Environmental Injustice in Hyde Park

Typically, the term environmentalism brings to mind things like saving the rain forests and endangered species. While these are important issues, something much less often associated with environmentalism is acts of environmental injustice that are committed against impoverished communities. One such example can be seen in the neighborhood of Hyde Park in Augusta, Georgia.

For me, the most concerning issue that plagues the members of Hyde Park is the endless amount of health problems that affects practically everyone in the community. This is a huge issue of concern because the people of Hyde Park do not have enough money to properly care for their extensive health issues. Although they are getting sick for reasons that are usually beyond their control, no one is protecting their health. Their entire environment is polluted and toxic due to large industries such as Southern Wood Piedmont and Thermal Ceramics, in addition to the scrap metal yard that has only recently been cleaned up. There are signs everywhere saying that children should not play in the dirt because it is hazardous to their health. What kind of a world is it where children can not even play safely in their own backyards? One tragic example of the toxic effect of Hyde Park occurred when Totsie and John Walker's son died suddenly of heart failure at a young age. The fact that he worked at Southern Wood Piedmont most likely was the cause of this surprising death.

It is impossible to escape the negative health effects that the environment of Hyde Park causes. Even with expensive cleanup efforts taken on by the EPA and the EPD of Georgia, it will most likely never be completely safe to live in Hyde Park (at least not in the lifetime of any of its current residents). It seems silly to me for the EPA to come in and remove 20,000 tons of surface waste, including 12,000 tons of hazardous lead-contaminated soil. It is an impossible task to remove everything that is harmful from Hyde Park. You would have to get rid of every existing structure and dig a huge whole to get rid of all of the soil, and then what happens to all of that waste? It just gets sent somewhere else for someone else to have to deal with it.

In my opinion, the best option for the residents of Hyde Park is to be relocated. They have established such a closely knit community, and that is a rare thing that should be preserved. Therefore, they should all be moved together, if that is what they choose to do, to a location that is safe to live in. They should be able to grow their own vegetables and not worry about their kids playing in the backyard or at the playground. They should be able to breathe clean air inside and outside of their homes. It is a fundamental right to be able to live safely in an environment without being poisoned. Since the residents have ties more to one another than to the land that they are living on, I think that relocation would be the safest and most practical option. After the residents have left, the EPA should declare the whole area a toxic waste site and then begin to clean it up as thoroughly as possible.

I also believe that the residents of Hyde Park should have all of their medical needs attended to by various means. I think the government should give them aid through Medicare and other federal organizations, and I also believe that the industries that contributed to the pollution of Hyde Park should be required to contribute funds toward their health care, as well. The residents of Hyde Park deserve to live healthy, happy lives and they should not suffer because of decisions made by corporations.