Blog

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.

***
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

Our fourth day of the tour started in Earlimart, a small San Joaquin Valley agriculture town. We met Teresa De Anda, Central Valley Organizer at Californians for Pesticide Reform, and a group of passionate community members at an elementary school. We learned about the 1999 pesticide drift accident, where the wrong area of Earlimart was sprayed with pesticides and community members were contaminated and are still suffering residual health effects.

About 30 of us loaded onto the bus and Teresa took us on a tour of Earlimart. We drove past grape fields, almond and pistachio orchards, we stopped to talk to some workers packing grapes. They asked Jessie Marquez, Executive Director of Coalition for a Safe Environment, who we were and they wished us luck and gave us some grapes.

We continued on our way to 40 acres but not before looking at the schools on the fenceline of fields. We pulled into 40 acres at the UFW headquarters and held our town hall forum in a historic UFW building. Arturo Rodriguez, the head of the legendary union, welcomed us. Outside was Dolores Huerta and others leaving in a caravan to go from field to field to promote the collective bargaining campaign.

The forum provided information on Pesticides and the Safe Air for Everyone campaign that uses a drift catcher to do air monitoring of pesticide drift. The Comite for El Benestar de Ealimart and Californians for Pesticide Reform have been effective in passing legislation to deal with pesticide drift. The communities of the San Joaquin Valley were eloquent in their call for unity and more organizing efforts. As one speaker said, “Two of us cannot push this bus but a lot more of us can push this bus all the way to Sacramento.”

We were stunned to learn the local mega dairies are often built with lack of permits. The Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment filed a lawsuit against these dairies to address this issue. We saw the dirty brown tap water that comes out of the pipes and it is so bad that residents have to use the bottled water that is distributed by local authorities, prompting on advocate to say, “We pay for water, we are paying to be poisoned.”

-Martha Dina Arguello

It’s the third day of the tour and we are settling in as travelers. In the morning we bonded over our mosquito stories on the way to see Fort Ord. The voice in my head is still saying, “Why would anyone in their right mind burn land where there is unexploded ordinance?” It became clearer when talking to one of the young activits at last night’s Fort Ord forum who said, “It is faster than the safer alternatives and developers want this land so they can build.” And after our tour of Fort Ord, I can see why; it is spectacular land with great views and ocean breezes surrounded by beautiful Monterey pine and cypress trees draped with Spanish moss.

We toured the former military site, the old barracks long abandoned, the peeling paint setting off the lead detector in my mind. As I was about to ask about the lead, LeVonne Stone and Patrice, a student at California State Monterey Bay University, told us many of the barracks had already been burned, again setting off the lead detector in my mind. We visited a landfill that is now being graded in preparation for a high-end housing development. We laughed at the sign with a happy family playing together in their new luxury home. It showed a happy multi-ethnic family and, again, I wondered how happy these families would be if they knew their homes were on a Superfund site and if there are disclosure and right-to-know laws involved with the development.

When we rolled into Fresno we felt great to seeing the “Welcome EJ Tour” sign. We were greeted by our Fresno colleagues at a 4 panel Forum, which discussed Air Quality, Land Use & Transportation, Climate Change & Environmental Justice, and Waste Issues. They also highlighted their great victories against incinerators and industry. A presentation on renewable energy generated a lively discussion making it clear that when we deal with climate change we are not willing to compromise. We want climate justice with carbon emission reduction that also reduces other smog-forming substances. “When we talk about alternatives sometimes I get the feeling that regulators want us to pick your poison and this is something that I find insulting,” said Rosinda Mataka of Grayson Neighborhood Council.

We followed the Forum with a tour of West/Southeast Fresno. Ray Leon, the Central Valley Organizer for the Latino Issues Forum, guided us through Fresno explaining all the environmental injustice the community faces. We ended the night with a wonderful reception at Arte Americas Gallery, where Latino artists are featured.

-Martha Dina Arguello and Ashley Iwanaga