Redlining
The term ‘redlining’ is generally used to describe housing segregation, although the practice began in the mid-1930s. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was the “architect of federally sponsored redlining” tasked with ensuring “economically sound loans as part of an overhaul of the system residential mortgage finance that had been decimated by the Depression” (Federal Reserve History). The FHA graded residential neighborhoods based on their ‘mortgage security’ to help ensure ‘economically sound’ loans for mortgage lenders.
Similarly, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), created in 1933 as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, collaborated with real estate professionals in each city (lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers) to assign grades to residential neighborhoods. Neighborhoods coded ‘A’ were represented by green zones on maps as minimal risk areas for “banks and other mortgage lenders when they were determining who should receive loans and which areas in the city were safe investments” (Nelson). ‘D’ grade neighborhoods, colored in red, were deemed high risk areas that the HOLC advised not to make loans for people living in those zones.
While the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed discrimination in real estate and mortgage lending, lenders continued redlining throughout the late 1960s and the mid-1970s. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act (1977) after prolonged advocacy by grassroots organizations and civil rights groups, which was intended to “address inequities in access to credit” and affirm the obligation of federally regulated financial institutions to reinvest in low and moderate income communities.
Environmental Racism and Redlining
In her book, Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility, Dr. Dorceta Taylor writes:
The EJ research is also limited by the questions that scholars ask and explore. That is, if one simply asks the question, Who came first, the noxious facility or the minorities? one gets an answer that indicates whether a facility was built or if a community existed before a facility was constructed. However, this answer does nothing to elucidate the process by which the past or present-day population came to live adjacent to that facility…A more pressing question–and one that is not often explored in EJ literature–is, Who or what keeps people living adjacent to noxious facilities and undesirable land uses?
Environmental racism and redlining are directly correlated with each other. So-called ‘red-zones’ resulted in low property values and investment in these neighborhoods, which in turn led to deteriorating public infrastructure and housing. Historically, organizations intentionally placed their industrial facilities in these neighborhoods, which were predominantly composed of low-income and BIPOC residents.
The Warren Country toxic waste landfill is largely credited with sparking the widespread ‘environmental justice movement’ in the U.S. during the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1978, Governor James Hunt, announced his decision to dump thousands of tons of toxic soil with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Warren County, N.C., which was predominantly composed of Black and low-income residents.
Although residents, community activists, and organizations (including the NAACP) protested the landfill, it was approved by the EPA and built in 1982. The contaminated soil from the landfill leached the PCBs into the residential groundwater supply, and was not treated until 2003.
Toxic Wastes and Race
After Warren County, the United Church of Christ published a landmark report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States (1987). Some of their key findings included:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commissioned 70 well-known freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental issues, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s. Issue topics include pesticides, oil, smog, nuclear power, landfills, and chemical waste. The majority of photographs were taken in the U.S., but some include images from Yugoslavia and Austria. The National Archives digitized part of the series, titled Documerica (Local ID 412-DA), available for educational and scholarly use.
A protest march against the PCB dump, ca. 1982, UNC Libraries, Rights Statement
Advocacy and research organizations who regularly conduct research, publish reports, and partner with communities to provide comprehensive analyses on environmental justice and health issues.
Pesticide Action Network (PAN)
PAN is a local, national, and global advocacy organization that aims to systematically change our food system and protect farmworkers and rural communities who are most affected by pesticide exposure. PAN publishes brief research reports based on peer-reviewed literature and toolkits with specific suggestions for grassroots organizing and protection against toxic chemicals.
Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC)
ELPC primarily focuses its litigation, research, and advocacy in midwestern regions and Washington, D.C. Its analyses, reports, and factsheets focus on a variety of health, justice, and energy issues, including air pollution, drinking water contamination, and agricultural waste runoff in lakes and streams. Their team of lawyers and scientists writes, researches, and compiles the materials.
Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA)
CREA is a global, independent research organization that focuses on the health impacts, solutions, and trends of air pollution. They advocate for just energy futures, where divesting from coal, oil, and gas is essential. Their published report topics include climate transition, health impacts of coal, and energy transition policy.
Green Science Policy Institute
The Institute advocates for safer chemicals in consumer products to protect human health and ecological degradation. They compile and select peer-reviewed articles, white papers, conference publications, and opinion pieces on environmental and human health hazards. Topics include food packaging material, flame retardants, fossil fuels, and plastics.
Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI)
EHHI advocates for policy reform protecting human health from environmental hazards. Its staff of public health professionals and policy experts create detailed reports and brochures. EHHI also has an eJounal compiling selected news articles and reports aligned with its research priorities, including drinking water wells, fracking, synthetic turf, and pesticides.
Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN)
CEHN is a national education and advocacy organization that works to establish robust policy and research on children's exposure to environmental health hazards. CEHN examines how race, income, and other demographic factors make children more vulnerable to environmentally toxic spaces and materials. Most of their reports are syntheses of scientific literature, nonprofit research, and government publications. CEHN occasionally partners with organizations such as the Environmental Law Institute.
Great Lakes Environmental Law Center
The Law Center advocates for equitable environmental protection and justice for communities in Michigan, with a focus on BIPOC and low-income populations. Its reports provide in-depth analyses of water quality and drinking water environmental justice issues (access, pollution, etc.). The Center occasionally develops reports on other topics, including air quality and urban vegetation buffers.
President Barack Obama Participates in a Briefing on the Flint Public Health Water Crisis at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan (2016), NARA
In the wake of severe budget cuts, state officials switched residential water sources from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in April 2014. As a result of the corrosive river water, lead leached out from pipes and into thousands of homes. Blood-lead levels in residents, including over 8,000 children, skyrocketed. Cancer, disease, and reduced-fertility resulted from the toxic water.
On May 4, 2016, President Barack Obama drank from a glass of water in Flint, Michigan during a briefing on the public health crisis.
Forever PFAS
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are commonly used in consumer and commercial products; they are what make material non-stick, grease-resistant, and/or waterproof. Also known as 'forever chemicals,' because they break down very, very slowly, if at all, and can persist in humans, animals, and ecosystems for decades (or thousands of years). PFAS can leach into drinking water, soil, and air.
The EPA does not regulate many PFAS, and environmental health and grassroots organizations have long called for eradication or tight restrictions on their use.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has a webpage with resources specific to MA residents, including an EEA Data Portal where users can search under the contaminant group "PFAS." Users can also search for the sum of the six compounds in the MCL under the chemical name "PFAS6."
Mapping PFAS
