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.
By Ron Fonger
Flint -- A University of Michigan professor (click here) is calling the Flint water crisis "the most egregious example of environmental injustice and racism in my over three decades of studying this issue."
Professor and researcher Paul Mohai made the comment in an article published Oct. 19 in the Michigan Sociological Review, saying the magnitude of the water emergency, the role of public officials in allowing it and the slow pace of response all factored into his assessment.
"What stands out ... is the apparent indifference and lack of concern that harm might be created," the article says. "And even after the harm was created and finally acknowledged, there has been (an) apparent lack of sense of urgency to fix the problems."
Mohai, a professor at the UM School for Environment and Sustainability, has studied environmental justice since the late 1980s, just a few years after the movement began, the university said in a news release....
Environmental Justice is about equity. It is a very American concept. The idea that every American has the same environmental advantages as every other American. All Americans should receive clean air and water. Their choices should not be impacted by their income or where they live in the USA.
Environmental Justice is often compromised by socio-economic dynamics and if there was an illustration of that it was Flint and the nearby communities. While Flint was receiving clean water up to the point where Governor Snyder removed their elected government; there should have been a real effort to clean up the Flint River since the beginning. They cleaned up the Love Canal, there should have been serious water clean up efforts over the decades.
Case in point.
Nearly twenty years these toxins have been in the air around Flint, but, only when the property has value in a sale is anything done about it. That is ridiculous. It is more than ridiculous, it is outrageous. This is 2018. There is no excuse for any of this.
October 25, 2018
Flint — Officials say the sale (click here) of remaining portions of a massive former manufacturing site in Flint, Michigan, are on hold after another kind of chemical contamination was confirmed.
The Flint Journal reports the update comes after toxins known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS , were found at Buick City, where Detroit-based General Motors once built cars.
Bruce Rasher, redevelopment manager for the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response Trust, says it's continuing to market the property but won't close on a sale "until we have a deeper understanding of PFAS impacts at the site" and come up with a "comprehensive remedial strategy."
Most of Buick City closed in 1999, creating one of Michigan's largest brownfield sites....
