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.

The new face of the Valley’s environmental movement

Blog post by Rebecca Plevin. Published August 9, 2011 in Harvesting Health.

A new type of environmentalist has emerged in California, panelists said during an ethnic media briefing hosted by New America Media last Wednesday in San Francisco.

“People of color are the strongest environmentalists in the state of California,” said Roger Kim, executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, which fights for environmental and social justice in low-income Asian immigrant and refugee communities.

“You name the issue, people of color want the highest level of concern and also want stronger action from our government,” Kim said. “It’s the fact that Asians, blacks and Latinos are really bearing the brunt of the burden of environmental pollution in this state.”

That trend holds true in the San Joaquín Valley, too, said Sarah Sharpe, Environmental Health Director at Fresno Metro Ministry. “The communities that bear the brunt of our pollution are getting involved because they don’t want to put up with it anymore,” Sharpe said.

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Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque

Report by Catarina de Albuquerque. Published August 2, 2011 in www2.ohchr.org.

The present report presents the findings and recommendations of the independent expert on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation from her country visit to the United States of America from 22 February to 4 March 2011.

In the report, the independent expert begins by outlining the international and domestic legal framework on the rights to water and sanitation. She then makes a general assessment of the enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation in the United States of America, looking specifically at the following issues: sanitation, safety, affordability and excluded groups. This assessment is then underpinned by an analysis of the right to non- discrimination and equality. The last section examines United States official development assistance in the area of water and sanitation. She concludes the report with recommendations addressed to the Government.

Broad Coalition Asks California Governor Brown To Reconsider Cap-and-Trade

Blog post by Global Justice Ecology Project. Published July 30, 2011 in climate-connections.org.

A broad coalition of over 40 nonprofit groups concerned about the effectiveness of California’s climate change plans is pressing California Governor Jerry Brown to reconsider the proposed cap-and-trade program. The coalition, which includes groups from around the nation and the world, with the largest number based in California, is urging Brown to reduce greenhouse gas pollution where it makes the most sense for public health instead of where it is cheapest for heavy industrial polluters.

Margaret Jordan, of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, said “Air pollution is worst in communities of color and low-income communities. Here in Richmond, we live right next door to Chevron and the asthma rates show the impact of our polluted air.”

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Switzer op-ed on Central Valley drinking water

Blog post, Editorial by Carolina Balazs,Peter Vorster, Steve Rothert. Published July 30, 2011.

The polluted water that flows from taps in many small Central Valley communities captures a troubling irony of California water policy.

In the community of Tooleville, amidst vineyards and citrus groves near Visalia, nitrate contamination in the local water system exceeds legal limits. A few hundred yards from the edge of town, the Friant-Kern Canal flows with Sierra Nevada snowmelt bound primarily for farm fields.

The canal carries more than enough water to supply the cities of Stockton, Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield combined. But the residents of Tooleville, many of them farm workers, are not allowed to drink the water in the canal. Instead, because their homes are supplied with contaminated groundwater from a local well, they must spend a substantial fraction of their monthly income on bottled water to protect against exposure to harmful contaminants, including nitrate.

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Top Ridiculous things from the SJV Air Board

Radio by Dolores Weller. Published July 29, 2011 in Clearing the Air.

The Central Valley Air Quality Coalition hosts a radio show on KFCF 88.1 FM, which airs on the 4th Friday of every month from 3:00-3:30pm. On the show you will hear interviews with individuals at the forefront of air quality issues, policy and research. KFCF can be heard from Merced to Delano and live at www.kfcf.org. KFCF broadcasts Pacifica’s KPFA station to the Central Valley as well.

7/29/11 – Top Ridiculous things from the SJV Air Board
Hosts- Dolores Weller
Guest(s): Sarah Jackson, Earthjustice
To listen click HERE

Sowing seeds of change in San Joaquin Valley

Article by Hugo Morales. Published July 29, 2011 in The Fresno Bee.

The San Joaquin Valley faces daunting challenges in the continuing fight for social justice and equality. It has some of the highest concentrations of poverty in the U.S., and its air is among the most polluted in the country

They’re fed up in Arvin and doing something about it

Blog post by Mar Preston. Published July 27, 2011.

Arvin’s Committee for a Better Arvin have grown fed up watching the Air Resources Board delay and delay enforcing federal standards. None of the polluters live in Arvin, home to a predominantly low-income Latino population.

Some of Arvin’s problems come from its location at the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley. Where does the air pollution go then? It doesn’t disappear. Instead a fair share of the smog drifts upward, channeled by the Grapevine pass to waft over the Frazier Mountain communities.

Both the Committee for a Better Arvin and the mountain communities’ TriCounty Watchdog groups are doing something to fight back. They’re tired of being the recipients of more than their fair share of air pollution.

Both communities have partnered with Global Community Monitor (GCM), an environmental air monitoring nonprofit which has done community-driven projects all over the world. The concept is that non-scientists can be trained to systematically obtain readings from a relatively simple piece of equipment and send filters or actual bags containing a sample of air to a lab for scientific testing providing data that is compatible with state and federal standards.

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Local oil industry tops list of air pollution violations

Article by Frank Maccioli. Published July 22, 2011 in examiner.com.

As discussed recently, folks in Bakersfield live in a valley constrained by geography and meteorology that is conducive to the formation of photochemical smog. Most of the air pollution that forms smog comes from vehicles and most of the rest comes from stationary sources.

Here in the San Joaquin Valley, stationary sources are regulated primarily by the San Joaquin Valley APCD. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEAPA) and the California Air Resources Board (ARB) have a significant but lesser role related to those sources.

Trying to clear the air

Article by Kellie Schmitt. Published July 18, 2011 in Bakersfield.com.

ARVIN — From his office on the town’s central thoroughfare, Sal Partida has a view of brown, soupy haze.

“There’s a mountain there, believe it or not,” Partida said, pointing to the foothills. “This is like a holding tank — everything from San Francisco down stays here.”

Partida and the Committee for a Better Arvin are trying to create a “bucket brigade,” a system that would allow residents to collect their own air quality readings. Members hope their self-collected data will press government authorities to improve the air in this dusty farm town, home to the worst smog in the country.

“In order for us to get a good reading, we need to monitor the air in our city,” Partida said. “If we have to get our own monitors, we’re going to do it.”

West Fresno residents urged to make odor complaints

Blog post by Rebecca Plevin. Published July 18, 2011 in Harvesting Health.

It’s said that, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” This month, community groups are urging West Fresno residents to be a little squeakier.

During a community meeting at the Hinton Community Center last week, groups urged West Fresno residents to call the City of Fresnoand the San Joaquín Valley Air Pollution Control District to make formal odor complaints related to Darling International’s rendering facility in Fresno.

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