"Environmental racism refers to any policy, practice or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intended or unintended) individuals, groups or communities based on race or color." ~ Dr. Robert Bullard, Environmental Justice Resource Center, Clark Atlanta University "There are sinister forces in the nation who are committed to the proposition that there should not be equal protection for communities of color." ~ Damu Smith, Executive Director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network "In the past we marched and died for freedom. In the new millennium we must march because we are dying." ~ Dr. Beverly Wright, director of the Deep South Center on Environmental Justice at Xavier University in New Orleans Read The Principles of Environmental Justice, adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991.

Environmental Racism in Harrisburg

The area closest to the Harrisburg incinerator has the highest percentage of minority residents in the county. South Harrisburg has been home to the country's most polluting trash incinerator for over 30 years. A new trash incinerator is planned to replace it. Toxic ash piles sit there forever. Two years ago, there was an unpublicized attempt to build a large gas-fired power plant on the same property. In 1998, the world's largest medical waste treatment facility was planned for another part of Cameron Street - also near public housing projects. The treated waste would have been burned in the incinerator. There is now a plan to build a sewage sludge pelletization facility across the street (on Elliot St.) - the same sort of facility as the one in the Bronx that just had an explosion.