A Community-Centered Approach to Assessing Environmental Injustices in the American Bottom

Stretching for over 130 kilometers along the Illinois bank of the Mississippi River, the area of Mississippi River Floodplain known as the American Bottom is home to over 130,000 people who depend on infrastructure that controls and curtails flooding. Although the Mississippi River is the most significant threat to communities in the American Bottom, a system of floodplain channels has triggered some of the most widespread and damaging incidents of flooding, threatening vulnerable communities along the Mississippi River. Communities of the American Bottom exhibit some of the most extreme disparities in racial makeup and economic outlook of any location in the US. While high stages of the Mississippi River rightfully receive broad media attention, the chronic flooding and associated impacts on surface-water quality afflicting Black communities across the American Bottom have been largely ignored. In this study, we interviewed residents, community leaders, and government officials to generate a community-centered assessment of the environmental challenges facing communities across the American Bottom. We catalogued experiences of chronic flooding and sewage overflows, descriptions of failing flood-control infrastructure, and general environmental concerns. The result has produced a portrait of environmental injustices that should better focus environmental restoration and inform efforts to generate much needed aid for American Bottom communities.