The scenario is always the same. A community of low and moderate income households is under environmental attack . Their drinking water is very dirty. And the air is barely breathable.

The likely suspect? A large refinery in the area. Or a large manufacturing facility in the area. Or a large landfill in the area.

Or in the case of many poorer communities, a combination of all three.

Yes, in my opinion, poorer communities are more likely than other communities to be the target of environmental injustice. It isn't the rich communities that have bad drinking water. It isn't the rich communities that have large asthma rates associated with particulates in the air.

It's generally the poorer communities that are forced to suffer the results of environmental degradation associated with illegal industrial activity. Why do you think it is that the poorer communities end up being on the short end of this very deadly stick?

Poorer communities are targeted for a variety of reasons. First, poorer communities usually cannot afford to stick up for themselves. If a wealthy community suffers from an industrial polluter, they will hire a lawyer and they will fight.

In the case of poorer communities, they usually don't have the resources to pay for professional representation to protect themselves.

In addition, poorer communities are often not well politically represented. They can't raise a lot of funding, because the neighborhoods are poor. And they do not guarantee voter loyalty, because often the residents speak little English and understandably may not trust government to begin with.

For whatever the reason, poorer neighborhoods very often do not receive the same level of political representation as wealthier neighborhoods. And with out political representation, large industrial polluters who don't care about human lives are likely to destroy these communities.

Another problem is that often these polluting industries make large campaign contributions and effectively hi-jack the political process. If a polluting company is a large political contributor, it might very well be the case that local and statewide politicians aren't going to do much to punish it and stop it from engaging in long-term, harmful pollution.

In addition, regulatory agencies can only do so much. Thus, even when you have a regulatory agency, such as a Department of Environmental Protection, who cares about a community, it might very well be the case that it lacks financial and human resources necessary to take meaningful action.

There's yet another problem associated with the legal process. The fact is that very often local attorneys in a community that is being polluted represent large industrial polluters as clients. In those cases, these attorneys will not be able to represent the communities that are under attack.

The good news is that there are lawyers across the country willing to come into a community and take these kinds of cases. The attorneys specialize in large toxic tort litigations and are familiar with the procedures and processes to go after these large industrial polluters. And because they tend to be from out of town, they usually do not have the same conflicts.

Tragically, low income, poor communities are often the victims of large scale industrial pollution. While local help may not be available, the internet can be a useful source for locating professional help so as to allow a community to fight back.

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.