Those in
authority must assure, by all means and by human rights, “everyone
enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and
equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in
which to live, learn, and work” (US EPA, 2007). The latest environmental injustice
I do remember is the Flint Water Crisis in Michigan when the drinking water
source for the city was changed to the Flint River to cut funding. The total
number of deaths is 15.
The problem began when the city switched its water supply
in 2014. Almost immediately, residents of Flint, a majority-black city where 40%
of people live in poverty, started complaining about the quality of the water
and illnesses. City and state officials denied, for months, that there was a
serious problem. Tests in 2015 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Virginia Tech indicated dangerous levels of lead in
the water at residents' homes.
The Flint water crisis is also memorable to me. It makes me wonder how many other towns have such severe environmental injustices that we do not hear about! Hopefully with increased activism and environmental assessment, we can start to address some of the injustices.
ReplyDeleteThe Flint disaster was an emergency that was ignored for to long. To switch a main resource to a contaminated resource goes beyond any one man. To subject people to dangerous bacteria and chemicals to save money happens to be nowhere near exceptional. Great blog!
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