Story of high cancer rates in small rural town often drifted upon by pesticides.
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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.
A new photo exhibit celebrated by the Women’s Foundation of California highlights the powerful work the women of the Central Valley have done in the past decade to defend their communities from toxic neighbors. Provided by Tracy Perkins, a graduate student of the University of California at Santa Cruz, the photos range from ironic to alarming, and add momentum to a growing environmental justice movement.
Inspired by her love of both the natural world and of community outreach, Perkins chose to title her graduate dissertation 25 Stories from the Central Valley, a simple premise that revealed some of the more disturbing snakes hiding beneath our political rock.The most disgusting slime was found in communities with severe social dysfunction. “I was shocked,” said Perkins. “I heard [Hispanic] women say that their children’s teachers told them, ‘Why should we educate you? You’re going to be a burro, a donkey, and just work in the fields anyway.'”
“25 Stories of the Central Valley” is a compelling, interactive online exhibit – “a window into the little-known lives of people who are making the Central Valley safer for everyone.” Through photos, oral interviews, and theater, UC Santa Cruz graduate student Tracy Perkins has created a public arts project that showcases the shocking, sad and inspiring stories of women leaders in the Central Valley’s environmental justice movement. The motivation behind the project? “Doing research that was of intellectual interest and also had practical relevance to the groups I was studying,” says Tracy.
Below are five photos from the exhibit, along with Tracy’s reflections. Among the leaders and organizations featured are Women’s Foundation of California grant partners such as Teresa de Anda and Irma Medellin. You can view the entire exhibit, including all 25 photo stories and full captions, on the exhibit website.
THE FIRST BABY’S NAME was America. She was born in September 2007, with Down syndrome, two heart murmurs, and part of her upper lip missing. She couldn’t suck from a nipple, so her mother, Magdalena Romero, would stay up through the night to feed her with a special tube. America showed pleasure in music and delighted in being held by her four siblings. Magdalena thinks they felt a special tenderness for her because of her vulnerability.
Hospital officials told Magdalena that the baby wouldn’t live a year, but she didn’t want to believe it. Then, one morning when America was nearly five months old, her lips turned purple. Concluding that paramedics would consider a rescue futile, Magdalena drove the baby to the hospital herself and insisted that all efforts be made to save her. For a few days, America survived, tethered to machines. Then she died in her mother’s arms.
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“Necesitamos ayuda de las comunidades de Los Ángeles y San Francisco para pasar leyes estrictas que detengan el problema de la contaminación”, dijo Jesús Quevedo.
Berta Díaz paga dos veces por el agua que ella y sus cuatro hijos usan en la casa. Una vez al mes entrega un sobre con $57 a la oficina de su proveedor de agua local, el East Orosi Community Services District. Durante esa misma semana carga su coche con siete garrafones de agua y maneja al pueblo vecino para llenarlos en una máquina de venta de agua purificada. Berta tiene que hacerlo cada semana para tener suficiente agua potable en su casa, por lo cual gasta hasta un total adicional de $50 a 60 cada mes.“Díaz, madre soltera con cuatro hijos, con edades entre 17 a 22 años dice, “el agua de la llave no sirve para beber y cocinar. Está contaminada.”
“We need the help of communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco to pass strict laws that stop the
problem of contamination,” said Jesus Quevedo.Berta Diaz pays twice for the water she and her four children use in their home. Once a month, she drops
off an envelope with $57 at the office of her local water provider, the East Orosi Community Services
District. In the same week, she loads her car with seven 5-gallon garrafones (water jugs) and drives into the
next town to fill them up at a machine that sells purified water. She must do this every week in order to have
an adequate supply of potable water in her home, spending as much as $50-60 at the vending machine every
month.“For drinking and cooking, the tap water is no good,” says Diaz, a single parent of four children, ages 17-
22. “It’s contaminated.” She first moved to the United States from Michoacán, Mexico in 1990, eventually
settling in East Orosi, a predominantly Latino rural community in the San Joaquin Valley.
Kettleman City, CA – Latino Kettleman City residents and their community groups El Pueblo Para El Aire y Agua Limpio/People for Clean Air and Water and Kids Protecting Our Planet today filed administrative complaints (not lawsuits) alleging that Kings County has practiced racial discrimination in violation of federal and state civil rights laws.
The most common contaminates in California drinking water are nitrates, one of the components of fertilizers. Nitrates have been found to be dangerous to human health. But regulators do not yet have in place strict rules governing fertilizer use by farmers and industrial plants. We look at the extent of the problem, and how it’s being addressed.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
- Becky Quintana, spokesperson for Betterment for Seville who organized to form a water coalition for Seville residents
- Julia Scott, environmental journalist with the Bay Area News Group who reported on nitrates for the Center for Investigative Reporting
- Roger Briggs, executive officer of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
- Sasha Khokha, KQED’s Central Valley bureau chief
California is facing a hidden threat to its drinking water supply. Nitrate pollution is a problem for both cities and rural areas, and it could get worse as the state’s population grows. Yet, regulators aren’t really paying attention.
En el marco de la semana nacional del agua potable, la organización AGUA ofreció una conferencia de prensa en esta comunidad para exigir a los gobiernos locales y federales, actuar pronto para solucionar el problema del agua contaminada en el condado de Tulare.
AGUA es una organización que agrupa a más de 17 asociaciones de residentes de pequeñas comunidades que sufren por no tener agua potable apta para el consumo humano y que funcionan bajo la orientación del Centro Comunitario por el Agua (CWC por sus siglas en inglés).
Entre otras comunidades están Earlimart, Cutler, Poplar, Sultana, Seville, Tonyville, Tooleville, Kettleman City, Pixley, E. Orosi, W. Goshen e incluso Porterville.