Paul Mohai, the founder of the Environmental Justice Program at the University of Michigan, states,

“…it is virtually impossible that the nation’s commercial hazardous waste facilities are distributed disproportionately in minority communities merely by chance…Among others [the] factors [contributing to deliberate placement in minority communities] include: 1) the availability of cheap land, often located in minority communities and neighborhoods; 2) the lack of local opposition to the facility, often resulting from minorities’ lack of organization and political resources as well as their need for jobs; and 3) the lack of mobility of minorities resulting from poverty and housing discrimination that traps them in neighborhoods where hazardous waste facilities are located.”

Empirical studies further bolster this shocking claim. The United Church of Christ recently published a follow-up report to its 1987 study on toxic waste disposal. Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty uses more accurate distance analysis to measure the impact of hazardous waste disposal. The 2007 study found that:

“More than nine million people…are estimated to live in circular host neighborhoods within 3 kilometers of the nation’s 413 commercial hazardous waste facilities. More than 5.1 million people of color…live in neighborhoods with one or more commercial hazardous waste facilities. Host neighborhoods of commercial hazardous waste facilities are 56% people of color whereas nonhost areas are 30% people of color…Racial disparities for people of color as a whole exist in nine out of 10 U.S. EPA regions…Forty of the 44 states (90%) with hazardous waste facilities have disproportionately high percentages of people of color in circular host neighborhoods within 3 kilometers of the facilities.”

How can we decrease the inequity that accompanies the mounting human cost of toxic waste? For starters, the Obama Administration needs to reverse a Bush Administration decision that reclassified 1.5 million tons of toxic waste so that it was no long overseen by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Instead of giving waste disposal corporations a blank check to pollute, the EPA should exercise more control over how known health hazards are recycled and disposed. Additionally, the EPA should interpret President Clinton’s Executive Order 12898 more strictly, and actually implement its directive of erasing racial discrimination in environmental policy. The EPA should aim to increase transparency when it implements policy—rather than hide important internal audits from external agencies, it should be upfront about its shortcomings instead of masking the harm done to marginalized communities. Lastly, until we find a way to derive our energy from cleaner sources, we should seek to isolate dangerous waste from all communities, not just white communities. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it is a more equitable one.