Environmental Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency s Superfund Program

Transcription

1 Environmental Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency s Superfund Program Brian Alt Advance GIS 26 April 2011

2 Introduction In the late 1970 s the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Congress and the President took action to clean up the nation s most polluted industrial sites. The process of identifying and prioritizing polluted sites, known as Superfund sites, started when the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was enacted by Congresses and signed by President Carter (O Neil 2007). Since the signing of CERCLA, researchers have turned their focus to the disproportion of minorities and low-income populations that live near heavily polluted industrial sites. This research let to the development of the Environmental Justice Theory, which states that minority and low-income populations are exposed to higher levels of pollutants than non-minority and higher income populations. To address this, President Clinton signed Executive Order in 1994 ordering all Federal Government agencies to ignore race and income when determining remediation of industrial sites. In the initial research for this project (lab 1) it was determined that there is a statistically significant difference between the proportion of blacks living in census blocks within a 2 kilometers (Km) distance of a superfund site and those census blocks at distances greater than 2 Km in the Greater Washington DC area. In a more in-depth study of Superfund sites and the racial composition of the area around the sites, the initial finds are expected to hold true. This research will showing that living within a 3 Km distance of a Superfund site is directly related to an increased population of minorities. Data and Sources The following formulas are used to calculate P, standard error and the Z-score for the census tracts within the selected counties. Calculations: Alt, 1

3 Z-score should be greater than to have a statistical significance Mapping tool: ArcGIS version 10 Data: Superfund locations and background data for each site (EPA and lab 1) Census tract Group Data for 2000 (American Fact Finder) Tract level Shape files (ESRI) Methodology This study focuses on 8 randomly selected Superfund sites throughout the United States, 2 from each region (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau). Once the data was collected from the census bureau and was joined to the spatial data in ArcGIS, all tracts that are within the distance of 3 Km were selected as the study area for the county. The proportion of the population that is white and non-white was then calculated using the SQL equation of [Pro_other] = [white] / [total] for the proportion of whites in the area and for the black population [Pro_other] = [other] / [total] was used. The proportion of nonwhites attribute was then symbolized using 10 categories with equal intervals and an appropriate map layout was created. This was repeated for all 8 counties in the study. Annotated Bibliography O Neil, Sandra George, (2007). Superfund: Evaluating the Impact of Executive Order 12898, Environmental Health Perspective, 151 (7), The author uses a historical perspective to investigate whether or not Executive Order has been successfully implemented since its signing in In her study, she determines that the order has been implemented on an inconsistent basis at the regional level and that the order has not been fully implemented at the Federal level. She also determines that the order, where implemented, has not Alt, 2

4 increased environmental justice of the area and that the EPA s Superfund site still lacks the equality that the order requires. This article is important to my research because it shows the need for better understanding of the demographic and socioeconomic conditions near EPA Superfund sites, which is the basis of this paper. O Neil s article also explains the theory of Environmental Justice, which my hypothesis is drawn from. Mohai, P., Lantz, P. M., Morenoff, J., House, J. S., Mero, R. P., (2009). Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Residential Proximity to Polluting Industrial Facilities: Evidence from the Americans Changing Lives Study, American Journal of Public Health, 99 (S3), S The authors use results from field interviews to determine the demographic composition of areas within 1 mile of industrial sites. Their findings support the theory that there is a significant difference in the racial composition of areas within 1 mile of industrial sites and those areas outside of that distance. This research is important to the current research because the authors discuss two important problems that could be present in my research. First, when buffering in a GIS program not all of the units of analysis are captured (entire blocks or tracts). Second the issue of Ecological Fallacy, which is assuming that the results from a small study group can be applied to a larger population. In the case of this study, it is important that the results from a few counties are not applied to all counties in the country. Conclusion After the selection of the desired study areas and determining the proportion of the population that is white and non-white it is concluded, based on the z-scores for each area, that there is not a statistically significant difference in race within and outside of the 3 Km distance of a Superfund site. Of the 8 areas studied, shown in Table 1, only Nassau County in New York state showed a significant difference in race near the superfund sites within the study area. In Harris County, Texas the Z score was , Alt, 3

5 indicating that there is a difference however, it is not significant. The overall findings are the same at the national level as well (the Z score is.2865); there is not a significant difference among the races inside and outside the 3 Km distance of a superfund site in this study. The conclusion of this study, based on the above findings, is that while there are some areas in the nation that have indications of environmental injustice, the overall burden of environmental cleanup seems to be evenly dispersed among the races. These findings are similar to the results in Dr. O Neil s 2007 paper Superfund: Evaluating the Impact of Executive Order Executive order has not been implemented at the national level on a consistent basis but based on the scope of the research presented in this paper it cannot be concluded with certainty if the entire nation will have similar outcomes. To determine this, an in-depth study of all counties with a superfund site needs to be conducted at the block or tract level. Adams Anoka Dade Harris King Middlesex Nassau St. Louis National P P N N ,269 Z-score , Table 1: Z-score results for the 8 counties in study area and the national score Maps The following maps show the areas used for the preceding study. Map 1 shows the location of all superfund sites across the nation and the Census Bureau s 4 regions. The counties selected for the study are illustrated on Map 2 and large-scale maps of each county with tract boundaries, demographic information and site locations are on Maps The author created all maps using ESRI s student edition of ArcInfo version 10 with data from the Census Bureau s American Fact Finder and ESRI s free download center. Alt, 4

6 Map 1: Superfund locations at the national level with the 4 Census Bureau regions Alt, 5

7 Map 2: Counties selected to be the study area (Adams Colorado, Anoka Minnesota, Harris Texas, King Washington, Miami-Dade Florida, Middlesex Massachusetts, Nassau New York and St. Louis Missouri) Alt, 6

8 Map 3: Proportion of total population for Adams County Colorado that is not white Alt, 7

9 Map 4: Proportion of total population for Anoka County Minnesota that is not white Alt, 8

10 Map 5: Proportion of total population for Harris County Texas that is not white Alt, 9

11 Map 6: Proportion of total population for King County Washington that is not white Alt, 10

12 Map 7: Proportion of total population for Miami-Dade County Florida that is not white Alt, 11

13 Map 8: Proportion of total population for Middlesex County Massachusetts that is not white Alt, 12

14 Map 9: Proportion of total population for Nassau County New York that is not White Alt, 13

15 Map 10: Proportion of total population for St. Louis County Missouri that is not white Alt, 14

16 References Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, Superfund: Cleaning up the Nation s Hazardous Waste Sites, 14 Feb 2011, Accessed 19 Feb 2011 Gilbert, A., Chakraborty, J., (2011). Using Geographically Weighted Regression for Environmental Justice Analysis: Cumulative Cancer Risks from Air Toxics in Florida, Social Science Research, 40, Konisky, D. M., Schario, T. S., (2010). Examining Environmental, Justice in Facility-Level Regulatory Enforcement, Social Science Quarterly, 91 (3), Krieg, E. J., Faber, D. R., (2004). Not so Black and White: Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impact Assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 24, Mohai, P., Lantz, P. M., Morenoff, J., House, J. S., Mero, R. P., (2009). Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Residential Proximity to Polluting Industrial Facilities: Evidence from the Americans Changing Lives Study. American Journal of Public Health, 99 (S3), O Neil, Sandra George, (2007). Superfund: Evaluating the Impact of Executive Order Environmental Health Perspective, 151 (7), Petrie, Michelle, (2006). Environmental Justice in the South: An Analysis of the Determinants and Consequences of Community Involvement in Superfund. Sociological Spectrum, 26, United States Census Bureau website, American Fact Finder, for 2009 and older data, Accessed 19 Feb 2011 United States Census Bureau website, American Fact Finder, for 2010 and newer data, Accessed 19 Feb 2011 Alt, 15