Race, Environmental Justice, And Interest Group Mobilizations: Hazardous Waste and the Case of Sumter County, Alabama‪.‬

Over the past two decades, the issue of hazardous waste has ranked as a serious issue in the United States. Each year, approximately 275 million metric tons of hazardous waste is generated in the United States (Faupel, Bailey, Griffin, 1991). However, environmental regulations only regulate 40 million tons of the waste. The balance of the waste is unregulated and is being sent to landfill and waste sites. Many of the sites are not well equipped to handle such waste and there is an impending threat of toxins leaking into the environment (Bullard and Wright, 1986). The hazardous waste materials not only threaten the environmental quality, but also have a great impact on public health. Toxins present in hazardous wastes can create a variety of health problems. Living near a chemical plant increases ones chances of developing cancer, upper respiratory illnesses, skin conditions, nervous system diseases, and so on (White, 1992).