Multi-Disciplinary Collectives in the Fight for Environmental Justice: How Scientific Activism, Legal Advocacy, and Community Organizing Address Environmental Inequities in Centreville, Illinois

Abstract:

The residents of Centreville, Illinois, have for decades faced devastating flooding, sanitary sewer and drinking water issues due to poorly built and crumbling water infrastructure, and a larger social and political system that has turned its back on this Black, elderly and low-income community. As a result, the residents have had their homes destroyed, their health threatened, and their meager financial resources decimated. But they continue to be deeply committed to their community and each other, and now are working with a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, attorneys, historians, policy advocates and communications specialists to identify causes of the many water issues impacting the community and to push for solutions. We will describe the origins of this diverse collective and explain how scientists acting as community activists, lawyers donating their time as advocates, and a community developing its own organization of response have provided a new sense of hope that has been missing for decades. We will report the types of scientific information that has proven key to empowering and protecting residents as well as the struggles that the team has faced in finding scientists whose body of work aligns with the problems facing communities like Centreville. We will also highlight the challenges and pay-offs of participating in multi-disciplinary, community-centric teams following a deep engagement approach.