GREENSBORO, N.C. (July 19, 2024) — The Greensboro City Council has cancelled its July 23 meeting on the contaminated waste from the Bingham Park cleanup project in response to extensive joint community organizing in opposition, and it will consider options beyond taking toxic waste from one community of color and dumping it in another.
A week ago, the city’s decision seemed all but a foregone conclusion. City council members argued the Bingham Park waste should go to the White Street Landfill as the closest and cheapest option for disposing of the decades-old toxins, including arsenic, iron, manganese, lead, and semi-volatile organic compounds bound to the soil in the park.
White Street has its own history of use for toxic waste disposal. However, the proximity and cheap cost of using White Street Landfill is not a coincidence, but the outcome of decades of environmental racism and siting of pollution in low-income areas and in communities of color.
The Bingham Park and White Street communities united in insisting city council consider alternatives that do not perpetuate the legacy of environmental racism that led to the Park’s contamination in the first place. The residents of both communities organized a broad city-wide coalition of neighbors and partners to oppose the plan and made their collective voices heard at last.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Environmental Justice Team released the following statements about the rescheduling:
We are pleased the Greensboro City Council has finally listened to the passionate community advocates calling for greater consideration for the Bingham Park remediation efforts. By agreeing to postpone its special meeting, city council members have more time to not only consider the multiple options for remediation, but to continue to hear and meet with residents.
This decision shows what solidarity and organizing can do. Residents of the Bingham Park and White Street Landfill communities refused to be divided. They refused to allow much-needed justice for one community to be paid for with the health and safety of another.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice is proud to support Greensboro community groups and advocates as they continue to push for a remedy to the generations of environmental racism they have faced. This work takes time, but if elected officials can be responsive to their constituents, no one has to pay for justice with their health.
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.