Blog

I felt the meeting in Berea was fairly sucessful. It was a shame there wern’t more students. It would have been better if there had been an evening forum so more students could be present since we are, after all, the next generation to be affected by toxic waste.

It was unclear to me at first whether the intention of the touring group was to shut down the companies creating the waste or to clean them up. My concern was for the workers and their families, for if the plants were to shut down they would be unemployed, so I asked what their goal was. They clarified that they were mostly trying to get the companies to clean up their waste products or find less wasteful means of going about their business, but there are some in such disarray that they woud need to be shut down.

This discussion also revealed that resistance comes not only from corporation owners, but from state and local governments as well. They resist because they depend on the money made in fines whenever corporations break set protocols. This is a huge problem! It’s like unraveling a thread to solve a problem, but the more we pull on the thread the bigger the hole gets and the more problems arise that also need to be addressed.

However, it would be cowardly and unacceptable to give up. We have to find an afordable means to clean up the waste created by these corporations so the employees can keep their jobs. Also, we may have to raise our taxes to satisfy state and local governments. Finally, we need to convince the majority of the moneyholders in this nation that once clean air is gone, not even all the money in the world will buy it back.

-Rebecca Ogburn, Berea College Student

It was an extremely sad day, in 1998, that the soil contaminated with technical grade DDT over 870,000 parts per million was sent to Port Arthur, Texas to be burned. We were told by EPA that the DDT was so toxic that it had to be burned. We asked that it be removed and temporary placed where it came from, down the street at the Montrose Superfund site, until the Record of Decision with remediation plans were formed and we could deal with all the DDT at that time. We pressed our issue hard with EPA, at it’s highest level Timothy Fields, Jr. Acting Assistant Administer for EPA and Carol Browner, Administrator, that it was an injustice to the African American community in Port Arthur to add to their contamination burden. We contacted the Assistant Attorney General at the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry in Atlanta Georgia, Dr. Barry Johnson, about the eminent endangerment to the citizens of Port Arthur by burning our DDT which would create Dioxin upon incomplete combustion. We meet with the community in Poet Arthur on the evening of October 27, 1998 and apologized that our burden had been dumped on them. We declared after our visit to Port Arthur which literally left most of the team gasping for air, that NEVER AGAIN would this be allowed! The next removal of DDT was buried in Arizona and the one after that finally taken to the Montrose site which was what our original request stated and there the DDT remains as we work toward a ROD for the site.

We are forever tied to the residents of Port Arthur and remain heart broken that the EPA took toxic waste from one Environmental Justice community and burned it in another. The EPA even hired a PR firm to outreach into the community that the Del Amo Action Committee was holding them back from removing this poison from them and taking it to a perfectly acceptable disposal location and that the community was not predominantly African American. Such blatant Lies …………………….

Yet we remain hopeful and willing to work our asses off, neglecting our families who support us with their willingness to let us full fill our destiny, in hopes that one day it will be easier and more just for the poisoned communities following in our footsteps. God bless Port Arthur and we remain steadfast in our declaration, NEVER AGAIN!

—Cynthia Babich
Del Amo Action Committee

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Day six has been very productive thus far with residents from Eastern Kentucky canvassing door to door with residents living near Rubbertown chemical facilities here in Louisville Kentucky.

Canvassers heard stories about odors, illness, and toxic dumps. There were also several residents who spoke about paint being stripped from their vehicles because of fallout from chemical plants. A former Rubbertown employee spoke about being diagnosed with liver toxicity.

These were the stories from people who have been bombarded with toxic chemicals for years. It is because of these people that we continue to fight what seems to be an endless battle.

On a day that can be described as dreary at best, canvassers who live far from the stacks of Rubbertown chose to sacrifice their weekend for the good of the community here in Louisville Kentucky. That is part of what this tour was about, reaching out to affected communities around this nation hoping to make a difference in the lives of people who have been subjected to environmental injustice.

A big Thanks goes out from REACT to Jessica George (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) and Shameka Parrish (The Kentucky Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression) for organizing the canvassers. Their efforts have allowed REACT to reach additional people whose voices have yet to be heard.

It is our fifth day and as we were crossing into Calexico we stopped at a rest area. Martha Arguello mentioned that the New River was located nearby. I walked over to the barbwire fence and looked down toward the river, I was shocked to see nothing but a river of stagnate toxic green ooze stretching for miles.

We arrived at Nosotros Park in Calexico, a border town across from Mexicali, Mexico for a press conference. In attendance were local community representatives who live near New River and members of the Institute for Socio-Economic Justice and Progressive Community Development. At the town hall, residents expressed their frustration about how long the problem of the new river has gone on…. for over twenty years. We repeatedly heard the residents say, “No more studies. We know what is making us sick. We don’t need any more studies, we need action.” Residents were not happy with the alternatives being offered … they do not want the river treated with chlorine, they want it capped. Activists demanded an action plan with a time line and to know how much financial resources are going to be in the clean up plan.

We were moved by the public testimony of the residents. Many spoke about their concerns for the environment, the highly toxic river and the many years of broken promises by government agencies. One woman pulled down on her shirt and revealed her purple scar on her chest and said, “My cancer and the cancers of my neighbors are the impacts of this river.” She went on to say and reveal that she knew 13 families out of 21 in one block who have cancer in their households.

A representative of the California State Water Resources Board was confronted by residents and asked the agency to commit, in writing, to addressing some of their concerns.

Residents of Calexico described how the New River on the US side was being contaminated by US agricultural and industrial companies and also by Mexico. They took us for a tour and we were able to see first hand the Mexican outfall dumping its toxic slurry into the US side of the New River.

This community has been active. They talked of attending many meetings over the years and still the problems at the New River have not been addressed.

Among the accomplishments included having public warning signs placed all along the New River to warn US residents and Mexicans crossing the border of the extreme danger in entering the water.

-Jesse N. Marquez