|
Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation
PowerShift in Washington, DC
PDF maps:
Crawford and Fisk Coal Plants in Proximity to
Schools
|
Fisk Plant in Proximity to Schools
|
Crawford Plant in Proximity to Schools
Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) database
Clean Power Coalition
Coal Brochure
-
English /
Spanish
Our dirty skies -Trib slideshow of Chicago's biggest polluters.
They sit right in our backyards.
Play Audio of 2007 Eco-Justice meeting
(streaming audio)
A
Coastal NationArt
on the Street final proposal
The Cradle to Grave Info: Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Comments
regarding LVEJO
"Coalympics" Bring Attention
to Pollution in Little Village" by John Dagys
THE COALYMPICS II
2008 COALYMPICS IN CHICAGO!
LVEJO announces the release of:
Rising Tides Guide to
bogus climate change solutions. PDF
(3 MB) We encourage you to read this
and share it.
Clean Water Action!
Check out the list and join them by sending a letter
After five years of study, in October 2007 the Illinois EPA called for new water quality standards to protect people and wildlife that use and live in
the river. Basing the changes on current use and what could happen if the water was cleaner, among the recommendations was the call to kill sewage
from bacteria through disinfection as part of the wastewater treatment process.
A practice employed in major cities all across the country and many neighboring ones including Milwaukee and Gary, disinfection is a common
technology that kills pathogens in sewage.
Clean water is guaranteed by the United States Clean Water Act and the Constitution of Illinois, yet every day we get 1.2 billion gallons of sewage
effluent dumped into our river. This means that while we and our families and friends paddle, fish, swim, Jet Ski or row, we are exposing ourselves to
harmful bacteria from sewage that could make us sick.
We want you to tell the Illinois Pollution Control Board that you want clean water and disinfection now.
What you can do:
Hundreds of elected officials, community groups, families, recreation and environmental advocates and individuals have expressed their support for a
clean river that is sewage free by submitting letters to the Illinois Pollution Control Board.
http://www.chicagoriver.org/upload/UAA%20supports%209-1-09.pdf
Check out the list and join them by sending a letter to:
John Therriault, Chief Clerk
Clerks Office
Attention Docket #R09-08
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100 W. Randolph, Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
RE: Illinois EPA
With a link to http://www.chicagoriver.org/projects/clean_water_and_healthy_fish/
Check out the list and join them by sending a letter
International Day of Action for Climate Justice - Nov 30th
Mass Non-violent Civil Disobedience and Protest
In partnership with www.actforclimatejustice.org/west
Download postcard in PDF here
Latest pictures from the Clean Power Campaign
GREEN FOR THE PEOPLE/VERDE PARA LA GENTE



GREEN FOR THE PEOPLE/VERDE PARA LA GENTE was the
first environmental fair in Little Village, which demonstrated the
need for efficiency and renewal energy workshops in a low income
community of color. Research shows that communities like Little
Village will be the ones that feel the global warming first. On
August 1st, LVEJO and partners from across the city came together
and showcased what culture, human ingenuity and the love for a
neighborhood can accomplish.
The fair opened with Mexica Danza (Aztec dancing) a spiritual
and culturally important aspect of our community. This connection
between nature and people purified the space we were in and the
people that came to help.
TopLess America- is spreading information on the
devastation in Appalachia, because of Mountain Top Removal (MTR).
Working Bikes- new to the Little Neighborhood came
to Green for the People and demonstrated a pulley, which worked to
what a little sweat can light up. Working
CEDA-
is a program that works with low income residents to weatherize
their homes
Bloom Diesel School Bus- is a group of high
school students working to spread the information about climate
change and is showcasing their newly retrofitted bus, which runs on
used veggie oil.
Cleanpower Campaign- is a campaign in Little Village that
is spreading information about the coal power plant located in
Little Village. It also promotes energy conservation, energy
efficiency and a rapid transition to green energy, NOW!
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First Hour:
http://soundcloud.com/martinmaciasjr/environmental-justice-interview-vocalo-2009-10-16-5pm
Second Hour:
http://soundcloud.com/martinmaciasjr/environmental-justice-interview-vocalo-2009-10-16-6pm-7pm
Thank You Martin Macias from Vocalo and Radio ARTE!
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Posted by
Mick Dumke
in the Chicago Reader
on
Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at
8:29 PM
Frustrated by
inaction at every level of government, several environmental
watchdog organizations announced plans today to sue the owner of
Chicago’s
two coal-fired power plants for alleged violations of the
federal Clean Air Act.
The coal plants are
among the biggest sources of dangerous air emissions in the region,
but authorities have moved only haltingly to compel them to clean
up.
Just a week ago
several environmental groups
chided Chicago officials for failing to get tough with the
plants, which
studies have blamed for scores of ER visits and premature deaths
every year. Today the groups essentially took aim at the state and
federal governments, which they contend should do more to force
plant owner Midwest Generation to slash its emissions of dangerous
soot.
The organizations
sent a letter to the company and government regulators declaring
their intention to sue within two months. They charge that in its
own reports to the state Midwest Generation has repeatedly admitted
it produced a higher concentration of soot than allowed. Soot,
otherwise known as
particulate
matter, has been linked to heart disease, asthma, cancer, and
other ailments...read
more
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of page
Have you ever driven
on the Stevenson Expressway? If so, you have probably passed two of
Chicago's more antiquated relics...
They are easy to
ignore if you don’t know what you are looking at---we aren’t talking
about monumental architecture or the glories of ancient
civilizations here. Just three anonymous smokestacks that signify a
long-departed way of thinking about cities and energy.
Unfortunately,
despite their antiquity, the Fisk and Crawford Generating Stations
are "living history," playing an active part in the present life and
times of Chicago, and dangerously behind the times. We’ve learned a
lot about the dangers of coal plant emissions over the years, and
continuing to rely on two dirty coal plants in the midst of dense
urban neighborhoods that cannot meet modern clean air standards is
fundamentally wrong...read
more
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of page
Lawsuit Targets Coal Plants
Advocates
are taking steps to sue a major Illinois electricity company. They
want Midwest Generation to clean up its coal-fired power plants.
No one is really contesting that the plants have gone over emissions
limits. Midwest Generation itself reported that all six of its
Illinois plants have exceeded federal standards for particulate
pollution – basically, soot.
The Environmental Protection Agency sent a notice of violation two
years ago, but didn’t enforce it. Faith Bugel of the Environmental
Law and Policy Center compares it to a criminal walking up to a
police station and confessing...read
more.
Environmental groups
in Chicago are starting the legal legwork necessary to sue the
operator of two South Side coal plants in an effort to cut air
pollution.
The groups, including
the
Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Natural Resources
Defense Council, provided the plant operator, Midwest Generation,
with a legally required 60-day notice of their plans to sue. The
groups say Midwest's Illinois plants are violating the federal
Clean Air Act standards on
how much soot can be contained in smoke discharged from the plant.
The company's Crawford and Fisk plants figure prominently in the
allegations.
read more
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of page
July 28, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) --
A coalition of environmental groups accuses Midwest Generation of
violating the Clean Air Act.
click above link
to view video
Midwest Generation
owns two coal-fired plants in Pilsen and Little Village. Several
environmental groups believe those coal-fired plants have led to
dirty air, which has led to hundreds of premature deaths and
thousands of emergency room visits.
After more than a
decade, the clean air fight is going to court. A coalition -
including the Sierra Club and respiratory health and environmental
groups- will file a suit accusing Midwest Generation of violating
the Clean Air Act.
Vew video
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From the
Huffington Post article, By
Jeff
Biggers Author, The United States of Appalachia | Posted
April 29, 2009 | 10:09 PM (EST)
What does a Wyoming
rancher, a Navajo elder, a Southern community organizer, a Latino
immigrant organizer from Chicago, a young indigenous Ottawa woman
from Michigan, and an Appalachian coal miner's widow have in common?
All of their
neighborhoods are under deadly assault from King Coal. And all of
these six American heroes have journeyed to Washington, DC this
week, on their own dime--unlike the paid hacks from King Coal's
payrolls--as part of the First 100 Days of the Power Past Coal
movement to testify to representatives from Congress, the EPA and
the Council on Environmental Quality about their outrageous living
conditions under government regulated coal mining operations and
coal-fired plants.
In Mr. King Coal's
neighborhood, these are their daily burdens: Mercury poisoning, gall
bladder disease, black lung disease, devastated and impoverished
strip-mined communities, depleted and contaminated watersheds, and
toxic-draped and ailing neighborhoods.
If Washington, DC
doesn't have time to journey to the coalfield neighborhoods and
toxic corridors of coal-fired plants, then the coalfield neighbors
and coal-fired plant residents have journeyed to Washington, DC to
bring a bit of truth and clarity to the clean energy debate.
In truth, it's time
for top level public servants--like Nancy Sutley, Lisa Jackson and
Ken Salazar--who are slowly determining the fate of our nation's
oldest and most diverse mountain range and its abuse by one of the
most scandalous human rights and environmental violations, to
actually see firsthand the horrific impact of mountaintop removal on
our nation's citizens in Appalachia, and stripmining operations and
coal-fired plants in other parts of the country.
It's easier to
compromise with King Coal representatives inside the comfort zone of
the Beltway, than in one coal-slurry contaminated area around
Prenter, West Virginia, for example, where 98 percent of the
residents have had their gall bladder removed.
In the meantime,
these are some of the stories Washington, DC representatives heard
yesterday:
L.J. Turner is a rancher and member of the Western Organization of
Resource Councils (WORC), a network for grassroots organizations
from seven states that include 10,000 members and 45 local community
chapters. L.J. runs the ranch his family homesteaded in 1918, in
Campbell County, Wyoming. Strip mines encroach on one edge of his
ranch, while oil and coalbed methane development deplete and pollute
the water resources vital to his operation. Aquifers have been
destroyed and stock water wells impacted. The loss of water
threatens the ranch's viability. L.J.'s story is far from unique in
the west, as irresponsible energy development scars private and
public lands in rural communities. Strip mine pits have displaced
grazing cattle and shattered the western landscape's iconic imagery.
L.J. is working to be part of the energy solution and is negotiating
to develop a utility scale wind farm on his ranch. He is one of many
cowboys who have been fighting to keep their way of life for over 30
years. For a virtual visit to LJ Turner's neighborhood, see:
www.worc.org
Marie Gladue Dine
comes from the Black Mesa region of northeastern Arizona, where she
works with the Black Mesa Water Coalition to fight Peabody Energy's
controversial Black Mesa coal mine and to promote green jobs and
clean energy among the Hopi and Navajo communities. Peabody 's coal
mining operations on Black Mesa have for more than 35 years been
dependent on a sole source of drinking water for Navajo and Hopi
communities. Between 1969 and 2005, Peabody pumped an average of
4,600 acre-feet of water annually from the Navajo Aquifer, resulting
in significant damage to community water supplies. According to
Gladue, the coal mining operations have taken sacred lands. Her
Indigenous community recognizes Black Mesa as a female mountain,
water as her lifeblood, and the coal as her liver. Respect for
Mother Earth would mean leaving the coal in the ground. For a
virtual visit to Marie Gladue's neighborhood, see:
www.blackmesawatercoalition.org
Mike Cherin, a resident of Rutherford County, N.C., lives 16 miles
from the Cliffside Coal Plant, the site of an 800-megawatt
coal-fired facility currently under construction by Duke Energy. The
plant, if allowed online, would emit 6 million tons of additional
carbon dioxide annually, threatening the health of nearby residents,
and causing significant environmental concern, including global
warming and mercury contamination. Cherin and many of his neighbors
are diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and
oppose the Cliffside Coal Plant for its threat to public health.
Cherin and his wife, an R.N. at the local hospital, are community
organizers with the Canary Coalition, a clean air advocacy group in
western N.C. which recently helped rally several hundred community
members in opposition to the Cliffside Coal Plant, resulting in the
highest number of arrests in protest of coal in American history.
Recognizing that his region has one of the highest unemployment
rates in the nation, Cherin is an outspoken advocate for green
collar jobs to build solar panels and wind turbines, which could
fill the region's empty factories. For a virtual visit to Mike
Cherin's neighborhood, see:
www.canarycoalition.org
Towana Yepa is 22 and
a member of the Indigenous communities of Jemez Pueblo and The
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. She is fluent in the Towa
language and knows the traditional life ways of the Desert Peoples
cultures and the Great Lakes cultures. Her tribes' lands are on the
eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where the deposition of mercury from
coal-fired power plants across the lake has ruined the tribes' water
supplies and rendered the water unusable for drinking or fishing.
The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians fought off a proposed coal
plant four years ago in Filer Township, MI. Now, the Indigenous
Tribes in Michigan are facing eight more proposed coal plants.
Lorelei Scarbro is a
community organizer at Coal River Mountain Watch. Lorelei is the
granddaughter, daughter, and widow of West Virginia coal miners. The
home in which she lives was built by her late husband, who passed
away due to black lung. He was an underground coal miner for 35
years. He is buried in the family cemetery which is adjacent to
their home. Lorelei's land, home, the family cemetery, and
surrounding environment are now faced with the threat of mountaintop
removal coal mining on Coal River Mountain. There is a 6,600 acre
mountaintop removal site proposed above her home - but she is
joining with local residents to promote a 328 MW wind farm instead.
More than 15,000 acres in Lorelei's community have already been
destroyed by mountaintop removal - Coal River Mountain is the last
remaining mountain with wind potential in that area. The Coal River
Wind project would preserve her family's land and history for
generations to come, as well as prevent further destruction in her
community. For a virtual visit to Lorelei Scarbro's neighborhood,
see: www.crmw.net , and
www.coalriverwind.org
Samuel Villaseñor is
the Clean Power organizer with the Little Village Environmental
Justice Organization (LVEJO), in the southwest side of Chicago.
Samuel arrived to Little Village from Huerta Vieja, Iguala, Guerrero
in Mexico, when he was two years old. Little Village, Chicago is the
second largest Latino community in the nation outside of East L.A.,
with a population of 100,000 within a 5 mile radius. In Little
Village alone, 40 deaths, 2800 asthma attacks and 500 emergency room
visits annually are attributed to the two coal-fired power plants
situated near the residential area. To bring attention to the health
problems associated with coal burning, Villaseñor has helped to
organize the Coal-Olympics, a creative community event that
pressures the Mayor to invest in long term green jobs, public
transit, and housing, instead of Chicago's Olympic bid. Villaseñor's
campaign also trains young people in the community on weatherization
and retrofitting, to help older residents make their homes energy
efficient. The multi-generational activity promotes alternatives to
coal and job creation in the city. LVEJO saw a major victory last
year when the Chicago Mayor publicly recognized Little Village's two
coal plants as responsible for half of the city's pollution. For a
virtual visit to Samuel Villaseñor's community, see:
www.lvejo.org
Or, check out the inspiring work of his companera Marisol Becerra
at Little Village Environmental Justice Organization:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz-O_xOCAOQ&feature=player_embedded
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of page
Pictures from The NoGamesChicago
Protest on April 2nd



Revised Coal-Olympics pictures:


...for more pictures, click
here
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of page

Hey Sen. Durbin: FutureGen Dogs Bark,
Green Caravan Moves On
"In retrospect,
FutureGen appears to have been nothing more than a public relations
ploy for Bush Administration officials to make it appear to the
public and the world that the United States was doing something to
address global warming despite its refusal to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol."
That's one of the
wakeup calls on the delusions of "clean coal" in a knockout new
report by the Majority Staff of the Subcommittee on Investigations
and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology. Entitled
"The Passing of FutureGen: How the World's Premier Clean Coal
Technology Project Came to be Abandoned by the Department of
Energy," the House report doesn't pull any punches, giving a
blow-by-blow chronicle of the extraordinary bungling and
misrepresentation of the FutureGen "clean coal" campaign:
"...what DOE
really created was more of a Humpty Dumpty. Just like Humpty
Dumpty, when FutureGen fell off the wall in its "restructured"
form, it broke apart, and all of DOE's press releases and
PowerPoint presentations couldn't put it back together again.
"The end result
of this trail of mismanagement? Progress on the great challenges
to harness technology to build a greener energy future was
stalled, and the United States abandoned its global leadership
role.
"No one - except
those who may have drunk the Kool-Aid at DOE - was surprised at
the
anemic response to the FOA. In the end, almost no one came to
DOE's party, and it wasn't the party that had been advertised in
the invitation. There were four applications, two of which did
not come close to meeting the criteria. Neither of the survivors
proposed an IGCC/CCS plant, but hoped to test out experimental
carbon capture technology on existing facilities. It was
reported that even those applications were incomplete. In
January of 2009, Secretary Bodman and his deputies slipped out
of town minus viable projects or even press releases claiming
success."
Joseph Romm, as
usual, has done a great job
reviewing the report. The full report can be read here
(pdf).
Makes you wonder how
much Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin knew about this charade. He
recently
told the Washington Post of his death-defying crusade
to bring FutureGen to Illinois: "This has been my longest, most
difficult battle in Congress."
I have tremendous
admiration for my senior Senator from Illinois--he's hands down one
of the most effective, insightful and progressive members in
Congress. We're proud of him; we support him; we vote for him. He's
our voice in Washington, DC.
And at a time when
the great clean green energy caravan has been launched, and the
Green Jobs initiative reflects the bright future, we're confounded
by his no-holds-barred dedication to the barking dogs of dirty coal,
Peabody Energy and the sham of FutureGen.
Durbin keeps pounding
nails into the snow to keep the winter of coal alive.
Perhaps he might want to talk to the
high school kids in the Little Village in Chicago, who are planning
to run with respirators in a
faux "Coal Olympics"
to demonstrate the
environmental costs
of coal-fired plants in their lives.
Perhaps Sen. Durbin
might want to consider the devastating realities of coal extraction
in Illinois--from both underground and strip mining--and its dirty
trail of processing, transportation and finally burning and storage
of coal ash.
Perhaps he also needs
to visit some great American
farmers in Illinois who are fighting the
loss of their fertile lands to longwall mining.
Perhaps he needs to
hang out at the doctor's office in southern Illinois with some
retired coal miners, and hear their stories about black lung--still
today, over 1,000 coal miners die annually from a disease we have
known about since 1831.
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PowerShift in Washington, DC

LVEJO's Youth Group
YAOTL (Young Activist Organizing as Today Leader's), Samuel
Villasenor,
Clean
Power Organizer, and Lili Molina,
Youth Organizer
attended PowerShift in Washington, DC. Marisol Becerra, LVEJO's
Acting Chair was one of the keynote speakers opening the event,
Rafael Hurtado and Carloyna Macias, LVEJO Board Members, hosted a
workshop with over 200 participatns. YATOL members hosted
conversations and outreached to to other youth around the myth of
clean coal and cap and trade.


LVEJO participated in the direct action to shut down the coal power
plant in Washington, DC and bring light to the Crawford, Fisk and
other Coal Power Plants in Illinois. With the succesful shut down of
the DC plant we invite all those at Power Shift and at home to
continue the fight for renewable energy and shut down dirty coal.
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Residents say they feel empowered to make sure site
is clean, safe
By D.
Diane Douglas
| Special to the Tribune
|
January 28, 2009
The
Little Village neighborhood is finally getting its first public
park—but it's planned for a hazardous waste site.
The folks at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
told the City of Chicago and the
Chicago Park District, "Not so fast."
The site—the former Celotex plant at 28th Street and Sacramento
Avenue—is part of the federal Superfund program, which identifies
and cleans up abandoned hazardous waste sites. The soil on the
24-acre site is contaminated.
Residents also were concerned about traffic. A 2006 study by the
group found one crash every two days at the intersection near the
site.
A city camera now monitors the intersection and a new stoplight sits
a block away, said Kim Wasserman, the organization's coordinator.
Wasserman's group threw another wrench in the works, angering their
own neighbors who have been itching for a new park.
"We said, 'Before you start on the park, we need to focus on
people's homes,' " Wasserman said, referring to surrounding homes
suspected of being contaminated too. "That started a 2-year battle
with the
EPA: What kinds of tests? How deep?"
In the end, residents and the Little Village Environmental Justice
Organization got more than they asked for. "The EPA wanted to test
44 homes; 175 homes were cleaned up," she said, to standards higher
than what the government initially offered.
Resident Martha Castellano, who has a grandson with a blood
disorder, said she doesn't know the cause but she feels empowered to
make sure the air around her home at 27th and Whipple Streets gets
cleaner.
"We'd like to have green space and trees and the plants," said
Castellano, 65, a retired bus driver who said her family must go to
U.S. Cellular Field to find a patch of green. She said she is
elated about the new park, but added it must be built in the safest
manner possible.
"We had a little bit of a struggle with the city to get the lights
on the streets and sidewalks," Castellano said. "But now we can see
the cleaning trucks go by. I'm gonna fight to get what we're
supposed to get. I'm gonna do it not only for myself—it's for my
neighbors, for my kids."
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From pollution fight, seeds of change
sprout
By D.
Diane Douglas | Special to the Tribune
January 28, 2009
Somebody needed to clear the air in Chicago's
Little Village neighborhood.
For years, many residents grew tomatoes and cucumbers—but not in the
ground because they suspected the soil in their yards wasn't safe
enough for the food they would put on the family table.
"Homeowners who knew better grew produce in pots," said Kim
Wasserman, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
coordinator. "Renters or people who hadn't been here that long
didn't know any better."
And for years residents assumed an awful burning smell that
permeated the air was annoying, yet safe to breathe. They adjusted
uncomfortably to a film of dull gray ash that blanketed windows in
the summertime.
"People in the neighborhood would be like, 'What's that smell?' "
said Rafael Hurtado, 18, a high school senior and group volunteer
who has suffered from asthma since 4th grade. He reasoned, "If it
was dangerous, they would have told us by now."
That tacit acceptance in what is one of the Midwest's largest
Mexican-American communities concerned the organization, which
decided to do something about it. Members started giving Toxic
Tours.
Volunteers guide residents on a walking tour of chemical sites,
manufacturing and plastics plants and brownfields to heighten
awareness of environmental hazards and provide tools for keeping
government officials accountable for monitoring and cleaning up
dangerous emissions, deposits and more.
Robin Saha, a University of
Montana assistant professor of environmental studies, wrote a
book about grass-roots efforts to tackle environmental racism around
the country. Saha said the tours are a sign "people are taking
what's good and bad about their communities and owning it. In the
process, they're able to involve community members, raise awareness
of the issues that matter to them and, frankly, call some industries
out on the mat."
Environmental justice scholars identified two decades ago what
became known as "environmental racism." A 2007
University of Michigan study found most hazardous waste
facilities are located in minority areas. Another study from the
University of
Colorado at Boulder found that environmental inequality exists
in most large urban areas.
The toxic tours are a way to get residents excited about learning
how to communicate concerns to businesses and government officials.
They learn to be alert for public meetings, how to request documents
in English and Spanish and how to follow through on complaints and
promises by officials.
Wasserman said governments sometimes take the easy way out of
solving an environmental problem rather than the safest.
"They want to argue to the decimal point what's acceptable and not
acceptable," Wasserman said about issues like clearing the ash and
replacing yard soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons—a form of industrial waste from the burning of coal,
oil and gas.
Toxic Tours are the result of the green revolution going
grass-roots, Wasserman said.
Organizers from environmental justice groups say sightseeing can be
effective because it shows up close how the same industries that
provide jobs, products and services can do a better job of fueling
the economy when they choose to or are pressed to use greener
technologies.
Wasserman said she believes the Little Village environmental group,
in working with—and sometimes disagreeing with—other community
stakeholders and politicians, has boosted the health and safety of
residents.
"The smell is still around but not as bad as it used to be," said
Wasserman, whose group worked with the
Environmental Protection Agency and Meyer Steel Drum Inc. The
company, at 3201 S. Millard Ave., used to send ash into the air but
now uses a vacuum system to suck up the ash.
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Chicago Communities Fight for Clean
Air
by:
John Dagys
On a chilly autumn morning at the corner of 31st Street and Kostner
Avenue, young athletes competed for gold medals. Teams of three
fought through the coal dig and leapt over the coal hurdle before
sprinting to the bus dash, ending their journey at a cardboard
cutout signifying a downtown museum.
No, this wasn't the Olympics, but instead the second running of the
Coalympics, a competition in the Little Village neighborhood aimed
at
raising awareness to two nearby coal-fired power plants that pollute
the city skies.
The Crawford Generating Station at 3501 S. Pulaski Road in Little
Village and Fisk Generating Station at 1111 W. Cermak in Pilsen are
two of the handful remaining coal power plants in the state. Both
plants, owned by Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of
California-based Edison International, lie in direct paths to the
proposed 2016 Olympics.
Activists like the Little Village Environmental Justice
Organization, which hosted the Coalympics event, want both plants
shut down for the sake of their community and the possible future
Olympic games.
"This is not just for the Olympics but it's for the people who have
lived here their whole lives and are affected by it every day," said
Alex
Martinez, 17, who took part in the event. "For all of our voices to
be heard, we need to work as a group to make this happen."
Organization statistics link more than 40 premature deaths each year
to power plant pollution, as well as 1,000 asthma attacks and 500
emergency room visits. Health conditions could worsen in the years
to come, especially considering that over 100 various schools lie
within a two-mile radius of a plant.
The Crawford and Fisk stations combine for 230 pounds of mercury
emission each year, in addition to pumping out 17,675 tons of sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, according to recent EPA statistics.
Two years ago, Gov. Rod Blagojevich passed a statewide mercury
resolution bill, calling for a cut in emissions by 60 percent. This
law will come into effect in 2015, not soon enough for many
residents.
"If you look at the statistics, we need something now," said Samuel
Villasenor, clean power community organizer. "Those numbers are just
going to increase if we wait around and do nothing."
With over half the 95,000 Little Village residents under the age of
25, Villasenor knows action needs to be taken now. But he said the
organization's seven-year-long fight will continue with a unique
approach.
"We definitely need to be proactive and reactive," he said. "We need
electricity, so we're promoting efficiency. If people can cut down
on how
much electricity they use, we would need to build less."
Villasenor and two-dozen other supporters gathered to hold the
Coalympics, a short competition which saw youth contest three
obstacles, all aimed at helping bring pollution issues to light. At
the end of the games, three tie-dye t-shirt wearing competitors
claimed the top prize, which were gold-painted asthma inhalers.
The goal of the event, Villasenor said, was to gain media interest
and awareness of this ongoing issue.
Activists are now calling on the mayor to shut down the coal power
plants and help introduce new forms of renewable energy to fill the
energy void. This includes eco-friendly methods such as
geothermal, wind and solar power.
"If our mayor claims to be as green as he really is, these are
things that he should be indulging in his city to show off," said
Kimberly Wasserman, LVEJO coordinator. "So when the Olympics come,
he can say, 'Look, not only did we shut down the coal power plants
for the sake of our residents, we're trying our hand at renewable
energy.'
"That would put Mayor Daley on the cover of Time Magazine if he
could pull off something like that."
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DIA
DE LOS MUERTOS / DAY OF THE DEAD
vigil on NOV 1st.
Residents from Little Village and Pilsen come together on Dia de
Los Muertos to remember those who have passed away due to
Midwest Generations coal power plants located in Little Village
and Pilsen, causing more than 40 deaths a year, 1000 asthma
attacks a year and 550 Emergency hospitals visits a year.


WE REMEMBER!!!
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BY POPULAR DEMAND, THE COALYMPICS II
Community residents and students gather with Chicago activists to
participate in LVEJO's coalympics II. Gathered at the corner of
Kostner and 31st across the Little Village Lawndale High School,
blocks away from the coal fired power plant, students participated
in the coal games to draw attention to the problem of air pollution
in Little Village and Chicago, caused by the Midwest Generation Coal
Power Plant located in Little Village.
The participants took part in traditional Olympics events such as,
The Coal Dig, The Coal plant Jump and finally The CTA Dash Race.
These events mimicked real Olympic Games and where infused with an
environmental justice twist, to address the issue of air quality and
public transportation, especially since Mayor Dailey wants to bring
the games to Chicago in 2016. In order to even consider Chicago for
the games we must clean up our act and close down the two COAL POWER
PLANTS in Chicago (in the Little Village and Pilsen community).
*** LETS SHOW THE
WORLD THE GREEN CITY WE SAY WE ARE, BY CLOSING DOWN THE COAL POWER
PLANTS BY FEB 2009 AND REPLACING THEM BOTH WITH GREEN CAMPUSES***
Preparation of the event - Pics: 852,853,854,856,857,881,883,884

PARTICIPANTS PICS: 870,871

COMPETITION PICS: 890,891,893,896,897

AUDIENCE PICS: 906,907,911

AWARD CEREMONY PICS: 902,903,904,905

*** LETS SHOW THE WORLD
THE GREEN CITY WE SAY WE ARE, BY CLOSING DOWN THE COAL POWER PLANTS
BY FEB 2009 AND REPLACING THEM BOTH WITH GREEN CAMPUSES***
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Follow Up:
11/20/2008
by John Dagys.
Nov. 20, 2008 - On a chilly autumn morning at the corner of 31st
Street and Kostner Avenue, young athletes competed for gold medals.
Teams of three fought through the coal dig and leapt over the coal
hurdle before sprinting to the bus dash, ending their journey at a
cardboard cutout signifying a downtown museum.
No, this wasn't the Olympics, but instead the second running of the
Coalympics, a competition in the Little Village neighborhood aimed
at raising awareness of two nearby coal-fired power plants that
pollute the city's skies.
The Crawford Generating Station at 3501 S. Pulaski in Little Village
and the Fisk Generating Station at 1111 W. Cermak in Pilsen are two
of the handful of remaining coal power plants in the state. Both
plants, owned by Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of
California-based Edison International, lie directly in the way of
the proposed 2016 Olympics, according to local activists.
Groups such as the
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), which
hosted the Coalympics event, want both plants shut down for the sake
of their community and the possible future Olympic games.
"This is not just for the Olympics, but it's for the people who have
lived here their whole lives and are affected by it every day," said
Alex Martinez, 17, who took part in the event. "For all of our
voices to be heard, we need to work as a group to make this happen."
Statistics from the LVEJO link more than 40 premature deaths each
year to power plant pollution, as well as 1,000 asthma attacks and
500 emergency room visits. The group says health conditions could
worsen in the years to come, especially considering that more than
100 schools lie within a two-mile radius of a plant.
The Crawford and Fisk stations combined produce 230 pounds of
mercury emissions each year, in addition to pumping out 17,675 tons
of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, according to recent EPA
estimates.
"If you look at the statistics, we need something now," said Samuel
Villasenor, clean power community organizer for LVEJO. "Those
numbers are just going to increase if we wait around and do
nothing."
With over half the 95,000 Little Village residents under the age of
25, Villasenor knows action needs to be taken now. But he said the
organization's seven-year-long fight will continue with a unique
approach.
"We definitely need to be proactive and reactive," he said. "We need
electricity, so we're promoting efficiency. If people can cut down
on how much electricity they use, we would need to build less."
Villasenor and two-dozen other supporters gathered to hold the
Coalympics, a short competition which saw youth contest three
obstacles, all aimed at helping bring pollution issues to light. At
the end of the games, three tie-dye t-shirt wearing competitors
claimed the top prizes, which were gold-painted asthma inhalers.
The goal of the event, Villasenor said, was to build media interest
and awareness of this ongoing issue.
Activists are now calling on the mayor to shut down the coal power
plants and help introduce new forms of renewable energy to fill the
energy void. This includes eco-friendly methods such as geothermal,
wind and solar power.
"If our mayor claims to be as green
as he really is, these are things that he should be indulging in his
city to show off," said Kimberly Wasserman, a LVEJO coordinator. "So
when the Olympics come, he can say, 'Look, not only did we shut down
the coal power plants for the sake of our residents; we're
trying our hand at renewable energy.'"
"That would put
Mayor Daley on the cover of Time Magazine, if he could pull
off something like that."
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