Nearly 70 million people in the United States today live within three miles of a Superfund site – an EPA-monitored area of land contaminated with hazardous substances. Some scholars have called these environmental health hazards “the plague of our time.” However, Superfund sites and other environmental issues disproportionately impact low-income communities of color, making them classic environmental justice issues. While the physical health impacts of such exposures are well documented, much less is known about the psychological implications of exposure to toxic substances. I present a mixed-methods case study of the impact of chronic water contamination on a Superfund site in Tucson, Arizona’s southside, a largely low-income Latine community. Through historical and archival analysis, qualitative interviews, representative surveys, experiments, and community engagement, I document the unique nature of “toxic trauma” and explore the ways that this community has built resilience to and organized against environmental injustice.
