An interesting environmental justice story today in the Gainesville Times about the mainly black residents of Newtown, whose neighbors increasingly are polluting industry:

Surrounded by steam and massive soybean storage bins, Matt Pearson is the affable guy at the helm of one of Gainesville’s most profitable and polluting industries.

The white-tanked welcome mat at the south end of Gainesville on U.S. 129, Cargill is the city’s second-largest taxpayer —paying nearly a half-million dollars in property taxes each year — along with the fifth-largest water and sewer customer. The company is also just as big a polluter, each year releasing approximately 84,700 pounds of pollutants into the community.

But when Pearson, a Minnesota native, discusses Cargill’s role in the community, he mentions environmental stewardship and a “focus on working side-by-side with the people that live next to you.”

Next to Cargill is the Newtown community, a historically black, low-income residential area that has, over the years, been encircled by industry.

Read the rest in the Gainesville Times.

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