TY - JOUR
T1 - The ecology of technological risk in a Sunbelt city
AU - Bolin, Robert
AU - Nelson, Amy
AU - Hackett, Edward J.
AU - Pijawka, David
AU - Smith, C. Scott
AU - Sicotte, Diane
AU - Sadalla, Edward K.
AU - Matranga, Eric
AU - O'Donnell, Maureen
PY - 2002/1/1
Y1 - 2002/1/1
N2 - In this paper we examine the spatial distributions of four types of technological hazards in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area. The focus is on the locations of hazardous industrial and toxic waste sites in relation to the demographic composition of adjacent neighborhoods. Our interest is to determine whether hazardous sites, including industrial facilities in the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, Large Quantity Generators of hazardous wastes, Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities, and federally identified contamination sites, are disproportionately located in areas with lower income and minority residents. We examine patterns of environmental inequity in Phoenix, a sprawling Sunbelt city with a growing post-Fordist industrial sector. First, using 1996 EPA data for four types of technological hazards, and 1995 Special Census data for Maricopa County, we employ a GIS to map the spatial distributions of hazardous sites and to analyze the demographic characteristics of census tracts with and without point-source hazards. A second methodology is used to produce a cumulative hazard density index for census tracts, based on the number of hazard zones-one-mile-radius circles around each facility-that overlay each tract. Both methodologies disclose clear patterns of social inequities in the distribution of technological hazards. The cumulative hazard density index provides a spatially sensitive methodology that reveals the disproportionate distribution of risk burdens in urban census tracts. The findings of point to a consistent pattern of environmental injustice by class and race across a range of technological hazards in the Phoenix metropolitan region.
AB - In this paper we examine the spatial distributions of four types of technological hazards in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area. The focus is on the locations of hazardous industrial and toxic waste sites in relation to the demographic composition of adjacent neighborhoods. Our interest is to determine whether hazardous sites, including industrial facilities in the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, Large Quantity Generators of hazardous wastes, Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities, and federally identified contamination sites, are disproportionately located in areas with lower income and minority residents. We examine patterns of environmental inequity in Phoenix, a sprawling Sunbelt city with a growing post-Fordist industrial sector. First, using 1996 EPA data for four types of technological hazards, and 1995 Special Census data for Maricopa County, we employ a GIS to map the spatial distributions of hazardous sites and to analyze the demographic characteristics of census tracts with and without point-source hazards. A second methodology is used to produce a cumulative hazard density index for census tracts, based on the number of hazard zones-one-mile-radius circles around each facility-that overlay each tract. Both methodologies disclose clear patterns of social inequities in the distribution of technological hazards. The cumulative hazard density index provides a spatially sensitive methodology that reveals the disproportionate distribution of risk burdens in urban census tracts. The findings of point to a consistent pattern of environmental injustice by class and race across a range of technological hazards in the Phoenix metropolitan region.
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U2 - 10.1068/a3494
DO - 10.1068/a3494
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036206781
SN - 0308-518X
VL - 34
SP - 317
EP - 339
JO - Environment and Planning A
JF - Environment and Planning A
IS - 2
ER -