years ago as documented in the United Church of Christ Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States report released March 2007.

The time to act is now. Impacted communities cannot wait another two decades. None of our communities, rich or poor, black, brown, red, yellow or white, should be allowed to become sacrifice zones with wasted people whose health and lives are devalued and whose voices are silenced.

Environmental Justice Networks and EJ organizations from across the United States are inviting groups to sign on the following letter to be directed to key elected officials, including key Congressional leaders, the Presidential Candidates, and the President Bush Administration to let them know that the findings in the 2007 report need to be addressed immediately. Many of these grassroots leaders will be gathering in Atlanta, GA for the United States Social Forum (USSF) June 27 thru July 1, 2007.

Please E-mail Dr. Glenn S. Johnson at the Environmental Justice Resource Center (ejrc@cau.edu) your contact information or call (404) 880-6911 and let us know that you want to sign on. Additionally, please alert your allies across the United States and encourage them to do likewise.

 

SIGN-ON LETTER

June, 2007

Dear [Public Official],

Environmental injustice in people of color communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, according to a follow-up study to the landmark 1987 United Church of Christ Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States report that put the environmental justice movement on the map two decades ago.

We urge you to take immediate steps to end environmental injustice and toxic racism in low-income and people of color communities as clearly documented in the new study, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007, released March 2007.

The new report finds that people of color make up the majority (56%) of the residents living in neighborhoods within two miles of the nation’s commercial hazardous waste facilities, nearly double the percentage in areas beyond two miles (30%). They also make up more than two-thirds (69%) of the residents in neighborhoods with clustered facilities. Percentages of African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians/Pacific Islanders in host neighborhoods are 1.7, 2.3, and 1.8 times greater in host neighborhoods than non-host areas (20% vs. 12%, 27% vs. 12%, and 6.7% vs. 3.6%), respectively.

Forty of 44 states (90%) with hazardous waste facilities have disproportionately high percentages of people of color in host neighborhoods–on average about two times greater than the percentages in non-host areas (44% vs. 23%). Nine out of ten EPA regions have racial disparities in the location of hazardous waste facilities.

We strongly endorse and support the report’s several dozen policy recommendations for action at the Congressional, state and local levels to help eliminate environmental and health disparities. Based on these disturbing findings, we along with other environmental justice, civil rights and human rights, and health allies are calling for steps to reverse this downward spiral, including:

    1. Hold Congressional Hearings on EPA Response to Contamination in EJ Communities;
    2. Pass a National Environmental Justice Act Codifying the Environmental Justice Executive Order 12898;
    3. Provide a Legislative “Fix” for Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was gutted by the 2001 Alexander v. Sandoval U.S. Supreme Court decision that requires intent, rather than disparate impact, to prove discrimination;
    4. Require Assessments of Cumulative Pollution Burdens in Facility Permitting;
    5. Require Safety Buffers in Facility Permitting;
    6. Protect and Enhance Community and Worker Right-to-Know;
    7. Enact Legislation Promoting Clean Production and Waste Reduction;
    8. Adopt Green Procurement Policies and Clean Production Tax Policies;
    9. Reinstate the Superfund tax;
    10. Establish Tax Increment Finance (TIP) Funds to Promote Environmental Justice-Driven Community Development
Getting government to respond to the needs of low-income and people of color communities was sluggish decades before the world witnessed the disastrous Hurricane Katrina response nearly two years ago. The time to act is now. Our communities cannot wait another twenty years.

Sincerely,