Main argument
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Lee argues that EJ practice has long stagnated over an inability to properly define the concept of disproportionate (environmental and public health) impacts, but that national conversations on system racism and the development of EJ mapping tools have improved his outlook on the potential for better application of the concept of disproportionate impact. Lee identifies mapping tools (e.g. CalEnviroScreen) as a pathway for empirically based and analytically rigorous articulation and analysis of disproportionate impacts that are linked to systemic racism.
In describing the scope and nature of application of mapping tools, Baker highlights the concept of cumulative impacts (the concentration of multiple environmental, public health, and social stressors), the importance of public participation (e.g. Hoffman’s community science model), the role of redlining in creating disproportionate vulnerabilities, and the importance of integrating research into decision making processes.
Baker ultimately argues that mapping tools offer a promising opportunity for integrating research into policy decision making as part of a second generation of EJ practice. Key areas that Lee identifies as important to the continued development of more effective EJ practice include: identifying good models for quantitative studies and analysis, assembling a spectrum of different integrative approaches (to fit different contexts), connecting EJ research to policy implications, and being attentive to historical contexts and processes that produce/reproduce structural inequities.
Return to Chemical Valley 2019
This report is an update to Ecojustice's 2007 Report: Exposing Canada's Chemical Valley that looked at the air pollutants emitted by the petrochemical industrial complex called Chemical Valley in S
What's Left For Chemical Valley
Named “the most polluted air in Canada” in 2011 by the World Health Organization (The Chemical Valley, 2013) and
Exposing Canada’s Chemical Valley
Report by Ecojustice in 2007 that details the status of Chemical Valley and the corresponding air pollution impacting neighboring communities.
Canada's Toxic Chemical Valley (Full Length)
Short video documentary of Chemical Valley in Sarnia, Ontario Canada by VICE.
Chemical Valley Stakeholder Actions
Advocacy Action
Introduction to Chemical Valley
Nestled along the St. Clair River in Ontario, CA are over 60 oil and chemical plants, accounting for 40% of Canada’s chemical industry (McDonald & Rang, 2007).
The Pollution Reporter app in an example of a civic data resource for the Chemical Valley (Sarnia, CA) case study (Group #3).