Almost half million members of minorities live near toxic waste plants in the New York metropolitan area, according to a new study.

Only the Los Angeles, California, metropolitan area has more people living in the immediate vicinity of industrial waste industries, according to the study carried out by the United Church of Christ.

The study was done as a follow-up to another analysis done by the Church 20 years ago. In 1987, “most of the affected communities were African American” but today there are more Hispanic communities affected, said Reverend Carlos Correa, minister for environmental justice of the United Church of Christ.

Over 2.5 million Hispanics throughout the country live near toxic sites, according to the report.

“Our people have not yet understood, or have not been exposed to, the subject of environmental racism,” said Correa. “The public still thinks that environmentalism has to do with mountains, rivers, green spaces,” he added. “Very few understand urban centers as their environmental medium.”

But the picture is more complex in New York, according to Elizabeth Yeampierre, director of the organization UPROSE in Sunset Park. Yeampierre said that the problem for Latinos in the city's industrial zones is the opposite of what it was decades ago. If in those days the industrial zones – where a great part of the Hispanic community lives – were home to poor people, the projects to clean up the port areas have been so successful that “our people can no longer live there,” said Yeampierre. Development has brought with it luxury condominiums and rental apartments.

“The fact is that the more successful we (environmentalists) are, the more we open our communities to the displacement of poor people,” she added. In areas like Red Hook the change has been dramatic not only in the ethnic composition of the resident population, but also in the threat of the loss of jobs with the transformation of the piers, which had been an important source of work for the Hispanic community, said the activist.

Battles waged years ago, like the campaigns against waste incinerators in areas like Williamsburg and the South Bronx, have given way to discussions on planning and development.

In a large part of the city, the only zones now available for development are abandoned areas that used to have industrial plants or are contaminated, according to Yeampierre. “Our community must be involved in the planning process,” she added.