An examination of the influence of environmental justice policy, Executive Order 12898, on the spatial concentration of manufacturing facilities in EPA Region 6 1988-2009

Abstract

Environmental justice is a theme of environmental policy, yet there is a dearth of empirical evidence in environmental justice literature to evaluate the impact of Executive Order (EO) 12898 on manufacturing facility location. This article examined whether governmental efforts aimed at achieving environmental justice have influenced the location of manufacturing facilities listed on the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) in EPA Region 6 from 1988 to 2009. This study identified the spatial scales of aggregated, random, and dispersed distributions of manufacturing facilities over time using the total number of manufacturing facilities. O-ring statistics were applied to examine the problem at different spatial scales and describe the changes in the spatial distribution of facilities pre- and post- enactment of EO 12898. Results showed that facilities are aggregated at small spatial scales (≤20 km) and vary at intermediate and large scales. Overall, it appeared that EO 12898 did not influence facility location uniformly and that county and local level factors may be of importance. These findings are important for environmental managers, policy-makers, activists, and scholars in addressing environmental justice outcomes.