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The city of New Bedford needs to take “aggressive action” to deal with “rampant contamination in low-income neighborhoods,” according to the Conservation Law Foundation.
A new CLF report, “New Bedford Massachusetts Environmental Justice in the Twenty-First Century,” notes that the city is a national leader in renewable energy, is working to clean up hazardous wastes, and is opening its waterfront to more residents. But the report also states that New Bedford’s economy is sluggish and its poorer residents are living and working near properties that were contaminated with hazardous materials during the city’s manufacturing era.
New Bedford “has extensive environmental degradation, coupled with significant numbers of low-income residents, new immigrants, and people of color, many of whom live with the legacy of those early industrial years — lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, and other contamination in their neighborhoods,” the report states.