Limits of justice in environmental governance: Coal ash and ethylene oxide in Waukegan, Illinois
Gross, Jane
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121204
Description
Title
Limits of justice in environmental governance: Coal ash and ethylene oxide in Waukegan, Illinois
Author(s)
Gross, Jane
Issue Date
2023-06-21
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Johnson, McKenzie F
Department of Study
Natural Res & Env Sci
Discipline
Natural Res & Env Sciences
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
environmental justice
environmental discourse
environmental policy
Illinois
Abstract
This thesis examines environmental decision making around ethylene oxide, which is a new concern, and coal ash, which activists have opposed for nearly a decade, to understand which mechanisms shape environmental governance and environmental outcomes in a sacrifice zone like Waukegan, Illinois. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews with legislators, regulators, and activists reveal how, even after the promulgation of remarkably progressive state policy, people in Waukegan remain exposed to coal ash and ethylene oxide at levels hazardous to environmental and human health. This thesis argues that continued hazard exposure is because environmental governance in Illinois is constrained by the historical and ideological legacies of wilderness and command-and-control pollution control strategies. Illinois’ regulation of ethylene oxide and permitting of coal ash ponds offers an opportunity to research how hegemonic ideas of the environment and environmental management reproduce injustice in communities like Waukegan. Although the environmental justice movement has achieved international recognition and contributed to national policy initiatives like Justice40, this thesis suggests environmental discourses around nature and risk maintain a dominant influence on contemporary environmental governance.
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