ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Addressing Pollution in Communities
We work to protect and improve community health by fighting against contamination and addressing long-term pollution from landfills, as well as water and air pollution.
Polluting and natural resource extraction industries, like mines and quarries, are often placed in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
This creates overlapping environmental and economic injustices with detrimental health impacts.
How Redlining Impacts Community Health
Historical redlining (the discriminatory practice of color-coding neighborhoods to evaluate risk for home loans) and discriminatory land use policies have resulted in the concentration of polluting and extractive industries in economically and politically disadvantaged communities and communities of color.
As a result, already impoverished communities suffer compounding economic and environmental injustices and detrimental health impacts as harmful industries are concentrated over decades in the same communities.
SCSJ offers communications capabilities and support to community-based organizations to amplify impacted residents’ voices in protecting their communities from contamination and exploitation.
Community Health Resources
Sampson County Landfill Origins Explorer
This tool allows users to visualize all of the NC counties that have contributed to the Sampson County regional landfill since 2005.
Fact Sheet: Bingham Park Remediation
This fact sheet details the city of Greensboro's three proposed options for disposal of contaminated soil from Bingham Park.
Southern Gumption: The Toxic Tour
"Southern Gumption" season 1 episode 2 takes listeners on a journey down to Sampson County, NC, navigating its roads and histories on a 'toxic tour' of environmental injustice.
Community Health News
Person County Residents Fight to Be Heard on Industrial Rezoning
ROUGEMONT, N.C. (Sept. 8, 2025) — Person County residents, with the help of Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), continue fighting against a controversial rezoning decision made in favor of the proposed Moriah Energy Center (MEC) — which remains an environmental concern. SCSJ filed a brief Monday with the North Carolina Court of Appeals requesting…
Read More Person County Residents Fight to Be Heard on Industrial Rezoning
SCSJ, Partners Push for Changes to Alcoa Business Park Permit Renewal
DURHAM, N.C. (Sept. 5, 2025) — Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (ELPC), and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) submitted a joint public comment letter to the N.C. Division of Water Resources, urging stronger protections in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit renewal for the…
Read More SCSJ, Partners Push for Changes to Alcoa Business Park Permit Renewal