The Law of Environmental Justice: A Research Pathfinder

Adam D. Schwartz

This Dialogue provides researchers with background on the environmental justice movement and an overview of the legal materials that address environmental justice. It summarizes federal and state statutory and case law that relates to environmental justice and lists legal periodicals, technical periodicals, popular periodicals, and books. It also provides the addresses and phone numbers of selected organizations that work in the environmental justice movement. It concludes with some notes explaining how to update the sources it reviews.

Background

The United States suffers from environmental inequity: Minority populations and poor people bear a disproportionate share of the burdens of pollution. Minority populations in our cities have higher levels of lead in their blood¹ and breath dirtier air.² Poor and minority neighborhoods host undesirable land uses, such as hazardous waste storage facilities and waste-to-energy incinerators.³ Minority populations perform jobs with the highest environmental hazards, such as pesticide-intensive farm labor.⁴ And the United States exports hazardous waste and its dirtiest industries to poor people in the developing world.⁵

Many social factors contribute to inequities in hazardous waste facility siting decisions. Ongoing residential segregation isolates people by race and class, setting the stage for different communities to bear different burdens.⁶ Potentially harmful hazardous waste facilities often attract local opposition, so builders of such facilities prefer to locate them in communities that are politically weak.⁷ Government siting procedures enable this process.⁸ When middle-income families successfully keep undesired facilities out of their neighborhoods, the facilities usually are sited in the neighborhoods of lower-income people, often minority populations. The government and the mainstream environmental movement—both dominated by the majority white population—refused until the last few years to address environmental justice as a legitimate concern.

Environmental justice has been an issue on the national radar for at least a one-quarter century. In 1967, when an African-American girl drowned at a poorlyrun solid waste landfill in an African-American neighborhood, there were riots at Texas Southern University in Houston.⁹ In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders reported that the systematic neglect of garbage and other sanitation services in the inner cities contributed to urban disturbances.¹⁰ Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, social and natural scientists began to accumulate data demonstrating the correlation among race, class, and pollution.¹¹

[25 ELR 10544]

In 1982, an incident in Warren County, North Carolina, ignited the environmental justice movement. When local authorities approved the siting of a new landfill in a poor, African-American community, local residents began a highly publicized struggle against the dump. Studies by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, and Robert D. Bullard helped keep the public focused on environmental justice.¹² Across the United States, in the city and in the country, people of all races began a grassroots struggle for environmental justice. In 1991, representatives of 600 grassroots organizations met for the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit.¹³

To date, the field of law has contributed little to the environmental justice movement. In several lawsuits challenging hazardous waste facility sitings that disproportionately affect minority populations, federal courts have ruled against the plaintiffs because they failed to prove discriminatory intent.¹⁴ Environmental justice litigants have had some success, however, bringing actions to require preparation of environmental impact statements under federal¹⁵ and state law,¹⁶ and to require defendants to meet "fair share" requirements in some states and cities.¹⁷ Similarly, President Clinton's executive order on environmental justice may make the federal government more sensitive to this problem.¹⁸

Legal scholars have made many proposals to use existing legal remedies to combat environmental inequities. For example, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits federal funding of projects with a discriminatory impact, regardless of intent; because many undesirable projects receive federal funds, Title VI may help keep them out of poor neighborhoods.¹⁹ According to at least one commentator, persons living near hazardous waste sites may obtain medical monitoring costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.²⁰ Further, it may be possible to analogize environmental racism to cases outlawing disparate impact in the provision of municipal services.²¹

Other legal scholars have called on Congress to create new remedies altogether. In 1992 and 1993, there were five federal environmental equity bills. The most significant was the Environmental Justice Act of 1992, proposed by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.).²² This bill called for a moratorium on the siting of new environmental hazards in the 100 worst "environmental high impact areas" in the country. Scholars have made two other suggestions that have not yet been proposed on the floor of Congress: That Congress ought to enact a new facility siting law that takes equity into account²³ and that Congress ought to relax the U.S. Supreme Court's disparate impact jurisprudence so that environmental justice plaintiffs would not need to prove discriminatory intent.²⁴

Federal Law

President Clinton's Executive Order

The most important new federal tool in the struggle for environmental justice is the executive order that President Clinton issued in 1994.²⁵ This executive order (i) requires every executive agency to adopt an environmental justice strategy, (ii) creates the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, (iii) encourages public participation to resolve this issue, and (iv) requires further research into environmental inequities. Unfortunately, the order forbids judicial review of failure to comply and requires agencies to pay for compliance out of existing budgets, which will limit the order's effect.

Federal Case Law

Arising Under the U.S. Constitution. For environmental justice advocates, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution could be a promising tool in efforts to combat environmental inequities. In Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Development Housing Corp.,²⁶ however, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a race-neutral government action does not violate the Equal Protection Clause unless the plaintiff can prove discriminatory intent. This creates a heavy burden, which environmental justice [25 ELR 10545] plaintiffs have yet to meet. The following cases illustrate how the discriminatory intent requirement prevents the Equal Protection Clause from being used successfully to address environmental inequities.

Harrisburg Coalition Against Ruining the Env't v. Volpe, 330 F. Supp. 918 (M.D. Pa. 1971) (finding no evidence that discriminatory intent motivated a government decision to build a highway through a public park used primarily by African Americans).

Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corp., 482 F. Supp. 673 (S.D. Tex. 1979), aff'd without opinion, 782 F.2d 1038 (5th Cir. 1986) (finding no evidence that discriminatory intent motivated a government decision to build a solid waste disposal facility next to a primarily African-American public school).

NAACP v. Gorsuch, No. 82-768-CIV-5, slip op. (E.D.N.C. Aug. 10, 1982) (holding that the siting of a dump for polychlorinated biphenyls in the North Carolina county with the highest concentration of African Americans did not violate the Equal Protection Clause).

East Bibb Twiggs Neighborhood Ass'n v. Macon-Bibbs County Planning & Zoning Comm'n, 706 F. Supp. 880 (M.D. Ga. 1989), aff'd, 896 F.2d 1264 (11th Cir. 1989) (finding no evidence that discriminatory intent motivated a government decision to build a solid waste facility in an African-American neighborhood).

El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio v. Chemical Waste Management, Inc., No. CIV-F-91-578-OWW (E.D. Cal. filed July 7, 1991) (alleging that the defendant engaged in a pattern of siting toxic waste incinerators in minority communities, and that this pattern violated the Equal Protection Clause); see El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio v. Chemical Waste Management, Inc., No. C-91-2083-SBA (N.D. Cal. Oct. 17, 1991) (dismissing on ripeness grounds).

R.I.S.E., Inc. v. Kay, 768 F. Supp. 1144, 22 ELR 20200 (E.D. Va. 1991), aff'd, 977 F.2d 573 (4th Cir. 1992) (finding no evidence that discriminatory intent motivated a government decision to build a solid waste facility in an African-American neighborhood).

Arising Under Federal Statutes. Environmental justice advocates have had greater success under federal statutes than under the U.S. Constitution. While some environmental justice plaintiffs have lost under hazardous waste and clean water laws, others have won under environmental impact and Medicaid laws. The following are a list of examples of such cases.

Houston v. City of Cocoa, No. 89-92-CIV-ORL-29, slip op. (M.D. Fla. Dec. 22, 1989) (holding that a city using U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds to redevelop an African-American neighborhood into office buildings violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to consider the environmental impact of the proposal on the neighborhood).

Bordeaux Action Comm'n v. Metropolitan Gov't of Nashville, No. 3-90-0214 (M.D. Tenn. filed Mar. 12, 1990) (alleging that the state's failure to regulate a solid waste landfill in an African-American neighborhood violated state and federal hazardous waste laws).

Matthews v. Coye, No. C-90-3620-EFL (N.D. Cal. stipulation for settlement and dismissal without prejudice, entered Oct. 16, 1991) (ordering Medicaid to adopt lead screening medical tests).

Thompson v. Raiford, No. 3-92-CV-1539-R (N.D. Tex. filed Oct. 21, 1992) (seeking an order requiring Medicaid to adopt lead screening medical tests).

Dioxin/Organochlorine Ctr. v. Rasmussen, No. C93-33D, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15595 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 10, 1993) (holding that a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision to allow industry to release a particular level of dioxin into the Columbia River basin, where disproportionate numbers of minority and poor persons ate river fish and thus had a greater risk of cancer, did not violate the Federal Water Pollution Control Act); aff'd sub nom. Dioxin/Organochlorine Ctr. v. Clarke, 57 F.3d 1517, 25 ELR 21258 (9th Cir. 1995).

Proposals Before the U.S. Congress

Because of the limits of President Clinton's environmental justice executive order and the federal judiciary's failure to provide a remedy for environmental inequity, new legislation is needed. The 104th Congress will probably pass no new environmental legislation; however, a number of environmental justice bills have been introduced.

Environmental Justice Act of 1992, H.R. 5326, 102d Cong., 2d Sess. (1992) (introduced by Representative Lewis); S. 2806, 102d Cong., 2d Sess. (1992) (introduced by Senator Gore) (proposing (i) a moratorium on new hazardous waste facilities in the nation's 100 worst environmental high-impact areas, (ii) new federal studies of environmental inequities, and (iii) grants to facilitate community participation).

Environmental Justice Act of 1992, H.R. 2105, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. (1993) (Representative Lewis reintroduced the 1992 Act under the same name in 1993).

Environmental Justice Act of 1993, S. 1161, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. (1993) (introduced by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), this bill closely resembled the original Gore/Lewis bill, without the moratorium provisions).

Environmental Equal Rights Act of 1993, H.R. 1924, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. (1993) (introduced by Rep. Candiss Collins (D-Ill.), proposing to amend the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act so that no new hazardous waste facilities could be placed in environmentally disadvantaged communities).

Amendment to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, H.R. 495, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. (1993) (introduced by Reps. Mike Synar (D-Okla.) and Bill Clingler (R-Pa.)); S. 533, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. (introduced by Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio)) (proposing to consider population demographics during the permit process for hazardous waste facilities).

Reports Issued by the Federal Government

While the federal government has done little to prevent or remedy environmental injustice, many of its agencies have conducted extensive studies documenting the problem, including:

[25 ELR 10546]

CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL, AGENCY FOR TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND DISEASE REGISTRY, THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF LEAD POISONING IN CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES: A REPORT TO CONGRESS (1988).

COMMISSION OF CIVIL RIGHTS, LOUISIANA ADVISORY COMMITTEE, THE BATTLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL "JUSTICE IN LOUISIANA: GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRY, AND THE PEOPLE (1993) (this case study of the "Cancer Alley" in southern Louisiana is the first government report to recognize environmental racism).

GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, SITING OF HAZARDOUS WASTE LANDFILLS AND THEIR CORRELATION WITH RACIAL AND ECONOMIC STATUS OF SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES (1983) (demonstrating the statistical correlation between the location of hazardous waste landfills and minority population concentrations in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region IV, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee).

U.S. EPA, ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY WORKGROUP, OFFICE OF POLICY, PLANNING, AND EVALUATION, ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY: REDUCING RISK FOR ALL COMMUNITIES (1992) (EPA 230-R-92-008) (noting that the "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) syndrome creates environmental inequities, and calling for regulatory reform to promote greater equity).

U.S. EPA, OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS, EDUCATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, TRIBES AT RISK: WISCONSIN TRIBES COMPARATIVE RISK PROJECT (1992).

U.S. EPA, OFFICE OF POLLUTION PREVENTION AND TOXICS, TOXIC RELEASE INVENTORY AND EMISSION REDUCTIONS IN THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER INDUSTRIAL CORRIDOR, 1987-1990 (1993) (demonstrating that African-American communities along the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana bear the greatest burden of industrial pollution).

U.S. EPA, OFFICE OF SOLID WASTE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASK FORCE DRAFT FINAL REPORT (1994) (a guide for this office's efforts to reflect environmental justice concerns in Superfund reauthorization).

State and Local Law

State Case Law

Environmental justice litigants have accomplished more in state courts than in federal courts, often as a result of friendlier state laws. For example, California's environmental impact reporting law and New York City's facility siting law provide more protection than their federal equivalents. The following is a sample of state court litigation relating to environmental justice.

El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio v. County of Kings, 22 ELR 20357 (Cal. Super. Ct. Dec. 30, 1991) (interpreting the California Environmental Quality Act to require the government to translate into Spanish the environmental impact statement, notice of meetings, and other documents relevant to the siting of an incinerator in a Latino neighborhood).

Guarino v. Carpenters' Pension Fund, No. 92-7138 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Rockland Cty. indexed Nov. 12, 1992) (alleging disparate treatment by the government in cleanup of hazardous waste sites).

Silver v. Dinkins, 601 N.Y.S.2d 366 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1993), aff'd, 602 N.Y.S.2d 540 (N.Y. App. Div. 1993) (holding that a proposal to build a new parking garage on the Lower East Side of Manhattan violates the "fair share" provision of New York City Charter § 203(a)).

State Statutes and Charters

Several states and localities have enacted innovative rules that will encourage the equitable distribution of locally undesirable land uses in the future.

ARK. CODE ANN. § 8-6-1501 (Michie 1993) (adopting a rebuttable presumption against placing solid waste disposal sites within 12 miles of each other to prevent the concentration of waste sites in low-income or minority communities).

KY. REV. STAT. ANN. § 224.46-830(2) (Baldwin 1992) (requiring siting decisions to consider "social and economic impacts of the proposed facility on the affected community including changes in property values, community perception and other psychic costs").

MINN. STAT. § 115A.21(1) (1993) (forbidding government authorities from licensing more than one hazardous waste site in each county).

New York City Charter § 203(a), in ADMINISTRATIVE CODE AND CHARTER NEW YORK CITY, vol. 1, ch. 8 (Lenz and Riecker, Inc., Prentice Hall) (Supp. 1995) (requiring siting decisions to consider "fair distribution among communities of the burdens and benefits associated with city facilities, consistent with community needs for services and cost effective delivery of services and with due regard for the social and economic impacts of such facilities upon the areas surrounding the sites").

Proposals Before the State Legislatures

Several state legislatures are considering new environmental justice statutes. The following proposals in California, New York, and Pennsylvania would help distribute undesirable land uses more equitably.

California A.B. 2212, 1993-94 Reg. Sess. (1993) (proposing that applicants for licenses to build high-impact projects must describe the demographics of the proposed site).

New York A.B. 7140, 1993-94 Reg. Sess. (1993) (proposing that applicants for licenses to build high-impact projects must describe the demographics of the proposed site).

New York A.B. 3363, 1993-94 Reg. Sess. (1993) (proposing the creation of an equitable land use commission to write siting guidelines).

Pennsylvania S.B. 1725, Reg. Sess. (1994) (proposing a moratorium on construction of new hazardous facilities in low-income, minority neighborhoods).

[25 ELR 10547]

Commentary

Legal Periodicals

Several law review symposia have addressed environmental justice concerns, including Natural Resources Issue: Race, Class, and Environmental Regulation²⁷ and Environmental Justice: The Merging of Civil Rights and Environmental Activism.²⁸ There are scores of other law review articles on the subject, including:

Allen, Leslie, Who Should Control Hazardous Waste on Native American Lands? Looking Beyond Washington Department of Ecology v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 14 ECOLOGY L.Q. 69 (1987) (arguing for state jurisdiction over hazardous waste sites on Native American reservations).

Anderson, Nancy E., Notes From the Front Line, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 757 (1994) (discussing New York City's Environmental Benefits Program and the extent to which it alleviates environmental inequities).

Anderson, Nancy E., The Visible Spectrum, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 723 (1994) (presenting a case study of the struggle against environmental racism in the Green Point/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, and in West Harlem, New York).

Austin, Regina & Michael Schill, Black, Brown, Poor and Poisoned: Minority Grassroots Environmentalism and the Quest for Eco-Justice, 1 KAN. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 69 (1991) (reviewing the environmental justice movement).

Been, Vicki, Compensated Siting Proposals: Is It Time to Pay Attention?, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 787 (1994) (arguing that compensated siting, under which a neighborhood is subsidized for accepting an undesirable land use, may be a sound policy).

Been, Vicki, Locally Undesirable Land Uses in Minority Neighborhoods: Disproportionate Siting or Market Dynamics?, 103 YALE L.J. 1383 (1994) (arguing that market dynamics, more than discriminatory intent, cause the inequitable distribution of undesirable land uses).

Been, Vicki, What's Fairness Got to Do With It? Environmental Justice and the Siting of Locally Undesirable Land Uses, 6 CORNELL L. REV. 1001 (1993) (arguing that different policy outcomes will result from the use of different definitions of environmental justice).

Blank, Linda D., Seeking Solutions to Environmental Inequity: The Environmental Justice Act, 24 ENVTL. L. 1109 (1994) (analyzing the Environmental Justice Act of 1992).

Boyle, Edward P., It's Not Easy Bein' Green: The Psychology of Racism, Environmental Discrimination, and the Argument for Modernizing Equal Protection Analysis, 46 VAND. L. REV. 937 (1993) (arguing that equal protection analysis of environmental racism should not depend on a showing of discriminatory intent because much racism is unconscious and reflexive).

Bullard, Robert D., The Legacy of American Apartheid and Environmental Racism, 9 ST. JOHN'S J. LEGAL COMMENT. 445 (1993) (arguing that centuries of forced residential segregation in the United States are one cause of environmental racism).

Bullard, Robert D., Race and Environmental Justice in the United States, 18 YALE J. INT'L, L. 319 (1993) (examining environmental racism and providing a history of the environmental justice movement).

Chang, Williamson B.C., The "Wasteland" in the Western Exploitation of "Race" and the Environment, 63 U. COLO. L. REV. 849 (1992) (arguing that the European philosophy of "individual heroics" is the basis for contemporary environmental degradation and oppression of indigenous peoples).

Chase, Anthony R., Assessing and Addressing Problems Posed by Environmental Racism, 45 RUTGERS L. REV. 335 (1993) (discussing the difficulty of proving environmental racism).

Christenson, Steven M., Regulatory Jurisdiction Over Non-Indian Hazardous Waste in Indian Country, 72 Iowa L. REV. 1091 (1987) (arguing for Native American jurisdiction over non-Native American waste producers on reservations).

Cole, Luke W., Empowerment as the Key to Environmental Protection: The Need for Environmental Poverty Law, 19 ECOLOGY L.Q. 619 (1992) (arguing that poverty law and environmental equity law need to merge, and that community empowerment is more important than litigation in the fight against environmental racism).

Cole, Luke W., Environmental Justice Litigation: Another Stone in David's Sling, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 523 (1994) (reporting that in the experience of the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment, environmental justice legal arguments succeed in the following descending order of usefulness: Traditional procedural requirements in environmental statutes, newer public participation requirements in environmental statutes, statutory civil rights law, and the U.S. Constitution).

Cole, Luke W., Remedies for Environmental Racism: A View From the Field, 90 MICH. L. REV. 1991 (1992) (calling for lawyers to allow grassroots activists to take the lead in the fight against environmental racism).

Cole, Luke W., The Struggle of Kettleman City: Lessons for the Movement, 5 MD. J. CONTEMP. LEGAL ISSUES 67 (1993) (presenting a case study of environmental justice advocacy).

Coleman, Leslie A., It's the Thought That Counts: The Intent Requirement in Environmental Racism Claims, 25 ST. MARY'S L.J. 447 (1993) (arguing that proof of discriminatory intent should not be the sine qua non of an equal protection challenge to environmental racism).

Collin, Robert W., Environmental Equity: A Law and Planning Approach to Environmental Racism, 11 VA. ENVTL. L.J. 495 (1992) (arguing that institutional changes in the land use planning process would help remedy environmental racism).

Colopy, James H., The Road Less Travelled: Pursuing Environmental Justice Through Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 13 STAN. ENVTL. L.J. 125 (1994) (calling [25 ELR 10548] for an attack on environmental racism using Title VI, which prohibits federal funding of projects with discriminatory impacts and does not require proof of discriminatory intent).

Colquette, Kelly M. & Elizabeth A.H. Robertson, Environmental Racism: The Causes, Consequences, and Commendations, 5 TUL. ENVTL. L.J. 153 (1992) (presenting a case study of environmental racism in Louisiana's petrochemical corridor).

Crawford, Collin, Strategies for EnvironmentalJustice: Rethinking CERCLA Medical Monitoring Lawsuits, 74 B.U. L. REV. 267 (1994) (calling for an attack on environmental injustice with § 107(a)(4)(B) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act).

Denno, Deborah W., Considering Lead Poisoning as a Criminal Defense, 20 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 377 (1993) (proposing a criminal defense strategy based on studies showing that lead poisoning may cause criminal behavior).

DuBey, Richard A. et al., Protection of the Reservation Environment: Hazardous Waste Management on Indian Lands, 18 ENVTL. L. 449 (1988) (arguing for tribal sovereignty over environmental protection on Native American reservations).

Ferris, Deeohn, Communities of Color and Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Expanding Public Participation in the Federal Superfund Program, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 671 (1994) (calling for an amendment to the Superfund law that would mandate additional public participation).

Freeman, James S. & Rachel D. Godsil, The Question of Risk: Incorporating Community Perceptions Into Environmental Risk Assessments, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 547 (1994) (calling for more community involvement in siting decisions).

Friedman-Jimenez, George, Achieving Environmental Justice: The Role of Occupational Health, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 605 (1994) (arguing that low-paying jobs with high environmental hazards in the manual labor sector are held disproportionately by minority populations).

Gareis-Smith, Donna, Environmental Racism: The Failure of Equal Protection to Provide a Judicial Remedy and the Potential of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 13 TEMP. ENVTL. L. & TECH. J. 57 (1994) (arguing that under Title VI environmental justice plaintiffs can achieve legal victory by proving disparate impact alone).

Gaylord, Clarice E. & Geraldine W. Twitty, Protecting Endangered Communities, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 771 (1994) (leaders of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Equity endorse the environmental justice movement).

Gelobter, Michel, The Meaning of Urban Environmental Justice, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 841 (1994) (searching for the roots of environmental inequities in urban poverty).

Gerrard, Michael B., The Victims of NIMBY?, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 495 (1994) (examining the tendency of environmental justice advocates to use the same NIMBY tactics as their opponents).

Godsil, Rachel, Remedying Environmental Racism, 90 MICH. L. REV. 394 (1991) (examining the failure of current equal protection analysis to remedy discriminatory siting of hazardous waste facilities and proposing a new law to lower the discriminatory intent barrier).

Hasler, Claire L., The Proposed Environmental Justice Act: "I Have a (Green) Dream," 17 U. PUGET SOUND L. REV. 417 (1994) (analyzing the Environmental Justice Act of 1992).

Henry, Mary Ellen, Survey: Environmental Law, 16 U. ARK. LITTLE Rock L.J. 111 (1994) (discussing, among other things, the Arkansas statute requiring equity in hazardous waste facility siting).

Huffman, James L., An Exploratory Essay on Native Americans and Environmentalism, 63 U. COLO. L. REV. 901 (1992) (arguing that white environmentalists who take guidance from supposed Native American harmony with nature perpetuate stereotypes that negatively affect Native Americans today).

Lavelle, Marianne, EPA Enforcement to Be Probed, NAT'L L.J., Apr. 5, 1993, at 3 (discussing a review of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights).

Lavelle, Marianne & Marcia Coyle, Unequal Protection: The Racial Divide in Environmental Law, NAT'L L.J., Sept. 21, 1992, at S2 (showing that the federal Superfund program responds faster and better to sites in white communities than to sites in minority communities).

Lazarus, Richard J., Pursuing "Environmental Justice": The Distributional Effects of Environmental Protection, 87 Nw. U. L. REV. 787 (1993) (arguing that equity must be a variable in all environmental policymaking).

Leal, Francisco, Environmental Injustice, 14 CHICANO-LATINO L. REV. 37 (1994) (discussing the causes of and remedies for environmental racism).

Lively, Donald E., The Diminishing Relevance of Rights: Racial Disparities in the Distribution of Lead Exposure Risks, 21 B.C. ENVTL. AFF. L. REV. 309 (1994) (arguing that the inequitable distribution of lead poisoning cannot be solved with litigation based on "rights"; rather, it can only be solved by a remediation partnership between neighborhood residents and the government).

Lord, Charles P. & William A. Shutkin, Environmental Justice and the Use of History, 22 B.C. ENVTL. AFF. L. REV. 1 (1994) (arguing that ignorance of history by government decisionmakers is one source of environmental racism and providing two examples: The Abenoki tribe of Vermont, and the South Bay neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts).

Mata, Rodolfo, Hazardous Waste Facilities and Environmental Equity: A Proposed Siting Model, 13 Va. ENVTL. L.J. 375 (1994) (proposing a new model for hazardous waste facility siting that takes equity into account).

McDermott, Charles J., Balancing the Scales of Environmental Justice, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 689 (1994) [25 ELR 10549] (proposing community involvement and corporate responsibility as the driving force behind change).

Metzger, Eleanor N., Driving the Environmental Justice Movement Forward: The Need for a Paternalistic Approach, 45 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 379 (calling for government action, as opposed to grassroots activism, to end environmental injustice).

Miller, Vernice D., Planning, Power and Politics: A Case Study of the Land Use and Siting History of the North River Water Pollution Control Plant, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 707 (1994) (examining the history of environmental racism in West Harlem, New York, and the community's response).

Mitchell, Carolyn M., Environmental Racism: Race as a Primary Factor in the Selection of Hazardous Waste Sites, 12 NAT'L BLACK L.J. 176 (1993) (arguing that environmental racism violates the Equal Protection Clause).

Petros, Lynne E., The Applicability of the Federal Pollution Acts to Indian Reservations: A Case for Tribal Self-Government, 48 U. Colo. L. REV. 63 (1976) (arguing that state environmental jurisdiction over tribal lands violates tribal sovereignty).

Poirier, Marc R., Environmental Justice/Racism/Equity: Can We Talk?, 96 W. VA. L. REV. 1083 (1994) (analyzing critically the academic conversation about environmental justice taking place in the nation's law reviews).

Portnoy, Kent E., Environmental Justice and Sustainability: Is There a Critical Nexus in the Case of Waste Disposal or Treatment Facility Siting?, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 827 (1994) (examining the potential conflict between the environmental justice movement and the environmental sustainability movement).

Reich, Peter L., Greening the Ghetto: A Theory of Environmental Race Discrimination, 41 KAN. L. REV. 272 (1992) (calling on environmental justice advocates to use equal protection law, access to decisionmaking, and community preservation laws to protect against environmental inequities).

Ross, Heather E., Using NEPA in the Fight for Environmental Justice, 18 WM. & MARY J. ENVTL. L. 353 (1994) (arguing that the public participation and cumulative impact provisions of environmental impact statements can help prevent inequitable facility siting).

Saleem, Omar, Overcoming Environmental Discrimination: The Need for a Disparate Impact Test and Improved Notice Requirements in Facility Siting Decisions, 19 COLUM. J. ENVTL. 211 (1994) (arguing that one solution to environmental discrimination is improved notice procedures tailored to the needs of particular low-income communities).

Santiago Abascal, Ralph, California Rural Legal Assistance and Environmental Justice, 30 Chicano-Latino L. REV. 44 (1994) (discussing the contributions of this organization).

Shepard, Peggy M., Issues of Community Empowerment, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 739 (1994) (presenting a case study of West Harlem, New York, especially as it relates to lead poisoning and asthma, and the response of West Harlem Environmental Action).

Swanston, Samara F., Race, Gender, Age, and Disproportionate Impact: What Can We Do About the Failure to Protect the Most Vulnerable?, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 577 (1994) (examining society's tendency to allocate undesirable land uses to the neighborhoods of groups that lack political power).

Tarlock, A. Dan, City Versus Countryside: Environmental Equity in Context, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 461 (1994) (examining the barriers that separate the traditional environmental movement and the environmental equity movement).

Torres, Gerald, Changing the Way Government Views Environmental Justice, 9 ST. JOHN'S J. LEGAL COMMENT. 543 (1993) (presenting a history of the federal government's recognition of and involvement in environmental justice).

Torres, Gerald, Environmental Burdens and Democratic Justice, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 431 (1994) (proposing regulatory reform that focuses all decisionmaking on equity).

Tsao, Naikang, Ameliorating Environmental Racism: A Citizen's Guide to Combatting the Discriminatory Siting of Toxic Waste Dumps, 67 N.Y.U. L. REV. 366 (1992) (discussing state and federal remedies for communities that contain hazardous waste sites and want to prevent new sites).

Vasquez, Xavier Carlos, The North American Free Trade Agreement and Environmental Racism, 34 HARV. INT'L L.J. 357 (1993) (arguing that the North American Free Trade Agreement will cause international environmental racism because nonwhite developing countries will produce goods with environmentally hazardous byproducts, ship the goods to the white developed world, and keep the pollution).

Willard, Walter, Environmental Racism: The Merging of Civil Rights and Environmental Activism, 19 S.U. L. REV. 77 (1992) (proposing to fight environmental racism with common-law nuisance claims and federal environmental statutes).

Wilson, Jennifer K., Ecodumping: A Compromise to the Conflict of International Free Trade and Environmental Responsibility, 42 KAN. L. REV. 709 (1994) (proposing government fines to persuade corporations based in developed countries with factories in developing countries to use the same pollution controls they would have used in their country of origin).

Wright, Audrey, Unequal Protection Under the Environmental Laws: Reviewing the Evidence on Environmental Racism and the Inequities of Environmental Legislation, 39 WAYNE L. REV. 1725 (1993) (reviewing the problem of environmental racism).

Wright, R. George, Hazardous Waste Disposal and the Problems of Stigmatic and Racial Injury, 23 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 777 (1991) (discussing the inequitable distribution of locally undesirable land uses).

Yamamoto, Andrew J., The Fight for Environmental Justice: New Skirmishes in the Battle Against Injustice, 14 CHICANO-LATINO L. REV. 30 (1994) (discussing [25 ELR 10550] the Latino community's struggle against environmental racism).

Zimmerman, Rae, Issues of Classification in Environmental Equity: How We Manage Is How We Measure, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 633 (1994) (commenting on the vocabulary and classifications of the environmental justice movement, and proposing new ways to identify social subgroups on the basis of race, poverty, and geographic boundaries).

Specialist Periodicals

Elected officials, doctors, business people, and social scientists also provide important perspectives on environmental justice. This discussion is reflected in their respective journals and trade magazines, a selection of which follows:

Arrandale, Tom, Environmentalism and Racism, GOVERNING. Feb. 1992, at 63 (in this magazine for state and local legislators, the environmental affairs columnist argues that "government and conservation groups ought to pay more attention to the plight of poor communities, but they're not in a position to pursue minority activists' full agenda . . . .").

Baquet, Claudia R. et al., Socioeconomic Factors and Cancer Incidence Among Blacks and Whites, 83 J. NAT'L CANCER INST. 551 (1991) (discussing the strong statistical correlation between race and cancer).

Begley, Randal, Racism Questioned in Two Studies, CHEMICAL WK., Apr. 20, 1994, at 8 (discussing two studies that argue that there is no evidence of environmental racism).

Bullard, Robert D., Ecological Inequities and the New South: Black Communities Under Siege, 17 J. ETHNIC STUD. 101 (1990) (reviewing the problem of environmental racism).

Bullard, Robert D., Solid Waste Sites and the Black Houston Community, 53 Soc. INQUIRY 273 (1983) (presenting a case study of the discriminatory siting of undesirable land uses in Houston, Texas).

Bullard, Robert D., The Threat of Environmental Racism, 7 NAT. RESOURCES & ENV'T 23 (1993) (discussing the limits of traditional civil rights law in challenges to environmental racism).

Bullard, Robert D. & Beverly H. Wright, Environmentalism and the Politics of Equity: Emergent Trends in the Black Community, MID-AM. REV. Soc., Winter 1987, at 21 (examining the emerging environmental justice movement).

Davies, J.E. et al., Problems of Prevalence of Pesticide Residues in Humans, 2 PESTICIDE MONITORING J. 86 (1968) (demonstrating that African Americans had higher dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) levels than whites in Dade County, Florida).

Harris, Cynthia H. & Robert C. Williams, Research Directions: The Public Health Service Looks at Hazards to Minorities, 18 EPA J. 40 (1992).

Mahaffey, Kathryn R. et al., National Estimates of Blood Lead Levels: United States, 1976-1980, 307 New ENG J. MED. 573 (Sept. 2, 1982) (presenting statistical evidence that dangerous blood lead levels are more common among African Americans than among whites, regardless of age, region, or income level).

Nieves, L.A. & D.R. Wernette, Breathing Polluted Air: Minorities Are Disproportionately Exposed, 18 EPA J. 16 (1992).

O'Reilly, James T., Environmental Racism, Site Cleanup and Inner City Jobs: Indiana's Urban In-Fill Incentives, 11 YALE J. ON REG. 43 (1994) (reviewing an Indiana law that waives potential liability for developers who buy polluted sites in the inner city and undertake state-supervised cleanup).

Warner, David C., Health Issues at the U.S. Mexican Border, JAMA, Jan. 9, 1991, at 242 (discussing the hazardous public health conditions for Latinos on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border).

Popular Periodicals

The popular periodicals also reflect the debate about environmental justice. The following is only a selection of the many articles written on this subject:

Elson, John, Dumping on the Poor, TIME, Aug. 13, 1990, at 46 (reviewing the environmental justice movement).

Ervin, Mike, The Toxic Doughnut, 56 PROGRESSIVE 15 (1992) (describing the circle of toxic health threats that surround the Altgeld Gardens community on the South Side of Chicago).

Jetter, Alexis, The Poisoning of a Dream: Environmental Activist Patsy Ruth Oliver, VOGUE, Nov. 1993, at 213 (discussing Patsy Ruth Oliver's efforts to end environmental racism in Texarkana, Texas).

Martinez, Elizabeth, When People of Color Are an Endangered Species, Z MAG., Apr. 1991, at 61 (describing the South Side of Chicago, where African-American and Latino neighborhoods host an enormous concentration of hazardous wastes).

Meyer, Eugene L., Environmental Racism: Why Is It Always Dumped in Our Backyard? Minority Groups Take a Stand, AUDUBON MAG., Jan./Feb. 1992, at 30 (reviewing the environmental justice movement and arguing that the real problem is class, not race).

Rees, Matthew, Black and Green: Race and Environmentalism, NEW REPUBLIC, Mar. 2, 1992, at 15 (reviewing the environmental justice movement).

Satchell, Michael, A Whiff of Discrimination? Racism and Environmental Policy, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP., May 4, 1992, at 34 (suggesting that environmental inequities are driven by economic,not racial, differences).

Siler, Julia Flynn, Environmental Racism? It Could Be a Messy Fight, Bus. WK., May 20, 1991, at 116 (describing the fight by El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio against Chemical Waste Management's attempt to build a hazardous waste incinerator in Kettleman City, California).

Steinhart, Peter, What Can We Do About Environmental Racism?, AUDUBON MAG., May 1991, at 18 (discussing environmental racism in waste facility, prison, and freeway sitings).

[25 ELR 10551]

Suro, Roberto, Pollution Weary Minorities Try Civil Rights Tack, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 11, 1993, at A1 (reviewing the environmental justice movement).

Zwerdling, Daniel, Poverty and Pollution, PROGRESSIVE, Jan. 1973, at 25, 26 (arguing, a decade before the emergency of the environmental justice movement, that mainstream environmentalism "seems to affect the elite and ignore the poor").

Books

The following are examples of books that address environmental justice.

ALSTON, DANA ED., WE SPEAK FOR OURSELVES: SOCIAL JUSTICE, RACE AND THE ENVIRONMENT (1990) (collecting essays by journalists, researchers, and writers on the environmental justice movement).

AM. L. INST./A.B.A., ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (Feb. 15-18. 1995) (collecting the texts of speeches given at a conference).

ANGEL, BRADLEY, THE TOXIC THREAT TO INDIAN LANDS: A GREENPEACE REPORT (1992) (reporting the targeting of Native American lands for hazardous environmental purposes).

BRYANT, BUNYON & PAUL MOHAI EDS., RACE AND THE INCIDENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: A TIME FOR DISCOURSE (1992) (including papers presented by minority scholars at this University of Michigan conference in 1990).

BULLARD, ROBERT D. ED., CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM: VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS (1993) (including reports by activists about environmental racism on Native American reservations, in agricultural labor, in cities, and in the developing world).

BULLARD, ROBERT D., DUMPING IN DIXIE: RACE, CLASS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUAL1TY (1990) (presenting a case study of grassroots environmental justice activism in five African-American communities in the South).

BULLARD, ROBERT D. ED., UNEQUAL PROTECTION: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND COMMUNITIES OF COLOR (1994) (including case studies and documentation of environmental inequities).

GOTTLIEB, ROBERT, FORCING THE SPRING: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT (1993) (discussing the evolution of the environmental movement toward environmental justice concerns).

HOFRICHTER, RICHARD ED., TOXIC STRUGGLES: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (1993) (collecting essays on all aspects of the environmental justice movement).

JOHNSON, BARRY L. ET AL. EDS., PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1990 NATIONAL MINORITY HEALTH CONFERENCE: FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION (1992) (including papers presented at this Atlanta, Georgia, conference).

KASPERSON, ROGER E. ED., EQUITY ISSUES IN RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT (1983) (collecting academic articles on waste control that address social equity and intergenerational equity issues).

KNEESE, ALLEN V. & BLAIRE T. BOWER EDS., ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ANALYSIS (1972) (containing a chapter on the distribution of environmental quality).

MANDELKER, DANIEL R., ENVIRONMENT AND EQUITY: A REGULATORY CHALLENGE (1981) (analyzing land use controls, with a focus on the danger that environmental regulations encourage exclusive zoning).

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE, PROCEEDINGS: THE FIRST NATIONAL PEOPLE OF COLOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP SUMMER (1992) (containing reports and speeches presented at this watershed conference).

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE, TOXIC WASTES AND RACE IN THE UNITED STATES (1987) (the groundbreaking report that first documented a national correlation between locally undesirable land uses and minority communities).

Organizations

The most important resource available that catalogs environmental justice organizations is Robert D. Bullard's People of Color Environmental Groups Directory: 1994-95. This Directory lists hundreds of organizations in 42 states, Canada, and Mexico. The following is a sampling of the diversity of environmental justice organizations in this country.

California Rural Legal Assistance, Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment (this organization publishes Environmental Poverty Law Working Group Newsletter), 2111 Mission St., Ste. 401, San Francisco CA 94110, (415) 864-3405

Center for Neighborhood Technology, 2125 W. North Ave., Chicago IL 60647, (312) 278-4800

Chicago Legal Clinic Environmental Law Program, 2938 E. 91st St., Chicago IL 60617, (312) 731-1762

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Xavier University of Louisiana, 7325 Palmetto St., P.O. Box 45-B, New Orleans, LA 70125, (504) 483-7340

El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio, P.O. Box 51504, E. Palo Alto CA 94303, (415) 329-0294

Golden State Law School Environmental Law and Justice Clinic, 536 Mission St., San Francisco CA 94105, (415) 442-6647

Natural Resources Defense Counsel, 6310 San Vicente Blvd., Ste. 250, Los Angeles CA 90048, (213) 934-6900

Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, P.O. Box 7399, Albuquerque, NM 87194, (505) 242-0416

[25 ELR 10552]

United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, 475 Riverside Dr., Ste. 1948, New York NY 10115, (212) 870-2077

West Harlem Environmental Action, 529 W. 145th St., New York NY 10031, (212) 234-5096

How to Update This Pathfinder

Environmental justice is a new field, and the legal research superstructure has not yet absorbed it. The following standard research tools do not contain sections addressing environmental justice: the ALR annotations; the major encyclopedias, American Jurisprudence 2d and Corpus Juris Secundum; the West key number system; and most environmental law treatises and looseleaf services. As the environmental justice movement grows and establishes itself, these tools should find a place for it within their pages.

In the meantime, the best way to stay on top of new developments in the law of environmental justice is to follow the discussion in the law reviews. In the growing number of legal journals that follow this issue, scholars and practitioners will analyze every new law, whether state or federal, legislative or judicial, favorable or not. Writers will also discuss proposals to apply existing law in new ways. If a researcher has access to LEXIS or Westlaw, enter the pertinent words, for example, "environment! w/6 (just! or rac! or equit!)." In addition, the Current Law Index (the "social aspects" subsection within the "environmental law" section), Infotrac (enter the pertinent words), and the Index to Legal Periodicals (the "environmental racism" section) may provide useful citations.

Conclusion

To date, the legal field has done too little to address the environmental inequities that divide our country on the basis of race and class. The materials discussed in this research pathfinder, however, indicate that legal scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in this issue and that the will is developing to address these problems. Hopefully, this pathfinder will provide research assistance to lawyers committed to achieving environmental justice.

Adam D. Schwartz is serving as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Betty Fletcher, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received a J.D. from Howard University in 1995 and a B.A. from Cornell University in 1992.

1. Kathryn R. Mahaffey et al., National Estimates of Blood Lead Levels, 307 NEW ENG. J. MED. 573 (Sept. 2, 1982); Janet Phoenix, Getting the Lead Out of the Community, in CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM: VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS 77 (Robert D. Bullard ed., 1993) [hereinafter CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM].

2. Robert D. Bullard, Race and Environmental Justice in the United States, 18 YALE J. INT'L L. 319, 322 (1993).

3. See generally GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, SITING OF HAZARDOUS WASTE LANDFILLS AND THEIR CORRELATION WITH RACIAL AND ECONOMIC STATUS OF SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES (1983); UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE, TOXIC WASTES AND RACE IN THE UNITED STATES (1987); ROBERT D. BULLARD, DUMPING IN DIXIE: RACE, CLASS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (1990).

4. Marion Moses, Farmworkers and Pesticides, in CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, supra note 1, at 161; George Friedman-Jimenez, Achieving Environmental Justice: The Role of Occupational Health, 21 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 771 (1994).

5. Dana Alston & Nicole Brown, Global Threats to People of Color, in CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, supra note 1, at 179; Xavier Carlos Vasquez, The North American Free Trade Agreement and Environmental Racism, 34 HARV. INT'L L.J. 357 (1993).

6. Robert D. Bullard, The Legacy of American Apartheid and Environmental Racism, 9 ST. JOHN'S J. LEGAL COMMENT. 445 (1993).

7. Cerrell Associates, Political Difficulties Facing Waste-to-Energy Conversion Plant Siting (1984) ("Middle and higher socioeconomic strata neighborhoods should not fall within the one-mile and five-mile radius of the proposed site"), quoted in Robert D. Bullard, Introduction, in CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, supra note 1, at 18.

8. Rachel Godsil, Remedying Environmental Racism, 90 MICH. L. REV. 394 (1991).

9. Robert D. Bullard, Introduction, in CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, supra note 1, at 5.

10. Id.

11. J.E. Davies et al., Problems of Prevalence of Pesticide Residues in Humans, 2 PESTICIDE MONITORING J. 86 (1968) (showing that in Dade County, Florida, African Americans had higher levels of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) in their blood than whites); A. Myrick Freeman III, Distribution of Environmental Quality, in ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ANALYSIS (Allen V. Kneese & Blair T. Bower eds., 1972) (reviewing studies demonstrating environmental inequity in waste disposal, air quality, and outdoor recreation).

12. See supra note 3.

13. Keither Schneider, Minorities Join to Fight Polluting Neighborhoods, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 25, 1991, at A20; UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE, PROCEEDINGS: THE FIRST NATIONAL PEOPLE OF COLOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT (1992).

14. In Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Dev. Housing Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court declared that a race-neutral law with a disparate impact can violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only if there is proof of discriminatory intent. 429 U.S. 252 (1977). The Arlington Heights doctrine has singlehandedly blocked at least five federal cases alleging environmental racism. Harrisburg Coalition Against Ruining the Env't v. Volpe, 330 F. Supp. 918 (M.D. Pa. 1971); Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corp., 482 F. Supp. 673 (S.D. Tex. 1979), aff'd without opinion, 782 F.2d 1038 (5th Cir. 1986); NAACP v. Gorsuch, No. 82-768-CIV-5, slip op. (E.D.N.C. Aug. 10, 1982); East Bibb Twiggs Neighborhood Ass'n v. Macon-Bibbs County Planning & Zoning Comm'n, 706 F. Supp. 880 (M.D. Ga. 1989), aff'd, 896 F.2d 1264 (11th Cir. 1989); R.I.S.E., Inc. v. Kay, 768 F. Supp. 1144, 22 ELR 20200 (E.D. Va. 1991), aff'd, 977 F.2d 573 (4th Cir. 1992).

15. Houston v. City of Cocoa, No. 89-92-CIV-ORL-29, slip op. (M.D. Fla. Dec. 22, 1989).

16. El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio v. County of Kings, 22 ELR 20357 (Cal. Super. Ct. Dec. 30, 1991).

17. Silver v. Dinkins, 601 N.Y.S.2d 366 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1993), aff'd, 602 N.Y.S.2d 540 (N.Y. App. Div. 1993).

18. Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, Exec. Order No. 12898, 59 Fed. Reg. 7629 (Feb. 11, 1994).

19. James H. Colopy, The Road Less Travelled: Pursuing Environmental Justice Through Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 13 STAN. ENVTL. L.J. 125 (1994).

20. Collin Crawford, Strategies for Environmental Justice: Rethinking CERCLA Medical Monitoring Lawsuits, 74 B.U. L. REV. 267 (1994).

21. See Godsil, supra note 8, at 417.

22. Environmental Justice Act of 1992, H.R. 5326, 102d Cong., 2d Sess. (1992); S. 2806, 102d Cong., 2d Sess. (1992).

23. Rodolfo Mata, Hazardous Waste Facilities and Environmental Equity: A Proposed Siting Model, 13 VA. ENVTL. L.J. 375 (1994).

24. Edward P. Boyle, It's Not Easy Bein' Green: The Psychology of Racism, Environmental Discrimination, and the Argument for Modernizing Equal Protection Analysis, 46 VAND. L. REV. 937 (1993); Leslie A. Coleman, It's the Thought That Counts: The Intent Requirement in Environmental Racism Claims, 25 ST. MARY'S L.J. 447 (1993).

25. See supra note 18.

26. 429 U.S. 252 (1977).

27. 63 U. COLO. L. REV. 839-944 (1992).

28. 9 St. JOHN'S J. LEGAL COMMENT. 437-572 (1993).