HAZARDOUS-WASTE FACILITIES - ENVIRONMENT EQUITY ISSUES IN METROPOLITAN-AREAS

Recent widely publicized studies claim facilities for treatment, stora ge, and disposal of hazardous wastes (TSDFs) are located in areas with higher than average proportion, of minorities, thereby exposing minor ities to relatively greater levels of potential risk. These claims hav e influenced national policies and public perceptions. This article re visits those claims in the first national study of TSDFs to use census tract-level data, finding no consistent and statistically significant differences in the racial or ethnic composition of tracts that contai n commercial TSDFs and those that do not. Aggregating tracts surroundi ng TSDF tract locations, the authors find that the claims of the previ ous studies rest on using larger areal aggregates (zip code areas) on the peripheries of which the densities of minority populations are hig her The authors conclude that whether minorities are exposed to greate r risk depends on how distance from TSDF sites is related to that risk an issue on which there is currently little knowledge.