Most of us are feeling the effects of the California drought from a distance, if at all: Our produce is a little more expensive, our news feeds are filled with images of cracked earth. But thousands of people in California’s Central Valley are feeling the drought much more acutely, because water has literally ceased running from their taps. The drought in these communities resembles a never-ending natural disaster, says Andrew Lockman, manager of the county’s Office of Emergency Services. Most disasters are “sudden onset, they run their course over hours or days, and then you clean up the mess. This thing has been growing for 18 months and it’s not slowing down.”…
News
This page features excerpts from news about environmental justice advocacy in the San Joaquin Valley and links to their original sources. Use the features on the right to sort by topic, news source, date, key word or author. You may also subscribe to receive the news by e-mail or through an rss reader. Please note that links to original sources may expire over time.
Fracking rubs a lot of environmentally minded people the wrong way, with its use of toxic substances, its contribution to climate change, and its potential to pollute with air and water. This last issue, water pollution, has become even more worrisome as California’s drought drags on…
This is a recording of the July 2015 edition of Clearing the Air, which airs monthly on KFCF 88.1 FM the Fresno Free College Foundation, an affiliate network Pacifica Radio station KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley…
Spanning from Modesto to Bakersfield, the San Joaquin valley has some of the highest concentrations of air pollution in the country…
On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) announced that he has convened a panel to review a recent study that found some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing could be harmful to public health, CBS Local 2 reports (Tucker, CBS Local 2, 7/23).
The state Senate in 2013 commissioned the California Council on Science and Technology to conduct the study. It was released earlier this month…
More than 100 children, parents and community organizers in fluorescent yellowish-green shirts and orange shoe covers marched through a South Los Angeles neighborhood earlier this week chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, this drilling site has got to go!”
The canaries-in-a-coal-mine color-scheme of the protesters was intentional. There was even a giant cage in front of an oil drilling site on West Jefferson Boulevard that neighborhood children, most of them African American or Latino, crammed into, holding up signs asking to “Set these canaries free.”…
Toxic tour & State Water Board meeting on Ponds, SB4, and UIC (Kern County)
On Monday July 20th, 2015 Clean Water Action members Andrew Grinberg and Rosanna Esparza guided a tour alongside Sierra Club members Ann Gallon, Kyle Jones, also attending was Katharine Moore from the Sen. Natural Resources and Water and CCEJN project coordinator Gustavo Aguirre Jr to East Bakersfield in a location known as Race Track Hills (Comanche Rd & Breckenridge Rd)…
Toxic Tour with Center for Environmental Health (CEH)
On July 16th 2015, Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN), Clean Water Action (CWA), Global Community Monitor (GCM), and Center for Environmental Health (CEH) embarked on a local toxic tour in Kern County focusing on oil operations near communities…
The Woodland Biomass Power plant is one of about 30 similar facilities statewide that produce renewable electricity from humans’ oldest fuel source: wood…
A high-tech program that lets residents of low-income communities in California upload photos, videos, and other information catching polluters in the act should be expanded across the state, according to a new report…