Preface:
Keywords- Prince George, environmental injustice, racism, urban areas, Kent County
For my final project, I created a photo essay. I will be focusing on this area of Prince George County. I’ve captured images starting at the Anacostia River Park leading to Upper Marlboro’s Brown Station Road Sanitary Landfill. I decided to capture images from these particular places because they expand on Aldo Leopold and George Perkin’s idea of Human interactions with nature and the man-made destruction of the land. This visual representation of this county is counter to this idea of natural preservation and admiration as seen in Thoreau and Dillard. Focusing on the philosophy of Leopold, he makes a great point saying that “man-made changes are of a different order than evolutionary changes and have effects more comprehensive than is intended or foreseen”. This spoke to me because in PG we are so used to this man-made change that we don’t see the effects of this destruction in the long run.
My first stop was Kent County. I was in the area and decided to take pictures on my way home. The pictures show this pattern of just land and minimal destruction to nature. Most of the land is used for agricultural purposes.
At the waterfront, I proceeded up the road that leads to the waterfront, I saw the construction of a sanitary plant. As I walked around taking pictures, they seem of feces was very strong and I was so nauseated by the smell that I quickly took the picture and left. I was shaken by the water level and how dirty the water looked.
The Purple line was something I needed to include in my pictures because I live right next to where they started the construction. When they started the line, they were paying homeowners half a million to move out and tear down the houses. One of our close friends was offered a quarter of a million. Some buildings in the path of the line decided not to sell. When I went to check the buildings, they were going out of business or business was slow.
My last stop was the Brown Station Landfill. My parents live near it and I’ve always been bothered by this idea of trash incinerators and landfills. To my surprise, when I went to take pictures, I couldn’t enter the landfill if I was paying to dump the trash. I went around the landfill trying to find a road that would show at least the sign or hill of the landfill location.
Living in PG county and coming to Kent County has been a culture shock. The transition from an urban area to a rural area has been very eye-opening. With this photo essay, I’m hoping to bring awareness to man-made destruction specifically pollution and transportation is seen throughout PG county where the population of Hispanics and African Americans is high. The construction of the purple line and the presence of Brown Station Road Sanitary Landfill surrounding PG county are foreseen as normal but in other areas, this is not the case. Besides this being an environmental issue, this is all an environmental racial injustice. The areas surrounding the landfill site are populated by low-income, minorities, and predominantly Hispanic and African Americans (Colored people). This contrasts heavily with the lower number of these sites in areas with a high population of Caucasians. residents. Most of the homes surrounding these areas I highlighted in the pictures are took are destroyed by man, due to construction, pollution and trash. I currently live in Hyattsville, md and this area is highly populated by minorities such as immigrants and refugees. The amount of trash and dust buildup in my community is appalling.
Aside from the pictures I’ve taken these maps highlight this persisting issue of Environmental racism in America. The location of pollution sites such as the ones shown in the pictures is centered in urban areas where the population of colored people is prevalent.
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