Environmental Justice: It's More Than Waste Facility Siting

In a reply comment on the article by Tracy Yandle & Dudley Burton on historical hazardous waste landfill siting patterns in TX (1996 [see abstract 9718271]), it is argued that the authors fail to provide either an adequate conceptual analysis of environmental justice or an accurate sociocultural context for their study. Seven erroneous assumptions are identified that severely limit their conclusions: (1) environmental justice is limited to waste facility siting; (2) ignoring some facilities & communities will not affect study results; (3) all census tracts are similar in terms of population density & proximity of the population to the facilities; (4) census tracts represent homogeneous communities; (5) all hazardous waste landfills are essentially the same; (6) environmental justice & environmental racism are the same; & (7) principles of environmental justice do not apply to poor white communities. Noting the effect of each faulty assumption, it is concluded that Yandle & Burton have failed to appreciate the full scope of environmental justice, invalidating the conclusions drawn from their statistical analysis. 11 References. S. Barrera