LANDFILLS and ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE EASTERN COACHELLA VALLEY

For this analysis, I used the CalEnviroscreen 4.0 Data Dashboard and various filters for area, pollution indicators, and race/ethnicity using data from 2015 to 2019.

• This integrated analysis suggests a notable presence of waste disposal sites, illegal trash dumps, and clean-up sites in the eastern part of Coachella Valley compared to its western neighboring cities and the entire state of California. These waste disposal sites often catch fire releasing toxic gases into the air and increasing air pollution. Chemicals from these facilities can leach into the surrounding soil, contaminate soil and groundwater, attract pests, and produce foul odors. Due to our current model of the linear economy, landfills are filling up fast, and our neighborhoods are drowning in garbage.

• In addition to the findings from this environmental mapping exercise, it is a well-established fact that the Eastern Coachella Valley residents, predominantly consisting of Latino or Hispanic migrant agricultural working families, are overburdened with environmental hazards, including contaminated drinking water, excessive use of pesticides in their surroundings, failing septic systems, inadequate housing, poor infrastructure, as well as the environmental effects from the impaired Salton Sea located nearby. Also, they have hardly any resources to deal with these adverse environmental conditions and thus experience a low quality of life.

• The information in the above images showcases just a handful of the evidence for why we should do our best to incorporate a circular economy throughout our societies; by doing so, we can drastically change environmental justice communities for the better.

• Non-circular linear economies thus compound the effect of environmental inequity and the injustice is striking since these communities are not themselves responsible for causing the majority of environmental hazards. This is why it’s so critical to rethink the way we use earth’s resources, manage our waste and incorporate the resilient model of circular economy as a tool to influence environmental justice communities.