Spatial Inequality and the Distribution of Industrial Toxic Releases: Evidence from the 1990 TRI

Investigates environmental justice activists’ claims that pollution is unevenly distributed across communities in the USA. Examines 3 possible explanations: racial discrimination, economic stratification, and urban ecology. Uses the US Environmental Protection Agency’s 1990 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), a data set that contains information on permitted and accidental releases of over 300 toxic chemicals from manufacturing facilities. Combines this information with county-level data from the 1990 US Census and the 1990 County Business Patterns. Finds that activists’ claims are supported. Results suggest that processes such as urbanization and industrial location, which are often treated as control variables, may best be regarded as mechanisms through which disadvantaged residents and toxic pollution come together in space.