When Cesar Chavez died in his sleep — the same way he lived, peacefully — he left us a dream of justice that is yet to be realized. He also left us a legacy of courage, compassion and humility that has inspired millions to keep fighting for his ideals and to enrich his monumental work.
And today, the places where this giant of modest height lived and worked have become a national monument to the immense significance of his life and the wonderful example of an existence devoted to do as much good for the rest of humanity as possible.
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.
I left Los Angeles at 4 in the morning, long before first light, and made it to Bakersfield — the land of oil derricks, lowriders and truck stops with Punjabi food — by 6. Ten minutes later, I was in the land of carrots.
Can childhood illnesses be linked to pesticides? That’s what a national study released Tuesday claims, and local advocates say it’s happening in Kern County.
Autism, cancer, and asthma are just some of the illnesses the study claims are on the rise nationwide because of pesticides.
But, local farmers say the study, conducted by the Pesticide Action Network, doesn’t reflect what farmers are doing to protect people in Kern County.
“It’s a big problem. I think that 90 percent of everything that’s got to do with these illnesses has got to do with pesticides,” said Ruth Martinez, a retired nurse from Tulare County.
After a communication meltdown with state health authorities over a $500,000 grant, seven impoverished Tulare County towns will have to continue waiting for their long-tainted water wells to be taken offline.
The communities spent the past nine months following pointless directions to free up the grant money for a study aimed at getting them fresh Kings River water.
Now the state agency holding the purse strings denies giving the directions.
Local project engineers, water advocates and Assembly Member Henry T. Perea say they feel betrayed, adding that the misunderstanding follows a pattern of foot-dragging by the California Department of Public Health.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Maria Herrera of the Visalia-based Community Water Center, which advocates for the towns. “We just wasted another year, doing what they asked, and it still didn’t work.”
Latino voters in California are strong supporters of conservation and clean energy, a new poll released Thursday finds. The poll adds to a growing consensus that minorities across the state are strong conservationists, though some say more research is needed to uncover regional differences.
The poll found that two-thirds of Latino voters identify as conservationists and overwhelmingly believe they can “protect the environment and create jobs at the same time.”
The poll was commissioned by the California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, and conducted by Tulchin Research. The firm polled 500 Latino voters from September 5-13 in English and Spanish.
It’s natural for those of us who live in this part of the state to assume that all Californians enjoy clean drinking water, just as we do. But that’s simply not the case, which is why the State Legislature passed and Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed AB 685, the Human Right to Water measure. It’s part of a package of laws passed and signed since 2011 that codify the public’s right to have access to clean water.
In August 2010 the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water, Catarina de Albuquerque, issued a report citing a host of alarming clean-drinking-water shortages in California, most of them in the poorest areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The report noted that more than 250,000 families were reliant for drinking water on shallow wells contaminated by agricultural-chemical toxins. Many of them were spending as much as 20 percent of their meager incomes to purchase bottled water.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing last week of ‘The Human Right to Water Act’ was cause for celebration for San Joaquín Valley residents who can’t drink their tap water.
AB 685, sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Eng, makes it state policy that every person has access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water. The law requires state agencies — like the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the Department of Public Health — to consider this position when making a water policy decision.
“Our voices are being heard,” said María Herrera, community advocacy director for the Community Water Center. “It is no longer just up to us to advocate, it is the policy of our state. Agencies now have to consider our voices at the state level.”
More than 326,700 Valley residents received water with levels of contamination over a legal limit in 2006, according to the water center. Many low-income residents spend up to 10 percent of their income on both tap water and bottled water.
Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed AB 685, known as ‘The Human Right to Water Act.’
The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Eng, makes it state policy that every person has access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water. The law requires state agencies — like the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the Department of Public Health — to consider this position when making a water policy decision.
On Monday night, during the monthly meeting of the Community Water Center’s community group AGUA, residents who can’t drink their tap water and their allies recalled their efforts to support and pass the bill.
First there is this excerpt from a press release published in various valley newspapers this week as the air district declared an air alert. The link below is to one particular publication’s resulting article.
“Thanks to the public’s understanding of this issue and their efforts to reduce emissions, we’ve had a good summer so far, and we’re on track for the first August and September ever with no one-hour ozone exceedances,” said Seyed Sadredin, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District’s executive director and air pollution control officer. “But we’re facing abnormal conditions this week and it’s critical to minimize our emissions.”
The valley’s summertime air is dangerous at times — 91 ozone violations and counting this year. And residents are paying a $29 million annual fine for failing to clean it up faster.
The best reasons to clean up the valley’s air: The corrosive gas triggers asthma and other lung illnesses. Sometimes, it kills people before their time.
So, are you any better off than you were 10 years ago? Yes, say government watchdog agencies. Not really, say environmentalists, health advocates and community activist groups.