Written By: Joyce Liu
The influx of industries in recent history is a symptom of the quickly-improving technology of the 20th and 21st centuries. Food and chemicals are mass produced in order to keep up with the growing demand of the population. However, while population and demand seems to grow unbounded, the supply of feasible land to build these toxic industries on is running low. This causes the facilities to be constructed too close to residential areas and begins to affect the health of those living nearby.
Mossville, Louisiana: home to a new Sasol petrochemical plant, where almost all of the former residents have moved out. The land has been completely overtaken by pollution, waste, and odor (3).
Industrialization around Communities
The Industrial Revolution brought about many drastic changes to the daily lives of people, as well the environment. Factories and processing plants have since popped up nearly everywhere, no matter the detriment it causes to the surrounding environment and communities. These industries, however essential they are, are used to treat hazardous biological waste, generate plastics and other chemicals, and store waste. Beyond these factories, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have also experienced a large growth, especially with the success of the American broiler industry. These huge industrialized farms produce meat for consumption in masses, but also bring about tons of waste. With a rapidly growing population and increasingly toxic industries, the effects of these industries on surrounding communities are becoming more and more prominent.
Kettleman City and Chem Waste
There are a myriad of communities whose qualities of life have been completely flipped by the construction of a new factory nearby. Kettleman City, California, is a small, 95% Latino community made primarily of farm workers that became home to the largest toxic waste dump west of Alabama in the 1970s. Chemical Waste Management, Inc. built a toxic waste dump without notifying the residents first. These residents found a pattern of placing facility sites near minority communities. At a public hearing about the placement of the dump, the judge told Kettleman City residents to sit in the back of the room, and a resident observed that “Our rights are second to this huge corporation” (1).
Chester and RR&Z
In Chester, Pennsylvania, an investment banking firm called RR&Z permitted the construction of the Westinghouse and Thermal Pure waste incineration facilities near the town. When Chester residents protested, a representative of RR&Z responded, “It’s not the firm’s business to feel anything about commercial transactions, all of which were legally above board and ethical.” Moreover, a justice sitting on the court case fighting RR&Z claimed that “Around here, I am the law,” when asked about the legality of the facilities (1).
CAFOs
In Tonopah, Arizona, the Hickman Family farm mass produces chickens and eggs, which leads to mass production of waste. In addition to the smell of the farm, poorly contained waste can leak into runoff and contaminate drinking water supplies, including groundwater. This is the case in Duplin County, North Carolina, where some residents are even forced to water their land with water from waste lagoons on hog farms. Additionally, beyond the health and environmental implications of living near a CAFO, home values in North Carolina decrease by 30% if they are within 2 kilometers of a CAFO. However, the Clean Air Act does not cover emissions from these farms, even if their emissions are industrial-level. CAFOs under 1000 animal units do not even need to apply for a permit (4).
How to Help
There are many other cases of environmental hazards causing detriment to the health of communities, including Mossville, Smithfield pork plant, and Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. In Kettleman City, a successful lawsuit overturned Chemical Waste Management’s permit, which they tried to appeal. National opposition and attention to the controversy played a critical role in the appeal failing. However, in Chester and many other places, opposition is not enough. In order to help, we need to put forth all of our resources together; educate the community so that they have tools to fight back, provide professional connections so that they have leverage with those in administrative positions, and raise awareness in order to increase not only support, but pressure on corporations and access to other resources as well (2). These environmental issues are widespread and on the rise, so it is necessary for us to take action now.
References:
1. Cole, L. W.; Foster, S. R. From the ground up: environmental racism and the rise of the environmental justice movement; New York University Press: New York, 2001.
2. Cole L. W. Macho Law Brains, Public Citizens, and Grassroots Activists: Three Models of Environmental Advocacy. Virginia environmental law journal. 1994; 14: 687-710. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24782277.
3. Mossville: when great trees fall.; 2019.
4. Right to harm. Hourglass Films; 2018. https://www.kanopy.com/product/right-harm.
Accessed November 11, 2021.
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