Environmental Injustice in Homer, Louisiana
- Explain why various parties might have selected Homer as a place to build a uranium-enrichment facility. In your response, review this from the angle of all stakeholders: city and local officials, residents, school system personnel, public services.
- Describe the reason why outsiders, like environmental activists, took an interest in this proposal. What was it about Homer or the plant that posed such interest from many stakeholders?
- Examine whether the facility would benefit this particular minority group (African Americans) or would it single out this group to bear an environmental burden. In other words, address the question: What role does the predominant race of the residents of Homer play in the siting of the Claiborne facility? (Roles could include jobs, community growth, improved economy, health hazards, social injustice…look at all angles of this situation.)
- Examine whether a community at large can give informed consent to the initiation of a project like the Claiborne facility and how would this differ from individual informed consent? Provide details on disclosures on both the positives and negatives of this project.
- Explain with solid evidence and support whether you believe this situation was one of industrial growth or environmental racism.