Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline

Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline, first published in 1991, provides a rare glimpse of the environmental justice movement as it plays out in four landmark struggles at the end of the twentieth century. The book describes the stories of everyday people who have decided to take to the streets to battle what they perceive as injustice: the unequal exposure of minorities and the poor to the 'bads' produced by our industrial society. In these struggles residents and local, state, and national environmental and social justice groups are on one side pitted against local and state government representatives and industry on the other. By employing historical and theoretical lenses in viewing these struggles, the book reveals how situations of environmental injustice are created and how they are resolved. These cases bear great similarity to battles occurring across the nation, and are setting precedents for national and state agencies as they handle these cases.

Table of Contents:
1. Environmental justice struggles in perspective; 2. Roots of environmental justice in Louisiana; 3. The Nation's first major environmental justice judgment: the LES Clairborne Uranium Enrichment Facility; 4. EPA's environmental justice test case: the Shintech PVC Plant; 5. Media savvy Cajuns and Houma Indians fight Exxon's oilfield waste in Grand Bois; 6. Stress and the politics of living on a superfund site - the agriculture street municipal landfill (with Amanda Leiker); 7. The Empire Strikes Back: backlash and implications for the future; First hand resources on environmental justice struggles: web sites; Further readings.

Review :
"Four fascinating accounts of the gutsy struggles of minority communities for a measure of environmental protection. Facing the combined power of the business and government 'growth machine' and its ability to play the intricate federal system, the communities persist, and they do not lose either. A compelling and readable book that is also sophisticated." Frances Fox Piven, The City University of New York "This book clearly documents why Louisiana has emerged as the epicenter of a national public policy earthquake known as environmental justice. Scholars, students, activists and policymakers will find it an essential source on key controversies of the 1990s. It is especially useful in demonstrating how such battles arise, why poor communities of color are not doomed to lose them, and why the environmental justice issue will endure." Christopher H. Foreman, Jr., University of Maryland; Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Governmental Studies Program, The Brookings Institution "This book is an excellent chronicle of the maelstrom of environmental injustices and racism in Louisiana. The authors consciously construct their work to ensure maximum authenticity of voice..." Environment "Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline takes the reader to the epicenter of U.S. struggles over environmental justice: Louisiana, America's quintessential 'pollution haven.' This is the most useful environmental justice book for use in undergraduate sociology and environmental studies courses that has been published thus far." Frederick H. Buttel, University of Wisconsin, Madison "A fresh look at a dirty old problem of environmental injustice in Louisiana's Cancer Alley." Robert D. Bullard, Clark Atlanta University, author of Dumping in Dixie "Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline takes the reader to the epicenter of U.S. struggles over environmental justice: Louisiana, America's quintessential 'pollution haven.' This is the most useful environmental justice book for use in undergraduate sociology and environmental studies courses that has been published thus far." Frederick H. Buttel, University of Wisconsin, Madison "This is exactly what the title proclaims, a series of reports on environmental justice battles that have taken place in the recent past around the country...a good place to get up to speed on the long and difficult effort to achieve environmental justice." Earthjustice In Brief "In this book, Roberts and Toffolon-Weiss dig beneath the advocacy sound bites and statistics to examine four environmental justice cases as real, personal struggles of individuals for their health and the health of their communities.... All those concerned with social development should consult this book." Social Development Issues "These authors give a particularly chilling account of the political-economic climate in Louisiana in which race and economics have always been complexly intertwine, dating back to the era of slavery." Brenda L. Murphy, Wilfrid Laurier University