Taking Action for Health and Environmental
Justice
Greenaction Campaigns in Asia Against Incinerators
in Disguise!
Greenaction’s Director went to Japan, Malaysia
and the Philippines to share information with communities, environmental
groups, media
and government about the dangers of plasma arc, pyrolysis and gasification
waste “incinerators in disguise” and to encourage safe
non-burning technologies, recycling and pollution prevention. Greenaction
is supporting community campaigns against the IWMI pyrolysis incinerator
in the Philippines and is helping Malaysian groups oppose Melaka
Waste-to-Energy’s proposed plasma arc incinerator.
Bayview
Hunters Point, San Francisco, CA: Clean up PG&E!
Greenaction
is pressuring PG&E to conduct a full and
safe cleanup of contamination at the closed power plant.
Richmond, California Environmental Health and Justice
Project launched!
Greenaction and the West County Toxics Coalition
have launched a campaign to stop new pollution and reduce existing
pollution in
this community that suffers from refineries, chemical plants,
waste treatment facilities and other dirty industries. One target
will be Myers Container Storage that emits air pollution from
the burning of hazardous waste residues in used barrels. In
June 2007 we began the Richmond Environmental Health and Justice
Leadership
Institute to train community members in leadership and community
organizing skills.
Shut
the Romic Toxic Waste Plants in East Palo Alto, CA & Gila
River Indian Community, Arizona!
Greenaction,
Gila River tribal members and Youth United for Community Action
are on the verge of victory
in the campaign to close Romic’s
dangerous hazardous waste facilities. The Gila River tribal council
voted unanimously in June to reject a new USEPA permit for this
polluter, and we are pressuring EPA to deny the permit. We are pressuring
a toxic waste company called Clean Harbors to drop plans to try
to buy Romic at Gila River. In East Palo Alto, the campaign has
forced state officials to take action against Romic’s permit
violations that could result in closure of the facility.
Greenaction Opens Office in the San Joaquin Valley,
California!
We have opened a field office in Hanford in Kings
County, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Our new organizer
Anna Martinez
is heading up our community organizing in Hanford, Kettleman
City and Avenal and helping unite the three communities to change
the
historic pro-polluter policies of county officials.
Kettleman City, San Joaquin Valley, California: Stop
the Toxic Dump Expansion! No More PCBs!
Greenaction is helping residents
of this farmworker community fight
proposed expansion of the Chem Waste Management toxic waste dump.
We helped organize a big turnout of residents and grassroots supporters
from across the Valley to speak out at the March 27th USEPA hearing
on the dump issue, and have mobilized 125 groups across the U.S.
to support the campaign by residents and Greenaction against the
proposed expansion.
Greenaction
and Avenal Residents Organize Against Dumping of Los Angeles’ Trash
in Local Dump!
Greenaction has
helped residents form a community group that is now actively organizing
against the local dump which has serious
odor problems and imports waste all the way from Los Angeles.
West Berkeley, California: Stop Pollution from Pacific
Steel Casting! Safe Jobs and Clean Air!
Greenaction is supporting
residents in their fight to stop noxious
odors and significant emissions from Pacific Steel Casting. We
are pressuring the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and
the
City to do their job and force PSC to eliminate odors and dramatically
reduce pollution. We want healthy air for workers and residents.
No Desert Rock Coal-Fired Power Plant on Navajo Nation
land (New Mexico)! Stop Global Warming!
Greenaction is working with
the Dooda Desert Rock Committee of residents
and the Navajo environmental justice group Dine CARE to defeat
a proposed coal-fired power plant that threatens community health,
traditions, culture and sacred sites and would increase global
warming.
International
Campaign Supports Tohono O’odham
Indigenous Peoples Fight against Mexican Hazardous Waste Dump Project
Greenaction
is helping the O’odham peoples in Mexico and the U.S. oppose
Mexico’s plans to build a giant hazardous waste landfill
near villages and sacred sites in Quitovac in Sonora, Mexico.
We brought
together a huge alliance of environmental justice and Indigenous
groups, and Greenaction worked with tribal members to hold protests
in Arizona, California and Mexico. In a big victory, we have forced
the Mexican government to admit that the project cannot proceed
due to opposition of the local municipality.
North
Salt Lake City, Utah: Shut Stericycle Medical Waste Incinerator – Sterilize,
Don’t Burn the Waste!
Greenaction works with families living
next to the incinerator and with parents whose kids go to nearby
schools. Stericycle burns medical
waste shipped from many states, emitting dioxin and other pollutants
in the air. Stericycle must switch to safer non-incineration technologies
to protect the health of residents and workers.
California,
Arizona & around the World: Resisting
the Onslaught of “Incinerators in Disguise”
Greenaction
is continuing our campaign to defeat industry attempts to site
gasification, pyrolysis and plasma arc
incinerators for treatment of hazardous, solid, medical waste,
sewage sludge and tires. While the industry claims these technologies
are “recycling” and “renewable
energy,” in reality these “incinerators-in-disguise” heat
wastes and then burn the toxic gases and produce toxic emissions.
We support pollution prevention, increased recycling and real
renewable energy instead of incineration technologies. Our report
on this
issue, including case studies, is available on our website www.greenaction.org.
We are providing information to communities, environmental groups,
government agencies and media around the world on this issue.
Red Bluff, CA: Stop the InEnTec Plasma Arc Incinerator
in Disguise!
Greenaction
is fighting InEnTec’s attempt to overturn
our historic victory in our appeal of their permits for a plasma
arc
facility to treat medical wastes in Red Bluff, California. This
battle has national and international implications, and we continue
to mobilize residents to pressure InEnTec to abandon this project.
San Leandro, CA: Environmental health and justice
project starting up!
Greenaction is working with the community group
Healthy San Leandro
Collaborative to reduce pollution from
the dozens of polluting industries and diesel truck operations
in this community. We’ve helped research many of these industries
and with the community will now challenge the biggest polluters
to reduce their pollution.
San Francisco and Hayward, CA: Stop fossil fuel power
plants and global warming!
Greenaction is helping communities fight
proposals for new gas fired
fossil fuel power plants. We support energy conservation and clean,
green, renewable energy, not more polluting power plants.
Colorado River Indian Tribes, Arizona: Shut down Siemens/Westates
Carbon!
Greenaction is helping Colorado River Indian Tribes
members oppose the continued operation of the Siemens hazardous
waste facility
on tribal lands. Westates emits dioxin and other pollutants,
but the U.S. EPA has allowed the company to operate without proper
permits or full environmental review.
Stanislaus County, San Joaquin Valley, California:
Shut the Covanta Garbage Incinerator!
Greenaction and the Grayson
Neighborhood Council are continuing
our campaign against the Covanta garbage incinerator in this low-income
Latino area. We are currently working with residents to encourage
county and city officials to support recycling instead of incineration.
