Editor - Jan Weaver

415 Tucker Hall, MU 65211

NIMBY to NOPE: A CLEAN, HEALTH ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL by Jan Weaver

In 1987 the United Church of Christ released a study of five variables related to the siting of hazardous waste sites - 1) per cent minority population, 2) mean household income, 3) mean value of owner-occupied homes, 4) number of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites per 1000 persons, and 5) pounds of hazardous waste generated per person. Of the five factors, the single most predictive factor was per cent minority population, followed by income and value of homes. Neither the number of uncontrolled waste sites - used to assess geographic or historical factors affecting siting, and waste generated - used to assess importance of proximity to the waste producers, were significant. What mattered was race and class, and race mattered more.

In response to the revelation that minorities and low income communities were bearing an unfair share of the burden of hazardous waste produced in the U.S., President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 on February 11, 1994: Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. As defined by the EPA, Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences of industrial, municipal, and commercial operations, or the execution of federal, state, local and tribal programs and policies.

So how is that working? Hard to tell. In 1991, two years before Executive Order 12898, Louisiana Energy Services (LES) applied for a permit to build a uranium enrichment facility in Homer Louisiana, 49% African American. Only, it wasn't exactly going to be in Homer, Homer officials nominated two tiny communities five miles away for the actual site of the plant, Center Springs and Forest Grove, both almost entirely African American. Aside from all the other issues with nuclear enrichment, the low level radioactive waste, mainly uranium hexafluoride, would have been stored on-site. It would come to 400 14 ton canisters a year of stuff that turns into hydrofluoric acid if it gets exposed to moisture. So you would have an acid that eats through almost anything paired with low level nuclear waste for at least the life of the plant. And where would this waste eventually go? Louisiana Energy Services said that the Department of Energy would have to take it, but that begs the question of where DOE would put it, since DOE still doesn't have a site for its own waste.

Once the Environmental Justice order kicked in, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was required to consider racial and economic factors in the selection of the plant site and a fierce legal battle over the site selection criteria ensued, including the fact that Homer nominated Center Springs and Forest Grove. Eventually, LES withdrew the application and went looking elsewhere, to....Trousdale County Tennessee.

In 2003, LES, now a subsidiary of URENCO, a European consortium, tried to get the facility built in Trousdale County. The county is 89% white, more white than Tennessee, so a charge of racial bias could be clearly avoided. However, per capita income was $15,838, about $3,500 less than the average for Tennessee, only 9% of its residents had bachelor's degrees, half the average for the state, and non-farm employment had dropped 18.5% between 2000 and 2004. (for comparison, the U.S. is 25% minority, per capita income is $21,587, and 24% have bachelor's degrees). From one perspective, the billion dollar plant providing 200 permanent jobs might be a huge boon to an economically desperate county, but it might not (see Port Gibson below). So, as insurance the county commission required that LES remove the nuclear waste every 90 days so that Trousdale would not become a defacto nuclear waste facility. With that deal breaker, LES withdrew the application and went looking elsewhere to ... Eunice, New Mexico.

In 2006, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finally gave LES permission to build a facility in Eunice. The town's population is 40% Hispanic, per captia income is $14,373, and 9% have bachelor's degrees. What sealed the deal for the community was a requirement negotiated by the State Attorney General that LES limit its storage to 5,000 cylinders, and that they be disposed of outside of New Mexico. You just have to wonder how bad off a community has to be before it will willingly accept becoming a dump site for someone else's nuclear waste.

When environmentalists and civil rights activists fight the location of things like nuclear plants in minority and low income neighborhoods, some folks argue that outside groups are denying poor minorities the opportunity to make a decent living. It would be instructive to see if poor minorities automatically benefit from having these projects located in their communities.

Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant went on-line in 1984 in Port Gibson, Mississippi. The per capita income in 2000 averaged $13,000 for the community as a whole, and $10,000 for African Americans. The opening of the plant coincided with a population decrease, mainly due to one third of the whites moving out of the county (taking their $23,700 percapita incomes with them). With the decline in the tax base, the county lacks the infrastructure to deal with a nuclear event, having only one fire station and 9 officers in the sheriff's department. On top of the community's loss of wealth, and its inadequate resources to deal with an accident or a terrorist attack, the current plant is slated to run out of storage space for its waste this year, and there is still no facility up and running to accept the waste for long term storage.

Louisiana Enrichment Services just wanted to build an enrichment facility. If the country turns towards nuclear power as a way to deal with global warming, the problem of where to put power plants that make high level waste will be even more contentious. So far many of the new plants that have been proposed have been proposed for communities that already have nuclear plants (the defacto waste site thing), and so Port Gibson is proposed as the site of second nuclear power plant.

The modern environmental movement sprang from a concern about the effects of pollutants on our own individual health, and for years the rallying cry has been NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard. The logical consequence of this, in the absence of major efforts to reduce the total amount of hazardous waste, was that the pollution was just shifted into someone else's back yard. And like all things undesirable, the back yards belonged to those with the least power - minority and low income neighborhoods. Depending on your political or social orientation, this is either unjust or it is stupid. That is because nothing guarantees hazardous waste will stay where you put it. Thanks to hubris, a systematic failure to commit resources to long term maintenance and the operation of the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, all stuff, including hazardous stuff, eventually finds its way to your back yard or your plate no matter where you live.

We need to be aiming for NOPE - Not On Planet Earth. To achieve safety and health for every human, minority as well as majority, poor as well as rich, we have to stop creating hazardous waste. We do not lack the technical expertise and wealth to figure out how to make stuff in ways that minimizes or eliminates hazardous waste. We lack the political will. We can wait until the quantities of hazardous waste are so vast that they permeate the air, water and food of even the wealthiest and most insulated communities, or we can decide now to direct our minds and our wealth to the protection of every citizen.

Wrong Complexion for Protection by Robert Bullard - A Katrina story about race and hazardous waste.

http://www.americancity.org/article.php?id_article=206

Daily Updates on toxic waste clean-ups, hazardous spills and shady deals

http://www.innercitypress.org/ejreport.html

The state of Environmental Justice in America 2007 Conference - Washington DC, March 29-31, 2007

http://www.ejconference2007.org/

Special Events/Programs/Classes/Talks

EARTH DAY BOOTH REGISTRATION OPENS: Earth Day (in Columbia) is Sunday April 22, rain date April 29. To register for a booth, pick up a form a the Peace Nook, 804C East Broadway. Fees are $50 for businesses, $30 for artisans, $20 for non-profits taking money, $10 for non-profits not soliciting.

SHOW-ME YARDS SEMINAR: Wednesdays February 7, 14 and 21, 6:30 to 9 pm, ARC. Presenters from University Extension, Master Gardeners, the City of Columbia and others will show you how to keep yards healthy while minimizing the impact on local watersheds. Contact Mona Menezes for more information - mona.menezes@gocolumbiamo.com

DOWNTOWN ROCK BRIDGE: Saturday February 17, 1-3 pm, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Devil's Icebox Parking Lot. Discover Rock Bridge's hidden industrial past. Friends of Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

SLAVES, GRAVES AND HIDDEN JEWELS: Saturday February 17, 1 pm Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Park Office. Learn about Missouri's slave history, what it was like to be a slave and how slaves are linked to our local history. To register for the program, call 449-7402. A Missouri State Park Program.

METEOROLOGY PROGRAM- Tuesday February 27, 7 pm, Unitarian Universalist Church, 2615 Shepard Blvd. Need childcare? Please let us know in advance so we can prepare age appropriate activities - call 573/874-0171.

MIDWEST ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION CONFERENCE: March 9-11, Kent State University, Kent Ohio. This student run conference provides a venue for graduate and undergraduate students and post docs to present research to their peers in a relaxed environment. Keynote - Robert T. Paine. for more information visit http://www.midwesteec.org/

Organization Meetings and Contact Information

AUDUBON SOCIETY: 874-3904 / columbia-audubon.missouri.org Meet 3rd Wed 7:30 pm, Unitarian Church, 2615 Shepard Blvd.

BOONE COUNTY SMART GROWTH COALITION: http://smartgrowth.missouri.org/, 1st Weds 7:15 Boone Co Govt Ctr.

CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING: 875-0539 or http://peaceworks.missouri.org/

CHOUTEAU GROTTO: http://chouteau.missouri.org/, Meet 1st Wed, 7 pm, The Casteel Building, 1518 Business Loop 70 East

COLUMBIA FOOD CIRCLE: 882-7463 or email hendricksonm@missouri.edu for information.

COLUMBIA PUBLIC WORKS VOL. PROGRAMS: 874-6271 or http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Volunteer/Opportunities/#PW

CITIZENS WATERSHED COMMITTEE: (573) 526-8916, Third Tuesdays, 6:30 pm, Daniel Boone Bldg

COMMUNITY GARDEN COALITION: 875-5995 or cgardenc@yahoo.com or http://cgc.missouri.org

ENV EDUCATION WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/teacher/workshops/

FRIENDS OF BIG MUDDY: friends@friendsofbigmuddy.org or www.friendsofbigmuddy.org

FRIENDS OF ROCK BRIDGE M. S. P.: 815-9255 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org/ Outdoors Bldg, 200 Old 63 S.

GREENBELT LAND TRUST OF MID-MISSOURI: 442-4789, greenbelt.land.trust @gmail.com or http://greenbelt.missouri.org

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY RESTORE: 815-9836, drop off or buy gently used doors, windows, hardware, tools, cabinets, appliances, unopened paint, fixtures - Mon to Fri 8:30 to 3:30, Saturday 8:00 to 1:00 pm, 1906 Monroe St. Columbia

MISSOURI ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: www.meea.org

MO NATIVE PLANT SOC.: http://columbianativeplants.missouri.org/, 2nd Mon, odd months, 7 p.m., UU Church, 2615 Shepard

MISSOURI RIVER COMMUNITIES NETWORK: 573-256-2602 or www.moriver.org or moriver@coin.org

PEDNET COALITION: email: pednet@pednet.org or http://www.pednet.org

RIVER RELIEF: http://www.riverrelief.org/

ROCK BRIDGE MEMORIAL STATE PARK: 449-7402 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org

SHOW ME CLEAN STREAMS COALITION: (573) 751-4115 ext 3169 or www.mostreamteam.org

SIERRA CLUB: 875-2916 or http://sierra.osage.missouri.org Meet 3rd Tuesdays 7:30 pm Hillel Foundation, 1107 University Ave

WILD ONES: 573 882-9909, ext 3257 or email wildonesmo@yahoo.com, http://wildones.missouri.org Meetings 2nd Saturdays.

Feedback - Got an opinion? If we have space, we will consider publishing it. Submit it by email (envstudy@missouri.edu), snail mail (Environmental Studies, 211 Lowry , MU, Columbia MO 65211), or call Jan Weaver to talk about it (882-7116). MU Environmental Network News is published by MU's Environmental Studies Initiative. All opinions expressed are the responsibility of the editor. Any part of this newsletter may be copied for distribution but please give us credit.

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