Taking Action for Health and Environmental
Justice
Victory!
Toxic Polluter Lesaffre/Red Star Yeast plant to close in West
Oakland, CA!
Greenaction
and community groups are celebrating the March 31st announcement
that the Lesaffre/Red
Star Yeast plant will be closing in mid-April. This victory
comes as the community coalition escalated the campaign against
this polluter that emits cancer causing chemicals and foul odors,
and a major protest had been planned for April 19th. We overcame
the efforts of the polluter-friendly Bay Area Air Quality Management
District to try to issue a new permit to this company despite
serious odor and toxic emissions violations. Greenaction will
press for a full and safe cleanup of any contamination at the
factory site, and for Lesaffre to provide adequate compensation
and job retraining to workers.
Stop
Bush's War for Oil!
We join
with millions of people in the U.S. and around the world in opposing
Bush's war for oil in Iraq, and to demand renewable energy
and conservation so we can have a healthy and peaceful planet! We
are participating in the massive demonstrations against the war,
including nonviolent direct actions against corporations that profit
from war. We organized
a successful "die-in" protest on April 2nd to
dramatize the large number of Iraqi civilian casualties of the war.
Green
Energy Environmental Justice Campaign
Greenaction
works with urban, rural, desert and Native communities to promote
green, renewable energy - and to oppose proposed and existing
polluting power plants. We have a new brochure "Call
to Action for a Healthy Future: Clean, Renewable and Safe Energy."
Save
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from Bush's Oil Drilling Plan!:
(Alaska)
We will
continue to work to protect
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and other
important ecosystems from the Bush/Cheney quest for oil. Although
Bush's most recent attempt to win Senate approval for drilling in
the Arctic Refuge was defeated, we will continue our work with the
Gwichin Indian Nation of Alaska to keep up the pressure against
Bush's plan.
Health
and Justice for Bayview Hunters Point (San Francisco, CA)
The campaign
by Greenaction and the community to shut
down the polluting PG&E Hunters Point power plant, to oppose
the expansion of Mirant's Potrero power plant, and to
support renewable
energy, conservation and energy efficiency continues is
at a critical point. After months of discussions with state officials
about how to close the PG&E plant, the state now seems to
be stalling and has refused to authorize the shutdown of this
polluting plant. We will work with our community allies to turn
up the pressure, and major actions are being planned.
We are
also be involved in commenting on the proposed siting of four
small fossil fuel peaker power plants the City hopes to find locations
for. These small units must be used only to achieve the closure
of the large fossil fuel power plants and must not be placed in
the same low-income neighborhoods that have borne the burden of
polluting power plants for decades.
San
Joaquin Valley Environmental Justice Project (California)
The predominantly
Latino and low-income communities in the valley are hard hit by
pollution including pesticides, waste dumps, and an incinerator,
contaminated wells and polluting power plants. We are working
with the Grayson Neighborhood Council and the Central California
Environmental Justice Network to stop
existing and proposed toxic threats and to educate and
empower residents to protect their health and environment.
We participated
in organizing the Central California Environmental Justice Network
conference in Fresno in March that was attended by 200 people
including many youth. Greenaction's youth organizer Natalia Bernal
led workshops for the youth.
Our efforts
have stopped Stanislaus County officials from turning a local
landfill into a regional mega-dump for garbage and sewage sludge.
We are educating and mobilizing the community to oppose
the Covanta waste-to-energy garbage incinerator in Crow's Landing.
This facility has operated for years without public scrutiny,
emitting dioxin and other toxic chemicals and metals.
We have
also launched a Youth Environmental Justice Leadership Project in
the area, working to educate and involve youth on environmental
justice issues.
We are
beginning a Women's Environmental Justice Leadership Project in
the San Joaquin Valley, empowering low-income and Spanish-speaking
women in communities hit hard by pollution.
Campaign
to Shut the Stericycle Medical Waste Incinerator (Utah)
In the
wake of Greenaction/community victories against polluting incinerators
in East Oakland, California
and the Gila River Indian Community
in Arizona, we have now launched a campaign with Salt
Lake City, Utah residents to close a commercial medical waste
incinerator run by Stericycle. Greenaction and community activists
toured the Utah incinerator, and black smoke was being emitted
from an emergency smokestack while we were there. The incinerator
also burns non-medical waste. We are demanding Stericycle replace
the incinerator with safer non-incineration treatment technologies
that will protect health, the environment and workers' jobs.
Health
Care Without Harm
We are
part of the international Health
Care Without Harm coalition working to transform the health
care industry to reduce use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics
and mercury-containing devices, and to end incineration of medical
waste. We work with health care institutions, community and health
groups, workers in hospitals, and government agencies in this
effort. We are working to promote regulations for autoclave facilities
to better protect worker health and the environment.
Colorado
River Indian Tribes Environmental Health and Justice Project (Arizona)
Greenaction
is working at the invitation of tribal members concerned about
the ongoing operations of a commercial
hazardous waste facility on tribal lands, next to a sacred
religious site. Westates Carbon/U.S. Filter operates the plant
that treats hazardous wastes shipped to the reservation from across
the U.S., including waste from EPA Superfund sites and from federal
agencies. Contrary to company claims that the emissions are "essentially
steam," Westates emits dioxin and many toxic chemicals and
metals into the air. Tribal members and Greenaction are challenging
the U.S. EPA to stop its complicity in polluting tribal lands
and desecrating the sacred site next to the factory. Greenaction
co-sponsored a February 18th spiritual gathering and protest led
by the Mohave Cultural Preservation Program next to the Westates
plant.
White
Mesa Uranium Mill/radioactive waste dump (Utah)
Greenaction
is assisting Ute, Navajo and non-Native communities living near
the International Uranium Corporation's White Mesa Uranium Mill
in southern Utah. Located near the White Mesa Ute reservation
and Blanding, Utah, the mill has turned into a de facto radioactive
waste dump. Our diverse
alliance is seeking to shut this facility as it threatens health
and the environment - and desecrates Native sacred, cultural,
archeological and burial sites. In late January Greenaction,
tribal members and other residents turned out in force at hearings
held by the U.S. Department of Energy to oppose sending uranium
tailings and toxic waste from Moab, Utah to the IUC plant. Our
coalition will speak out at a press conference and at the State
Radiation Control Board meeting in Salt Lake City on May 2nd.
Moab
Utah/Colorado River Radioactive Contamination (Utah)
Greenaction
is working with residents of San Juan and Grand County to advocate
for the removal of radioactive
uranium tailings and toxic waste from the old Atlas Uranium
Mill site on the banks of the Colorado River in Moab. We will research
and advocate for the best alternative, while opposing reckless schemes
such as the one proposed by International Uranium Corporation to
build a slurry line to send the waste to their White Mesa mill.
Vinyl
Chloride Contamination Site, West Oakland, California
Greenaction
and the Chester Street Block Club Association will continue to
watchdog the U.S. EPA's recommendation to place the vinyl chloride
contamination site (near 3rd and Mandela streets) on the federal
Superfund list. Old chemical plants that had operated in the neighborhood
left the contamination. We are demanding the best possible cleanup,
with full community control over decisions about what type of
clean-up technology is used. Three years ago EPA used an incinerator
to burn the vinyl chloride and EPA lied about its emissions -falsely
claiming that only salt and steam was being emitted. Greenaction
proved that vinyl chloride and dioxin was emitted, and we forced
the closure of the incinerator. Now the cleanup must be done safely.
Gila
River Indian Community (Arizona)
Greenaction
is working with the grassroots tribal member group Gila River Alliance
for a Clean Environment to address numerous environmental health
and justice problems on their reservation. In December, tribal members
and Greenaction shut down the Stericycle
waste incinerator that had polluted the reservation for years.
Now we are educating tribal members about another toxic facility
on their land, the Romic hazardous waste facility. We are also assisting
family members whose land on the reservation was contaminated by
non-Indian farmers who dumped DDT and toxaphene. Greenaction and
tribal members forced US EPA to agree to conduct a new cleanup after
we proved the "cleanup" done by EPA two decades ago was
inadequate. Tribal members suffer severe health problems from the
contamination.
San
Rafael Rock Quarry (California)
Greenaction
continues to support residents tired of the dust
and toxic diesel emissions from the San Rafael Rock Quarry
owned by Dutra Materials.
Environmental
Justice Air Quality Coalition (California)
Greenaction
is a founding member of the Environmental Justice Air Quality Coalition
that was formed in response to the pro-polluter and anti-environmental
justice practices of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
We are working to change the agency's policies and practice and
hold them accountable to protect air quality and promote environmental
justice.
Stop
Diesel Campaign
We are part
of the Stop Diesel Coalition in San Francisco working
to replace old and polluting diesel buses with non-diesel buses.
Diesel emissions are linked to asthma and cancer. We participated
in a press
conference March 29th.
Greenaction
Web Site (www.greenaction.org)
Our website
is being used by thousands of people across the country and the
world. Community and environmental activists, students, educators,
government officials, media and even polluters regularly visit the
Greenaction website for updates, solid information and action alerts
on campaigns for health and environmental justice.
