2026-09-24T06:46:03Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121204 2023-12-11 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14737 com_2142_5130 com_2142_690 com_2142_397

Johnson, McKenzie F 2023-08 application/pdf en text Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2025-08-01 The student, Jane Gross, accepted the attached license on 2023-06-16 at 11:26. The student, Jane Gross, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2023-06-16 at 11:34. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2023-06-21 at 14:26. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19432 on 2023-12-04 at 17:30:27 Limits of justice in environmental governance: Coal ash and ethylene oxide in Waukegan, Illinois Gross, Jane 2023-06-21 Environmental Justice Environmental Discourse Environmental Policy 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. Text eng https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121204 Copyright 2023 Jane Gross M.S. Thesis Natural Res & Env Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Natural Res & Env Sci