As the economy shrunk government budgets over the past five years, a special air district fund quietly has grown tenfold — beyond $100 million annually.
But it’s no slush fund, and it isn’t the target of activist lawsuits. This obscure pot of money is a key to curbing diesel pollution, the biggest California air-quality problem of this era.
It’s the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District’s incentive fund, bankrolled by government agencies, businesses and your vehicle registration fees…
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 January 19, 2013 CRPE hosted law students and bay area residents for a tour of environmental justice communities in Kern County, CA. The group visited with four local activists and at the end reflected on how the tour opened their eyes to the struggles, and opportunities in the Valley…
The state Air Resources Board approved a plan Wednesday to clean up the Valley’s polluted winter air, but not before a watchdog group asked for tighter restrictions.
The Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, a broad grouping of organizations ranging from doctors to environmentalists, asked the board to reject the plan, approved by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District last month.
The coalition listed 10 bullet points they wanted in the plan, which addresses tiny particles in hazy winter air that lodge deep in the lungs and contribute to asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory health problems…
Earlier this month, Fresno Bee reporter Mark Grossi took a new approach to writing about environmental health hazards in California’s San Joaquín Valley.
Instead of focusing on just one environmental problem in Kettleman City – which is home to the largest hazardous waste landfill in the West and an inexplicable cluster of birth defects that developed about five years ago – Grossi looked at the multiple health risks that residents of the tiny farmworker community face.
Residents of Kettleman City, a poor, majority Latino town in Kings County, are also exposed to pesticides and diesel smoke, and are served with poor drinking water. On top of all that, Grossi reported, treated human sewage from Los Angeles County is supposed to be composted on farmland east of the community, as soon as late summer…
State air regulators on Thursday, unanimously approved a plan to meet federal standards for particulate matter in the San Joaquin Valley’s air that could double the number of no-burn days called.
Also notably, said San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Executive Director Seyed Sadredin, the rules require trucking fleets to install filters on their equipment and, by 2020, replace all vehicles constructed before 2010 in an effort to remove high-pollution diesel engines from the road.
The plan, drafted by the local air pollution district board last month, was unanimously approved at a meeting in Bakersfield by the California Air Resources Board and will be forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for final approval.
The only opposition publicly expressed at the meeting came from environmental groups and area residents who argued the plan doesn’t do — or move quickly — enough to protect valley residents from bad air…
Anna Martinez was standing on a street corner in the tiny farmworker community of Kettleman City when she heard the familiar sound of a truck engine roaring to life.
She pointed to a diesel truck parked on a lot next to three others. The lot was just one block from State Route 41, and another block or so from a huge agricultural field.
“We’ll see how long he’s going to idle,” said Martinez, a community organizer with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. “He’s just now starting his truck – see all the emissions and black smoke.”
Greenaction, a San Francisco-based organization, partners with area residents to improve health and reduce pollution in Kettleman City. That’s a big job in this community, which, among other concerns, is home to one of the largest toxic waste landfills in the West…
How is AB32 making air quality worse in KernCounty? Here are four examples that Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board, should be embarrassed about:
Hydrogen Energy is trying to build a “clean coal” power and fertilizer plant. reat claims are made of how this project will use low carbon energy, be eligible for carbon credits in some form, and of course, fit in perfectly with California’s goals to reduce carbon emissions. The pollution from the plant, as it burns the hydrogen, operates its cooling towers, and brings in the coal will add well over 500 tons of criteria air pollutants annually to KernCounty air. This project, once operating, will immediately become one of the top 5 stationary sources of local air pollution…
It was 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the business district of Kettleman City, and there were United Parcel Service trucks everywhere. In one 10-minute stretch, there were at least 22 trailers and 22 trucks counted.
It was a sprawling transfer site, with drivers from Los Angeles and the Bay Area switching trailers, turning around and heading for home.
Except there is no UPS transfer station in the business district of Kettleman City…
Californians for Pesticide Reform was given $75,000 to connect environmental health and justice groups with educational groups and agencies in order to teach children about the health risks of pesticides…
A bill introduced by Assemblymember Henry T. Perea would allow small communities to apply for state funds as a single applicant when seeking funds for clean drinking water infrastructure.
“This bill will remove another hurdle for small towns trying desperately to provide clean drinking water for their citizens,” Perea said in a release. “We have to find ways to help them get funding to fix the problem instead of putting up barriers.”
Many small communities don’t have a water board or oversight agency to apply for state funds to improve their water infrastructure. The Tulare County town of Orosi recently applied for state funding to improve drinking water systems in several surrounding towns unable to apply on their own. Orosi’s application was denied due to state regulations disqualifying it as well as the cities they were applying on behalf of…