What’s Fairness Got to Do With It? Environmental Justice and the Siting of Locally Undesirable Land Uses
Author(s)
Been, Vicki
Abstract
Certain kinds of facilities are often unwelcome as neighbors. Locally undesirable land uses (LULUs), including waste disposal sites, pollution generating factories, or nuclear power facilities, are often characterized by environmentally harmful effects. Prisons and even social service agencies such as drug and alcohol treatment centers or homeless shelters may also be considered undesirable. This is the well known NIMBY (not in my backyard) phenomenon. Many environmental impacts are concentrated in the immediate neighborhood yet the benefits of a particular facility are shared by society as a whole. This creates a real dilemma about the fairness of locating a particular facility in a particular community. Using protests, lawsuits and lobbying efforts, advocates for environmental justice have called attention to the disproportionate presence of undesirable land uses in poor and minority communities. The article summarized here argues that issues are difficult to resolve unless the decision is grounded in a particular theory of fairness. A number of theories may have resonance with a given situation, each one presenting a particular set of opportunities for solution; yet each theory also presents problems of a philosophical or pragmatic nature. The author surveys several theories of fairness as they apply to LULUs, working through the complex options and obstacles associated with each.
