Over the past decade, issues of justice, equity and racism have become significant developments in the environmental movement. Research, scholars, community activists and members of the general public are beginning to see that environmental issues are not just about wilderness preservation, pollution prevention, and resource conservation. There has been a growing awareness that environmental hazards are not uniformly distributed. In general, studies have shown that lower income and minority communities experience a disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards. This understanding is known as environmental justice.

Using data for the State of Michigan that has been compiled by Dr. Elaine Hockman of the Research Support Laboratory at Wayne State University, I explore the relationship between race, income and the distribution of environmental hazards. The findings support previous studies from other regions that identify a strong association between income level and the location of environmental hazards and an even stronger association between areas of high minority concentration and the location of environmental hazards. Data are displayed in graphs using Excel and are also mapped using Arcview. Following an analysis of the data, policy recommendations are made based on the current United States Environmental Protection Agency's (US EPA) environmental justice decision making process for Region V.