Taking Action for Health and Environmental
Justice
Hundreds
Join World Environment Day Protest Against PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant & Environmental
Racism and Injustices Everywhere!
Greenaction
brought together an historic alliance of over 50 urban, rural,
desert and Indigenous environmental social
justice groups
in a Rally for Environmental Justice on June 4 in San Francisco.
As Mayors from around the world and United Nations officials met
inside City Hall, hundreds of people from communities impacted
by pollution and environmental racism joined together in
a spirited
rally outside. The rally helped build support for the campaign
to shut down the PG&E Hunters Point power plant.
Bayview
Hunters Point, San Francisco, CA: Campaign to Shut Down PG&E
power plant and stop new fossil fuel plants escalates!
The fight
to close the polluting and unnecessary PG&E Hunters
Point power plant continues to escalate. The issue was the focus
of daily protests and actions during World Environment Week. Our
goal is to to
shut this plant down immediately, stop the City’s
plan to site new fossil fuel power plants in the area, and support
clean, renewable energy.
This summer Greenaction and residents will start new campaigns
targeting other big air polluters in this neighborhood that suffers
high rates of asthma and cancer. We are also working with residents
of low-income public housing to document terrible housing conditions
that can contribute to asthma and allergies.
Resisting
the Onslaught of “Incinerators
in Disguise”
Greenaction
has launched an all-out campaign to defeat the waste industry’s attempt to site incineration-like technologies
such as gasification, pyrolysis, plasma arc and catalytic cracking
for treatment of hazardous, solid, medical waste, sewage sludge
and tires. While the industry claims these are “recycling” and “renewable
energy,” these “incinerators-in-disguise” burn
toxic waste gases, have toxic air emissions and are not a safe
solution for the landfill crisis or energy needs. We support pollution
prevention, increased recycling and real renewable energy instead
of incineration technologies.
Sierra
Vista, Arizona: Victory!
Last December Greenaction
alerted Cochise County residents about the threat posed by Global
Energy Resources’ proposal to
build a “plasma arc” incineration facility to treat
garbage at Sierra Vista. Greenaction’s visits to the area,
and our technical critique of the proposals, received front
page newspaper coverage and sparked community concern and grassroots
organizing. Greenaction’s facts also proved that the company’s
claims of “no emissions” were not true. The company
dropped their proposal on June 28. Residents are now working to
get the county to start an aggressive recycling program. Greenaction
is also working with residents of rural Apache County, where Global
Energy hopes to build a facility in Eagar.
Red Bluff, Stockton and Los Angeles facing plasma arc incinerator
proposals for medical waste!
We alerted residents in these three communities that Inentec/Integrated
Environmental Technologies wants to build commercial medical waste
facilities using plasma arc incineration technology to treat medical
waste. Greenaction is helping residents with technical expertise
so they understand the potential toxic threat, and we are helping
with organizing to defeat these proposals.
Stanislaus County, San Joaquin Valley,
California
Greenaction
and the Grayson Neighborhood Council (GNC) are escalating our
campaign against the
Covanta garbage incinerator in Crow’s
Landing. This spring we held an exciting protest
at the County Board of Supervisors, and in response
to community demands county officials
are considering the building of a recycling facility. On June
28th the GNC and Greenaction held a community meeting to call
on the
county to increase recycling and waste prevention and to close
the incinerator. More protests are being planned against the
incinerator.
We are also launching a new campaign against pesticide drift.
We have a training program to teach leadership and organizing
skills
to women and youth. We participate in the Central California
Environmental Justice Network helping to support communities
across the Valley.
Save Ward Valley, Again! No Nuclear Waste Dump on Sacred Indian
Lands near Colorado River!
California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger has just appointed two radioactive waste industry
representatives to the Southwestern Low-Level
Radioactive Waste Commission, a four state board seeking a new dump
site in California. Both appointees are from the “Cal Rad
Forum,” an industry lobbying group that was the main proponent
for building a nuclear waste dump at Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert,
on sacred Indian land and above an aquifer near the Colorado River.
The project was effectively defeated by a 113-day occupation of
the proposed dump site by five Indian Tribes, Greenaction and dozens
of other groups and hundreds of individuals from all walks of life,
and by legislation in 2002 prohibiting nuclear waste from being
sent to Ward Valley.
Greenaction is working with tribal leaders and other environmental
justice allies to stop the potential revival of this dump proposal.
From East Palo Alto, CA to the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona:
United Against Romic!
The fight against the Romic hazardous waste plants located in the
two low-income communities of East Palo Alto, California and the
Gila River Indian Community in Arizona is rapidly gaining momentum.
Greenaction helped unite Youth United for Community Action, an incredible
youth group in East Palo Alto, with the Gila River Alliance for
a Clean Environment.
In June,
Greenaction helped YUCA file a civil rights complaint against
the state Department of Toxic Substances Control due to
the agency’s lax enforcement and biased permit process. The
state has allowed Romic to operate in East Palo Alto for 14 years
without proper permits and despite serious violations.
On June 30th Greenaction joined YUCA in a march and rally and then
spoke out at the state’s public hearing on Romic’s request
for a permit to expand their hazardous waste operations.
Greenaction and tribal members in the Gila River Alliance for a
Clean Environment won a huge victory recently when Romic, a hazardous
waste company operating on the reservation without proper permits
and a terrible track record of violations, announced they stopped
handling the most toxic solvents. We are continuing our support
for the campaign
by tribal members to evict this polluter off the
reservation.
West Oakland, California: AMCO Chemical Superfund Site
We are working
with the Chester Street Block Club Association to make
sure the USEPA does a thorough, safe and prompt cleanup of the
AMCO Chemical vinyl chloride Superfund site. We are pressuring
EPA to use the safest possible technology for remediation of the
toxic site, which is located next to homes and a children’s
playground.
White Mesa Ute Reservation and Moab, Utah: Victory against radioactive
waste dumping proposal!
Greenaction is thrilled to have worked to win a big victory with
White Mesa Ute and Navajo tribal members, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe,
other area residents and the City of Moab to convince the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) to move the radioactive tailings and toxic waste
from the defunct Atlas Uranium Mill away from their current location
next to the Colorado River and to a safer, isolated spot north of
Moab. The victory included the fact that DOE rejected sending the
tailings to the International Uranium Corporation located next to
the White Mesa Ute reservation.
Greenaction is working with Ute and Navajo tribal members and other
residents to close the
IUC plant that pollutes the environment and
desecrates the ancient Indian sacred sites located at and next to
the facility.
Skull Valley Goshute Reservation: Stop the Proposed High Level
Nuclear Waste Dump!
Greenaction is
working with tribal members to defeat the nuclear industry’s
attempt to build a high level nuclear waste facility on this tiny
reservation west of Salt Lake City. The U.S. government
has given the tribe large amounts of money to encourage this dangerous
project, and the nuclear industry is promising tens of millions
of dollars to this impoverished tribe. Greenaction calls on the
U.S. and state government that has stolen and polluted tribal lands
and denied tribal members economic development opportunities to
work with the tribe to help them with economic development that
will not threaten their very lives.
North Salt Lake City, Utah: Shut the Stericycle incinerator!
Greenaction and
residents are stepping up our campaign to close
Stericycle’s incinerator that burns medical
waste and non-medical waste from across the west. We work with
the Health Care Without
Harm coalition to encourage hospitals to use non-toxic materials
and non-incineration treatment for medical waste.
Defending
the Sacred Ward Valley Film Project
Greenaction and
the Mohave Cultural Preservation Program (of the Colorado River
Indian Tribes) have launched this project to distribute
the new film “Defending
the Sacred” that tells the
story of the successful fight by the five tribes of the Colorado
River Native Nations Alliance, Greenaction and a broad coalition
that saved Ward Valley, the Colorado River and sacred Indian lands
from the proposed nuclear waste dump. Speakers from the tribes
and Greenaction are available to show the film and educate the
public about the victorious campaign and issues. The video can
be purchased from Greenaction for $20.
Colorado River Indian Tribes, Arizona: Shut down Westates Carbon!
Greenaction is helping Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) members
oppose the continued operation
of the Westates/US Filter hazardous waste facility on tribal
lands. Westates emits dioxin and many
other hazardous pollutants, but EPA has allowed the company to
operate without proper permits and without divulging the fact
that toxic pollution was emitted.
Environmental
Justice Air Quality Coalition
Greenaction is working with community
groups across the Bay Area to pressure the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and other
agencies to protect air quality and uphold environmental justice.
