Tonapetyan 1

The Many Shades of Environmental Justice

The Flint water crisis awaken many residents of Michigan when corrosive Flint River
water caused lead from water pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated
levels of heavy metal. More than six thousand children drank that polluted water and had
experienced lot of serious health problems. This rapidly raised blood-lead level of many children,
and government officials started to find some possible solutions. Similarly many residents of
Vernon, Los Angeles experienced elevated lead levels near Exide battery recycling plant. This
affected many nearby residents and inadvertently made them victims of environmental racism.
Without having some good explanations, regulators continued the operation of that plant without
a full permit. After long protests, regulators closed it, though the residents of Vernon still feel the
traces of that plant.
This leads us to think about environmental justice because there is huge gap between
whites and people of color. Communities of color and privileged white communities experience a
systemic problem because there is environmental inequality between different races. Its
institutionalized oppression which we can see in Vernon. Over time white people moved to better
suburban areas which have low rate of pollution. The lack of money made people of color live in
hazardous areas of Los Angles, thereby harming their health. We need to take steps and provide
some possible solutions to this ongoing issue by treating people of color equally. Since the
environmental polluters cannot be prevented from breaking laws, the best solutions are to
provide opportunities for the people who live in these areas to move away from the pollution. We
can do this by building more public housing, educating their rights and creating more jobs so
they can earn enough to live in a healthier environment.

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As we know pollution negatively affects peoples health and quality of life. But its not
always clear which people are most exposed and impacted from that. People who are already
disadvantaged by their race and low-income are usually mostly affected by environmental
disasters. A study of environmental contamination should make it obvious to everyone that
majority of them are poor people of color. Studying environmental racism is important for an
additional reason: it helps us understand racism claims Laura Pulido, the person who
highlighted the role of environmental justice and racism in society. The Environmental Justice
movement developed thirty years ago, and though it has been successful at blocking new
projects, its ability to actually improve the environments of vulnerable communities, like Vernon,
is questionable. I argue, however, that we have to be attentive to various shifts in the racial
formation and how they inform economic processes which often result in environmental racism.
According to Manuel Pastor and Carlos Porras from Environmental Health
Perspectives Asians, African Americans, and Latinos have the highest population cancer risk
estimates, with risks nearly fifty percent higher than Anglos. Although this risk level tends to
decline for all groups as household income increases, the gap between residents of color and
Anglos is fairly consistent relative to income level (Porras 151). Most of the white people
moved from urban to suburban areas many years ago during White Flight, so people of color
filled the urban areas of Los Angeles which are cheaper but more hazardous. There is an elevated
risk of cancer among Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos who live in these poor
areas. The White Flight forced me to think about social inequality which exists among
different races. Obviously white people have more opportunities in hospitals, banks, playing
centers and other entertaining places. There isnt any written law that whites have privileges, but
relationship between different races makes it obvious. Carlos Porras and James Sadd mentioned

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in Environmental Health Perspectives that Patterns of social inequality, segregation and lack
of social capital impact communitys capacity to influence or resist environmental policy-making
and regulatory enforcement activities. I agree with their idea and I think that these are three key
terms which affect poor people. The residents of Vernon deal with these problems and continue
to struggle for a possible solution.
One of the biggest polluters in this area was Exide Technolgies Inc., a battery recycling
plant that is now closed. During its activity this plant emitted lead into the air, but recent
investigations revealed that this plant exceeded the allowed levels of lead. This had bad effect on
children and influenced their development and behavior. Some children showed imperfect
development of intellectual skills, others represented some actions that concede only mentally ill
people. For more than thirty years, Exide polluted the surrounding predominantly low-income
Latino communities. East Yard Communities of Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) mentioned that
The impact area spreads at least 1.25 - 1.75 miles from the site, encompassing 10,000
residential properties and over 100,000 residents in East LA, Boyle Heights, Bell Gardens,
Vernon and Huntington Park. This is disastrous for the residents who lived in that area and as
we can guess most of them are poor people of color.
After ten years of hard work, EYCEJ members and staff in February 2015 announced the
shutdown of Exide Technologies Inc. This was huge victory for that organization and for
residents who live nearby of that plant but this didnt solve all problems, and as expected, Exide
left some traces. This organization also created courses which contributed to the understanding
of the rights that people of color have. In this way EYCEJ members showed the residents of
Vernon that they have the right to demand non-toxic environmental conditions and live without
any concerns of becoming victims of diseases, like cancer and asthma. This helped people of

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color to demand justice for their rights and eliminate inequality which exists between them and
whites. Also it contributed to the development of relationship among people who live in Vernon
by increasing social capital which enabled society to function effectively. According to reporter
Jessica Garison from LA Times Elevated levels of lead have been found in soil of homes and
preschools near battery recycling plant in Vernon, prompting officials to issue health warnings
and order more testing in adjacent neighborhoods. Children are more vulnerable than adults and
can suffer learning disabilities even with limited exposure. This concerned lot of residents of
Vernon, and I think that some fundamental solutions will help them to avoid of the risk of cancer.
Reporter Tony Barboza mentioned in his article that Children living near a now-closed Vernon
battery recycling plant had higher levels of lead in their blood than those living farther away.
This automatically made people of color victims of harsh conditions, and that government should
take some steps to solve this ongoing problem.
Public housing is one possible solution that can save lot of childrens lives. Government
Officials can budget enough money to make that possible. According to the reporter Susan Jones
from CNS News EPA, the environmental justice small-grants program, has provided more than
23 million dollars in funding to nonprofit community groups and local government in more than
1,200 communities. What do you think is this enough money to cover all expenses? In these
communities most of the residents live in poverty and allocated money is not enough for building
that public housings. By using some green areas, which are suburban areas farther away from
plants and factories, people of color can live without any concern. They will be given a chance to
live happily, and they will start to forget the inequality which exists between them and whites,
inequality which made them isolated and kept them away from some privileges that white people

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have. Treating them equally will be one step forward in eliminating the borders which exist
among them.
Another possible solution is job openings. Most of the people who live near plants are
low-income people or people who get welfare and many have criminal records. James Kilgore, a
social justice activist in University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, mentioned that A family
member of four from ten families among people of color had been in jail or is now spending their
sentence in prisons. Everyone knows that its difficult for people with criminal background find
job because many employees require clean history. By giving opportunities, like job training,
many people of color can get better jobs and will be able to rent apartments in cleaner areas.
Trainings will prepare them to modern job responsibilities which most employees require
because most of the residents in Vernon have criminal records and spent long sentences in
prisons. In this way they will raise their rank and will not risk lives of their children.
Although many wealthy people who live in modern conditions will not concern with the
lives of people living in hazardous areas because they think that pollution will not affect them, I
think that this is one of the major social issues. The Exide not only affected the nearby
neighborhoods, but also influenced the whole region. Even areas which are farther away from the
plant feel the influence of it. This must get quick and appropriate solution and make the lives of
our successors better by avoiding any diseases that can harm people of color.
The issue of environmental justice has continuous pace and lot of people suffer from that
inequality. Although with a lot of hard work Exide battery recycling plant closed and made some
partial solution to hazardous wastes in Vernon, there are still many communities in Los Angeles,
like Boyle Heights and Huntington Park, which have similar issue. Understanding of their rights,
creating public housing in clean areas and new job openings are some possible solutions that I

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suggested. But environmental justice cant happen at once. It requires lot of hard work and
patience to achieve to the expected result.

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Reflective Letter
Dear, Professor Mercado
I passed through long process which developed my skills of writing essay and made me
better writer. This essay required lot of research and that made it different from previous ones. I
made lot of research to get relevant information about my social issue and the way how we can
improve it. Taking some statistical analysis contributed my argument on this essay and made it
stronger and convincing. Opinions of some experts gave me hints on how I can develop my
essay and what particular area needs deep examination.
The skills like, making appropriate transitions, sentence boundaries, avoiding weak thesis
statements, revision activities and peer reviews of my classmates, only contributed to my essay. I
utilized most of them in my essay and made it better. Using coordinating conjunctions and
transitional expressions made my essay more interesting and this contributed to the smooth
reading. I tried to keep appropriate transitions between my paragraphs, so my readers will not be
confused in the ideas that I mentioned. I learned this from the activity that we did in our class by
cutting all our paragraphs and rearranging in the right positions. This was good way to find the
right place of each paragraph.
Also creating my own blog was something interesting and new for me because I did it at
first time. I struggled a lot in posting interesting entries and making design of my blog but I think
I dealt with it.
Overall this essay helped me to learn lot of new skills and contributed to my knowledge
of writing essays.

Best, Arman Tonapetyan