Poisoned Communities in Solidarity: Not from my backyard to yours
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