Environmental Justice:
Process and Inequality
Charlie Lord
BC Law School
Environmental Studies Program
Boston College
EJ Theory Suggests Communities
of Color have:

More environmental disamenities

Fewer environmental amenities

Less access to decision-making processes
How has the environmental
injustice case been presented?
Examination of patterns of
amenities/disamenities
MA Study by Faber & Kreig


Minority communities average more than 4
x’s the number of hazardous waste sites
Minority communities exposed to nearly 5
x’s as many lbs. of chemicals
MA Study by Faber and Kreig


Low income communities exposed to
nearly 7 x’s as many lbs. of chemicals
Low income communities average nearly
2.5 x’s more waste sites and 4 x’s as many
waste sites per square mile
National Data

Robert Bullard Study: 2008

2000 Census Data

Over 9 million people live within 3 Km of a
commercial waste facility



These neighborhoods are 56% people of color
Non-host communities are 30% people of color
Percentage comparisons:
 African American 1.8 times greater
 Hispanic/Latino 2.3 times greater
 Asian/Pacific Islander 1.8 times greater
National Data

Metropolitan Issue

Host areas are densely populated



870 people/sq. km
83% of sites are in metro areas (343 sites)
Socio-economic disparities


Poverty rates 1.5x higher in host areas
Mean household income is 15% lower
Methodology Critiques



Definition of minority
Unit of analysis
Summary: General pattern of distributional
inequity
Regulatory Salience Critique

Distributive injustice alone: Not a concern


Post-siting market dynamics


Absent evidence of discrimination or procedural bias
Which came first: The hazard or the distribution?
Community Preference

Blais: Market in preferences works well enough to
conclude that, overall, disparities are generally
justified by differing preferences.
Legal and Political Implications

Political Force



“Racism”: Contemporary moral strength
Connection to structural repression
Constitutional Analysis

Narrower
Purposeful conduct
 Consciousness of race as motivating factor
 Individual actor

Response

Market critique

Cole and Foster


Accept the critique
Response: structural racism

Economic and social factors




Segregation in housing
Lack of political power
Distributive outcomes are unjust
Community Preferences


Kaswan
Similarly: Structural racism suggests community
preferences are not met
Implications

Legal and political force measured by:


Distance from Individual Actor
Distance from race as decisional factor

Or at least consciousness of race as motivating
factor
What’s Different About Our
Study?
Outcome equity vs. Process equity
Process-Equity Analysis

Focuses on processes that create outcome
inequity


Especially evidence of race as a known causal
factor
Examples: hazardous waste
facility/incinerator siting, court decisions,
zoning maps and decisions
Our Hypothesis


Land use processes over time situate
disproportionate amount of disamenities in
low income/minority communities
Race was a motivating factor
How are we testing this
hypothesis?




Step 1: Gather data re “noxious use”
decisions
Step 2: Overlay locations with
race/income data
Step 3: Determine if patterns of inequity
exist
Step 4: If yes, review and analyze
decisional record
Zoning


Determines where certain uses can occur
Allocation of Land Uses


As of right
Conditional Use
Research Plan


Zoning Maps
Conditional Use Decisions

1931-1971(Presumptive right)


City Council
1971 to present (Specified as of
right/conditional)
City Council
 Zoning Board of Appeals

What data have we found?



Zoning Board of Appeals Decisions
City Council records
Scale



Reviewed every decision 1931-present (10,000)
Pulled 3000 decisions for review
Entered 1000 records relevant to environmental
disamenities
How did we categorize data?






Incinerators
Recycling facilities
Penal/correctional facilities
Garage/open parking lot
100+ housing unit
Other uses with environmental impacts
Example of ZBA Spreadsheet
Docket #
Year
Code
Use/Disamenity
Location
6-60
1960
6
slaughter house 1242 Hargest Lane
475-89
1989
2
waste recycling plant 500 Chemical Rd App.
182-90
1990
2
landfill
3115 ft. w. of
Decision
App.
App.
Patapsco Ave. on Baltin
277-91
1991
1 incinerator
3204-3214 Hawkins Pt. Rd. Disapp.
113-93
1993
4 auto repair shop 3146-3158 Wilkens Ave. Disapp.
Example of Ordinance
Spreadsheet
Number Year Code
Disamenity
128
1940
6
176
1952
6
779
1957
2
1099
1971
1
Incinerator
304
1998
4
Open Area Parking Lot
Location
Oil Storage Tank for Power Plant
Smelting Plant
Scrap iron and metals
2101-2121 Kloman St.
N. side of Open St. up
to Marely Neck Branch
1510 Aspen St.
Pulaski Highway, Reedbird Ave.
1205 Bank St.
Data Analysis

Map and analyze records in relation to race
and income
Overlay to demographic data
 Evaluate change in spatial patterns over time
 Review and analyze decisional record


Map and analyze records in relation to
Redlining Data
Redlining Data


Home Owners Loan Association
Security Grade by Neighborhood


High, Still Desirable, Declining, Hazardous
Criteria





Occupations of Residents
Average annual income
Nationality
Percentage of “negro” families
Threat of Infiltration



“negro, foreign born, lower-grade populations”
Encroachment of Industrial Zone
Baltimore Reports

Race and Industrial Character
Redlining Data Implications

Regulatory Salience Critique

Approval of Conditional Use
Nature of proposed site
 Nature of surrounding area




Extent to which proposed use might impair present and
future development
Proximity of dwellings, churches, schools
Does Redlining Import Race as a
Decisional Factor?
Next Steps: Evaluate the Market
Critique

Longitudinal analysis

Variances and Demographics

By Decade




Demographics inside impact zones and as compared to control
areas or city as a whole
Demographics in zones around approved versus disapproved
variances
Connections to decisional record
Redlining Analysis


Correlations between redlining zones and variances
Review of decisional records