Most Alabama dumps sit in poor or Black areas

Most of Alabama's dumps are in parts of the state that are black or poor or both, according to a study by a group pushing for changes in Alabama.  Documenting the pattern of landfills located in poor or minority parts of town is "almost down to a science," says John Gaber, associate professor of community planning at Auburn University. "It's an international phenomenon."  The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) Reform Coalition, which claims to represent 35 groups and 20,000 people, is now armed with a study that documents the frequency with which poor and black communities are chosen as the sites of garbage dumps.  The Florida-based Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation spent months completing the study for the Alabama African-American Environmental Justice Action Network and the coalition.  Of the 29 dumps across the state the foundation analyzed, 20 were in areas with residents who are mostly black, poor or both. [more ]