Hazardous waste sites in Chicago were not located in neighborhoods with high minority populations in the past and still are not concentrated in such neighborhoods, a University of Chicago research team said Tuesday.
In a study of 122 polluted sites in the city, the researchers found no statistically significant connection between the location of industries that produced hazardous wastes or hazardous waste dumps and the racial makeup of a neighborhood at the time the businesses were established.
And according to the 1990 census, neighborhoods near those sites are still as likely to be white as they are black, according to the study, which was conducted by professor Don Coursey of the university's Public Policy Graduate School and four graduate students.
The black population in census tracts near the sites was 40 percent in 1990, compared with 43 percent citywide. The white population near the sites was 43 percent, compared with 42 percent citywide.
The results clash with some previous studies, including one released in August, that have found that minority populations are more likely to live near polluted sites than white populations.
"I was shocked we didn't get the correlation," Coursey said. "Many terrible, horrible things have happened to African-Americans over the years in Chicago, but being forcibly located next to these sites isn't one of them."
Coursey's research team looked at old, mainly abandoned sites in the city, as listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The sites tend to be located along the city's waterways, such as the Chicago River, the Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Calumet River.
Examining census data starting in 1940, Coursey found that those areas had small minority populations at the time the sites were established.
Charlie Cray, Midwest toxics director for Greenpeace, criticized the U. of. C. study for not including still-active dumps and polluted industrial sites.
Also, he said, the study does not take into account proposed facilities, such as new incinerators, nor does it consider the differences between neighborhoods in speed of cleanups and enforcement standards.
"I think the real issue with the community people is with the effect, not the process," he said. "The effect can still be racist."
Coursey said he wants to include active sites in the next phase of his study.