A Toxic Relationship

The document describes a two-part methodology: first, using a "bathtub model" combining Digital Elevation Models, tidal gauge data, and NOAA sea level rise projections to map future 100-year-flood zones; second, performing a buffer analysis around 9,689 Superfund sites to determine if people of color and low-income households are disproportionately located near sites at risk of flooding.

• The researchers used a "bathtub model" to estimate permanent and temporary coastal flooding by combining Digital Elevation Models (DEM), tidal gauge data, and NOAA sea level rise projections to create a continuous surface of data for the East and Gulf Coasts.
• To determine the total water level (TWL) for various years and climate scenarios, the model added sea level rise layers to 100-year-flood height and mean higher high water layers, then subtracted the DEM layer to identify areas where the value was greater than 0 as expected flooded zones.
• The study analyzed 9,689 Superfund sites from the EPA's Facility Registry Service, including those actively being remediated, proposed for listing, or in screening and assessment phases.
• Superfund sites were classified as at risk of flooding if they were located within the projected flooding extent for NOAA's low, intermediate, intermediate-high, and high climate scenarios for the years 2040, 2060, 2080, and 2100, including a 200-meter buffer to account for the two-dimensional area of hazardous materials.
• The proximity analysis utilized one-mile, three-mile, and five-mile buffer zones around at-risk Superfund sites to estimate the number of people, specifically people of color and low-income households, living nearby using US Census Bureau block group data.
• To assess disproportionate risk, the study compared the observed number of low-income households and people of color in the buffer zones against expected values based on the overall percentages of these groups in coastal counties along the East and Gulf Coasts.

APA

Carter, J., & Kalman, C. (2020). A Toxic Relationship. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/a-toxic-relationship-appendix.pdf

Chicago

Carter, Jacob, and Casey Kalman. A Toxic Relationship. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2020. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/a-toxic-relationship-appendix.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Carter |first1=Jacob |last2=Kalman |first2=Casey |title=A Toxic Relationship |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=July 2020 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/a-toxic-relationship-appendix.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carter2020toxic, author = {Carter, Jacob and Kalman, Casey}, title = {{A Toxic Relationship}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2020}, month = jul, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/a-toxic-relationship-appendix.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }