The Availability of Private Suits to Enforce Environmental Justice: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

For over twenty years legal and social commentators and advocates have recognized that low income and minority communities bear a disproportionate burden regarding pollution, hazardous waste siting, and other environmental hazards. . . . This phenomenon is known generally as environmental injustice. Environmental racism focuses on a subset of the environmental injustice claims that relate specifically to disproportionate burdens that occur along racial lines. The environmental justice movement aims to eliminate these injustices. [From Introduction]