Low-income communities across Atlanta face dangerous health concerns because of their proximity to toxic waste sites, historically caused by environmental racism.
These communities in Atlanta are located near industrial zones, landfills and waste management facilities. The location of these polluting facilities in historically marginalized neighborhoods led to health disparities, economic inequality and environmental degradation.
According to the American Lung Association, metro Atlanta is ranked 67th worst in the nation for ozone pollution. Although an improvement from years prior, Fulton County still has some of the lowest-quality air in the nation.
Atlanta has long been a focal point for discussions about environmental racism. The legacy of segregation and redlining means that residents of color are often forced to live in heavily polluted areas. Redlining is a discriminatory practice where institutions deny loans or economic opportunities to people in certain communities, often based on race or ethnicity.
Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks is an Atlanta-based environmental scientist and activist for urban sustainability and environmental justice. She said this issue is based on history.
“When you look at how [Atlanta] began to develop post-reconstruction, what you find is that planners and engineers of that time were in fact architects of segregation,” Jelks said. “They looked at the control of our city’s natural resources as a way to divide people along racial and ethnic lines. What that ends up looking like in current day time is that communities of color, particularly Black communities, are disproportionately impacted by poor infrastructure.”
Dr. Jelks grew up in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where communities live alongside 200 chemical and fossil fuel plants. While living there, she contracted an irritating skin condition, and her mother developed breast cancer. Others in the community reported high rates of infertility, miscarriages, respiratory distress and cancer, all attributed to pollution from the plants.
She said growing up in those circumstances inspired her interest in environmental justice. When Jelks moved to west Atlanta for college, she noticed similar unaddressed environmental issues facing her community, and blamed environmental racism.
“Environmental racism is when communities of color are disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards and toxins,” Jelks said. “It also relates to the lack of engagement, or really the exclusion of communities of color from environmental decision-making tables, not being able to be a part of decisions that impact health and well-being.”
In 1995, Jelks co-founded the nonprofit West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA), dedicated to improving the quality of life of people living in northwest and southwest Atlanta by protecting the community’s natural resources. According to the group’s website, “WAWA represents African American neighborhoods … that are most inundated with environmental stressors, but are least represented at environmental decision-making tables.”
One of the main watersheds the group protects is the Proctor Creek Watershed. The 16-square mile watershed is formed by a creek that starts underground in downtown Atlanta and travels northwest to join the Chattahoochee River. It is the only major Chattahoochee tributary located solely in the city.
“Proctor Creek historically has been a place where kids have played, people fish, people swim, [and] people have been baptized,” Jelks said. “Churches in the area used to actually baptize people in the creek before they got their baptismal pools. Essentially none of those activities are advisable or safe at this point because of the contamination.”
Jelks said the watershed is heavily polluted with bacteria from sewage overflows and stormwater flooding. Atlanta uses a combined sewer system in some parts of the city, meaning sewage and stormwater both travel in the same pipes, leading to frequent flooding and health concerns when raw sewage gets into the water supply.
The creek is also a popular site for illegal tire dumping and litter due to its proximity to the city. The predominantly Black neighborhoods surrounding Proctor Creek are at higher risk for public health issues because of the pollution and sewage overflows.
“There’s not a lot of inclusion of black and brown folks in [environmental] spaces to make decisions,” said Janelle Wright, the environmental justice programs manager for WAWA. “Because of that, there can be this lack of investment in improved infrastructure in really specific neighborhoods because of redlining. I think that’s kind of how systemic racism contributes.”
WAWA works with residents in urban watersheds to elevate their environmental concerns to government officials at every level, from local to national. The group also supports resident-led organizations like the Proctor Creek Stewardship Council and gives members the tools to advocate for their community.
“We also collaborate on community science efforts, the process by which community members collect their own data, whether it’s water or air quality data, about the different environmental hazards that exist,” Jelks said. “They are able to then use that data to press for actual changes they want to see. We’ve seen situations where their voices have just been marginalized and they’ve not been heard, they’ve not been believed, but then they begin to speak the language of decision makers by collecting their own data to back up what they’re saying.”
To improve the environmental issues plaguing urban watersheds like Proctor Creek, Jelks said the city needs to invest in shared water governance in the form of collaboration between Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management and residents living in the impacted areas.
Fresh Take Georgia reached out to the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management for comment about the pollution in Proctor Creek but received no response.
“Working collaboratively with the community is not just about what needs to be done, but how it’s done,” Jelks said. “I think what sometimes gets missed is the ability for communities to contribute in a positive way to the solutions that need to happen. Those who are closest to the problems are often closest to the solutions, and it doesn’t always seem like that is leveraged enough.”
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