From the Ground Up

    The main focus of From the Ground up is on the fundamental power imbalance between a community and a multi-million dollar corporation and the government process through which their interactions filter. Often the siting process is captured by the corporation through the promise of tax revenue and the potential of new industry in the area. As the environmental justice movement grows, it becomes clear that the placement of waste treatment facilities go the path of least resistance by placing them where the fewest people are likely to protest, which are perceived to be communities of lower socioeconomic backgrounds, often largely made up of racial minorities. From the Ground Up describes ways in which communities are able to force companies to account for them and affect the decision-making process to take back some level of control so that communities can take part in the siting process that all waste treatment facilities must go through to obtain a permit. Cole and Foster, both lawyers experienced in environmental law, write,

    "Because environmental justice struggles are at heart political and economic struggles, a legal response is often inappropriate or unavailable. In fact, bringing a lawsuit may ensure certain loss of the struggle at hand or cause significant dis-empowerment of community residents. Tactically, taking environmental problems out of the streets and into courts has proven, in many instances, to be a mistake. In struggles between private industry and a host community, there are two types of power: the power of money and the power of people. Private industry has the money, while communities have the people; this disparity in resources is evident in many environmental justice cases, such as those litigated in Buttonwillow and in Chester" (129).

    What the authors are saying is that moving the disagreement back to traditional channels shifts the advantage back to the corporations which have the money and access to the court system to affect the decision, while at the same time reducing the impact of community voices. The cases that are described in From the Ground Up concern either the expansion of existing treatment facilities or the placement of new ones, meaning that communities are fighting to prevent additional pollution on the grounds that the facility locations are concentrated disproportionally in their community. To successfully litigate a case of racial discrimination, in most cases  the community must prove that there is racially discriminatory INTENT in the placement of facilities, which is difficult.

    More commonly lawsuits focus on the permitting process breaking existing laws by not properly informing the community and soliciting responses from those the decisions most affect. In these cases, a corporation should have informed the citizens by placing ads in the newspaper, posting signs at the site, or sending mail notices. However, this process is often not completed in any way that would successfully inform, giving the community an opportunity to sue. For example, in Kettleman City, Chemical Waste Management, Inc. printed notices in a newspaper printed forty miles away, posted signs on a fence post three and a half miles from the town, and sent mail notices to landowners situated directly adjacent to the land  meaning agribusiness and oil companies like Chevron (2). In this case and others, the corporations follow the letter of the law but not the intent, meaning again that it may be difficult to win a lawsuit by proving that the community was not sufficiently informed.

    Litigation may have a different place in a suit concerning pollution due to negligence. For example, a waste treatment facility that has improperly protected local soil and water from pollution may be sued for damages. This is unrelated to environmental racism excepting the fact that more waste facilities are situated near minority communities meaning those communities are more likely to be victims of improper waste disposal and as Dr. Bullard said, less likely to be informed or protected when there is an incident.  By focusing on the siting process, the authors claim that the best defense against the harmful effects of waste disposal facilities concentrating in their community is to be aware and active enough to prevent that from happening in the first place.

    From the Ground Up is more about political involvement than environmental issues. It reminded me of local political issues that come up in town council meetings. I remember a few years ago in my hometown of Harrisburg (near Charlotte) we had a short burst of political involvement over the proposed placement of a few big box stores (Walmart/ Lowe's/ Target). Town council meetings are generally pretty boring, dealing with mundane issues like zoning. When people get involved it is because they are paying attention to issues that directly affect them. For example, in my town the no-big box movement was lead by people living in a certain neighborhood that would be right next to the proposed Walmart shopping center. Then other people got involved as those original people convinced others that the new Walmart would negatively affect the community and hurt our "small-town" image. It was interesting to see how involved people got in these issues, to the point that we actually elected a few new town-council members on anti-big box platforms, beating town council members who had been elected for years.

 

This video has been creatively edited to make Hagler say aye repeatedly but gives a good idea of how boring town council meetings can be, even on fairly controversial issues like the big box stores in Harrisburg. It is easy to see how certain interests are able to operate under the radar of residents.

     Also, it is amazing how entrenched in local politics just a few families are in Harrisburg. There are a few town council members who have been elected for years, facing virtually no competition and you see a lot of the same last names. We have had the same mayor for nearly twenty-five years and he has run unopposed quite often in my memory. From the Ground Up is about people not often involved in politics empowering themselves by finding ways to influence the political system in their favor.

    Maybe you have heard of the recent water system hearings in Asheville? Asheville Citizen-Times