Limits of justice in environmental governance: Coal ash and ethylene oxide in Waukegan, Illinois

This thesis examines environmental decision making around ethylene oxide, which is a new concern, and coal ash, which activists have opposed for nearly a decade, to understand which mechanisms shape environmental governance and environmental outcomes in a sacrifice zone like Waukegan, Illinois. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews with legislators, regulators, and activists reveal how, even after the promulgation of remarkably progressive state policy, people in Waukegan remain exposed to coal ash and ethylene oxide at levels hazardous to environmental and human health. This thesis argues that continued hazard exposure is because environmental governance in Illinois is constrained by the historical and ideological legacies of wilderness and command-and-control pollution control strategies. Illinois’ regulation of ethylene oxide and permitting of coal ash ponds offers an opportunity to research how hegemonic ideas of the environment and environmental management reproduce injustice in communities like Waukegan. Although the environmental justice movement has achieved international recognition and contributed to national policy initiatives like Justice40, this thesis suggests environmental discourses around nature and risk maintain a dominant influence on contemporary environmental governance.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Natural Res & Env Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Gross, Jane

Contributors dc:contributor

• Johnson, McKenzie F

• Environmental Justice
• Environmental Discourse
• Environmental Policy
• Illinois

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Jane Gross

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121204

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121204