Northwood Manor Landfill

In 1978, Southwestern Waste Management applied for a permit to build a municipal solid waste landfill in Northwood Manor, a predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood. Neighbors formed the Northeast Community Action Group (NCAG) and sued the applicant, in a pioneering use of civil rights arguments in an environmental case. The attorney Linda McKeever Bullard used evidence compiled by her husband, the sociologist Bob Bullard, showing that 82% of all waste disposed in the Houston area from the 1930s through the late 70s had been placed in black neighborhoods, despite the fact that blacks made up only 25% of the Houston population. The case was tried in 1985, and went to the 5th Circuit on appeal in 1986, where the court confirmed a ruling against the NCAG in Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corporation. However, the litigation became a landmark in establishing concerns about equal protection in environmental matters, leading to such measures as President Clinton’s 1994 Executive Order 12898, requiring federal agencies to address environmental justice.