The locality of waste sites within the city of Chicago: a demographic, social, and economic analysis

In 1987, the United Church of Christ (UCC) released Toxic Waste and Race in the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites (1987) which stimulated substantial research and activism concerning the disproportionate exposure of minorities to environmental hazards. The current study responds to many of the deficiencies of previous research by integrating the demographic history with an empirical analysis of the distribution of hazardous waste in a major American industrial city. Two hypothesis are tested: (1) contemporaneous disproportionate exposure, and (2) discriminatory intent in waste siting decisions. Interestingly, there is evidence that Hispanics are disproportionately exposed, but there is not evidence of disproportionate exposure to the most dangerous hazards for African Americans either currently or historically.