My colleague David Pettit and I had the privilege to participate in the kick off rally held at Mount Moriah Baptist Church. An incredible energy of solidarity and hope filled the church as various civil rights leaders pumped up the crowd and offered encouragement for the journey ahead. By the end of the rally, the diverse coalition of labor, education, and faith groups became one unified body, working toward the common goals of “reclaiming the promise of quality public education and services,” “rebuilding state government so it works for everyone,” and “restoring fair and equitable taxes to invest in California’s future.” As one marcher put it, they were not marching for “their piece of the pie” but for everyone’s stake in the future.
This idea of working for everyone’s piece of the pie resonated in me, not just because of the altruism it requires, but also because that is how I view the environmental justice work we do at NRDC. We consider clean air something that belongs not just to the privileged few but to the many. That is why we fight to clean up dirty trucks at the Ports and irresponsible and dangerous freeway expansions. That is why we fight for cleaner fuel and better public transit. We fight these battles to protect the right to clean air that belongs to everyone, not just the privileged few, now and into the future.
]]>Last week, NRDC staff members Adriano Martinez, Morgan Wyenn, Sherry Goldberg, Linda Escalante and I joined forces with members from Communities for a Better Environment, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Long Beach Alliance for Children, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and concerned community members along the I-710 corridor to convince the I-710 EIR/EIS Project Committee to develop tougher environmental protocols to measure the health impacts of the freeway expansion. The Project Committee is made up of mainly elected officials in the I-710 corridor, and it is charged with providing direction on policy to the agencies that want to build the additional lanes of highway.
Concerned activists and experts spoke to the Project Committee of the health risks associated with the current I-710. There are numerous schools and day care facilities less than ¼ of a mile from the I-710. The 1.6 million residents along the I-710 Corridor are disproportionately impacted by local sources of pollution and as a result have higher coronary heart disease, emphysema and diabetes mortality rates compared to LA County. Mothers who live close to freeway traffic during pregnancy have more premature and low birth weight babies than the general population. The speakers implored the Project Committee to use scientifically- based standards in the environmental impact reports and studies in order to gauge the magnitude of the negative health impacts associated with the freeway expansion. Only by doing this can real mitigation measures be examined and health risks minimized. The Project Committee tabled three of the four proposed recommendations but did agree to use the significant thresholds used by the district's air quality board (SCAQMD, South Coast Air Quality Management District) to assess the health impacts of their projects. Even this victory is a very modest one because the usual SCAQMD significance thresholds may inadequately protect residents near highways and do not account for the cumulative impact of pollution, furthering harming communities that are already subjected to the highest cancer risk in the Southern California area.
Last week's meeting highlighted the need for constant community involvement in decision making. I left with the impression that some Project Committee members still need to be convinced that there are negative health impacts for people who live near freeways despite substantial scientific evidence. I suppose people still question whether cigarettes cause cancer and whether climate change is real. It is just really frustrating when their neighbors, constituents, and friends are impacted by this highway pollution. How many more asthma attacks and premature deaths from this pollution do we need to suffer before these people pull their heads out of the sand?
]]>The simple issue of safe drinking water is a complicated one in Maywood. Besides having three privately-owned water companies supplying the city's water needs, the city also houses a Superfund site resulting from ground water contamination due to chemical mixing operations in the 1940s through the early 1990s. All the water companies claim that the water is safe to drink and say that they have conducted testing to substantiate their claims.
However, despite these claims, on any given day, the water can be shades of brown and emit a foul odor. Because of the water companies' unwillingness to respond to the city residents' concerns, the residents have successfully organized to make changes to improve the water quality on their own. Besides voting in progressive politicians to the city council, they were successful in conducting independent community water tests in 2006 which showed levels of manganese above the federal secondary maximum contaminant level. Although manganese is a naturally occurring mineral, there are fears that long term exposure could lead to neurological damage. More studies are being done on the subject. The city residents also successfully contributed to the passage of AB890, which aims to clean up the drinking water by issuing mandates to the water companies to reduce the manganese levels and bring the water to the same standards as that of nearby neighborhoods.
Last night, NRDC lawyer David Pettit and I had the privilege of attending a community meeting where community residents shared some of their horror stories. With a big jug of brown sludge in front of us on the table, we heard residents talk about how the water is so dirty that it has ruined their clothes when they attempt to wash with it, how the bad smell being emitted from the water makes them nauseous and how they have to buy bottled water for their everyday needs. One particular comment that stuck with me was a resident who said he doesn't even give the dog the city's water for fear of getting it sick. David and I expressed NRDC's commitment to working in solidarity with community groups and pledged an ongoing conversation with the city residents on their water problems.
]]>I was invited to speak because I am one of a handful of students who graduated from Belmont HS, at that time one of the largest and most under-performing schools in the nation, and went on to attend and graduate from Harvard University.
The purpose of my speech was two-fold. Primarily, I hoped to convey to the students that college is a very real possibility for their future. In minority, low-income communities, college is often seen as something for "other kids," those privileged enough to attend better schools, with better resources, and not living in inner-city communities or the "ghetto." And when it is seen as a choice, barriers like financial aid and access to supportive environments become further roadblocks. I informed the students about the myriad of college types available to them and the corresponding financial aid that they can access to finance their schooling. I also touched on the educational and social support available to them when they attend college. I expressed my expectation that they all attend college, in some form or another, post high school and my belief that there are no barriers to achieving their college dreams.
Secondly, I spoke to the students about their obligation to do something meaningful with their education, to return to their communities and work to improve the conditions that forced them to think that college was not an option. As an example, I spoke about my current work at NRDC and how working on air and environmental justice issues has a real, immediate impact on the well-being of our communities.
It was an enormous honor to speak to these high school students about college and I look forward to the next opportunity to inspire youth to consider college as a real, viable opportunity in their lives.
*For more information on LAHSA, please visit their website at http://www.lahsa.net.
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