"Weathering the Hood '08-'09"
with great picture examples of young people working together to help
green
our planet and save on LVEJO and community member's utilities.
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
"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."
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 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.
This was the protest that
occurred Saturday February 14th in Chicago Illinois. The
protest was against Bank of America's predatory lending
and their support of Coal factories in the united
States.
Please allow a moment to load from Utube or click
here.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
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*** top of page
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."
What a
warming world will look like
for coastal America...
A Coastal Nation
Beginning with just one meter of sea level rise,
our nation would be physically under siege, with calamitous and
destabilizing consequences.
The US is a coastal nation with over 12,000 miles of coastline.
With 53% of all Americans living in and around coastal cities
and towns, it is important to understand the impact of
climate-induced sea level rise on our nation. Previous studies
have focused on a six-meter rise. The following study takes a
more conservative approach, beginning with a sea level rise of
just one meter.
For years
environmental advocates
have been trying to get the coal-burning power plants in Pilsen
and Little Village to close down or clean up, citing evidence that
they produce enough toxic air pollution to cause at least 40
premature deaths and scores of trips to the emergency room each
year.
But when two dozen
activists—many wearing air filter masks for effect—gathered outside
Mayor Daley’s office Wednesday morning, they delivered the message
with a new, urgent twist: it’s about the Olympics.
“We’ve been
fighting to shut them down for a long time, but the mayor hasn’t
shut them down,” said Kimberly Wasserman Nieto, an organizer for the
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, which was behind
the event. “So we figured that if he won’t do it for the residents,
maybe he’ll do it for all the Olympic visitors.”
In other words,
they’re trying to use the Olympics as leverage. The strategy should
sound familiar: south- and west-siders have already started
forming coalitions to demand funds for affordable housing,
transportation, and parks before they agree to using
chunks of their neighborhoods for Olympic facilities.
And why not? The
mayor does
as much of what he wants as he can; banding together to pressure
him may not work, but it’s certain that nothing else will.
That said, it’s
going to be tough to force the power plants to shut down. For
starters, the mayor and his staffers have their defenses
well-established by now. They say they don’t have the authority to
force the plants to close or even curb emissions, even though they’d
of course like cleaner air; and they say that jobs would be lost and
electric rates might climb. All of these arguments are debatable,
but since 2006 the Daley administration has also been able to point
to a
deal the state brokered with Midwest Generation, the owner of
the plants, to cut most of their pollution within a decade.
The LVEJO activists
say that’s too long—the health of hundreds of Chicagoans will be
imperiled over that time, and the plants won’t even be cleaned up
before the 2016 games. They’d like to see the plants turned into
training centers for renewable energy jobs. “We want to really be
seen as the greenest city,” said Samuel Villansenor, another
organizer.
The group is also
part of the
growing chorus demanding public transit improvements as part of
any Olympic package. Michael Pitula, LVEJO’s point man on transit,
called on Daley to make a priority of securing more federal and
state funding for the RTA, clean up the CTA’s bus fleet, and boost
its maintenance staff. “Come on everybody and join me: No transit,
no clean air, no Olympics!” he hollered.
Of course, Mayor
Daley was
1,000 miles away, and most of the media with him; the hallway
outside his office was an echo chamber. But the LVEJO leaders said
they’ve already sent him a letter asking for a community meeting. If
they don’t hear anything back, they say they’ll show up outside his
office again. Then they’ll start drafting a note to the
International Olympic Committee.
“We’ll tell them
it’s
not as pretty a picture as [Daley's] painted it,” said Wasserman
Nieto. She added: “We’re not opposed to the Olympics per se, but we
need to get the mayor’s atten
Coalymic Games
to highlight environmental concerns with the Olympic Bid!
CHICAGO-The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
(LVEJO) will be hosting the Coalympics at Chicago’s own Dvorak
Park at 1119 W. Cullerton St. on Saturday, the 27th
of September at 10:00am. Across the street from the Fisk Coal
Power Smoke Stack to educate attendees on the subject of air
quality, public transit and the mayors Climate Action Plan in
Chicago and the effect it will have on the city’s chance to
successfully bid for the Olympics in 2016. As of August 19th
of 2008, Chicago was notified that it failed to meet the new
standards set forth by the USEPA CLEAN AIR to regulate soot.
LVEJO will call on the Mayor and other officials
to expand CTA service, close 2 coal-fired power plants on
Chicago’s Southwest Side, and create a Renewable Energy Jobs
Program by 2010, 6 years in advance of the 2016
Olympics. The environmental
justice organization will present information on the impact
these plants will have on Chicago residents, Olympians and
spectators.
According to Samuel Villasenor, “more than sixty percent of the
proposed venues for the Olympics in Chicago would be within a
ten-mile radius of at least one of these two coal power plants”.
“Just as athletes wore air masks in Beijing concerns of there
health will be raised if the power plants are not shut down.”
The June IOC report questioned "how people would get from rail
lines to the large concentration of sports venues planned for
the lakefront, saying they were 'not in close proximity.'"
Chicago did not explain how it would increase either bus or
train service for the Olympics. LVEJO is calling for CTA to
order new “clean air buses.” on existing and new routes such as
the proposed 31st Street route. The new route
will provide access to jobs and the Olympic Village site in what
is currently a “transit desert”.
The event will include fun, Olympics-inspired activities with a
twist, such as the “Coal Power Plant Hurdle,” where participants
will race while jumping over miniature coal power plants instead
of regular hurdles. LVEJO will offer information to the public
about the organization’s views, ideas, and plans of action. The
purpose of this event is to inform the local citizens about
Chicago’s air condition, the effect that this air condition has
on the health of the general public, and the harm that it may do
to the city’s potential bid for the 2016 Olympics. “The City of
Chicago cannot soley rely on the Governors Mercury Rule to clean
up the plants and fix public transit. Mayor Daley must act as
the green mayor and take drastic action to show, Chicago is
serious about the environment.”
An environmental group is demanding that the city
close two South Side coal-burning power plants or abandon its bid
for the 2016 summer Olympics because of pollution concerns.
"No transit, no clean air, no Olympics!" shouted members of the
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) at a press
conference yesterday outside Mayor Richard M. Daley's office in City
Hall.
"As the city unveils its plans for the Olympics, and makes changes
to meet the International Olympic Committee comments, we remind the
mayor that we still face air pollution, employment and transit
problems that unless fixed, will hurt our bid," says Kim Wasserman
Nieto, a coordinator for the non-profit organization.
The organization is calling on Daley to close the Fisk Generating
Station, at 1111 W. Cermak in Pilsen and the Crawford Generating
Station at 3501 S. Pulaski in Little Village. Both are owned by
Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of the California-based company
Edison International.
LVEJO members want the plants replaced with renewable energy job
training centers and alternative energy producers more in line with
Chicago's turn toward a green economy.
Sixty percent of the proposed venues for the Olympics for 2016 would
be near or close to a 10-mile radius of the two existing polluting
coal power plants in Chicago, says LVEJO clean air organizer Samuel
Villasenor.
The coal-fired plants emit pollutants such as mercury, sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as well as particulates, which have
been linked to asthma attacks and emphysema.
Because of their age, the Fisk and Crawford plants are exempt from
federal regulations that require modern pollution control devices.
In 2001 a Harvard School of Public Health study linked the plants'
air pollution to 40 premature deaths per year, 2,800 asthma attacks
and 500 emergency room visits annually.
Midwest Generation reached an agreement with Gov. Rod Blagojevich in
2006 on a long-range plan that would reduce most kinds of emissions
at its plants by 2018.
This isn't stopping the LVEJO's clean air campaign, however.
"This is way too far in the future for the health of the 95,000
people who now live in Little Village alone," says Nieto.
"For us to be known as the greenest city in the nation, we really
want the clean air for everyone from the residents in Chicago to the
visitors that will be visiting the Olympics and the athletes," says
Villasenor.
Organizers say this issue is closely linked with improvements in
public transit.
Michael Pitula, an organizer for LVEJO's public transit campaign,
said that the International Olympic Committee had ranked Chicago
five out of the seven cities contending for the games on the issue
of transportation.
"There are people today who spend 4 hours a day to get to and from
work," says Pitula. "What's it going to be like if we have an
Olympics and steps are not taken ahead of time to fix our transit
mess?"
Pitula called on Daley to lobby congress for federal transportation
funds and to push for a progressive state capital bill that will
prioritize public transit over highways.
According to organizers, the funds could be used to put clean-air
buses on hundreds of new routes and to beef up existing rail, as
well as to restore service on the 31st Street bus line, which Little
Village residents see as crucial to their region.
"We feel that projects like this would truly benefit any event that
comes to Chicago," says Pitula.
LVEJO members have requested a community meeting with the mayor
prior to the Feb. 9 deadline, when the city must submit its final
bid for the Olympic games to the International Olympic Committee.
Nieto says the organization would prefer be a partner with the
mayor.
"If our mayor isn't willing to represent to represent the true
people of Chicago then we will represent ourselves with the IOC and
let them know that it's not as pretty a picture as he paints it to
be," she added.
The Cradle to Grave Info:
Kentuckians
for the Commonwealth
KFTC is a grassroots community group with offices all
over Kentucky. They work on a wide array of issues to improve the
quality of life for residents of Kentucky.
* For years, coal miners would take canaries into the mines to warn of
dangerous gases. When the canaries died, the miners knew it was time to
get out of the mine. Now, we are the canaries, warning everyone about
the dangers of coal before it is too late. We no longer believe the big
lie that coal is a cheap source of energy, and we are no longer willing
to have our homes and lives sacrificed for coal company profits. *
http://www.kftc.org/our-work/canary-project
Coal
River Mountain Watch - Remembering the Past, Working for the Future
Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) is a grassroots organization begun in
1998 in response to the fear and frustration of people living near or
downstream from huge mountaintop removal sites. We began as a small
group of volunteers working to organize the residents of southern West
Virginia to fight for social, economic, and environmental justice. From
our humble beginnings, we have become a major force in opposition to
mountaintop removal. Our outreach coordinator, Julia Bonds, was the 2003
Goldman Prize winner for North America. CRMW's efforts figure
prominently in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s book /Crimes against Nature/. We
have been active in federal court to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers permits for valley fills and made regional news with
demonstrations against a sludge dam and preparation plant near Marsh
Fork Elementary School.
http://www.crmw.net/index.php
Ohio
Valley Environmental Coalition <http://www.ohvec.org
OVEC is an organization based out of Huntington, WV. OVEC works to
organize residents of coal producing areas of West Virginia,
specifically in Logan and Mingo County. The also work towards Clean
Elections.
Appalachian
Center for the Economy and the Environment
<http://www.appalachian-center.org
The Appalachian Center is a non-profit public interest law and policy
organization dedicated to protecting the communities and natural
resources of central Appalachia and advocating for a just and
sustainable economy for the region.
West
Virginia Highlands Conservancy <http://wvhighlands.org
The Conservancy promotes, encourages, and works for the conservation and
appreciation of the natural resources of West Virginia and the Nation,
especially the Highlands of West Virginia,
WV
Citizens Action Group <http://www.wvcag.org>
(www.wvcag.org)West Virginia Citizen Action Group (WV-CAG) has, since
1974, advocated for better public policy, rights of individuals, a clean
environment and a stronger democratic process.
WV
Environmental Council <http://www.wvecouncil.org
WV Environmental Council helps to facilitate communication between
citizens, Grassroots Organizations, and Government agencies to promote a
healthy environment.
EarthJustice
<http://www.earthjustice.org
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to
protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of
this earth and to defending the right of all people to a healthy
environment.
Head
On Radio with Bob Kincaid <http://www.headonradio.com/
Head On Radio is an internet radio show about West Virginia Politics.
Appalachian
Voices <http://www.appvoices.org
Appalachian Voices is an environmental organization based out of Boone,
NC with a very active anti-MTR Program.
Mountain
Justice Summer <http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org
MJS is a multi-state movement that aims to work with existing local
organizations in the fight against surface coal mining.
Informational
Coal
Impoundment Project <http://www.coalimpoundment.org
The Coal Impoundment Project was created after the Martin County, KY
spill. This website maps all the known impoundments in the nation.
Regulatory Agencies
DEP
http://www.wvdep.org The WVDEP is in charge of issuing mining
permits and overseeing the operation.
MSHA
http://www.msha.gov The Mine Safety and Health Administration is the
federal agency responsible for overseeing worker safety in the mining
industry.
Other Links of Interest ILoveMountains.org
http://www.ilovemountains.org ILoveMountains.org is an online
anti-MTR resource center with several partner organizations. StopMountaintopRemoval.org
http://www.stopmountaintopremoval.org The Stop MTR coalition is
broad-based effort by local and national groups dedicated to
stopping the harmful practice of mountaintop removal mining in
Appalachia. Movies Black
Diamonds Movie
http://www.blackdiamondsmovie.com A documentary by Catherine
Pancake. Black Diamonds the Fight for Coalfield Justice covers strip
mining from the 1960's to present day mountaintop removal. Health The
Pump Handle
http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/ The water cooler for public
health