Mark Templeton on Toxic Sites Near Public Housing
Public housing residents kept in dark about toxic sites, report says
A new report finds that the government has been slow to clean up toxic sites near public housing and has failed to inform residents about the threats they face or give them a say on future uses of remediated land. Federal and local housing authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency should do a better job of protecting residents’ health, the report says.
“A confluence of historic policies and practices have encouraged the construction of federally assisted housing in areas of environmental contamination and have also enabled the polluting industry to be built near existing low-income housing,” said the report, Poisonous Homes, led by the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
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“Our research demonstrates that time and time again, EPA and the parties financially responsible for these sites have not provided information to members of the public in a timely, comprehensive and understandable manner,” said study coauthor Mark Templeton, director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago. “Failure to do so has put public health and safety at risk.”
The Abrams clinic and Earthjustice partnered with Shriver to produce the study.
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