2007-03-20 02:22:55 -

WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Environmental injustice in minority communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, according to a follow-up study to the landmark "Toxic Waste and Race in the United States" report that put the environmental justice movement on the map two decades ago. Both studies were commissioned by the United Church of Christ. The new study commemorates the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking first study.

The executive summary of the 180-plus page report Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty 1987-2007, "again reflects a

clear racial pattern where waste sites are located and the way the government responds or does not respond to contamination emergencies in people of color communities," said Carlos Correa, minister for environmental justice with the United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries.

The findings show that 20 years later, disproportionately large numbers of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that people of color are not equally protected by environmental laws. "People of color across the United States have learned the hard way that waiting for government agencies to respond to toxic contamination can be hazardous to their health and the health of their communities," said Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. Bullard was the principal investigator for the study.

The 180-plus page report points to the dismal post-Katrina response in New Orleans as one example of unequal treatment of minorities in hazardous waste emergencies. The findings also show that environmental laws don't protect minority communities any more than they did 20 years ago when the report was originally commissioned.

The report is the first national study to use a new method of data analysis that better locates people in relation to hazardous waste sites, and uses 2000 census data to show that the racial disparities are much greater than previously reported. It includes two detailed case studies, one on post- Katrina New Orleans and the other on toxic contamination in an African American community in Dickson, Tennessee.

The full text of the report is embargoed for release on Earth Day, April 22.

Source: United Church of Christ