Current CRPE Campaigns:
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Climate Justice
Civil Rights
Valley Air
Don't Waste the Valley
Pesticides
Power to the People
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Spring Toxic Tour A Success!
Participants share insights from recent trip to the San Joaquin Valley
By Lauren Richter, Development Director
On Saturday April 9th my co-worker Ingrid Brostrom and I awoke early to drive a van of Bay Area supporters down to the San Joaquin Valley for an environmental justice or "toxic" tour. From the Bay Area, it takes about 4 hours to reach the Central Valley communities CRPE works with in California. Our stops included Pixley, Allensworth, Wasco and Delano. Along our route we picked up CRPE's Executive Director, Caroline Farrell, Assistant Director, Lupe Martinez, Development/Administrative Assistant, Valerie Gorospe, and Board Member, Tom Frantz. We visited leaders from the Allensworth Progressive Association and visited the home of Reyna Alvarado, leader of Comite ROSAS (Residentes Organizados para el Servicio de un Ambiente Sano/Residents Organized in the Service of a Healthy Environment). In one day, we saw massive animal feed-lot operations, mega-dairies, dairy processing plants, ethanol plants, and pesticides being sprayed by helicopter near homes. We listened to "Invisible 5," a recording of community environmental justice struggles along California's Interstate 5, as told by local leaders while we passed the sites of hard-won environmental justice victories. We arrived back in Oakland at 7:30 pm, making it a long day but surely worth it. The comments of our participants say it best:
"Living in the Bay Area, it is hard to imagine--and therefore easy to ignore--the levels of pollution that our neighbors are exposed to only a few hours away. The toxic tour helped to illustrate the localized effects of some of these "clean" energy projects. It was inspiring to meet local community members who were advocating for their health and environment. The tour highlighted successful examples of how legal assistance can really compliment grass-roots movements." -Catherine Mongeon
"This tour directly connected us with rural Central Valley people and issues we usually interact with more generally. Now, I think about the individuals who gave us a first-hand sense of their daily lives amid large-scale food and waste processing plants, and their struggles to create hope for the future by protecting their community's health." - Kathryn Duke
Please join us for our next tour: Saturday, September 17th departing from Oakland! |
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Cap and Trade Violates Californians' Civil and Environmental Rights
By Brent Newell, General Counsel
California environmental justice leaders and organizations, represented by CRPE and Communities for a Better Environment, have achieved a victory that forces the California Air Resources Board to consider alternatives to the pollution trading scheme commonly referred to as "Cap and Trade."
In 2008, rather than requiring major greenhouse gas sources like refineries, power plants, and factories to reduce their emissions, the California Air Resources Board chose to make a Wall Street trading scheme the center piece of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On March 18th, a judge ruled that the Board's single-minded pursuit of Cap and Trade violated California's preeminent environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, because the Board failed to consider alternative policy choices. The judge ordered the Board to reconsider its choice of Cap and Trade, evaluate other options, and suspend Cap and Trade until the Board complies.
Click here to read the full article. |
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Kettleman City Residents Appeal Chem Waste Expansion Decision
By Ingrid Brostrom, Staff Attorney
On March 16, 2011, a group of Kettleman City residents, represented by CRPE and California Rural Legal Assistance, appealed a controversial Superior Court decision upholding Kings County's approval of Chemical Waste Management's Hazardous Waste Facility expansion permit. On January 25, 2011, Kings County Superior Court Judge Steven Barnes issued his final judgment in El Pueblo v. County of Kings, a landmark case challenging the landfill expansion in the face of an unprecedented spike in birth defects in adjacent Kettleman City. Judge Barnes sided with Chemical Waste Management and County officials by declaring that the County had no duty to investigate potential links between the hazardous waste facility and the birth defect cluster before approving the expansion. The residents' appeal focuses on the County's inadequate environmental review of the project, and includes challenges to Kings County's pattern of discriminatory land-use decisions affecting Kettleman City over the last twenty years. Chemical Waste Management is nearing capacity but has not yet commenced construction of the new landfill pending agency review of additional required permits. The cause of the birth defect cluster remains a mystery. CRPE also represents Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice in the litigation. |
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EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Visits Fresno
By Laura Baker, Staff Attorney
US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Region IX Administrator Jared Blumenfeld met with a coalition of environmental justice, community, and environmental organizations coordinated by the Central Valley AIr Quality Coalition, (CVAQ) on March 23, 2011 in Fresno, CA. The coalition demanded that Jackson take the following actions:
 1) Rescind the proposal to exempt a new 600-megawatt natural gas power plant in Avenal from its obligation to meet current air quality standards.
2) Rule on the two pending civil rights complaints regarding racial discrimination in the permit processes for the Chemical Waste Management dump in Kettleman City.
3) Make a finding that the Valley has failed to attain the 1-hour ozone standard by the 2010 deadline and demand a new plan for attainment from the District.
4) Uphold the Regional disapproval of the Valley's PM2.5 plan and require near roadway emission monitors.
5) Grant the petition to suspend and cancel all registrations for the soil fumigant methyl iodide.
Jackson made no promises, but listened to Valley residents and committed to remain at the table with us. CRPE plans to continue to work with our client communities and allies to ensure these listening sessions translate into positive action. |
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Cesar Chavez Day of Service
By Valerie Gorospe
CRPE staffer Valerie Gorospe and Delano office intern Lorraine Leynes participated in the Cesar Chavez Day of Service. Lorraine learned more about Cesar Chavez and Delano's rich social justice history when she went away to college in San Diego than she did growing up in Delano.
 | | Valerie Gorospe and Lorraine Leynes read to first graders. |
Valerie and Lorraine are determined to help local children understand the important role Delano played in the civil rights movement. They read a biography and had a great discussion with first graders about the significant impact of Cesar Chavez and the Delano Manongs had in the Farmworker movement. The students found the discussion inspirational as many were children and grand-children of farmworkers. Also in Cesar Chavez's tradition of moving from education to action, CRPE Assistant Director Lupe Martinez and CRPE supporter Gary Rodriguez from Shafter conducted a presentation for a citizenship class on civic engagement. The political process has been an important component to the farmworker struggle for justice- from legislation establishing the Agricultural Labor Relations Act to amnesty in 1986. |
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Earth Day Tree Planting
By Valerie Gorospe
Communities in Tulare and Kern County are now greener and cooler with shade, thanks to our generous staff and Facebook Cause members. We had our biggest and busiest Earth Day ever last month! CRPE delivered 77 drought resistant trees to local schools for Earth Day. In fact, CRPE is continuing to distribute and plant trees this month. This year's tree give-away represented CRPE's third annual planting of drought resistant trees for local schools;and our largest yet. The preschool-age recipients were enthusiastic as they planted their new trees and even asked CRPE to bring more.
"We appreciate the efforts of the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment in helping to educate our preschool children about Earth Day. The children benefitted by seeing how to plant a tree. For some, this was the first planting they had ever seen. We were able to extend the activity in the classroom by planting beans in clear containers to show them the life cycle of a plant," Mike Bledsoe, Delano Union School District Pre-School Director.
We plan to continue educating school children about their environment, and hope next year's planting can be even bigger.
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Final Thoughts:
This spring CRPE has concentrated on creating awareness and sharing information about environmental health and solutions to persistent environmental and economic problems in the Valley- from Delano school children to federal and state agency heads. Our goal is to transform this knowledge in to action to protect health and achieve environmental justice with the communities we work with in California and beyond. With your continued support, we can make this happen. Si Se Puede!
Caroline Farrell
Executive Director
Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
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The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
is a national environmental justice legal organization with offices in
San Francisco and Delano, California. We provide legal and technical
assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and
communities of color fighting environmental hazards. In our work, we
have three ambitions:
First,
that individuals taking part in a particular campaign leave the
campaign with more personal capacity than they had coming into it.
Second, that the community involved has more power vis a vis decisionmakers at the end of the campaign than at the beginning.
Finally, to concretely address the environmental hazard at hand.
www.crpe-ej.org |
Closing Quote:
"Two types of power exist: the power of money and the power of people." -Luke Cole
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