Clean Air Courtney and Air Quality Alex

Por: Courtney Sokol & alex pescador

My name is Courtney Sokol and I am a Cornell High Road Fellow interning at the Clean Air Coalition. Estuve involucrado en proyectos de defensa ambiental durante la escuela secundaria., así que esta fue una ubicación emocionante y gratificante para mí. As a High Road Fellow, I am responsible for representing Cornell within the city of Buffalo. Director Ejecutivo, Erin Heaney, and the rest of the Clean Air Coalition staff have afforded me ample opportunities to get involved with advocacy, policy, and grass-roots environmental organizing in the greater Buffalo area.

My name is Alex Fisher. I am a student at the Nichols School in Buffalo. After hearing Erin speak in the fall of 2012 I knew immediately that I wanted to intern at Clean Air! Working here this summer has solidified my interest in supporting environmental justice in Western New York and pushed me to try to increase awareness in my school community.

Working at the Clean Air Coalition has been a rewarding and eye opening experience. The non-profit community in Buffalo has a lot to offer. The different organizations work together on varying projects to improve quality of life for residents of the greater Buffalo area. Clean Air works to ensure environmental justice for citizens and workers. It has been an exciting summer at the Delaware Avenue office. The five interns entered at the busiest possible time. Clean Air Coalition spearheaded the fight against the criminal actions of the Tonawanda Coke plant. The lawsuit that followed allowed for fine money to be brought back into the area. The Clean Air Coalition developed a strategy to gain residential input on how to spend the money through a process of participatory budgeting. Projects eligible for voting ranged from pollution prevention to a community health center. The interns assisted in making turn out calls for voting, counting and recording votes, and coordinating the tally count party at the final voting location. Casi 600 residents of Tonawanda turned out to vote, making the process a victory for democratic reform!

Another exciting event that the interns were involved in was the press conference outside of the Department of Transportation pertaining to the Peace Bridge expansion project. The project is proposed to cost over 20 million dollars, and double the amount of cars and trucks passing through the residential West Side neighborhood. This will perpetuate already poor air conditions, and health problems within the community. The interns helped to make signs, inform the press, and make turn out calls. The deadline for submitting public comments was extended by the Governor’s office due to the hard work of Clean Air and the West Side community.

Although the Clean Air Coalition operates as a highly efficient organization, as an intern it is surprising to see how difficult is is to build community support. It is amazing how much work goes into getting people to give input, turn out to vote, or support a meeting. Interns are responsible for making thousands of calls. It is disheartening when the person at the other end hangs up. Despite minor setbacks, Irlanda, Rebecca, and Natasha do not give up on community outreach. They are well known in Western New York for working vigorously towards resident involvement and outreach.

Hasta aquí, the summer has been full of exciting memories and events at the Clean Air Coalition. One stand out memory for the interns was partaking in the rally at the Department of Transportation. It was exciting to see our work pay off when Governor Cuomo extended the public deadline after the media covered the event. It was also entertaining when a bat flew into the office and disrupted everyone who was hard at work. Aside from the great work that is done at the Clean Air Coalition, it has been rewarding to work beside inspiring, intelligent, and fun people. The role of the “intern” is often looked at as “paying your time” before you break into the work force. As interns at CAC, we are treated with respect and trust. The attitudes’ of the staff here make work enjoyable and fulfilling every day.

¿Ha sido afectado por el comportamiento criminal de Tonawanda Coke?? No es demasiado tarde para enviar una declaración de impacto a la oficina del fiscal de EE. UU..

Una Declaración de impacto es su oportunidad de decirle al juez cómo los crímenes de Tonawanda Coke han afectado su vida o la vida de su familia.. The purpose of an Impact Statement is to assure the most appropriate sentence for the convicted offender.

Below are some general guidelines for preparing such a statement. The last day to submit an impact statement is August 1, 2013.

• Keep the statement as succinct and to the point as possible.

• List any impact the crime and/or the defendants’ conduct has had on you and/or your family.

• Details of the emotional impact of the crime on you and your family.

• Details of the financial impact of the crime. This could include, loss of wages, medical or counselling expenses, travel costs etc.

• Address any thoughts about what type of sentence you feel the defendants should receive.

• Include anything else you feel is important for the judge to know before imposing a sentence.

Please submit your Impact Statement and address any questions to:
United States Attorney’s Office
Attn: Sharon Knope
138 Delaware Avenue, Búfalo, Nueva York 14202.
(716) 843-5828
sharon.knope2@usdoj.gov

For more information on impact statements go to the US Attorney’s website.

Sentencing for both Tonawanda Coke Corporation and Mark Kamholz is set for September 30, 2013 en 9:00am before U.S. District Court Chief Judge William Skretny in the Federal Courthouse at 2 Niagara Square (9th floor), Búfalo, Nueva York. To read the government memorandum detailing more information about the trial and the case click AQUÍ.

Es hora de VOTAR sobre cómo USTED gastaría las multas penales de Tonawanda Coke.

JOIN US AT THE FOLLOWING VOTING LOCATIONS

Sábado, Junio 15^ª desde 10:30am-12:30pm Brighton Place Library 999 Brighton Place Rd. Tonawanda

Sunday, Junio 16^ª from 9am-noon St. Iglesia de Timoteo, 1453 Staley Rd. Grand Island

lunes, Junio 17^ª from 9am-6:30pm St. Iglesia de Timoteo, 1453 Staley Rd. Grand Island – pick up and drop off ballot to church secretary

lunes, Junio 17^ª from 5pm-9pm City Hall Community Room 200 Niagara St. Ciudad de Tonawanda

Martes, Junio 18^ª from 9am-4pm Town of Tonwawnda (second floor conference room) 2919 Delaware Ave.. Kenmore

Miércoles, Junio 19^ª desde 12:30-1:30pm Tonawanda Senior Center 291 Ensminger Rd. Tonawanda

Miércoles. Junio 19^ª desde 3:30pm-7pm Phatman Skate Shop 2889 Sheridan Dr.. Tonawanda

Jueves, Junio 20^ª desde 7:30am-1pm North Tonawanda Farmers Market Payne Ave & Robinson St.

THURSDAY, Junio 20^ª at 6pm

Boys and Girls Club

54 Riverdale Rd.Off of River Road next to the GM Plant

JOIN US FOR THE VOTE TALLY AT 7:30PM

We NEED polling volunteers! To volunteer at a voting site – contactar a Rebeca en 716-852-3813 or email her at Rebecca@cacwny.org

To download a voting flier and post it around town click here: Tonawanda Settlement Voting Flier

Community Power Building: Búfalo

Written by Maritza Martinez
Fellowship Program Manager, verde para todos

Semana pasada, I joined Green For All’s Director of Education and Outreach, Julian Mocine-McQueen on a trip to Buffalo to meet with the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York. Our goal was to bring together allies from around the city to explore how we could collaborate.

We visited some of Buffalo’s environmental justice hot spots, including the Tonawanda area, where toxic industrial polluters burn coal and refine petroleum across the street from homes and playgrounds. Not surprisingly, this area has an extremely high rate of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. After much effort on the part of the Clean Air Coalition, air monitors were placed downwind of the industries to record the different pollutants that the surrounding community is breathing. The monitors found an unusually high percentage of the carcinogen Benzene in the air. I personally experienced the noxious odors that residents encounter daily.

Neighborhoods around Buffalo face environmental and economic injustice issues on a constant basis. It’s not just in Tonawanda. We learned of a local school on the Buffalo’s west side, where thousands of trucks idle all day, waiting to go through customs and enter Canada. In this area, fresh air must be pumped into the local elementary school, because the air outside is too toxic for the kids to breathe all day. A playground and a small grass mound is all that stands between families’ homes and massive trucks blowing out toxic fumes.

With these experiences for context, we met with fifteen leaders from throughout Buffalo’s diverse neighborhoods to discuss the problems in their communities, share resources, and form new personal and organizational connections. We were joined by Green For All fellows Natasha Soto from Clean Air Coalition of Western New York and Clarke Gocker from PUSH Buffalo, as well as representatives from the NAACP, La Coalición por la Justicia Económica, Citizen Action of New York, Buffalo Car Share, Environmental Justice Action Group, Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York, and Grupo Ministrial.

The most pressing issues they identified in Buffalo include poor air quality, inadequate housing stock, lack of youth investment, and insufficient jobs. Community groups are tackling these issues one neighborhood at a time, but more cross-neighborhood conversations, collaborative work, and resource sharing would help the city and its residents meet these challenges. Together, our group developed a vision of what Buffalo could look like if the community groups achieved their goals, and we identified milestones to help get there.

We can’t wait to see this vision unfold and to lift up Buffalo as a partner and a model for other communities around the country who are facing similar challenges.

From June 8th -11th, 5 members from Tonawanda and Buffalo will travel to Fayetteville, West Virginia to meet with members of several grassroots community organizations who fight for environmental justice in Appalachia.

Our members are regular people who live in neighborhoods that are up against huge polluters. We will learn how residents are fighting coal companies who are stripping their land and polluting water sources near their homes with toxic chemicals. We will share strategies, action ideas and work to build our movement that priorities people’s health. After the delegation, our members will present on our observations and discuss how the work of Appalachian communities has impact on our work in Tonawanda and Buffalo.

To make this incredible movement building opportunity possible, we need to raise $2,000 by June 8th. Our members are doing their own fundraising in order to be part of this delegation. A donation de $10 will help train local leaders to continue to build a strong environmental justice movement in Western New York.

Thank you so much for your support!

The second session of our book club will be held at the Brighton Library this Saturday, May 18th from 11:30-12:30.

We will be discussing chapters 3 y 4 de Criando a Elías, sin embargo, si aún no ha leído o comprado el libro, no te preocupes! te alcanzaremos. Preguntas? o para registrarse envíe un correo electrónico a Rebecca@cacwny.org.

Capítulo 3: The Grocery List (and the Ozone Hole)

1.Was there a specific passage throughout this chapter that stood out to you?

2. Steingraber discusses in great deal the dangers of pesticides in food – particularly to the brain. Do you currently try to eat organic foods? Do you think that eating organic foods makes sense?

3. En la página 66 the author talks about rules she uses with her children about food. What were the “rules” or lessons you learned growing up when it came to nutrition? Are your tastes in food similar or different then they were when you were a child?

MÁS RECURSOS:

Organic food

• Huffington Post articles on the organic food movement
• New York Times “Is a Food Revolution now in Season?“

ADHD connections to food pesticides

• NBC – Pesticides in food link
• Citizens for Health

Capítulo 4: Pizza (and Ecosystem Services)

1. What are your feelings on Steingraber’s ‘pizza experiment’ (pág. 87-88).

2. Do you think differently about the cost of organic food after reading this chapter? Why or why not?

3. Besides cost, what are some other challenges or barriers to eating pesticide free food?

MÁS RECURSOS

• USDA Food Plan (cited on page 84)
• Mother Jones: Poisoning Workers at the Bottom of the Food Chain
• Food Matters: 10 Tips for buying organic food on a budget

El 28 de marzo, Doce miembros del jurado declararon culpables a Tonawanda Coke y a su gerente de control ambiental Mark Kamholz por violar la Ley de Aire Limpio y la Ley de Conservación y Recuperación de Recursos. (RCRA).

El juicio incluyó testimonios de más 30 testigos, muchos ex empleados, y duró más de un mes. This landmark verdict is only the second time in US history that a company has been indicted under the Clean Air Act – and has set precedent for a number of environmental cases to come.

As Judith A. Enck, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, said to the Buffalo News “The verdict against Tonawanda Coke Corporation and Mark L. Kamholz sends a strong message that companies and individuals can’t simply ignore environmental law and disregard people’s health.”

The verdict was years in the making for our membership. The Coalition began as just a few people sitting around a kitchen table in Tonawanda. Llamamos a las puertas, analizó el aire, se reunió con funcionarios electos y se unieron a las puertas de la planta. We held the government’s fee to the fire and demanded they hold Tonawanda Coke accountable. Y funcionó. Tonawanda Coke fue allanada, the plant was indicted in federal court, and now found guilty on 14 criminal charges.

Our work is not done. On July 15th Judge William Skretny will sentence the company. La empresa se enfrenta $200 million in fins and Kamholz faces up to 75 years in jail. Over the last few months, our members have been working to keep a portion of the potential fines to be used for community controlled projects in Tonawanda (see the article in the Niagara Gazette).

On May 23rd at 6pm at the Boys and Girls Club (54 Riverdale Rd. by the GM plant in Tonawanda) we will be holding a meeting to hear what residents in the Tonawandas, Grand Island, and Riverside would like to use this money for in their neighborhoods. During this forum, we will explain the federally mandated criteria for potential community projects, and brainstorm real project ideas that could reduce the risks of toxins and improve the health of neighborhoods.

Also on the 23rd, a settlement leadership team will be established to fine tune each project proposal. The projects ideas will be presented in various community locations through June 15th-20th. Residents will be able to vote on the projects. The top community identified projects will be submitted to decision makers.

This process is built off of the Participatory budgeting process. Presupuesto participativo (PB) es un proceso democrático en el que los miembros de la comunidad deciden directamente cómo gastar parte de un presupuesto público. PB was first developed in Brazil in the 1980s as part of a larger effort to establish democracy and citizen participation after decades of military dictorship, political patronage and corruption. PB is now used throughout Latin America, a growing number of European Countries, New York City and Chicago (Learn more about PB here).

What can you do to become involved in this historic process?

1 – Come to our community meeting on May 23rd.

2 – Join the Settlement Leadership Team by calling Rebecca at 852-3813 or signing up on the 23rd.

3. Host a voting day at your local library, club or coffee shop.

4. Volunteer to turn people out to vote! We need folks to volunteer to make phone calls, hand out fliers, and help with mailings. Call our office to volunteer.

La primera sesión de Tonawanda Reads! sera este sabado, 4 de mayo en la Biblioteca Brighton Place de 11:30-12:30.

Para obtener más información sobre nuestro primer club de lectura de verano, lea aquí.

Estaremos discutiendo el capítulo 1 y 2 en la primera sesión, sin embargo, si aún no ha leído o comprado el libro, no te preocupes! te alcanzaremos. Preguntas? o para registrarse envíe un correo electrónico a Rebecca@cacwny.org

Criando a Elías Preguntas de discusión:

Capítulo 1:

• ¿Qué parte del primer capítulo resonó más contigo?? Por qué?

• En la página 5, Estados Steingraber “Elijah Lovejoy fue un hombre persistente e intransigente.” A lo largo del capítulo, el autor hace referencia a los movimientos sociales que se oponen a las políticas que dañan a las familias y los niños. ¿Cuándo en tu vida te has opuesto a algo de manera intransigente??

• A menudo escuchamos sobre los peligros de fumar para las mujeres embarazadas., pero rara vez escuchamos sobre los peligros del smog, humos diesel, “olor a coche nuevo” y lanzamientos industriales. Por qué crees que es esto? (pág. 11-12).

MÁS RECURSOS:

• PCB´s y Movimientos Sociales:
  • dumping en dixie: Race, Clase y Calidad Ambiental. Bullard, R. D. 1990
  • Los efectos de los PCB en la salud de los niños – NCBI
  • Freeman diario (29 de abril 2013) Hudson River PCB Drudging comienza la cuarta temporada
• 911 y exposición del trabajador
  • Impactos a corto plazo de los servicios de emergencia – NYC.gov
  • NYCOSH – 911 Exposiciones Ambientales: Respuesta regulatoria y salud humana
  • CNN Salud (2010) Años después 911 Los trabajadores todavía muestran una función pulmonar disminuida

Capítulo 2:

• En la página 33, Steingraber hace a los lectores la siguiente pregunta: “Si resulta que nosotros, como padres, no podemos proteger fácilmente a nuestros hijos de la exposición a toxinas ambientales como el arsénico, ¿Es mejor saber acerca de la evidencia de daño?? o no saber?”

• En la página 43, Steingraber se refiere a un padre que declara “Tan pronto como sepas, no puedes no saber.” ¿Cuáles son algunos sentimientos que vienen con “conocimiento”. Si fueran los padres de los niños que usaron el centro comunitario, como hubieras actuado?

• Cuando Steingraber va frente a la junta directiva, ¿Por qué crees que la junta actuó de la manera en que lo hizo?? (pág. 43)

• ¿Ve alguna similitud entre la junta del centro comunitario y nuestro pueblo local y el gobierno de la ciudad??

• Steingraber habla de la complejidad de la “red de causalidad y responsabilidad” (pág. 52-52). ¿Alguna vez has experimentado algo injusto y no sabías a quién responsabilizar?? ¿Averiguaste quién fue el responsable?? Si es así – cómo? Que no- ¿Hubieras hecho algo diferente??

MÁS RECURSOS:

• Estudio Nacional de Niños
• Ley de Seguridad de Productos Químicos Tóxicos
• El monitor multinacional: El principio de precaución
• Parques infantiles de veneno: Una investigación sobre la madera tratada con CCA

 

This June members of the Clean Air Coalition will join the New York State Chapter of the Sierra Club to travel to West Virginia to meet with members of The Coalfield Environmental Health Project, a community organization made up of residents who live next to Mountain Top Removal sites in Fayetteville WV.

We will learn how residents are fighting coal companies who are stripping their land and polluting water sources near their homes with toxic chemicals. We will share strategies, action ideas and work to build our movement that priorities people’s health.

According to the organization I Love Mountains, mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is occurring in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies in Appalachia are using this method because it allows for almost complete recovery of coal while reducing the number of workers required.

Even government agencies that regulate mountaintop removal agree that the effects on nearby homes and communities can be devastating. In their Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment, the Environmental Protection Agency states:

“The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. Dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are so strong they crack the foundations and walls of houses. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In many coalfield communities, the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns.”

Would you like to join the Clean Air delegation to West Virginia? Llame a Rebecca 852-3813 or email her at Rebecca@cacwny.org~~V para aprender más.

There will be an informational session about the trip on Thursday, Mayo 16^ª en 6:00pm at Clean Air headquarters (341 Delaware Ave.. Búfalo, Nueva York).

Viaje!

La Coalición de Aire Limpio, la Coalition for Economic Justice, Barrio del corazón de la ciudad, y Hispanics United of Buffalo, along with our members are attending the Second International Conference en Participatory Budgeting Mayo 3-5^ª in Chicago!

Presupuesto participativo (PB) es un proceso democrático en el que los miembros de la comunidad deciden directamente cómo gastar parte de un presupuesto público.

Check out this video to learn more about PB. http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d7a76e4fc718437c43d63cba5&id=c776358063&e=a8a6e7b2cc

Back in October, Josh Lerner, ED of the Participatory Budgeting Project, along with Melissa Mark-Viverito, visited us in Buffalo to do a series of presentations to our members, partner organizations, funders, and the Buffalo Common Council. You can read about the Buffalo News’ coverage.

We are in for a weekend of panels, presentations, and workshops, from participants, organizadores, and researchers of PB initiatives from across North America and the world. The conference will also include site visits to observe PB in action, and observations of the final vote for this year’s PB Chicago process.

Our members are doing their own fundraising in order to attend the conference. Please consider a donation that will allow our members to bring back knowledge and best practices for Buffalo.

If you would like more information on our plans to bring PB to Buffalo, call or email Natasha.

Stayed tune in late May for an opportunity to see PB in action! Actualizar! PB in Tonawanda: cacwny.org/tonawanda-coke-settlement-project