In a rare display of cooperation, government agencies, environmentalists and businesses have reached an agreement to reduce diesel truck idling in Kettleman City and Avenal.
The announcement of the deal was made Monday by Greenaction, a Bay-Area group with local ties that worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, local business and residents to reach the voluntary agreement.
“In a community suffering from too much pollution … this is the first project that concretely has made something of a dent in immediate diesel pollution,” said Greenaction executive director Bradley Angel…
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.
Maria Saucedo cried as she spoke of the two babies she has lost in Kettleman City — one to birth defects and the other in a miscarriage.
There’s no proof, but she blames the toxic landscape surrounding her town. She and others who have suffered in Kettleman City say they live in a nasty soup of pollution. They make a compelling case.
Just west is the largest hazardous waste landfill this side of the Mississippi River. Electricity buzzes overhead along tall towers supplying power up and down the state. Pesticide is sprayed in nearby orchards. Diesel smoke wafts from Interstate 5 and Highway 41.
“It’s a nightmare,” Saucedo told state health authorities last year…
The phone conversation started with a question: Which city has worse ozone — Fresno or Bakersfield?
It’s a good question, but I told the reader that we have this conversation far too often around here. It’s like debating the difference between drowning in 15 feet of water and 17 feet of water.
Fresno? Bakersfield? They’re both among the worst in the country.
I think it’s more interesting to compare the Valley with cities outside of California that have a national reputation for dirty air — like Houston and Phoenix. The pollution in Fresno, Bakersfield and other Valley cities is far worse than in cities several times larger…
Editor’s note: On the ag/business front, The Sentinel asked for New Year’s resolutions from a Kings County environmental activist and a local dairy producer:
Maricela Mares-Alatorre, with Stand For Clean Air in the San Joaquin Valley
As a resident of Kings County, specifically Kettleman City, I wish for the standard love, peace and happiness in 2013. Additionally, I have a particular wish for my town. I hope that the decision makers that are sitting on permits for the expansion of the Kettleman Hills toxic waste landfill, deny them in 2013…
A year ago, the Sierra snowpack was an anemic 20% of normal. Now it’s a whopping 146%.
At this time last year, the San Joaquin Valley was gasping through a 44-day siege of federal air violations — dangerous soot and debris. This year, the Valley only had five violations in December.
California’s capricious weather makes all the difference.
At the same time, some things I cover in the Earth Log and in the news columns have not changed much. My beat has had a kidney stone of a year. Thankfully, it has passed. But 2013 might be more of the same…
Some Central Valley residents are beginning the new year with something many take for granted – safe drinking water. For the first time, regional water boards are requiring farmers in the state’s two biggest agricultural regions to reduce the amounts of fertilizer and other chemicals that go into the water supply.
Abigal Solis, community projects coordinator for the Community Water Center, says that for years families throughout the Salinas and Tulare agricultural regions have lugged gallons of water into their homes because high nitrate levels make the tap water unsafe to drink…
A group of community organizations has sued the Environmental Protection Agency about new rules on pesticide emissions, saying the regulations do too little to protect public health.
The suit, filed under the Clean Air Act, challenges the EPA’s approval of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s measures to reduce certain emissions from pesticides.
Attorneys for the San Francisco-based Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment filed the suit in federal court recently…
This month I proudly released an expanded, updated version of the 25 Stories from the Central Valley website. Please meet…. Voices from the Valley! In addition to the original photo exhibit and teaching aides, it includes these new features:
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An interactive photo and oral history collage
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San Joaquin Valley environmental justice news coverage
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Slideshow of our playback theater events with Kairos Theater Ensemble
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Environmental justice syllabus collection
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A map of the San Joaquin Valley towns where we’ve taken photos and collected stories
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An expanded list of groups working toward environmental justice in the San Joaquin Valley, and links to their social media
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Suggestions for how you can volunteer
The Valley’s new $1 billion plan to clean up dangerous specks of soot and other debris in the air will mean far fewer days of wood burning in fireplaces, beginning in 2014.
After hearing testimony from health advocates, the local air governing board decided Thursday to start the tighter wood-burning restrictions two years earlier than proposed.
The new restrictions could mean that in some years nearly all winter wood burning would stop in larger cities, such as Fresno and Bakersfield.
The restrictions, along with the controversial new state diesel truck rules and other local measures, are supposed to clear the air by 2019…