Maria Herrera learned from an early age that if you want to right an injustice you need to have your voice heard. She has spent her early career doing just that.
Herrera, a 32-year-old Visalia resident, was just named to the California Water Commission by Gov. Jerry Brown. She is known around Tulare Countyand the state as an advocate for plentiful clean water in mostly poor Latino communities…
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.
In these harsh days of drought, who could complain about a vast recycling program that has been around for years, saving billions of gallons of water annually while helping our beleaguered agricultural sector? The answer is: folks who are concerned about crops being drenched in under-tested oil wastewater. The Los Angeles Times explained why they care…
Southeast Fresno resident Salvador Mendoza can’t afford the $2,000-a-month medication for his lung disease, but starting Thursday he will be closer to relief.
Mendoza’s family is one of 20 in Fresno expected to receive a rooftop solar panel system courtesy of a pilot program aimed at helping poor, vulnerable communities save money on electricity costs while combating climate change. The silver panels reflected under the Wednesday morning sun, shining brightly on the rooftop. The installation will be completed today…
Southeast Fresno resident Salvador Mendoza can’t afford the $2,000-a-month medication for his lung disease, but starting Thursday he will be closer to relief.
Mendoza’s family is one of 20 in Fresno expected to receive a rooftop solar panel system courtesy of a pilot program aimed at helping poor, vulnerable communities save money on electricity costs while combating climate change. The silver panels reflected under the Wednesday morning sun, shining brightly on the rooftop. The installation will be completed today…
In Kern County the oil industry and the world of farming are working hand in hand, but not everyone is happy about that. As Valley Public Radio’s Ezra David Romero reports there are growing concerns over the use of oil field wastewater used to irrigate prime farmland…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cited the Bakersfield Crude Terminal for 10 violations of the Clean Air Act, declaring the California crude-by-rail facility a major air pollution source that should have been subjected to rigorous environmental review during the permitting process…
On a map he keeps in his office, Tom Frantz, an environmental activist and retired math teacher, notes a spot near his home that he says is within a five-mile radius of 10 big dairy farms and about 60,000 cows. This town, in the very fertile but poor and badly polluted San Joaquin Valley in California, is near the heart of dairy country in a state that produces 20 percent of America’s milk…
The air we breathe is bad, and it is only being made worse by the drought.
That was the news released Thursday with the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2015, an annual report on air quality which lists both the cleanest and most polluted areas in the country…
On Tuesday, April 29th 2015, Governor Brown announced an Executive Order that establishes a greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 (available here). On behalf of the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA), we applaud Governor Brown’s climate leadership. It is imperative that California, as a leader nationally and internationally continue to lead the way in addressing the human toll caused by our changing climate…