Week 8: What's that smell in Wilmington?

Hello! This week I decided to explore the area of Wilmington, not necessarily for its characteristics as a city, but its location and what aspects of it have made it a target for the placement of refineries  Wilmington has a high number of low income families living there, and it isn't the safest city to be in either. It's high number of crime and corruption make this area not an attractive place to live. Not only does it make it unattractive, it makes it an area where companies have placed refineries here where they know residents will not have the resources to complain about them.

The refineries in Wilmington are located right next to homes. Although Wilmington is a large area of land, the refineries are actually placed right next to homes, and the odor and sight is just terrible for the Wilmington residents. I live near Wilmington and often have to pass by refineries if I am visiting a friend that lives in this area, and I always have to roll my window up because the smell is dreadful and its awful to breathe in.  I actually found an article from a recent conflict about these Wilmington refineries where residents were complaining about a large refiniery flare that was releasing an awful flare.

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_21566565/wilmington-refinery-flare-sparks-complaints

Residents were complaining about the flare and its smell, however the typical company owners were reassuring residents that the smell from the flare was not harmful.

Struggles such as these are also brought up by Harvey in his "Environmental Justice" reading. Industries such as the refineries target low income neighborhoods because residents simply don't have the resources to move out of the area. Refineries try to justify smells and their location to residents as not being harmful, but in reality, having refineries almost like backyards is such an awful way to live mentally and physically. It is certainly not healthy, but most residents really have no choice if they do not have the resources to move away from these type of areas. The majority of people that live in Wilmington are of Hispanic descent and serve as minorities who might not have a voice to be active in what goes on in their communities. In the article I found, company owners did nothing about the flare, they simply tried to reassure residents that they had nothing worry about because it wasn't harmful. This is a hazardous area to live in but environmental justice is something that is just not seen in Wilmington.