The mother of environmental justice, Southside Chicago’s own Hazel M. Johnson is known for her fight against urban pollution in her work to confront the Chicago Housing Authority’s refusal to repair contamination done to its housing water supply as well as homes the CHA had knowingly built on top of illegal dumping sites of toxic waste. There have been laws enacted by Congress and the EPA for the last 40 years to protect land against hazardous waste disposal, although several of these laws only further designate more land and structures discriminately as “approved facilities” for landfills, impoundments and incinerators. The biggest toxic waste landfills in the country are those found in neighborhoods predominantly of color and low-income. The most negligence in regards to industrial risks to safety are found in neighborhoods of color and low-income. Asbestos exposure, harmful particles of outdated gasoline residuals, arsenic and lead poisoning are the lead causes of major health concerns in children and those pregnant living in these urban communities. Today such heavy metal contamination continues to be overlooked. Crude oil pipeline construction and fossil fuel drilling through Indigenous land continues to cause massive soil pollution as the frequency of unmanaged oil spills increase. Corner-cutting on the municipal level in water treatment continues to cause bacterial outbreaks and chemical exposure in Black residential areas, leading residents to resort to heating water from plastic bottles to even clean themselves.
FIGHT AGAINST ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM