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Title: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Racial Disparity in the Distribution of Superfund Sites within Santa Clara County, California

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2022

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Abstract: Sites listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority List (NPL) are some of the most polluted or contaminated locations in the United States. Only locations that have been evaluated as posing the greatest widespread and imminent threat to human health and/or the biophysical environment make it onto the NPL, and Santa Clara County (SCC) in California is home to twenty-three of them. Since the creation of the NPL and associated Superfund program in the 1980s, hundreds of studies in the field of environmental justice have provided evidence that the burdens of environmental hazards, like Superfund sites, are not distributed equally across racial, ethnic, or economic groups. Thus, in an effort to better understand the extent of this idea this project seeks to ascertain if a spatial disparity in the distribution of Superfund site locations within SCC exists today and whether post-siting demographic change occurred around sites within the county. This project maps the locations of active and historic Superfund sites in addition to completing a longitudinal, area-weighted analysis of the surrounding communities and study area. By spatiotemporally assessing theories associated with hazardous waste sites and disparities, this project ultimately seeks to provide a clearer understanding of how environmental hazards and disparities can affect and shape the communities in which they are found.

Url: https://spatial.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/formidable/12/Chelsea-Valenzuela-thesis.pdf

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Authors: Mana-Ay Valenzuela, Chelsea

Institution: University of Southern California

Department: Geographic Information Science and Technology

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Pages: 1-63

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Population Mobility and Spatial Demography, Race and Ethnicity

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