Biden Vow to Tally Hidden Pollution Costs Speaks to Toxic Towns

Getting federal agencies to grapple with how pollution has affected low-income and communities of color has emerged as a top priority for environmental justice and green groups that now have the Biden administration’s ear—and who call the issue a two-fold problem.

First, there’s the need to study and map how multiple pollutants affect the health of people in poor communities. Then there’s the need to study how communities that are overwhelmed with assessing the cumulative effects of polluted air, water and soil on communities.

“I call them sacrifice zones—there’s toxic loading that happens as each new site is put, always ...