The Inalienable Right to a Healthy Living Environment

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has, among other things, propelled the popularity and widespread acceptance of the lens of environmental racism. The intersectionalities of legal disenfranchisement and historically racialized policy and social control, as well as the ever-increasing amount of waste often culminates into the most vulnerable communities feeling the worst effects from industrial and toxic waste. Environmental racism can help us better understand how environmental crises are a product of many different forces and systems throughout cultural history and physical space. Armed with comprehensive knowledge of the past and root causes, we can more effectively integrate solutions and empower vulnerable communities.

Some of the most vulnerable populations are children, especially when it comes to adverse health effects from environmental degradation. A 2011 study describes how children may absorb more chemicals and metabolize them differently than adults, as well as their developing nervous system being more susceptible to damage from a variety of hazards. In general this is true, however children from poorer communities are at an exponentially higher risk to these hazards due to higher amounts of contaminants in their immediate environment. This starts when children are not even born, with the contaminants that the mother comes into contact with being absorbed into the child, as well as within breast milk once the child is born. There are higher amounts of chemicals and hazards within the surrounding environment as well, both within and outside the home. Higher levels of dangerous lead-based paint inside the home and chemicals in the children’s outdoor play areas leads to increased health risks for children who are merely trying to grow up and experience their childhood. Especially in rural communities, there is a high chance of living very close to natural gas operations, waste dumps, and mines if you come from a poorer community. Without the adequate agency and power to advocate for themselves and fight against these operations, these communities will continue to be exploited by the large corporations who are only in it for the profits.

It is important to understand how we got here today, and the forces and systems that have shaped our society. Through legal practices such as redlining and gentrification, poorer families are constantly being pushed out of their homes and communities in the name of higher property value, and are being segregated to areas that are more affordable. Oftentimes, these more affordable areas are extremely at risk to negative impacts from large factory and energy operations. Colorado is a good example to use a case study, primarily with the example of Bella Romero Academy in Weld County, and Commerce City just north of Denver. Firstly, the case study of Bella Romero Academy highlights the inequalities when it comes to political power and disenfranchisement. The original plan for building new fracking wells was to be located near a charter school which was 77% white, however it was moved after parents advocated against the new operation within such close proximity to their school. After, the company moved the location to within 900 feet of Bella Romero Academy, whose student body is 87% students of color. The parents of the students at Bella Romero also attempted to advocate for themselves, however the historic, political, and financial disenfranchisement did not grant them the same power that the other group of white parents had. It is imperative to invest into these communities and to empower socio political influence in relation to their surrounding environment and resources. 

Second, Commerce City is a good example of the adverse effects of gentrification combined with environmental degradation from factory operations. Denver has been booming over the last several years, and the city has gentrified many areas around the city that have been historically lower income communities. Commerce City is located just north of Denver, and has become some of the only affordable housing that victims of gentrification can turn to. The area is filled with multiple factories that not only spew tons of dangerous chemicals into the air, but also physical waste dumping and hazardous materials in proximity to residential neighborhoods, schools, and parks. According to the 2019 National Air Toxics Assessment done by the EPA, Commerce City has higher risk rates of respiratory illness as well as cancer as compared to the Denver/Aurora/Lakewood metro area, Colorado as a whole, and compared to the average rates across the US. The combination of this higher risk of negative health effects and the socioeconomic systems that force disenfranchised families to suffer these effects is very apparent when using Commerce City as a case study. Oil and gas operations, factories, and other large-scale industrial activity must take into account the surrounding environment and the people that live there. If an operation will adversely impact local communities, changes to that operation must be made to secure the health and livelihoods of those people.

References:

Air Quality Health Risk [Photograph]. (2019). National Air Toxics Assessment, Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://www.bestplaces.net/health/city/colorado/commerce_city 

Burger, J., & Gochfeld, M. (2011, December). Disproportionate Exposures in Environmental Justice and Other Populations: The Importance of Outliers. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222496/ 

Jula, M. (2018, April 17). Parents Didn’t Want Fracking Near Their School, so the Oil Company Chose a Poorer School Instead. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/04/an-oil-company-faced-pushback-about-fracking-near-a-charter-so-it-moved-next-to-a-low-income-public-school/ 

Turkewitz, J. (2018, May 31). In Colorado, a Fracking Boom and a Population Explosion Collide. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/us/colorado-fracking-debates.html