"If you look at Newark, it’s hard to comprehend how anyone ever thought it acceptable to put a sewage treatment facility, the largest trash incinerator in the state, two power plants and a giant port together in a small area that is next to the longest Superfund site in the country—the Passaic River,” says Maria Lopez-Nuñez, deputy director for organizing and advocacy for Ironbound Community Corp. in Newark, N.J. “At what point do we protect human health?”
Research validates the risks faced by those living closest to pollution-intensive facilities, some sited decades ago in low-income or heavily minority communities—whether for cost, expedience or tied to past racism—that now may also be climate-change danger zones.