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Title: Disproportionality and Resource-Based Environmental Inequality: An Analysis of Neighborhood Proximity to Coal Impoundments in Appalachia
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2017
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Abstract: Environmental hazards created by resource extraction impose numerous risks on rural populations, but have been understudied in quantitative analyses of environmental inequality. This study fills that gap by examining whether neighborhoods with socioeconomic disadvantages are disproportionately proximate to coal impoundments in Appalachia. Coal impoundments are large, hazardous dams that hold billions of gallons of wastewater and slurry, a sludge-like by-product of processing coal. I ground this study in William Freudenburg's double diversion framework, which highlights disproportionalitythe unequal trade-off between economic benefits and environmental costs of certain industries. Disproportionality is evident in Appalachia, where coal mining makes up a small percentage of the region's jobs, but threatens local communities through the creation of environmental hazards. Spatial regression results indicate that neighborhoods closest to impoundments are slightly more likely to have higher rates of poverty and unemployment, even after controlling for rurality, mining-related variables, and spatial dependence. The findings also suggest that a neighborhood's proximity to past mining activity is a stronger predictor of impoundment proximity than current levels of mining employment. This article lays the groundwork for future research on resource-based environmental inequality that considers the uneven spatial distribution of hazards created by resource extraction.
Url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ruso.12119/full
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Authors: Greenberg, Pierce
Periodical (Full): Rural Sociology
Issue: 1
Volume: 82
Pages: 149-178
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Natural Resource Management
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