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

As the southern Tour bus left Anniston, Alabama on Wednesday night, one similarity of all the communities we visited so far came to mind: ghost towns. Every city tour narrative on this route thus far has included a phrase like, “And on your left, that weeded area used to be a neighborhood of 50 or more homes….” Destroyed, abandoned homes or block after vacant city block — areas that used to be thriving neighborhoods but have surrendered to toxic contamination. The industry has virtually erased so many communities with its pollution; yet the invisible poisons still exist in the bodies of former residents, in the water, in the soil.

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Reverend Henry Sterling, Anniston resident and leader with the Alabama Southern Christian Leadership Conference, spoke with us about Monsanto’s decades of dumping PCBs into west Anniston communities. He shared that in a few short weeks, he led funeral services for five women, all under 32 years old and including his neice, who died from cancer. “These young people should be in the prime of their lives,” he said, “but instead they are being destroyed by toxic contamination.” He added, “What bothers me about the industry is not their ignorance, but their arrogance. They knew perfectly well what the effects were, but they carried on their poisoning with no regard for the people.”

In Anniston I am reminded that when the Tour was first conceived, organizers compared the goals of the Tour and that of the Freedom Rides. Here, as in so many other southern towns, the history of the civil rights movement and that of the struggle against environmental racism are intertwined. As we drove on the “other side of the tracks” from downtown Anniston to the historic African-American west Anniston, we passed the site of the Greyhound bus station where Freedom Riders were beaten. The site of the infamous bus burning is only minutes away from the Monsanto (now Solutia) facility and beyond that, the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator. In between the two, more ghost-neighborhoods; Henry and Rufus remind us that the residents who remain are either aware of the dangers but can’t leave, or perhaps are just resigned to pollution and illness as a way of life. The company’s legal settlement funds have helped some into a better life, but for others it is not enough and in any case, money doesn’t stop the spread of cancer.

Where is the hope? As Rufus Kinney said, there’s hope when any number of us — even a few — get together to share stories and ideas, talk about the solutions, and take action, even if it’s standing outside the Depot gate for a few minutes, reminding the Army that we’re still watching. Remembering the lives of the many who died too young, we carry forward the hope that our actions today will help ensure a safer, healthier future for our children and future generations.

-Elizabeth Crowe

(Apologies to Christine Bennett, with MEAN in Mossville, who dictated a wonderful entry for this day only to have it erased when we lost the wireless signal on the bus. Sorry Christine!)

Who would have thought that people would vote to put a 30 million ton landfill on a site directly on top of a river, a drinking water aqueduct, a sacred site, endangered species habitat and in plain view of a resort? According to the Lenore Voltunre of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, that’s exactly what is being proposed in the city of Temecula, just outside of San Diego.

Over a decade ago, a coalition of real estate agents, and land developers bankrolled a $900,000 campaign to persuade urban San Diego to pass the ballot initiative, which authorized the Gregory Canyon landfill site despite the fact that 111 other sites were found to be more suitable.

“This is being sited on a river which is not good science, not good thinking, not good ethics, not good justice,” said Nina Hapner, Native American Environmental Protection Coalition, who presented on behalf of Lenore who was recovering from a recent injury.

This case challenges many of the traditional environmental justice strategies in that it can’t be challenged using traditional legal means because voter approved the siting of the landfill through a ballot initiative.

The Gregory Mountain area and Medicine Rock are both threatened by the proposed landfill development. These sites, which are sacred to the Luiseño people, are where young women and men hold indigenous ceremonies that have been practiced for generations. Pala tribe lawyers were able to identify major faults, shortcomings, and oversights in the Environmental Impacts Report (EIR), and have also discovered extortion evidence. In addition to the desecration of sacred sites, diesel trucks, hazardous waste spills, and groundwater contamination also threaten the health of the residents of the valley.

The Pala Tribe along with the Native American Environmental Protection Coalition, are resolved to fight the proposed landfill tooth and nail. The tribe will not stand for the dump or the injustice.

-Rafael Aguilera