The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a total of $50,000 to help address air and groundwater quality in the San Joaquin Valley.
San Francisco-based Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice is receiving $25,000 to reduce diesel emissions in the Kettleman City area in Kings County. The project will include community outreach to community members, transportation companies, schools, bus drivers and parents.
News
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The San Joaquin Valley Air Board is playing a game of Bullshit Bingo! EPA disapproved three rules a couple months ago because they were not as strict as other areas in the state. The Air Board hops through the squares improving the rules without affecting the polluting industries. Here is the bingo board:
Will EPA really approve these rule changes? Did EPA think air quality would improve in the SJV if they took the unusual step of disapproving rules that were not as strong as in other parts of the state?
Running around between sessions at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting, I’ve found myself relying heavily on the drinking fountains scattered throughout the convention center. I repeatedly refill my bottle and go on my way, taking for granted my ability to slurp down safe, clean water.
Although many people in the United States don’t often think water quality is a major issue, access to safe drinking water is an emerging problem in this country, says Isa Ray, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. During her Monday afternoon talk at the meeting, Ray showed that water systems in the San Joaquin Valley that serve higher proportions of minority residents, or that serve areas where residents are not homeowners, have higher levels of contaminants.
KETTLEMAN CITY — Uncertainty, worry and skepticism hang over residents as Kettleman City continues to wrestle with a frightening phrase: “birth defects cluster.” After state health and environmental investigations were conducted last year, people there have nearly as many questions as they started with. Is Kettleman City a neighborhood in peril, as residents and environmental justice advocates fear?
Fresno attorney Gordon Stemple thinks so, and he is trying to find the answers he says could help relocate the residents from Kettleman City.
If your child has a birth defect that you believe may be due to a nearby toxic waste site, or another source of contamination, you have the option of filing a toxic tort lawsuit against the offender. First, you would need to find evidence that strongly linked the contaminant (like toxic waste) to a specific offender. Then you would argue that the offender owed you and other members of the community a duty to follow reasonable safety standards. The offender breached this duty by disposing of waste in an unsafe manner — in a way that could foreseeably harm the local community. The breach caused you injury (through exposure to chemicals) and your damage was your child’s birth defect. Like many Kettleman City residents, you might want to pursue a monetary award for medical bills, pain and suffering, and other ills — money that could help you move away from the contaminated site. However, you might instead pursue equitable relief in the form of an injunction, to make the offender stop the harmful activity.
MENDOTA — Recently, my friend Eddie Valencia, 27, mentioned a tightness in his chest. Eddie does not have asthma or other respiratory problems. But he was pretty sure he knew what was causing his symptoms. “It could have been the four and a half hours I spent with two other guys from my work, cleaning out a tank with chlorine with nothing more than gloves in the form of protective gear.”
I advised Eddie of the potential long-term effects of chlorine exposure and told him to contact Poison Control. Embarrassed, he wondered if he should go to the hospital. But he worried about what his supervisors would do if they found out he went to the ER for treatment of a work related symptom. “I don’t want to go,” Eddie said. “They’re going to try to fire me, watch.”
In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (“CAA” or the “Act”), 42 U.S.C. 7413(g), notice is hereby given of a proposed consent decree to address a lawsuit filed by El Comite para el Bienestar de Earlimart and Association of Irritated Residents (collectively “Plaintiffs”) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California: El Comite para el Bienestar de Earlimart, et al. v. Jackson, No. 11-cv-3779 (N.D. Cal). On August 1, 2011, Plaintiffs filed a complaint alleging that EPA failed to perform a mandatory duty under section 110(k)(2) of the CAA, 42 [Page Number 75546] U.S.C. 7410(k)(2) to take timely final action to approve, disapprove, or partially approve/disapprove the proposed state implementation plan commitment for the San Joaquin Valley, as well as regulations pertaining to field fumigation methods, pesticide emission inventory, and field fumigation limits. The proposed consent decree establishes a deadline for EPA to take action.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must soon update national health standards for fine particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5), commonly referred to as soot—a major cause of premature death and a widespread threat to those who suffer from lung and heart disease. The national health standards are critical tools that drive the cleanup of soot pollution across the country.
According to the EPA, fine particle pollution:
- Causes early death (from both short- and long-term exposure);
- Causes cardiovascular harm (e.g., heart attacks, stroke, heart disease, congestive heart failure);
- Likely causes respiratory harm (e.g., worsened asthma, worsened COPD, inflammation);
- May cause cancer; and
- May cause developmental and reproductive harm.
A tall, brown-haired, soft-eyed woman sits back and laughs. On her office desk is a portrait of the Dalia Lama pasted next to Queen Elizabeth, and behind her desk hangs a green t-shirt that states, “Got Asthma?” It shows the lungs of a healthy child and the lungs of one in five children living in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most polluted places in the country. Betsy Reifsnider’s unassuming cubicle looks like many in the environmental activist realm, but she is working for the Catholic Church, specifically Stockton’s Diocese–and she is in the lead. As part of a growing national movement pairing ecology with faith, Reifsnider has the only paid Catholic environmental advocacy position in the nation.
She is focusing on air pollution, a primary problem in the Central Valley of California. The American Lung Association gave San Joaquin County a grade “F” for both high ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot) in 2011. “We chose to focus on air pollution, unlike water, which is divisive, because everyone is the victim, and everyone also causes it,” Reifsnider said. “We can’t point our fingers, because we’re all in this together.”