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West Oakland Residents Disrupt and Stop Air District Meeting February 20, 2003
See Also: 2/28/03 Read the letter from the West Oakland Clean Air Coalition to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors (PDF Format) 2/20/03 Attend Air District Workshop to Demand Permit Denial 12/19/02 West Oakland Community & Greenaction Demand Air District Deny New Permit to Red Star Yeast/Lesaffre as polluter flunks air tests and odors continue! Read the Press Release from the press conference, the new Fact Sheet, and the campaign background! Read the Dec. 18th Oakland Tribune story: Regulators Go Too Easy on Yeast Factory, Neighbors Say
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Community and Greenaction Denounce Air District Plan to Ignore Violations and Issue New Permit to Lesaffre Yeast (formerly Red Star) Residents of West Oakland blasted the Air District, disrupting and totally preventing the BAAQMD from proceeding with its planned workshop on a new rule they are going to implement for the polluting Red Star Yeast/Lesaffre factory that poisons the community every day. It was an inspired community direct action to let the BAAQMD know that their environmental racism must end. About 50 community people participated in the meeting. The audience was furious at BAAQMD's failure to inform the community that the real purpose of the rulemaking process was to enable the BAAQMD to issue the controversial Title V Clean Air Act permit to the company despite their daily odor nuisances and flunking of their air emissions source tests they needed to pass to be in compliance with the new permit. Steve Hill from the BAAQMD started the meeting, but was challenged immediately. Youth from the community (from the Youth Empowerment Center) made strong statements about the suffering of kids and the whole neighborhood from the noxious odors - breaking into song and rap. One after another people demanded a permit denial, documenting the company's violations and health threats. Attempts to quiet the crowd and begin the workshop were futile. The people took over the meeting! 45 minutes into the raucus meeting the Air District finally admitted they planned to issue the permit and allow the company to continue operating out of compliance. The community repeatedly documented the BAAQMD's years of never enforcing permit conditions, so a new rule that we know won't be enforced is not the answer. BAAQMD claimed that by giving the company a new permit despite the problems, and allowing them to operate without being able to comply for at least a while would end up bringing the company into compliance - no one bought this!! After two hours of community demands for a permit denial and denunciations of the BAAQMD's pro-polluter actions, the meeting ended and the workshop never happened. The coalition including Chester Street Block Club Association, Citizens for West Oakland Revitalization, Youth Empowerment Center, Pacific Institute and Greenaction made it known that we plan on challenging the BAAQMD's plan/scam to issue the permit to the BAAQMD Board of Directors, will plan a large action at the factory, and want to have a protest at Air District headquarters in San Francisco. |