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Profit Over People: The Garden Grove Chemical Crisis Disproportionately Harms Working Class Communities of Color
| Christina T. Nguyen | Voice of OC | May 25, 2026
This article argues that the Garden Grove chemical crisis at GKN Aerospace disproportionately harmed working-class Vietnamese, Latinx, immigrant, refugee, and limited-English communities. It describes Garden Grove as a 'sacrifice zone' and chemically polluted hotspot shaped by environmental racism, discriminatory zoning, and unequal exposure to industrial hazards.
Environmental Justice Groups Respond to the California Energy Commission's Senate Bill 237 Assessment: Supporting the Transition Away from Petroleum Fuels
| Communities for a Better Environment | Communities for a Better Environment | May 5, 2026
This article reports responses from California environmental justice groups to the state's petroleum transition assessment. It emphasizes that refinery and oil-extraction communities have carried public-health burdens for generations and calls for a managed fossil-fuel phaseout that protects fenceline communities, workers, and cleanup obligations.
Empowering Communities of Color for Environmental Health and Justice: The Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling in Los Angeles Case
| Bhavna Shamasunder et al. | CDC Preventing Chronic Disease | February 22, 2024
This peer-reviewed CDC essay discusses oil drilling in Los Angeles and explains how Black and Latiné communities experience persistent exposure to air pollution, oil wells, and other environmental health burdens tied to environmental racism.
Black, Latinx Californians Face Highest Exposure to Oil and Gas Wells
| Kara Manke | UC Berkeley | March 23, 2023
This research summary reports that Californians living near active oil and gas wells are disproportionately Black, Latinx, and low-income, with exposure to pollution linked to health risks.
Black Women in South LA Lead the Fight to End Urban Oil Drilling
| Adam Mahoney | Capital B News | November 11, 2025
This article reports on neighborhood oil drilling in South Los Angeles and notes that the communities most affected are overwhelmingly Black or Latino, where drilling, freeways, and industrial zoning converge.
The Decades-Long Fight in a Community Treated as a Dumping Ground
| Yvette Cabrera | Center for Public Integrity | January 19, 2024
This article focuses on Kettleman City, California, a largely Latino farmworker community burdened by hazardous waste disposal. It describes the long fight over toxic permitting decisions and explains how the community became a major example of environmental racism in California.
Kettleman City
| Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice | Greenaction | No date listed
This community history describes Kettleman City's fight against Chemical Waste Management's hazardous waste landfill and proposed incinerator. It explains how residents in a largely Latino farmworker town helped defeat a major toxic-waste expansion and contributed to the national environmental justice movement.
An Analysis of Kettleman City's Hazardous Waste Facility
| Shalini Patrachari | eScholarship / University of California | 2017
This academic paper examines the hazardous waste facility in Kettleman City through the lens of race, public health, and environmental justice. It is useful for documenting how toxic waste infrastructure became concentrated near a vulnerable rural community of color.
Toxic Waste Landfill in Kettleman City, California
| Environmental Justice Atlas | EJAtlas | No date listed
This case profile describes Kettleman City's hazardous waste landfill as a case of environmental racism. It summarizes community mobilization against toxic waste disposal in a largely Latino farmworker community.
West Oakland's Experience in Building Community Power to Confront Environmental Injustice
| Lara MacIver et al. | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2022
This peer-reviewed article examines West Oakland's organizing against environmental injustice, including diesel pollution from freight, port activity, and transportation corridors. It is useful for documenting how a historically Black community confronted cumulative air-pollution burdens.
Ditching Diesel
| Margaret Gordon et al. | Race, Poverty & the Environment | No date listed
This article discusses West Oakland's fight against diesel pollution from trucks, port operations, and freight corridors. It is useful for showing how residents used community-based research to challenge transportation pollution in a community of color.
A Case Study of Environmental Justice Work in West Oakland
| Helen H. Kang | Golden Gate University School of Law | 2009
This legal case study examines environmental justice organizing in West Oakland, including community work to address diesel pollution and cumulative exposure. It is useful for showing how race, income, land use, and transportation infrastructure shaped pollution burdens.
A Lesson in Discrimination: A Toxic Sea Level Rise Crisis Threatens West Oakland
| Ezra David Romero | KQED | September 13, 2022
This article connects West Oakland's toxic industrial legacy to sea-level-rise risks and environmental racism. It explains how a historically Black community faces ongoing pollution and climate risks because of past land-use and industrial decisions.
West Oakland Indicators Project Addresses the History of Environmental Racism in West Oakland
| Peyton DeJardin | The Environmentalist Magazine | March 15, 2026
This article discusses West Oakland's history of redlining, diesel emissions, port pollution, and environmental racism. It is useful as a recent overview of community-based environmental justice work in a historically Black neighborhood.
Stop the Port of Oakland's Pollution-Generating Expansion
| Earthjustice | Earthjustice | No date listed
This advocacy article discusses concerns that the Port of Oakland expansion could worsen pollution in nearby West Oakland, an environmental justice community. It is useful for documenting ongoing conflicts over port, freight, and diesel emissions near communities of color.
The Environmental Injustice of Pesticide Use in California
This article discusses public data showing unequal pesticide exposure in California. It is useful for documenting how pesticide use burdens farmworker communities and other vulnerable populations despite state commitments to environmental justice.
Where They Live, Work and Spray: Pesticide Exposure in the San Joaquin Valley
| Nancy A. Schwartz et al. | Health & Place | 2015
This peer-reviewed article uses community-based research to examine pesticide exposure in California's San Joaquin Valley. It is useful for documenting how families in agriculturally intensive, heavily Latino communities understand and experience pesticide drift and asthma risks.
Industrial Lead Poisoning in Los Angeles: Anatomy of a Public Health Failure
| Jill E. Johnston and Andrea Hricko | Environmental Justice | 2017
This peer-reviewed article examines the Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon, California, and its lead contamination of nearby Southeast Los Angeles communities. It is useful for documenting how mostly Latino working-class neighborhoods were exposed to industrial lead pollution for decades.
A Collaborative Approach to Assess Legacy Pollution in Communities Near a Lead-Acid Battery Smelter
| Jill E. Johnston et al. | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2019
This peer-reviewed article examines community-based research around the Exide battery smelter in Southeast Los Angeles. It documents how residents, researchers, and community organizations investigated lead contamination in communities that described the case as environmental racism.
USC Study Finds Lead in Baby Teeth of Children Near Battery Recycling Plant
| Leigh Hopper | USC Today | May 6, 2019
This article reports on USC research finding lead in baby teeth from children living near the former Exide battery recycling plant. The study focused on Boyle Heights, Maywood, East Los Angeles, Commerce, and Huntington Park, communities heavily affected by industrial lead contamination.
'I Felt I Killed My Children': Lead Poisons California Community and Fills Kids' Teeth
| Alastair Gee | The Guardian | March 29, 2021
This article examines the aftermath of the Exide lead contamination crisis in Southeast Los Angeles. Residents and organizers describe the case as environmental racism because the affected communities are largely Latino and working class.
Recycling Injustice: Lead-Toxicity Publics and the Struggle Over Sustainability
| Antero Garcia Tejeda | Media+Environment | 2022
This scholarly article examines the Exide battery recycling case as an example of environmental injustice created through the hidden costs of 'recycling.' It is useful for connecting hazardous battery recycling, regulatory failure, and environmental racism in Latino communities.
An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in Los Angeles
| Author not listed here | Oceaniron / Los Angeles environmental history source | No date listed
This paper discusses environmental racism in Los Angeles, including historic attempts to place incinerators in non-white communities. It is useful for documenting older land-use conflicts and toxic siting patterns in Southern California.
Field Workers Finally Win Fight With Dump
| Mark Arax | Los Angeles Times | May 5, 2002
This article covers farmworker community fights over toxic waste dumps in California's Central Valley, including Buttonwillow, Kettleman City, and Westmorland. It is useful for documenting how Latino farmworker towns became locations for hazardous waste disposal.
Buttonwillow
| Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice | Greenaction | No date listed
This community page describes Buttonwillow's fight against a large hazardous-waste landfill operated by Clean Harbors. It is useful for documenting environmental justice concerns in a heavily Latino Central Valley farmworker community.
Environmental Justice and Hazmat Transport: A Spatial Analysis in Southern California
| Lisa Schweitzer | Transportation Research Part D | 2006
This scholarly article examines hazardous-material transport and environmental justice, including toxic waste truck routes through Buttonwillow. It is useful for showing how hazardous-waste disposal burdens include both landfill siting and transportation impacts on communities of color.
Kettleman City, Buttonwillow, and Out-of-State Solid Waste
This presentation summarizes toxic waste and civil-rights concerns involving Kettleman City and Buttonwillow. It is useful for documenting allegations that California hazardous-waste policy discriminated against Latino and Spanish-speaking residents.
Toxic Trash: California's Aging Hazardous Waste Sites Have a Troubling History
| Alejandro Lazo and Julie Cart | CalMatters | August 22, 2023
This investigation examines California's aging hazardous-waste facilities, including sites in farmworker communities such as Kettleman City and Buttonwillow. It is useful for documenting how hazardous waste infrastructure remains concentrated in politically vulnerable communities.
Pollution, Poverty, and People of Color: The Factory on the Hill
| Environmental Health News | Environmental Health News | 2012
This article examines Richmond, California, where mostly Black residents historically lived near the Chevron refinery. It is useful for documenting refinery pollution, race, poverty, asthma, and long-term environmental injustice in a Bay Area fence-line community.
Fighting for Environmental Justice in Richmond, California
| Earthjustice | Earthjustice | No date listed
This case page describes Richmond's fight over the Chevron refinery, which has long burdened surrounding neighborhoods with pollution. It is useful for documenting how communities of color around a major refinery challenged industrial expansion and climate pollution.
An Oil Giant Is No Match for Resistance and Resilience in Richmond, California
| Sasha Lyutse | Natural Resources Defense Council | May 7, 2021
This article profiles community organizing against Chevron in Richmond, California. It is useful for documenting how residents in a diverse, working-class community confronted refinery pollution and corporate political power.
Emergence of Environmental Justice in Richmond
| FoundSF | FoundSF | No date listed
This historical overview describes Richmond's environmental justice movement, including struggles over the Chevron refinery, Superfund sites, and industrial land use. It is useful for documenting how refinery pollution became central to local environmental racism activism.
The Northern California Household Exposure Study
| Julia G. Brody et al. | Environmental Health Perspectives | 2009
This peer-reviewed study examined household chemical exposures in Richmond and Bolinas, California. It is useful for documenting how Richmond's refinery, rail lines, Superfund sites, and industrial land use created unequal exposure risks.
In the Shadows of Industry: LA County's Port Communities
| Pablo Unzueta | CalMatters | February 1, 2022
This photo essay documents life in Wilmington, Carson, and other Los Angeles County port communities near refineries, freeways, warehouses, and port pollution. It is useful for documenting environmental justice struggles in heavily Latino and working-class neighborhoods.
In the Port Town of Wilmington, the Community's Long Fight Against Industrial Pollution Continues
| Ashley Miznazi | USC Center for Health Journalism | March 16, 2023
This article examines Wilmington, California, where residents live near oil refineries, ports, and industrial pollution. It is useful for documenting a Latino working-class community's long fight for clean air.
A Community Poisoned by Oil
| Adam Mahoney | High Country News | June 22, 2022
This article focuses on Wilmington, California, where residents experience higher illness and mental-health burdens while living near oil industry infrastructure. It is useful for documenting the human impacts of refinery and drilling pollution in a community of color.
Wilmington Residents, Plagued by Oil Industry, Just Want Clean Air
| LA Public Press | LA Public Press | August 14, 2025
This article reports on Wilmington residents living near oil refineries and fighting for clean air. It is useful for documenting continuing environmental justice concerns in a community surrounded by fossil-fuel infrastructure.
The Increasing Burden of Oil Refineries and Fossil Fuels in Wilmington, California
| Communities for a Better Environment | Communities for a Better Environment | 2009
This report examines the health and environmental impacts of oil refineries in Wilmington and nearby Southern California communities. It is useful for documenting how refining heavier crude oil can worsen pollution in already burdened communities of color.
The Elusive Quest for Environmental Justice at Hunters Point
| Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Journal | December 5, 2022
This article examines the environmental justice fight at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco. It is useful for documenting radioactive and toxic contamination in a historically Black neighborhood shaped by racist housing policy and industrial land use.
Bayview Hunters Point
| Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice | Greenaction | No date listed
This community page collects reports and organizing materials about Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco. It is useful for documenting a long-running environmental justice struggle involving shipyard contamination, industrial pollution, redevelopment, and health concerns.
The Breathers of Bayview Hill
| Lindsey Dillon | Hastings Environmental Law Journal | 2018
This law journal article examines Bayview Hunters Point, redevelopment, toxic dust, and environmental justice in southeast San Francisco. It is useful for documenting how residents connected construction pollution and shipyard cleanup to a longer history of racial injustice.
For These Black Bayview-Hunters Point Residents, Reparations Include Safeguarding Against Rising Toxic Contamination
| Ezra David Romero | KQED | July 5, 2022
This article discusses Bayview Hunters Point residents' calls for reparations and protection from toxic contamination. It is useful for documenting how racist housing policy and Superfund contamination are connected in a historically Black San Francisco neighborhood.
| Berkeley Law Environmental Law Clinic | Berkeley Law | June 28, 2024
This article describes a lawsuit over the radiological cleanup at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It is useful for documenting ongoing legal challenges around radioactive contamination, redevelopment, and environmental justice in Bayview Hunters Point.
Toxic Waste Cleanups Take Longer in Marginalized Parts of the Bay Area
| San Francisco Public Press | San Francisco Public Press | March 10, 2025
This investigation reports that toxic waste cleanups take longer in marginalized Bay Area communities. It is useful for documenting broader cleanup inequities that affect communities of color, including places such as Bayview Hunters Point.
Air Pollution from the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports
| I. Leifer et al. | Atmospheric Environment | 2025
This scholarly article examines air pollution from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It is useful for documenting the environmental justice implications of port emissions, trucking, ships, trains, and heavy industry near surrounding communities.
