Coal Waste, Socioeconomic Change, and Environmental Inequality in Appalachia: Implications for a Just Transition in Coal Country

Abstract

Resource-dependent communities are subject to both unstable economic patterns and environmental degradation associated with extractive industries. However, few studies have empirically analyzed these dynamics in tandem and over time. This paper explores whether Appalachian neighborhoods closer to coal waste impoundments experienced steeper poverty changes from 1990 to 2000. Impoundment failures have resulted in some of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history and scientists have expressed concerns over their growing heights and risks. Spatial regression models show that neighborhoods closer to impoundments have higher poverty increases on average, even after controlling for mining employment and other variables. These findings highlight the need for a deeper consideration of the environmental inequalities associated with the continued downturn of coal production and employment in the United States. Further, discussions about just transitions must recognize the legacy hazards and externalities associated with extractive industries – and their impacts on communities.

Keywords:

• Appalachia
• coal mining
• environmental inequality
• just transitions
• resource-dependent communities

Notes

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Drs. Raoul Liévanos and Don Dillman for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. I am also indebted to the library staff at the Mine Safety and Health Administration Library and Technical Center, who assisted with retrieving the archival resources used in this paper.

Notes

1 For a discussion and explanation of poverty thresholds and definitions in the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, see a summary by Bishaw and Icleand (2003).