Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 7 June 2001 — Page 35

The Muncie Times, June 7, 2001, page 35

Environmental website says Delaware minorities face toxic hazards

NEW YORK—People of color in Delaware County face 260 percent higher levels of toxic chemical releases in their neighborhoods than white people, analysis by Enviromental Defense on its www.Scorecard.org website shows. The data are part of a recently launched new information service on enviromental justice, which provides comparative analysis on enviromental conditions, as they are distributed across different demographic groups, for every area of the United States. The specific Enviromental Justice report for http://www.scorecard.org/ community/ejsummary.tcl?fips_county_ code=18035 “This access to comparative data in a single place is an important breakthrough for the enviromental justice movement,” said Gerald Torres, a law professor at the University of Texas and a former U.S. Justice Department official. “For the public at large, it will make it possible to see differentials in enviromental burdens in our society, not just where those problems are already obvious but place by throughout the country.” “Enviromental justice is important, sensitive, and hard to measure,” said Enviromental Defense senior attorney David Roe. “We are putting the best measurement data we can find out into public view,

so people can see a local picture, no matter where they live.” The new service, launched in English and Spanish, represents the first time local-level enviromental data have been systematically analyzed across the country to show the differences experienced by different demographic groups (such as people of color, low-income families, etc.). “These are first-cut data only. “The best numbers available today are very far from being perfect measures of the enviromental burdens that different people experience—and, of course, numbers can’t tell the whole enviromental justice story. But systematic data on the where’ and how much’ of unequal enviromental conditions, even if imperfect, will help to focus attentionand set priorities in this critical area of public policy.” The www.Scorecard.org site offers statistics on how four enviromental burdens are experienced by seven different demographic groups, in every U.S. county. The four measurements are: local releases of toxic chemicals (as reported under the Toxics Release Inventory); local cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants (estimated from detailed U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency exposure data); proximity to Superfund sites; and proximity to stationary of criteria air pollutants.

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