Abstract
Excerpted From: Megan Resener Garofalo, Battling Environmental Racism in Cancer Alley: A Legislative Approach, 52 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 196 (Spring, 2024) (133 Footnotes) (Full Document Requested)
Cancer Alley is an eighty-five mile stretch of land between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, which contains approximately 150 petrochemical plants and refineries. The communities that surround these facilities are predominately low-income and Black, and their residents have reported numerous health issues, including higher rates of cancer compared to the national average. Yet these communities lack the necessary resources, support, and political power to protect themselves from the harmful impacts of the petrochemical industry. And while some have successfully prevented the installation of new facilities, current federal laws are failing to protect minority communities from the impacts of environmental racism.
To better protect the victims of environmental racism, Congress should pass the Environmental Justice for All Act (“EJAA”). The EJAA will strengthen individual rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by allowing claimants to seek relief for acts of environmental racism, as well as assist the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) by providing funding for research and program development related to environmental justice. While the EJAA will not make up for past instances of environmental racism, it will provide effective tools to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future.
This Paper will provide an overview of environmental racism and discuss the history of the environmental justice movement in the United States. It uses Cancer Alley as an example of environmental racism and discusses the role that the environmental justice movement has played in the region. Additionally, it will evaluate existing avenues to challenge acts of environmental racism-- particularly in the context of the siting of petrochemical facilities--and how they are failing. Finally, this Paper will argue that passing the EJAA will help address some of the existing legal hurdles in the environmental justice movement and provide additional protections to underrepresented communities.
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The impacts of systemic racism are seen throughout our country, including in workplaces, educational institutions, the criminal justice system, government, and even the distribution of housing. Thus, it is no surprise that environmental and health impacts of pollution from factories impact people of color at a much higher rate in this country. While this Paper focuses on environmental racism within the Cancer Alley region of Louisiana, the impacts are widespread, affecting a variety of minority populations.
A 2014 study found that Black people are seventy-five percent more likely than the average population to live near chemical facilities. After Hurricane Harvey, in 2017, petrochemical plants in Houston released an additional 320 pounds of toxic pollution “nearly all of it concentrated within four miles of a neighborhood that is [ninety-eight percent] Latino.” The original report produced by the Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Justice found that fifty percent of all Native Americans live near uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. And while communities have pursued legal remedies in cases of environmental racism, and have at times been successful, overall, our country's existing laws are not adequately protecting minorities from the dangerous health impacts caused by exposure to pollution and hazardous waste. To best protect all citizens of the United States, it is imperative for Congress to make environmental racism a priority by passing the Environmental Justice for All Act.
