Dumping in dixie revisited: The evolution of environmental injustices in South Carolina

Objective. Much of the environmental justice research has focused on outcom e-the relative location of hazardous facilities and low-income or minority populations. While presenting a snapshot of contemporary inequities, these studies fail to demonstrate some of the underlying causes that produced suc h outcomes. One question is whether the facility was located initially in a minority or low-income community or if minority and low-income populations came to live around the facility over time. This article examines demograp hic changes in areas near hazardous facilities to ascertain which came firs t. Methods. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS), major South Caroli na TRI facilities were classed as urban, suburban, or rural. The racial and income characteristics of host areas surrounding these facilities were tra ced from the establishment date of the facility through 1990. These results were compared statistically against state data for the same time period. R esults. At the time the facilities were established, there were no statisti cally significant relationships between race and location except for a few host areas that had significantly lower percentages of minority residents t han the state average. The results for income were mixed, with only rural h ost areas having income levels generally lower than the state average; inco me levels in suburban and urban host areas were generally equal to or highe r than the state average income. By 1990, all host areas except rural areas had significantly higher minority percentages than the state. All host are as except urban areas had significantly lower income levels than the state in 1990. Conclusions. These results indicate that the facilities came first . While inequitable situations may exist currently, the process by which th ey came about is more likely explained by state and regional migration patt erns and market dynamics.