The BP Cleanup and Environmental Justice

Bill Berkowitz, writing for Buzz Flash, reports on one of the hidden impacts of the BP oil disaster: that the trash resulting from the cleanup is being dumped near communities comprised largely of low-income and non-white populations. He writes that;

"...thousands of trash bags with tar balls; disposable oil-soaked booms that can't be recycled; the oil-stained sand; the oil-soaked sea-grass; medical waste used for wildlife rehabilitation; and the tons of oil contaminated rags, gloves, protective gear and now-toxic clothing used by clean-up workers are being disposed of...into regular municipal landfills in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.

[According to] Robert D. Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) '"more than 39,448 tons of oil garbage had been disposed at nine approved landfills in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. More than half (five out of nine) of the landfills receiving BP oil-spill solid waste are located in communities where people of color comprise a majority of residents living within near the waste facilities.'"

He observes that this is just part of a long legacy of "dumping in Dixie" in which such communities have borne the brunt of toxic impacts from heavy industry.