California has largest number of minorities near hazardous waste

Briggum, who served on a national environmental justice task force several years ago, acknowledged the problems highlighted by the study. "There's no disputing the facts," she said. But, she added, the industry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have done a great deal in recent years to try to reduce emissions, beef up safety and address other concerns in affected neighborhoods.

Although low-income neighborhoods were much more likely to have hazardous waste facilities, some of the areas examined were quite affluent, including one in Seattle that is predominantly Asian, said study coauthor Robin Saha, a sociologist with the University of Montana.

Bullard said the saddest case researchers studied was in rural Dickson County, Tenn., an almost entirely white area in which every industrial waste facility in the 300,000-acre county was built next to a 150-acre farm owned by a black family.

The study took EPA officials to task for failing to implement an executive order by President Clinton requiring that environmental justice issues and the cumulative effects of clustering such facilities in some neighborhoods be a mandatory part of environmental reviews.

Rep. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte) introduced legislation in February designed to achieve the same goals.

"This legislation is a critical first step to achieving real and lasting justice for minority and low-income communities across this country." Solis said. "Codifying the executive order will empower communities without a voice to join in the fight to protect their health and welfare."

EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said the agency recognizes "that minority and/or low-income communities frequently may be disproportionately and adversely exposed to environmental harms and risks," and that the EPA attempts to address environmental justice concerns in its planning and budgeting.

But Bullard said the EPA's inspector general and the U.S. General Accountability Office have chastised the agency for its handling of environmental justice issues. President Bush's 2008 budget recommends a 28% cut in funds for such programs, he said

The report follows up on issues originally raised in the 1987 study "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States," which is widely considered to have given birth to the environmental justice movement by linking race and income to elevated levels of environmental and industrial risk.