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Study: 14 Georgia counties share pollution problem

March 26th, 2012

An environmental advocacy group looked at the problem of pollution in 14 counties in Metro Atlanta.

The results released today highlight 5 areas with more sources of pollution than anywhere else in the region. Researchers say pollution is not the only thing they have in common.

Greenlaw says the 5 areas are the city of Canton, the border separating DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties, Atlanta’s Grove Park neighborhood, central Douglas County and a 2 mile stretch of Fulton Industrial Boulevard connecting Fulton, Cobb and Douglas Counties.

David DeGanian, with Greenlaw, says there are a few similar characteristics that seem to be constant.

“What you see in most of the areas that we highlight in the top 5 are really either extraordinary high minority rates or extraordinarily high linguistic isolation rates.”

With the exception of Canton, Greenlaw says these neighborhoods either have a lot of minorities, or people who don’t speak English or people who are poor.

Advocates hope the report helps convince lawmakers and state agencies to create an environmental justice policy. They say such a policy would help communities without resources protect themselves against companies that want to build waste sites and other sources of pollution.