Environmental Racism and Resident Activism

Images of the Golden Gate Bridge and Cables immediately come to mind when one thinks of San Francisco. The city by the Bay is also home to fog, the '49ers, and a 77 year-old power plant. The plant is located in Bayview Hunters Point, an area of the city populated by low-income and minority residents, and is only one of their worries; however, neighborhood residents have been fighting for the closure and/or cleanup of the plant since the 1970s. This is largely because of the plant's impact on residents' health. One study by the University of California at San Francisco showed that "hospitalizations for chronic illnesses including asthma, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, and emphysema were four times more common in the Bayview than statewide" (Cooper).

This essay will examine the causes that resulted in such a lengthy battle to close what even the power company, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), long ago recognized and admitted to be an environmental hazard. There are three principal causes for the slow response to the concerns of the Bayview Hunters Point residents. These include the existence of other hazards in the same vicinity, PG&E's desire to meet the needs of other customers even at the expense of Bayview Hunters Point residents, and the communities' inability to gather the resources necessary to force a response from PG&E.

One rationale for either keeping the existing plant in operation or bulding a new one in the same location was that Bayview Hunters Point is already home to some 325 toxic sites, including San Francisco's only Superfund site (Knight). This rationale goes that if something potentially hazardous must be located in the City, it would be better to further concentrate one area than potentially contaminate additional regions. Additionally, in the face of such a great number of toxic sites, the costs and benefits of removing, replacing or adding one more seems negligible.

At the heart of this issue is the valuing of one part of the population over another. Not only did PG&E see Bayview Hunters Point as the most acceptable location for a power plant, but according to Darlene Chiu, a PG&E spokeswoman, while the company had long agreed that the power plant should be torn down, the closure took so many years because the company had to ensure that there would be enough power for the rest of the City. This statement is an excellent example of environmental racism because PG&E, the state's primary power supplier, weighed the harm the plant was causing the residents of Bayview Hunters Point against the city's need for power and decided that power was more important than the health and lives of those unfortunate enough to live in the plant's shadows. While this argument may seem somewhat valid, it is important to note that the power plant in question has long been considered highly inefficient and is certainly not one of the larger power generators in the region (Fulbright).

Looking at the effectiveness of lobbying by minorities and the poor brings to light one aspect of environmental racism that is key to understanding the issue of racism in general: people in these demographics often lack access to the basic resources that would allow them to defend themselves. As such, when PG&E continually dismissed resident's concerns, unable to afford lawyers, they had little recourse other than to continue pleading. This effort eventually included school children writing letters to the mayor about their asthma, as well as neighborhood mothers conducting research about the hazards of the plant (Fulbright).

The fact is clear that disproportionately high numbers of minorities and the poor live within close range of unhealthy and even toxic environments. Despite this, the issue is far more complex and can give rise to a certain chicken and egg debate. On side of this dbate claims that environmental hazards are purposely located in neighborhoods with high minority populations, while the opposing viewpoint holds that the existence of hazardous conditions encourage middle and upper class people to leave the region and drive down property values bringing in low income and largely minority residents?

In San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the US, the issue of environmental racism comes into focus as the economic and ethnic disparities within the city are tremendous and geographical. The Bayview Hunters Point power plant allows for an examination of environmental racism from the perspective of activism and the agency of minorities and low-income residents in environmental justice cases. While this story has a happy ending-the plant was finally closed in May, 2006-this is sadly, not the norm. However, hopefully, with this success under their belt the community will be able to build future success.

For more information:

Cooper, M. H. (1998, June 19). Environmental Justice. CQ Researcher, 8, 529-552. Retrieved December 30, 2006, from CQ Researcher Online, .

Fulbright, Leslie. "Big Victory for Hunters Point Activists: As PG&E Closes its Old, Smoky Power Plant, the Neighborhood Breathes a Sigh of Relief." San Francisco Chronicle 15 May 2006: A1. Retrieved December 30, 2006, from San Francisco Chronicle Online (linked from CQ Researcher Online). < http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/15/MNGE4IRVT91.DTL>.

Knight, Heather. "Trudging on the Toxic Tour." San Francisco Chronicle 28 November 2006: B1. Retrieved December 30, 2006, from San Francisco Chronicle Online (linked from CQ Researcher Online). >.