Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline

by J. Timmons Roberts , Melissa M. Toffolon-Weiss

• ISBN13: 9780521660624
• ISBN10: 0521660629
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline provides a rare glimpse of the environmental justice movement as it plays out in four landmark struggles at the end of the twentieth century. The book describes the stories of everyday people who have decided to take to the streets to battle what they perceive as injustice: the unequal exposure of minorities and the poor to the 'bads' produced by our industrial society. In these struggles residents and local, state, and national environmental and social justice groups are on one side pitted against local and state government representatives and industry on the other. By employing historical and theoretical lenses in viewing these struggles, the book reveals how situations of environmental injustice are created and how they are resolved. These cases bear great similarity to battles occurring across the nation, and are setting precedents for national and state agencies as they handle these cases.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Environmental Justice Struggles in Perspective	1	(28)
Roots of Environmental Injustice in Louisiana	29	(34)
The Nation's First Major Environmental Justice Judgment: The LES Uranium Enrichment Facility	63	(38)
EPA's Environmental Justice Test Case: The Shintech PVC Plant	101	(36)
Media Savvy Cajuns and Houma Indians: Fighting an Oilfield Waste Dump in Grand Bois	137	(28)
Stress and The Politics of Living on a Superfund Site: The Agriculture Street Municipal Landfill	165	(24)
Amanda Leiker
The Empire Strikes Back: Backlash and Implications for the Future	189	(28)
Online Resources on Environmental Justice Struggles	217	(4)
Suggested Places to Start: A Few Worthwhile Next Readings	221	(2)
Notes	223	(28)
References	251	(16)
Index	267