Scattered on either side of Shafter Avenue just north of the town center here, new oil pump jacks, some bobbing and others thrusting, tower above this corner of California’s prime farmland…
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.
On September 25, 2012, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 685 (Eng) to ensure universal access to clean water. The bill statutorily recognizes that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” AB 685 places the human right to water at the center of state policy and underscores the role of state agencies in addressing the human impact of unsafe water. The purpose of this document is to guide state agencies in efforts to implement the historic human right to water bill…
At 5:30 a.m., the main drag here fills with campesinos — farmworkers facing another sweaty day at low pay. Fieldwork is the main occupation in poverty-plagued Huron.
The 98% Latino city might seem the poster child for disadvantaged communities in California.
It is poorest among cities in the state, according to U.S. Census numbers, and fourth-poorest in California by a state analysis released this year. The analysis also shows that Huron is third-worst for education — three-quarters of residents older than 25 don’t have a high school diploma.
Yet the city of nearly 7,000 does not qualify as a disadvantaged community on the fast track for a piece of the money being raised in the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. The money might be used for all kinds of projects to improve the city…
Great turnout thanks to Ana and Maricela of Greenaction plus Chris Romanini of HECA Neighbors and local Sierra Club folks. Around 100 people were in the audience.
This short video gives you a picture of what went on plus highlights the environmental justice problem with this proposed project.
Members of CCEJN joined the lobbying effort of Californians for Pesticide Reform to pressure legislators to seek a fumigant-free California by the year 2020.
Fumigants are a type of pesticide that is commonly used in California on soils bearing strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, carrots, and other crops. The way to treat these soils is by injecting the fumigants in gas form directly into the soil prior to planting crops. This practice is inherently dangerous as the gas form of the fumigants often drifts into nearby areas. In fact, fumigants are the most dangerous type of pesticides in the market. On this day the coalition focused on bringing attention to two specific fumigants: Chloropicrin and Methyl Bromide…
In the heart of California’s farm country, San Joaquin Valley growers get better quality river water for irrigation while farmworkers, farm families and rural communities often get polluted groundwater unfit to drink.
Making matters worse, California officials have known for decades that groundwater used for drinking and home use is polluted by pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, industrial wastes and “treated” city waste water, but have done little to take advantage of nearly half a billion dollars in federal low interest loans available to address the problem.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans’ drinking water. Under SDWA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities, and water suppliers who implement those standards. The 1996 amendments to the SDWA created the Safe Drinking Water Revolving Fund (SDWRF). The SDWRF is a loan program for states that provides low-cost financing to eligible entities within a state and tribal lands for public and private water systems infrastructure projects needed to achieve or to maintain compliance with SDWA requirements and to protect public health. Small water systems and disadvantaged communities are given higher funding priority…
Shafter, California is located in Kern County which is at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Air pollution in this area is generally considered to be the worst in the nation. Pollution levels vary in Kern County according to location. For example, Shafter, in the center of the valley floor, located far from major highways, and upwind of Bakersfield, has significantly cleaner air than Edison which is alongside Hwy 58, close to the eastern valley foothills, and downwind of Bakersfield…
In prior postings for this blog, my student colleagues and I have commented on California’s greenhouse gas regulatory regime, known as AB 32, and specifically on its auction proceeds and their potential use to address environmental justice issues relating to the AB 32′s Cap-And-Trade program. See also this post and this post. When the Air Resources Board’s Mary Nichols reportedly said that Governor Brown has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to work on a more comprehensive approach to environmental justice issues, and the Board “would consider a fund drawn from carbon trading revenues to improve environmental conditions in low-income communities”,we said we would “follow whether CARB is providing more than lip service to environmental justice”…
Laura Garcia was halfway through the breakfast dishes when the spigot went dry. The small white tank beneath the sink that purified her undrinkable water had run out. Still, as annoying as that was, it was an improvement over the days before Ms. Garcia got her water filter, when she had to do her dishes using water from five-gallon containers she bought at a local store.
Ms. Garcia lives in Monson, Calif. Not being a town, it lacks legal status to apply for federal aid for help with its water woes.
Ms. Garcia’s well water, like that of her neighbors, is laced with excessive nitrates, a pollutant associated with agriculture, septic systems and some soils. Five years ago, this small community of 49 homes near the southern end of the Central Valley took its place on California’s priority list of places in need of clean tap water…
On April 22nd, CCEJN Coordinator Cesar Campos, attended the San Francisco Earth Day demonstration at the EPA office along with members of other organizations affiliated with CCEJN:
At the beginning of the day, a meeting was held between environmental justice organizations and U.S. EPA and Cal EPA officials. Members from over 15 different environmental justice organizations were present at the meeting including Greenaction, residents of Gonzales opposing the Plasma Arc Garbage Incinerator, El Pueblo Para El Agua y El Aire and others…