In June 2005, the Administration announced that it was removing race and class from special consideration in its definition of environmental justice, departing from President Clinton’s 1994 Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice which mandated that all Federal agencies generate agency-specific strategies to address the disproportionate pollution experienced by minority communities.

Years before Hurricane Katrina, environmental justice activists were anticipating the racially disproportionate effects of climate change, in terms of coastal flooding and the health effects of heat waves, through the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). As their 2002 fact sheet stated: “People of color are concentrated in urban centers in the South, coastal regions, and areas with substandard air quality. New Orleans, which is 62 percent African American and 2 feet below sea level, exemplifies the severe and disproportionate impacts of climate change in the United States.”

Numerous studies have concluded that many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, asthma, birth defects, behavioral disorders, infertility, and obesity, are caused or exacerbated by environmental hazards.

Of the chemicals produced in the United States annually in quantities greater than 10,000 pounds, only 43 percent of such chemicals have been tested for their potential human toxicity and only 7 percent have been studied to assess effects on human development.

Approximately 126,000,000 people in the United States live in areas of non-attainment for pollutants that have health-based standards.

In the United States, air pollution is estimated to be associated with 50,000 premature deaths and with $50,000,000,000 in health-related costs annually.

In children, environmental toxins are estimated to cause up to 35 percent of asthma cases, up to 10 percent of cancer cases, and up to 20 percent of neurobehavioral disorders.

People of color are almost three times more likely than Caucasians to be hospitalized or die from asthma and other respiratory illnesses linked to air pollution. Asthma accounts for 10 million lost school days, 1.2 million emergency room visits, 15 million outpatient visits, and over 500,000 hospitalizations each year in the United States.

Consequently, the people who live in these communities are inundated with significant environmental and health hazards related to toxic waste sites, mining operations, incinerators, oil exploration, and other harmful developments. In the United States, approximately 60 percent of African Americans live in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites. Three out of five of the largest hazardous waste landfills in the United States are located in predominantly African American or Latino communities.

Hurricane Katrina struck a region that is disproportionately African American and poor. African Americans make up 12 percent of the United States population. Nearly 68 percent of the population of New Orleans is African American. The African American population in the Coastal Mississippi counties where Hurricane Katrina struck ranged from 25 percent to 87 percent. Twenty-eight percent of New Orleans residents live below the poverty level and more than 80 percent of those are African American. Fifty percent of all New Orleans children live in poverty. The poverty rate was 17.7 percent in Gulfport, Mississippi and 21.2 percent in Mobile, Alabama in 2000. Nationally, in 2000, 11.3 percent of people in the United States and 22.1 percent of African Americans were living below the poverty line.

New Orleans is prototypical of environmental justice issues in the Gulf Coast region. Before Hurricane Katrina, the City of New Orleans was struggling with a wide range of environmental justice issues and concerns. Its location along the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor increased its vulnerability to environmental threats. The City of New Orleans had an extremely high childhood environmental lead poisoning problem. There were ongoing air quality impacts and resulting high asthma and respiratory disease rates and frequent visits to emergency rooms for treatment by both children and adults. Environmental health problems and issues related to environmental exposure were a grave issue of concern for New Orleans residents.

New Orleans and outlying areas suffered severe environmental damage during Hurricane Katrina, the extent to which has yet to be determined. The post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans has been described as a “cesspool” of toxic chemicals, human waste, decomposing flesh, and surprises that remain to be uncovered in the sediments. Massive amounts of toxic chemicals were used and stored along the Gulf Coast before the storm. Literally thousands of sites in the storm’s path used or stored hazardous chemicals, from the local dry cleaner and auto repair shops to Superfund sites and oil refineries in Chalmette and Meraux, Louisiana, where there are enormous stores of ultra-hazardous hydrofluoric acid. In the aftermath of the storm some sites were damaged and leaked. Residents across the Gulf Coast and the media reported oil spills, obvious leaks from plants, storage tankards turned on end, and massive fumes.

Short-term rebuilding objectives must not outweigh long-term public health protection for all people in the United States and the environment on which such people depend.