Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
prevailing environmental inequities based on a geographic information systems (GIS)
analysis of the distribution of four types of point-source environmental hazards. We then
sketch the historical geography of their development.
17.2 Phoenix, Arizona
The Phoenix metropolitan area, with a current population of more than three million
sprawled over 1864 mile
2
of former Sonoran Desert and farmland, is the largest of the
rapidly growing desert cities of the Southwest (e.g., Albuquerque, El Paso, Las Vegas,
Tucson). Phoenix exhibits a dual pattern of industrial concentration and dispersal, with
a mix of industrial facilities concentrated near the urban core in combination with newer
decentralized industrial nodes in suburban locations. Previous environmental equity
research on Phoenix has documented pronounced inequities by race and class, both
by the location of toxic release inventory
1
(TRI) facilities and for the volume of toxic
atmospheric emissions by those industries.
1
While some large TRI facilities, primarily
corporate semiconductor manufacturers, are located in suburbs, a disproportionate
number of polluting industries operate in proximity to low income, African American
and Latino neighborhoods, producing inequities in the distribution of potential risks from
toxic atmospheric emissions.
1
To address key issues, we begin our discussion with a brief
review of recent research on environmental inequities in western Sunbelt cities before
moving to a discussion of environmental inequity in Phoenix.
17.3 Environmental Inequalities in the Western Sunbelt
While initial research on environmental justice focused on the Southeastern United States
and cities of the “Rustbelt,”* a number of more recent studies have called attention to
environmental inequities in the western Sunbelt.
†
Befitting its size, economic centrality,
and its standing as a “world city,”
11
most research attention has been directed at Los
Angeles. Several key studies have detailed both the current prevalence and the historical
development of environmental injustices, including the explicit racism in features of
industrial development and planning in LA.
7,10,12,13
While cities of the desert Southwest lack
LA's history of large-scale, concentrated Fordist industries, they are similar to LA in that
they have significant (and growing) Latino populations, expanding post-Fordist industrial
sectors, an urban spatial form given sprawl, and persistent air pollution problems.
14 -16
In matters pertaining to environmental quality, water resources, and industrial and
transportation pollution, Phoenix exhibits environmental problems shared by other
Southwestern cities. The combination of rapid, spatially expansive growth, industrial
development, and a heavy dependency on automobiles, conspire to produce chronic
air pollution problems of variable severity. Like Albuquerque, El Paso, and Las Vegas,
*
See Bullard
2
and Hurley.
3
†
See Bolin,
1
Boer et al.,
4
Clarke and Gerlak,
5
Morello-Frosch et al.,
6
Pastor et al.,
7
Pijawka et al.,
8
Pulido et al.,
9
and
Sidawi.
10
Search WWH ::
Custom Search