PHOENIX (AP) -- Twenty years after a landmark study showed that people of color were more likely to live near hazardous-waste sites than any other demographic, a follow-up report has found that the disparity is even greater across the U.S. today.

The problem is more entrenched in metropolitan Phoenix, where 63.7 percent of the residents living in neighborhoods adjacent to hazardous-waste facilities are of color, according to the new report commissioned by the United Church of Christ. Nationally, the figure is 56 percent.

Black and Latino residents are more likely than Anglos to live next to facilities storing the most dangerous types of wastes. They are exposed in disproportionate numbers to the potential health and safety risks of living next to volatile chemicals.

"Race in 1987 was the most potent predictor of where these facilities were located. Twenty years later, we find the same thing," said Robert Bullard, a sociology professor at Clark Atlanta University and one of the study's authors. "It also shows that the current environmental protection apparatus is broken and needs to be fixed."

"Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty" is a follow-up to the 1987 report that first demonstrated the link between hazardous-waste facilities and minority neighborhoods. The new study looked at neighborhoods within 1.8 miles of commercial hazardous-waste treatment, storage or disposal facilities. It studied five such facilities in Phoenix, Chandler, Coolidge and the Gila River Reservation. Only 33.5 percent of residents in non-host neighborhoods were minorities, the report said.

Municipal zoning policies, barriers to residential mobility and housing discrimination all play a part in maintaining the inequality nationwide, the report's authors said.

In Phoenix, the disparity has historical roots, say scholars who study environmental justice issues in the city.

By the early 1900s, the railroad tracks crisscrossing south Phoenix had become a magnet for industrial facilities. At the same time, discriminatory housing policies that lasted into the 1960s confined blacks and Latinos to neighborhoods close to industrial zones, said Bob Bolin, an anthropology professor at Arizona State University. Once those restrictions were lifted, economic difficulties prevented many residents from moving out of those neighborhoods. Others preferred not to leave their communities.

Hazardous-waste facilities moved into those areas already zoned for industrial use.

They did not meet the opposition that more affluent communities have organized in response to unwelcome industries, often because residents did not know anything about the facility moving in.

"A lot of them move in, and we don't even know what the hell it is until there's a problem," said Michael Pops, a south Phoenix resident and longtime activist.

Many of these neighborhoods lack access to legal help, and residents may not fully understand how the system works and what can be done to keep these facilities out, said Herb Jackson, vice president of the Greater Phoenix Urban League.

"If you can speak or someone speaks for you, then you don't get the waste put in your neighborhoods," Jackson said. "They would never do it in Paradise Valley, someplace like that. (The companies) would know better."

Commercial hazardous-waste facilities specialize in the storage, treatment, recycling or disposal of toxic waste. They are monitored by state and federal regulators to ensure that the volatile chemicals kept there do not endanger people working or living nearby. However, problems still occur.

Last month, an accident at Romic Environmental Technologies on the Gila River Reservation sent a cloud of hydrogen peroxide into the air. In gaseous form, hydrogen peroxide can irritate the eyes, skin, mucous membranes and lungs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency slapped the hazardous-waste recycling plant with a fine of at least $32,000 for the accident and for failing to notify emergency responders.

Another hazardous-waste disposal facility, Clean Harbors Arizona, agreed to pay a $45,000 penalty May 7 for several violations, including failing to conduct daily inspections and failing to minimize the possibility of a fire, explosion or other release.

Marilyn Tang's south Phoenix home is less than half a mile from Clean Harbors' Lincoln Street facility.

The site started accepting hazardous waste in 1990, according to EPA records. Clean Harbors processes a variety of toxic waste, from contaminated soil to used lab packs.

Tang is a retired Arizona Public Service Co. customer service associate who developed asthma three years ago. When she built her house in 1966, the nearby industrial facilities weren't there, she said.

"I'm sure with all the hazardous things around here, the air quality has to be poor," said Tang, 65. "I know it's all unhealthy, for anybody."

Legislation currently moving through Congress attempts to address some of these issues. A bill introduced by Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis of California would require the government to follow through on a 1994 executive order signed by then-President Clinton requiring federal agencies to review their policies' effects on minority and low-income populations.

An Arizona Department of Environmental Quality policy in place since 2004 requires the agency to review proposed projects' impacts on the surrounding community, department spokesman Cortland Coleman said. Environmental justice assessments are done when the minority population in the community is twice or more the percentage found in the general population.

In 2000, Phoenix changed the zoning ordinances so that commercial hazardous-waste facilities can no longer move to the city without a special waiver from the city council. No facilities have moved to metro Phoenix since then.

The city also uses zoning overlays, special zoning requirements for specific areas, to help protect and clean up neighborhoods threatened by encroachment from industry, said Debra Stark, planning director.

"As a city, we're really trying to respond to that," she said.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

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