Executive Summary:

Edgecombe and Robeson are two of the state’s most economically challenged and disaster-prone communities.

Both counties are home to a host of polluting industries (wood pellet and chemical production facilities as well as hog, chicken, and turkey farms and slaughtering operations) and other locally unwanted land-uses (landfills, animal waste lagoons, and hazardous materials sites).

Both counties were hard-hit by catastrophic flooding from major hurricanes that repeatedly destroyed residential structures, water and wastewater systems, and other critical infrastructure, exposing community residents to life-threatening contaminants that polluted wells, surface water, and ground water in the two communities.

Both communities have struggled to fully recover from the damage and destruction caused by the hurricanes and industrial pollution, especially incapacitated, poorly performing, and financially strapped water and wastewater systems. Recently, however, Edgecombe and Robeson counties have benefitted from significant investments of federal and state dollars to improve ailing public water systems and reduce the public’s reliance on private wells as a primary source of drinking water.

Our goal in this research was to assess the extent to which water services and investments in system improvements and expansions are equitably distributed within the two counties (see Appendix B and Appendix C). To achieve this goal, we used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to layer census block level race/ethnic, household median income, and public school location data on a digital shapefile of the existing water lines in the two counties.

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About the Authors

James H. Johnson, Jr. is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship in the Kenan-Flagler Business School and Director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center in the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Jeanne Milliken Bonds is a Professor of the Practice, Impact Investment and Sustainable Finance in the Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Department of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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