Doctoral Dissertation Research: American Indian Tribes and Environmental Justice: Political, Economic, and Ethnic Struggles Over the Storage of Radioactive Waste

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Increasing attention has been focused in recent years on the tendency for many noxious and potentially hazardous activities to be located in areas where local residents have relatively little political power. Those who find themselves living near such Locally Unwanted Land Uses (LULUs) often are poor with high minority populations. This situation has led many critics to outline a process of " environmental racism" in the siting of such facilities. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the political ecology of the process of siting a temporary storage facility for high-level radioactive waste on the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County, Utah. The Skull Valley Goshute leadership has chosen to enhance tribal political-economic autonomy by hosting a nuclear-waste facility, and they have expressed resentment against the perceived paternalism of some environmental justice advocates. This project will examine and challenge simplified notions of environmental racism through a nuanced study of environmental justice focused on the historical and political-economic contexts of the changing geography of Skull Valley. The goals of the project are to clarify the theory and practice of environmental justice by incorporating the notion of local autonomy in analysis of locational conflicts; to bridge the scholarly gap between ideas of environmental justice and political ecology; and to examine tribal-identity politics and struggles to retain sovereignty in the process of environmental decision making at and across different geopolitical scales. The project will seek to go beyond the oversimplified conventional discourse of environmental racism, and it will seek to develop a theory of procedural justice to replace the theory of distributive justice, that has dominated the scholarship of environmental justice. The project also will broaden the theoretical discussion of environmental justice to encompass notions of local autonomy, the politics of tribal sovereignty. and the social construction of ethnic and geographic identities. The project will use a case study approach to uncover dynamic social, political and ecological processes and the multiple contexts within which they are embedded, including extensive archival research in Utah, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., as well as interviews with various participants in this land-use dispute representing disparate political and ideological positions. This project will contribute to the development of theories of procedural environmental justice, local autonomy, and political ecology through systematic analysis of a complex situation focusing on the contested pursuit of self-determination at different political and geographic scales. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.