The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new Toxic Release Inventory shows companies’ data on industrial waste last year, and of all of Peoria’s zip codes, four have businesses that say they released between 12.6 tons to six pounds.
Metro Peoria has 33 “TRI facilities,” says the EPA, which administers the annual reports of data provided by the companies themselves under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which was passed in 1986.
The sites are in mostly low-income neighborhoods, and there’s been little public outcry from residents about harmful substances in their midst. Objections to the proximity of some business or government plans —protests dubbed NIMBY, for “Not In My Back Yard” — have ranged from disapproval of a port at Chillicothe’s riverfront to opposition to changes in parks or proposals for subsidized housing.
Thousands of people live near these TRI sites, but there’s no indication of “environmental justice” concerns.
Tonyisha Harris of the Illinois Environmental Council says sometimes complaints emerge from marginalized neighborhoods.
“Environmental justice sets out to remove qualifiers such as race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status from being a predictor of pollution and toxic development,” she told the Community Word. “Oftentimes, these communities contribute the least to pollution but bear the burden of its effects.
“Racist policies like redlining and lax environmental enforcement or regulation allow for polluting industries to be...
Read Full Story: http://thecommunityword.com/online/blog/2022/01/01/industrial-neighbors-say-pollutants-are-controlled/
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