Civil Rights Complaint Targets State’s Toxic Dumps : Law: In unique filing, groups say operating three waste sites near poor Latino communities is discrimination.

For the first time in California, a federal civil rights statute has been invoked in a legal battle over pollution--in this case over the exposure of Latino farm workers and their families to toxic waste.

In a joint complaint to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, three community groups from Central and Southern California on Friday alleged discrimination in the operation of the state’s three toxic waste dumps, all of which are near poor, Latino communities.

The complaint is part of a new strategy encouraged by President Clinton to use the 1964 Civil Rights Act to target pollution sources that threaten the health and safety of minority communities.

Named in the complaint are the California Environmental Protection Agency, the three counties where the dumps are situated and two of the nation’s largest waste disposal firms, Laidlaw Inc. and Chemical Waste Management, which operate the dumps.

Prepared by California Rural Legal Assistance on behalf of the three community groups, the complaint states that “100% of the toxic waste disposed of in landfills in California is dumped in or near low-income Latino communities.” It is a reference to Buttonwillow in Kern County, Kettleman City in Kings County and Westmorland in Imperial County--towns of under 2,000 people, all within a few miles of the state’s only toxic waste landfills.

“Low-income, Latino communities have been targeted during the siting of toxic waste dumps, and then conspicuously excluded from permit decisions affecting their health, environment, housing and quality of life,” the complaint states.

The Kettleman City dump is the largest of its kind west of Louisiana, and the Buttonwillow facility will be larger if it is successful in its efforts to double its size.

The complaint is the latest chapter in a long-running campaign to prevent expansion of the dumps and to require state and local agencies to regulate them more strictly. Activists have argued for years that residents have been forced to endure a variety of hazards--from air pollution to ground water contamination, rat bites and spilled loads of toxic trash.

Community groups are trying to make the case that their towns were disproportionately affected and therefore discriminated against under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That act prohibits discrimination in programs or activities that receive federal funding.

*

The complaint calls for terminating federal assistance to the named counties and government bodies unless there “is an immediate moratorium on the siting and expansion of any toxic waste facilities in communities of color.”

The complaint would also give the affected communities a larger role in future decisions about the dumps.

According to officials of the federal EPA, which will rule on the merits of the complaint, the California case is one of the first 20 in the nation to test the relevancy of the civil rights law in environmental disputes.

The complaint was filed, said one EPA official, after extensive consultation with the federal agency by California Rural Legal Assistance lawyer Luke Cole.

“We probably had more discussions with Luke Cole than any other complainant in a similar case,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

EPA officials said the California case is the first to call for penalties against private companies. If Laidlaw and Chemical Waste are found to have discriminated, contracts they have with the EPA to clean up federal Superfund sites could be canceled, said EPA officials.

The attempt to extend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to the environmental arena follows an order by Clinton this year calling for federal agencies to take steps to lighten what the Administration saw as a disproportionate burden of pollutants and other hazards on minority communities.

“The executive order says the EPA has to be sensitive to the issue of undue exposure to environmental hazards of low-income and minority communities,” said Clarice Gaylord, director of the EPA’s office of environmental justice.