In my last post, I looked at environmental racism and classism through the specific example of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. However, Flint is not a unique case, in fact, it is indicative of the larger problems at work. Poor communities of color in America are especially vulnerable to water and air pollution — and not by accident. This week, I will present some key statistics everyone should know that demonstrate the national scale of this issue, and how it has been institutionalized in our society.

 

1. There is strategic, disproportionate exposure to facilities that release toxins.

According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan, “on average, people of color comprise 56% of the population living in neighborhoods with TRI facilities.” TRI facilities are facilities on the Toxic Release Inventory. They can include hazardous waste sites and polluting industrial facilities, both of which can be dangers towards public health. This not at all by accident — these poorer communities are intentionally targeted as hosts for facilities that emit dangerous toxins and pollutants. Often, weak zoning laws and low property values make these communities the ideal locations for these facilities. These areas also tend to lack a culture of “NIMBY-ism” (NIMBY is an acronym standing for Not In My BackYard; it refers to local advocacy against proposed development which is considered harmful or disruptive). This lack isn’t because these communities don’t care, but because they lack the resources and political clout to combat the large companies which wish to develop.

 

2. Children of Color are more vulnerable to lead poisoning.

According to a 2011 study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “11.2 percent of African American children and 4.0 percent of Mexican-American children are poisoned by lead, compared with 2.3 percent of white children.” As I learned when writing my last blog post, lead poisoning has serious health consequences, from severe brain damage to developmental and emotional disorders, to lifelong chronic pain. These health issues not only can ruin the life of a child but place significant stress on the family, not only emotionally but financially. The cost of medication and treatment could be very high and without good health insurance that family could end up with serious debt. This creates a vicious cycle — a family in debt cannot afford to move to a safer, cleaner home, where their children would be less vulnerable to lead poisoning.

 

3. Water contamination is significantly more common in poorer, low-income communities.

Despite the national outrage and shock regarding the Flint water crisis, there are communities all across the nation that do not have access to safe drinking water.  In rural communities and migrant farmworker communities, residents are forced to drink discolored, contaminated water that could cause a myriad of health effects — especially in young children. In the Navajo nation, indigenous people have been suffering for years due to a water supply tainted by uranium mining in the 1950s. In cases like this, often the government does not intervene as it was forced to in Flint, and citizens can’t afford to subsist off of expensive bottled water. Again, the resulting health effects can cripple both the community and the families with it.

 

What I find most shocking about these facts is that many of them have clear solutions. We can provide aid in emergencies while altering the institutions (like gentrification, healthcare, environmental regulations) that allowed these problems to occur in the first place. Of course, these things take time, but right now we aren’t doing anything. In fact, we are moving backward. In 2017, President Trump proposed removing the office within the EPA that addresses issues of environmental justice. As the 2020 election comes closer, keep an eye on which campaigns care about environmental justice, because it is crucial that we begin to elect people who care about these issues and will begin to address them with the urgency they deserve.

In April of 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan temporarily switched its water supply from Lake Huron to Flint river in order to save money while the city transitioned into a new system. However, the water wasn’t treated and corroded the pipes it traveled through, leaching led into flint’s water supply,

Water was discolored, foamy, and foul smelling. But despite many complaints from the residents of Flint, the government insisted the water was safe to drink. They ignored the problem for almost two years, despite the fact that some houses received water so contaminated it could be considered hazardous waste. The city placed chlorine the water supply and instructed residents to boil water before consuming it. However, these practices can actually increase levels of lead.

This was not because the government was unaware of the dangerous water quality — reports were fabricated and citizens were lied to in order to cover up the crisis. An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency leaked reports of high lead levels, but the city blamed the household plumbing. It was not until Marc Edwards, a professor of environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, led an investigation into Flint’s water supply that the city admitted there was a problem. Finally, in Fall of 2015, the Michigan government declared a state of emergency and began bringing bottled water to Flint residents. But the damage had already been done. More than a dozen people died, many became sick and experienced other adverse reactions to the contaminated water.  Many young children and babies exposed to the water are already exhibiting cognitive, developmental, and physical impairment s that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

Why is this an Environmental Justice issue? Based on census data, Flint, Michigan is the most impoverished city in America, suffering from the same economic turmoil as its large, neighboring city, Detroit. And Flint’s poverty levels have only been exacerbated by the water crisis. Their plight has largely been ignored because they are a city of lower-class Americans and because the city is populated mostly by African-Americans. If Flint, Michigan was a white, affluent community, this issue would have been addressed 2014 when complaints were first made. In fact, chances are compromises on water quality would never have been made. The government was willing to put this group of citizens in harm’s way to save money, but they were only willing to do this because their lives and safety have been devalued by institutional racism and classism. And despite the fact that Flint residents will feel the impacts of the water crisis for decades to come, aid for the city has halted only two years into the state of emergency.

This past year, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder stopped sending bottled water to Flint. Lead levels have significantly decreased, but no amount of lead exposure is safe, and in many parts of the city, the dangerous pipes have yet to be replaced. Citizens still don’t feel safe drinking the water, but they are forced to pay expensive bills for water they don’t use, on top of the expensive bottled water they now need to buy in order to survive. On top of all this, many have lost jobs or have expensive hospital bills due to the health impacts of the water. The fact that Snyder abandoned Flint while they still reeled from the crisis is clear negligence and complete apathy for the pain that the community has experienced. Flint deserves far more than an apology and a few years of mediocre aid. They deserve significant reparations for the damage done to their health, their safety, and their quality of life.

For more information, check out these informative videos on the origins of the Flint water crisis.

If you want to help the residents of Flint, check out this article from HuffPost about all the best ways to offer aid.