Graduation Year
2016
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Char Miller
Reader 2
Richard Worthington
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2015 Chihiro Tamefusa
Abstract
Exide Technologies finally closed its secondary lead-battery recycling plant on March 12, 2015. The community of primarily Hispanics around the facility had to fight many years to have the polluting facility shut down. Because government agencies, whose job is to protect citizens from polluters, were not regulating the facility properly, residents are not sure if they can trust the agencies to carry out remediation effectively and efficiently either. In this paper I explore the environmental justice issues associated with environmental remediation and what community members can do to make sure that their neighborhood is cleaned up properly. Through interviews with government agencies and environmental activists heavily involved in this case, I discovered that the main environmental justice issue in remediation is increased exposure to toxins. I argue that strong community activism and involvement are necessary for remediation to happen properly, and explore some tools that can be used in this process.
Recommended Citation
Tamefusa, Chihiro, "Environmental Justice in Remediation: Tools for Community Empowerment" (2016). Pomona Senior Theses. 144.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/144
