Environmental Injustice Towards Minority Populations Has Become a Topic of Concern As The

Abstract

Environmental injustice towards minority populations has become a topic of concern as the presence and distribution of pollution is becoming more apparent. Many areas throughout North Carolina have a high disparity between the percentages of white persons versus the percentage of minority persons in the overall population of an area; leading to a higher probability that one group is affected more. We hypothesized that throughout North Carolina, areas with predominately minority populations are located in closer proximity to pollution sources and thus are affected more than mainly white population areas. To explore this we extracted toxic release data from Toxnet.gov while using existing census data to describe census blocks throughout North Carolina in terms of either percent minority or percent white. By creating a total score for each census block based on distance from release points and percent minority or percent white, we were able to either support or refute our hypothesis. Findings showed….

(+Key Findings, +Conclusion).

Background

Toxic pollution releases have been becoming more widespread and of greater concern in recent years. Minority populations on average suffer from social problems such as lower educational and income levels which ultimately affects the areas in which these populations live. However, due to planning and management strategies many cases have found a higher concentration of toxic pollution sources within closer proximity areas with a high percentage of minority population. The potential higher concentration of toxic pollution affecting these populations could be taking years from their lives. This research hopes to discover how minority populations in North Carolina are affected by toxic released in contrast to white populations.

Study Site

Methods

Methods

§  Program written using python to extract GPS coordinates of toxic release points in North Carolina from toxnet.gov textfile. Resultant coordinates put into excel format.

§  GIS shapefile created using excel and arcmap to display toxic release point data in North Carolina.

§  Demographic census data compiled for census blocks across North Carolina.

§  Using excel, new fields were created by classifying existing North Carolina population data based on percent white and percent minority within the census blocks.

§  New fields joined with existing census data using arcmap.

§  New fields converted to raster data for two maps (Percent White Map and Percent Minority Map)

§  Population percentage data for both maps were broken into classes of 5 percent.

§  Population percentage data for both maps were reclassified into scores from 1 (lowest) to 20 (greatest) based on percent white and percent minority (for percent white map and percent minority map, respectively).

§  Map layer created using arcmap to display the spatial analysis distance from toxic pollution release points.

§  Above layer reclassified into scores from 1 (furthest) to 20 (closest) based on proximity to release points.

§  Total score of each area was calculated based on distance from release point and percent minority or percent white, depending on the map.

§  Statistical analysis performed on data from both maps to show support for or against a correlation between high percentage minority populations and proximity to pollution discharge sites.

Results

Conclusion