ABSTRACT
The issue of fairness in the distribution and impact of environmental risks and hazards continues to generate headlines. Concern about the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of colour and economically disadvantaged groups led to the formation of the environmental justice movement – a coalition of environmental, civil rights, and social equality activists. In 1987 the United Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Justice published their landmark study on toxic waste and race, offering some empirical support for environmental discrimination claims (UCC, 1987). On 11 February 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order Number 12898, requiring each federal agency to adopt the principle of environmental justice in programmatic decisions. Yet, two years after this new directive, there still is little consensus on the definition, classification and measurement of inequity.
