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TABLE OF CONTENTSPROBLEM:NAACPResidents of the Michael W. Smith Housing ProjectEPA and the DEPEnvironmental Justice Case Study:Waste Facility In Harrisburg, PAPROBLEM:Bio-Oxidation, an international company that was purchased in 1998 by the Harsco Corporation (Chemical Business Newsbase), proposed the construction of the largest TABLE OF CONTENTSProblemBackgroundKey ActorsDemographicsStrategies UsedSolutionRecommendationsGlossaryReferences*The above map taken from maps.yahoo.commedical waste incinerator in the world in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The site chosen was on North Cameron Street (DEP Hundreds). The site is next to the Michael W. Smith Housing Project (DEP Hundreds). Only 7% of the people in the area near the proposed site consist of white citizens. The other 93% is composed of blacks and other races (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). The residents of this area believe that the placement of the incinerator is racially motivated and are claiming environmental racism. The NAACP has filed a civil rights complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency, citing environmental racism (DEP Hundreds). Back to the Table of ContentsBACKGROUND:Hospitals generate waste that must be disposed of. There are several ways to dispose of this bio-hazardous waste. Among these ways are autoclaving and incinerating. Bio-Oxidation, Inc. is in the business of managing this waste. According to Bio-Oxidation, Inc., their waste processing system is “the most environmentally safe system available today (Bio-Oxidation 2000).” The Bio-Oxidizer is a two part system, consisting of both pyrolysis and oxidation. Pyrolysis breaks the organicwaste into a gas using electrical heat, which is then oxidized (O’Connor). The volume of the waste is reduced by 95% and the *Above image taken from Bio-oxidation.comremaining 5% can be discarded as municipal waste, which is simply average city trash, orcan, in some cases, be recycled as road aggregate. The resulting emissions from this process are composed of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and trace elements and there is no smokestack needed. Instead, there is a duct, much like that of a household clothes dryer. The system would be handling 100-125 pounds of medical waste per hour (Bio-Oxidation2000).Bio-Oxidation, Inc. would more than likely have the inert, leftover material shipped to the Harrisburg incinerator, an incinerator that is among the nation’s top emitters of dioxin, a carcinogen (DEP Dauphin). Any extra waste sent to the municipal incinerator further endangers the health of the residents of Harrisburg (Ewall). There is a need in thearea to dispose of medical waste, as it is near New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia and can receive waste from all of these states, including from hospitals in Pennsylvania. Bio-Oxidation applied for a permit with the Department of EnvironmentalProtection to construct a facility much like the one above. According to Bio-Oxidation, Inc., the site was chosen due to its meeting of the criteria for federal funding. Its close proximity to railroads and other factories makes it an ideal location for an incinerator (Albert).Residents of the Michael W. Smith Housing Project, who share a block with the proposedsite of the incinerator, did not welcome the proposal with open arms. At a meeting at the Department of Environmental Protection’s South-central Regional Office over 200 peoplecame to voice their thoughts and opinions concerning the medical waste incinerator (DEPHundreds). Many of these citizens were residents of the housing project. Citizens of Chester that attended the meeting and gave an account of the autoclave in their citysparked controversy (Ewall). The autoclave in Chester, which handled 67% of the nation’s waste, had financial problems and waste piled up on the site (Albert). The autoclave was shut down, although that did nothing to remedy the damage done to the health of Chester residents (Ewall). Although the autoclave was run by a company other than Bio-Oxidation, Inc., the residents of the North Cameron Street area did not want to risk a similar fate.*Above image taken from Bio-oxidation.com The NAACP then announced that they would be filing a civil rights suit claiming environmental racism. The suit was filed with the Department of Environmental Protection. The NAACP stepped into the proceedings due to two things. The first was the racial issue. The area in question is 93% minority. The second reason that the NAACP got involved was the low income of the area. These people have a median income of less than $18,000 (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). With such a low income, the people of the area would be unable to fund any sort of legal proceedings. If the accusations against Bio-Oxidation, Inc. were true, this would have been great evidence of environmental racism, as the site would have been placed in an area where the people did not have the funds to fight corporate America. Back to the Table of ContentsKEY ACTORS:Bio-Oxidation, Inc.As a subsidiary of the Harsco Corporation, Bio-Oxidation is a waste management company that services hospitals, governments, and various other industries in need of disposing of waste. In addition to managing waste, both industrial and medical, they alsoconducts feasibility studies. Bio-Oxidation designs, constructs, trains, operates, andmaintains their facilities (Bio-Oxidation 2000). Bio-Oxidation maintains that their interest in the site chosen in Harrisburg was not racially motivated, rather that it meets thecriteria for federal funding and it is, as evidenced in the map, near railroads (Albert).NAACPThe Harrisburg branch of the NAACP filed a civil rights complaint with the EPA. The suit was filed as environmental racism (DEP “Hundreds…”). The NAACP got involved because the area was demographically minority based and also low income. The NAACPseeks to gain equality and to end racial prejudice in the United States. It seeks to enforce laws securing civil rights at all levels of government and champions the cause of the minority (Ewall).Residents of the Michael W. Smith Housing ProjectLocated less then a block away, these citizens were concerned about the proposed site. Being so close and having heard stories of waste piling up in the streets in cities like Chester, Pennsylvania, these citizens got together over 200 people to attend a town meeting (DEP “Hundreds…”). Due to the fact that no site of this magnitude was located


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U-M SNRE 492 - Study Guide

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