A court found an $80 million incinerator employed no people of color

Evidence

One Michigan court recently recognized that there is often a gap between the promise and the reality of economic benefits in vulnerable communities that host waste facilities. In a case in which a community group challenged a waste incinerator, the Genesee Power Station in Flint, Michigan, the court took note of the fact that the newly constructed $80 million plant failed to employ one person of color in its construction. The court further noted that only one of thirty permanent positions at the plant was occupied by a person of color, and that person was hired at minimum wage. The court concluded, as have many communities, that “the people who will benefit from the profits of the plant do not reside in the neighborhood. However, those who will bear the brunt of the pollution cannot even obtain employment in the plant.” — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 379

Categorization

• SHARE: The stark $80 million plant / zero black construction jobs / one minimum-wage black employee figure is a memorable single datum.
• SEED: The court’s closing line about profit leaving and pollution staying is a quotable articulation of siting injustice worth using in an essay on economic-development rationales.
• XREF: connects to: An $80 million waste plant in Flint employed no people of color in construction.