ABSTRACT
Environmentalists were able to institutionalize the communication networks, influence environmental policy, shape resolution techniques, and design dispute resolution mechanisms that reached deep into their communities. The toxic-waste issue appears to be one area of agreement among local activists—black social justice advocates and white environmentalists—who would not ordinarily sit down together in the same room as "equals". Issue crystallization refers to the main ideological focus taken by the citizen opposition and the opposition's perception of the relevant audiences' reaction. The citizen-defined issue areas include conservation-environment, public health, equity and social justice, and economic trade-offs. There is clear evidence that indigenous social action groups provided the leadership for the citizen opposition. The city operated eight garbage incinerators, six of which were located in mostly black neighborhoods, one in a Hispanic neighborhood, and one in a mostly white area. Controversy surrounding landfill with the proposal to build the Whispering Pines landfill in Houston's Northwood Manor neighborhood.
