Superfund Site Cleanup and Environmental Injustice: A Comparative Analysis of Joint Base Cape Cod and the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Area

This paper examines injustices associated with US federal efforts to identify and restore two severely contaminated areas classified as Superfund sites: the Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC) in Massachusetts and the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Area site in Vieques, Puerto Rico. It explores the history, purposes, and procedures of the Superfund program and conducts a review of the prior literature on the nexus between Superfund sites and environmental injustice. The paper will then focus on the two case studies, exploring the history of both sites and examining similarities and differences in restoration outcomes and progress, the demographics of the surrounding communities, and the sources of political power and influence. I argue that special considerations must be made to account for how particular factors, such as political power and socioeconomic status, play into procedural and historical injustices at Superfund sites, contributing to broader environmental justice issues at these sites. Communities surrounding the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Area in Vieques not only have to deal with the consequences of contamination from military activities, but also with the simultaneous impacts of weak healthcare infrastructure, ineffective political representation, lack of opportunities for meaningful community involvement in governmental processes, among others.