News Archive

 IU McKinney Professor Carlton Waterhouse compared East Chicago to Flint, Michigan, as “a textbook example of governmental apathy and environmental racism” in an opinion piece that appeared in The Indianapolis Star on October 18, 2017.

In a letter to the newspaper titled “EPA Failed to Protect East Chicago Residents,” Professor Waterhouse notes that residents living in the West Calumet housing complex for years were unaware that they were living atop a lead Superfund site, which was first flagged as contaminated nearly three decades ago. “East Chicagoans were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in their food, water and air for years without their knowledge -- resulting in serious illness and long-term disabilities throughout the community. Meanwhile, the EPA and local agencies dragged their feet on remediation efforts for the better part of two decades despite strong internal evidence of dangerous contamination levels.”

 Professor Waterhouse also argues that there’s some cause for hope. “The good news is that even as some governmental authorities refuse to protect their citizens, civil and grassroots organizations have increased their efforts,” he writes. Read his comments, published in the "Letters to the Editor" section, at http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/10/18/letters-evangelicals-embrace-trump-baffling/775927001/

Professor Waterhouse is a Dean’s Fellow and serves as the Director of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Law Program. He is an international expert on environmental law and environmental justice as well as reparations and redress for historic injustices.