Environmental Justice
Modern Day and Historical
Examples

Maquiladoras - US/Mexico Border
● Multinational corporations operate assembly
plants along the Rio Grande.
● They take advantage of the non-stringent
pollution regulations and dump chemical waste
into the river.
● This has caused the rate of Anacephaly
(abnormally large brain) in infants in Brownsville,
Texas to be 4x the national average (Texas Health
and Human Services, 2020).
● The toxic waste pollution overwhelmingly affects
low income residents along the Rio Grande who
rely on it for their drinking water.
● Workers and residents do not have the political
means to draw attention to the problem.
Rescendez, Julian. Workers of TECMA, a cross-border plant
(maquiladora) are seen on September 29 in Ciudad Juarez,
Chihuahua state. 2020. Border Report. Web. 10 Nov 2020.

Flint Water Crisis
● The flint water crisis has been ongoing since
2014.
● Mona estimates 100,000 Flint residents were
exposed to high concentration of lead, a
neurotoxin (Mona, 2016).
● The crisis occurred in part due to infrastructure
mismanagement, and did not affect everyone’s
health equally.
● The unjust character of this crisis, where only the
people with stable incomes who could afford to
have their pipes replaced or buy bottled water
points to other factors affecting health outcomes
from environmental damage.
Guyette, Curt. Flint Water Samples. 2018.
Web. 10 Nov 2020.

The Aftermath of Katrina
● When the levees broke, many of the
people left behind were low income
minority residents.
● The areas highly populated by low
income residents were not well
maintained by local governments and
were susceptible to storm surge and
levee failure.
● The wealth gap in New Orleans
combined with failure to maintain
infrastructure were important factors in
the tragedy that ensued during the
aftermath of Katrina.U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2010.
Web. 10 Nov 2020.

Disparities in
Environmental Justice
● This graphic shows the redlined districts in
Charlotte, NC
● ( red = poor investment opportunities)
● While explicit redlining in the modern day is illegal,
its legacy still lives on.
● Take, for example, the disparities in infrastructure
in New Orleans
● The poorly maintained wards were also historically
redlined districts.
● These districts historically received less funding,
which leads to health disparities by race and class.
● In addition, the legacy of redlining prevents social
and political gain by low income and minority
residents, which prevents upward mobility.
Badger, Emily. 2017. The New York Times. Web.
10 Nov 2020.

Works Cited
1. Mona, Hanna-Attisha. “Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Children Associated With the Flint Drinking Water Crisis: A Spatial
Analysis of Risk and Public Health Response.” Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Feb. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985856/.
1. Health and Human Services, Texas. “Neural Tube Defects and the Texas-Mexico Border.” Texas Department of State Health
Services, June 2020, www.dshs.texas.gov/birthdefects/NTD_border.shtm.