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.

New study examines air pollution and hospital stays

Radio published October 18, 2011 in Valley Public Radio.

We all know the San Joaquin Valley has some of the nation’s dirtiest air, but when air pollution spikes, what is the direct impact on the health of Valley residents? Dr. David Lighthall, health science advisor for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, and Dr. John Capitman, Executive Director of Central Valley Health Policy Institute join Juanita Stevenson to discuss the results of this new research. Their study examines the links between environmental and health care policies regarding air pollution, by tracking emergency room and hospital admissions linked to asthma, and other evidence of short-term health impacts on children and adults from Bakersfield to Modesto.

 

Valley study links ER visits with bad air days

Article by Kellie Schmitt. Published October 18, 2011 in Bakersfield Californian.

Children’s asthma-related emergency room visits rise in the San Joaquin Valley at a similar rate as fine particulate levels do — even on days where air quality is considered in the moderate range.

That’s a key finding of a yearlong study by the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State, which examined the short-term impacts of air quality changes in Bakersfield, Fresno and Modesto.

Although nationwide studies have found similar connections between heightened pollution and hospital visits, the report is the first of its kind using valley-specific data.

Air Watch

Video by Earthjustice. Published October 18, 2011.

Tom Frantz has lived his whole life in California’s Central Valley, where the small farms of his boyhood have given way to modern day mega-farms. The pollution from the farms combines with the area’s other industries – oil, waste disposal, and trucking – to form some of the worst air pollution in America. It should come as no surprise that the area also has some of America’s worst fine particle pollution as well.

For the past decade, Tom has been documenting pollution sources with his camera. In the winter, when PM2.5 levels dramatically increase, Tom can be found taking pictures and video of big agriculture operations, industrial facilities and other major polluters.

His words and pictures have led to improvements in air quality—improvements that the EPA can further increase by strengthening fine particle air pollution standards.

Tom, like millions of other citizens across America, is sick of soot. It’s time for the EPA to act.

Mueren 2 migrantes en Los Ángeles

Article by Francisco Mendoza. Published October 17, 2011 in noticiasnet.mx.

Los hermanos Armando y Eladio Ramírez, originarios de Ejutla de Crespo, fallecieron al respirar sustancias tóxicas en la planta donde trabajaban, la procesadora de basura más grande del mundo. Investigaciones de las autoridades y declaraciones de sus familiares indican que ambos desempeñaban ese quehacer peligroso sin equipos de protección y que dicha firma tiene antecedentes de operar con altos riesgos para sus empleados. Sin embargo, la empresa se ha desentendido del caso y no ha respondido a los deudos, a los reclamos comunitarios de justicia ni a las acusaciones de negligencia.

Parientes de los desaparecidos y líderes de organizaciones piden la intervención del gobernador Gabino Cué para que se vincule con la administración estatal californiana a fin de que sea realizada una investigación estricta y a fondo, que precise causas del fallecimiento de estos jóvenes, que se pague una indemnización justa y se establezcan condiciones de seguridad para los trabajadores, mayoritariamente latinos.

Attorney Wants Kettleman City Residents Relocated

Television by Erik Rosales. Published October 17, 2011 in KMPH Fox 26.

How much would it cost to relocate an entire city, like Kettleman City?

That’s what a Fresno attorney is trying to determine.

Attorney Gordon Stemple says a majority of the 1,600 residents of Kettleman City hired him.

It’s a community with an unusually high number of babies born with serious birth defects.

Second man dies from incident at compost center

Television by Keisha Courtney. Published October 16, 2011 in Eyewitness News.

ARVIN, Calif. – Arvin area residents upset over the death of a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old at Community Recycling held a protest about conditions at the facility.

The protesters said the deaths of 16-year-old Armando Ramirez and 22-year-old Eladio Ramirez sheds light on only one issue at the facility. They said the workers aren’t given the correct equipment to work. The protesters also said other issues need to be looked into as well.

“It’s better than they close (the facility) and that there is no more contamination. Other workers shouldn’t have to go through what my nephews went through,” Veronica Garcia said. She is the aunt to the two brothers who died.

Armando worked for Community Recycling and Eladio was a contractor through A & B Harvesting. Both were on Community Recycling’s property when they had to go into a six to eight foot deep hole to clean it. They were overcome by fumes.

Teen overcome by fumes, dies at recycling plant

Article by Esmeralda Bermudez. Published October 14, 2011 in Los Angeles Times.

Federal and state officials are investigating the death of a teenager who was overcome by fumes in a tunnel at a Kern County recycling plant where he worked.

Armando Ramirez, 16, was killed late Wednesday morning as he was cleaning the inside of a drain pipe.

His brother, Eladio Ramirez, 22, was critically injured after trying to rescue him, said Kern County Fire Department Capt. Joaquin Gaeta.

A third man who was not identified was also treated for injuries.

The brothers were found unconscious about 7 feet down a shaft at the Community Recycling Center in Lamont, just southeast of Bakersfield, Gaeta said.

The tunnel tested positive for high levels of hydrogen sulfide, a gas released during composting that can damage the brain and central nervous system.

Family says Arvin brothers killed, injured at composting site protected only by painters’ masks

Article by John Cox. Published October 13, 2011 in Bakersfield Californian.

As federal officials opened an investigation into Wednesday’s death of a 16-year-old at a Lamont composting facility, family members complained that the young man and his injured brother had been given only flimsy painters’ masks to protect them from deadly fumes.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday that investigators began looking into the accident because the person who died, Armando Ramirez, was a minor. Cal-OSHA is also investigating the accident.

Authorities said Ramirez and his 22-year-old brother, Eladio Ramirez, were overcome by fumes inside an 8-foot-deep drainage tunnel at Community Recycling and Resource Co. and taken to Kern Medical Center, where Armando was pronounced dead. Family members said Eladio was left brain dead.

County officials said they detected a high concentration of hydrogen sulfide inside the tunnel. Sour gas, as it is more commonly known, is a byproduct of the composting product that attacks the central nervous system.

Push for clean water in the South Valley

Television published October 12, 2011 in KFSN-TV.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A clean water supply is something we all take for granted. But a United Nations report found the drinking water in some Tulare County areas was comparable to water found in third world countries.

Cloudy or contaminated water still flows out of some South Valley faucets. It’s not suitable for drinking or bathing.

A brown, murky water sample was taken from Ducor in Tulare County but Maria Herrera of the Community Water Center said looks can be deceiving. Herrera explained, “By the looks of the Ducor bottle it looks really brown, it smells bad so most folks would avoid it but ironically its actually safer to drink than the clear water.”

Perea vows to push drinking-water cleanup

Article by John Ellis. Published October 12, 2011 in The Fresno Bee.

Just days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed several bills geared to improving drinking water quality, Assembly Member Henry T. Perea said he will push forward and build on that foundation.

“Mark my words,” the freshman Democrat from Fresno said, “this is step one.”

Perea made the comments at a Wednesday news conference in downtown Fresno to thank Brown for signing the bills. One of those was Perea’s own Assembly Bill 983, which allows disadvantaged communities to get grants for the full cost of water infrastructure, compared to 80% under previous law.

Already, Perea said, he is talking with local water-quality activists as well as area water districts about what next steps can be taken to help bring clean drinking water to all Valley residents.

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