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Three Categories of Environmental
Equity
Issues
Procedural Inequity - This issue addresses questions of fair
treatment:
the extent that governing rules, regulations, and evaluation criteria are
applied uniformly. Examples of procedural inequity are "stacking" boards
and commissions with pro-business interests, holding hearings in remote
locations to minimize public participation, and using English-only
material to communicate to non-English speaking communities.
Geographical Inequity - Some neighborhoods, communities, and
regions
receive direct benefits, such as jobs and tax revenues, from industrial
production while the costs, such as the burdens of waste disposal, are
sent elsewhere. Communities hosting waste-disposal facilities receive
fewer economic benefits than communities generating the waste.
Social Inequity - Environmental decisions often mirror the power
arrangements of larger society and reflect the still-existing racial bias
in the United States. Institutional racism has influenced the siting of
noxious facilities and has let many black communities become "sacrifice
zones."
Source: Robert D. Bullard. "Waste and Racism: A Stacked Deck?" Forum for
Applied Research and Public Policy. Spring 1993.
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