They say that money isn't everything, but it sure helps. Of course, it is those that already have money that tend to say this. In any event, life requires that people have some level of financial wherewithal.

Being poor in America involves more than just not having enough things. Being poor very often, most often, also means not having political power. And in this country, where power tends to mean so much, not having political power can be worse than not having money.

If you do not have power, you may very well end up getting what those with power do not want. Landfills, incinerators, stinky factories, waste storage facilities, etc. You do not typically find these kinds of things in wealthy neighborhoods. They seem to generally be located in poorer, often minority communities.

Rich folks make political donations and get to have their voices heard. Politicians generally will not risk offending these people with even a suggestion that they might be called on to house the next landfill or incinerator.

In addition, poor people cannot retain lawyers and experts that are sometimes necessary to fight the fight. So, when a large company is considering moving a potentially hazardous business into a neighborhood, if it's a choice between a neighborhood that contains residents who can afford to fight and one that contains residents who cannot afford to fight, guess where the facility usually ends up.

This issue is generally referred to as "environmental justice." It has been simmering for 20 years or so, but now is simmering to a boil. What environmental justice signifies, essencially, is that being poor or a member of a minority population does not give license to the government or to industry to place a disproportionate amount of noxious operations in your neighborhood.

Are there environmental justice problems in this country? This is something that people disagree about today. Some people seem to be quick (too quick) to label any siting of a less than desirable operation into a poor community as evidence that this injustice is alive and well today. On the other hand, others call the entire concept hogwash. I fall squarely in the middle.

There have been numerous well publicized cases which seem to point to environmental "in-justice." There was a California neighborhood that already had housed every kind of nasty operation known to man when the local power utility proposed a new plant that would spew additional toxins. There was a New York state playground that was known to contain lots of arsenic laden soil, which was apparently ignored by officials for years. There was a Pennsylvania community that already housed a disproportionate number of noxious operations, and had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court to block yet another such operation.

These stories suggest that environmental "injustice" may be at work in certain cases. But, how can we know for sure when this is a factor in a particular instance? Fortunately, the government is suggesting how we can tell.

The New York region of the U.S. EPA has just proposed very comprehensive environmental justice guidelines. They were published in December 1999. You may review them at the Agency's web site and can submit comments about them to the Agency. If you care about this issue, this might be a productive exercise for you.

Other EPA regions have also published guidance documents concerning this area as have also various state agencies. Expect much more to come and expect scholars to continue to evaluate this issue. Many law schools and social organizations are now devoting resources to this pursuit.

Environmental justice is another way of saying "spread the wealth and spread the detriment." As you can see, environmental issues are often grounded more in socio-economic considerations than in pure science.

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Published: February 10, 2000

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Stuart Lieberman, Esq. writes about environmental issues. He was a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General assigned to the State Department of Environmental Protection from 1986 to 1990. Currently he is a shareholder in the environmental law firm of Lieberman & Blecher, P.C., located in Princeton, New Jersey. Stuart can be reached at slieberman@liebermanblecher.com.