Analyzing Evidence of Environmental Justice: A Suggestion for Professor Been

One effect of the environmental justice movement has been to draw attention to the prejudices inherent in some modem environmental policies. These prejudices are most apparent when analyzing the location of hazardous waste facilities throughout the country. Several recent environmental justice studies have debated whether the location of these facilities has a direct correlation to the percentage of minorities in the surrounding areas. This article critiques some of the methodology of these recent studies, most notably that of Professor Vicki Been, to determine the rationale governing the placement of hazardous waste facilities. Furthermore, this article suggests that researchers should expand their evidentiary fields to include statistics regarding an area\u27s standard of living to obtain a more accurate analysis of the correlation between the location of hazardous waste facilities and an area\u27s minority population. Finally, this article concludes with a case study, applying this expanded method of analysis to demonstrate the inherent prejudices in choosing Noxubee County, Mississippi as a site for a hazardous waste facility