K. David Pijawka

The Ecology of Technological Risk in a Sunbelt City

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 EPAs 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 point to a consistent pattern of environmental injustice by class and race across a range of technological hazards in the Phoenix metropolitan region.

Societal response to hazards and major hazard events: Comparing natural and technological hazards

ibid.; A. A. Atkisson and W. J. Petak, Seismic Safety Policies and Practices in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: A Three City Case Study (Washington, D.C.: Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1981); Petak and Atkisson, National Hazard Risk Assessment and Public Policy, op. cit.; and T. E. Drabek, A. H. Mushkatel, and T. S. Kilijanek, Earthquake Mitigation Policy: The Experience of Two States (Boulder, Colo.: Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado, 1983). 7. Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO vs. American Petroleum Institute et al., U.S. Supreme Court 78-91, 2 July 1980, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 8. Ibid.

Environmental equity in a sunbelt city: the spatial distribution of toxic hazards in Phoenix, Arizona

Abstract This paper examines the spatial distributions of industrial facilities emitting toxic substances in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan region. The analysis relies on geographic information system mapping of hazardous facilities listed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) to assess the spatial distribution of polluting industries in relation to the demographic composition of host neighborhoods. The research addresses four questions: (1) Are there differences between the socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods with and without polluting industrial facilities? (2) Is there a relationship between the volume of toxic chemicals released from industrial facilities and the socioeconomic characteristics of host neighborhoods? (3) Is there a relationship between the toxicity of the chemicals released from industrial facilities and the socioeconomic characteristics of those living in proximity? (4) Do alternative methods for determining the distribution of potentially affected populations produce different observed patterns of environmental inequities? The study concludes that there is a clear pattern of environmental inequity in Phoenix based on the location and volume of emissions of TRI facilities. Analysis of the toxicity of emissions found a more equal distribution of risk, reflecting the suburbanization of high-technology industries into predominantly white middle-class communities.

Environmental Equity in Central Cities: Socioeconomic Dimensions and Planning Strategies

This study presents the case of a neighborhood in South Phoenix, Arizona, where latent feelings of inequity in the community were heightened by a serious contamination incident. The incident amplified perceptions of environmental risk and reinforced perceptions of distributional, procedural, and process inequities. Housing prices within the affected area continue to reflect a risk-induced discount when compared to those in adjacent and similar neighborhoods. The property value diminution in the affected area has occurred despite assurances of governmental agencies that residual contaminants are within safe limits. The article concludes with a number of strategies for planners, which should help strengthen planning processes that involve environmental equity considerations in the central areas of our major cities.

Coping with Extreme Hazard Events: Emerging Themes in Natural and Technological Disaster Research.

The field of thanatology has given extensive attention to death as an outcome of illness. A more comprehensive picture, however, would also encompass the hazards of natural and technological disasters. Deaths from both natural and technological disasters continue to increase in the United States, despite intensified government efforts to reverse this trend, and despite improved understanding of the cognitive processes of people who face either long-term or impending catastrophes. Key findings are reviewed in the areas of vulnerability to natural hazards, disaster behavior and risk perception, societal concern over technological hazard, and the social-psychological effects of disasters. It is noted that findings based upon natural disasters cannot necessarily be extrapolated to technological disasters, such as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Furthermore, data on long-term emotional recovery from natural disasters are inconsistent. Among areas requiring more extensive research is the role of the media, and the measurement of secondary consequences to disaster exposure. Improved methodologies for measuring distress over long periods of time must be developed. The disaster may never end for technological disaster victims because of the long latency period between exposure and disease manifestation.

Planning for hazard mitigation in the U.S.‐Mexican border region: An assessment of hazardous waste generation rates for transportation

Abstract This paper provides an assessment of the trends in hazardous waste shipments across the U.S.‐Mexican border. These wastes are generated in the maquiladoras (assembly plants) operating in the northern border of Mexico and are expected to be shipped back to the United States under the conditions imposed by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement. However, very little of such waste is actually sent back. This study first estimates generation rates for hazardous waste, based on shipment data, by type of maquiladora industry for 1995 and prior years. Second, it uses Sonora, Mexico, as a case to illustrate the impending problems of waste transportation and treatment by projecting hazardous waste shipments to 2005. The paper concludes with some suggested research to address the current policy impasse in managing hazardous wastes in the U.S.‐Mexican border.

Public response to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Generating Station

We examine the nature of the public response to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Generating Station located in San Luis Obispo, California, from the early 1960s to the present. Four distinct phases of public intervention were discerned, based on change in both plant-related issues and in the nature of the antinuclear constituencies in the region. The level of public concern varied both geographically and temporally and is related to the areas social structure, environmental predispositions, and distribution of plant-related economic benefits. External events, such as the prolonged debate over the risk assessment of the seismic hazard and the Three Mile Island accident were found to be important factors in explaining variation in public concern and political response.