What a year! Just when you start to think you can’t make a difference . . .
CCAEJ Recognized for its 38-Year Legacy of Work
Group Travels to San Francisco for Awards Ceremony
Members of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice traveled to San Francisco on Friday, November 11th to receive an award from the Planning and Conservation League (PCL). CCAEJ was recognized for its 38-year legacy of work in environmental justice culminating this year with the passage of a CCAEJ sponsored bill, SB 1000, authored by Senator Connie Leyva. SB 1000 mandates that all cities and counties include an Environmental Justice Element in their General Plans.
“This bill provides an institutional mechanism for cities to identify the disadvantaged neighborhoods within their boundaries and develop a plan to reduce the heavy pollution burdens, and address the economic, social and services inequities that have long existed in these low income and communities of color”, said Penny Newman, founder and Executive Director of CCAEJ. SB 1000 is seen as a major environmental justice bill that will institutionalize a process for addressing disadvantaged communities in California.
PCL celebrated its first 50 years as a force in achieving some of the most significant environmental successes in California – including the California Environmental Quality Act (1970), Coastal Act (1972), Wild Rivers (1973), Rail Bond Act (1990), and Tejon Ranch (2008).
The event was held at the City Club of San Francisco and be emceed by radio talk show host Bill Press, first full-time Executive Director of PCL. The 50th Gala Celebration will honor environmental heroes of the last 50 years.
CCAEJ was joined in being honored with other “environmental heroes” such as, Fran Pavley, Senator – 27th California State Senate District; Byron Sher, California State Senator – Retired; Mary Nichols, Chair of California Air Resources Board; and, our statewide alliance -California Environmental Justice Alliance.
SB 1000 wasn’t the only legislative success we saw this year. In all we passed six bills into law.
- SB 1000 (Levya) Planning for Healthy Communities Act
- AB 2722 (Burke and Arambula) Transformative Climate Communities
- SB 32 (Pavley) 2030 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets
- AB 197 (E. Garcia) Equity & Transparency in Climate Act
- AB 1550 (Gomez) Increased Climate Investments
- AB 1937 (Gomez) EJ in Power Plant Siting
Passing bills is one thing – implementing them is another. With the passage of AB 2722 $140 Million were allocated to go to disadvantaged communities around the state. $70 Million off the top is allocated to the City of Fresno and $35 Million to the City of Los Angeles with another $35 Million to go to a third region. CCAEJ has pulled together a coalition of organizations and agencies to advocate that the IE be that third region. We traveled to Fresno for one of the first hearings and presented a sampling of projects that demonstrate a report outlining a comprehensive approach to transforming disadvantaged communities.
In our local communities we made significant progress as well.
We continue to stand with Moreno Valley residents to fight the world’s largest planned industrial warehouse complex – World Logistics Center. This proposed project covering more than 700 football fields of warehousing, will be the largest single source of greenhouse gases in California and would add 14,000 additional trucks daily to local freeways already at a standstill. While other agencies have backtracked and settled, CCAEJ continues to fight in court to stop this ill-conceived project.
We joined with local residents near the Ag Park contaminated site to force confirmation testing and a new cleanup at the site. The Ag Park is 63 acres of land contaminated by PCB s upon which the City of Riverside and the developer planned to build homes. Sitting on the edge of the Santa Ana River (the drinking water source for Orange County) the Department of Toxics Substances Control deemed the site “cleaned” under a voluntary cleanup plan. The confirmation testing we forced found that the site still had high levels of PCBs throughout the site. Without CCAEJs stepping in, new residents would be living in homes built on contaminated land right now. We are still fighting to get the site addressed properly and nearby homes testing for contaminates that might have blown into their yards and homes. CCAEJ has been working with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to investigate the health issues surrounding this site.
In finding that the Water Board was not enforcing storm water run-off violations, CCAEJ stepped forward to file citizen suits under the Clean Water Act. We worked with the facilities to bring them into compliance through settlements. To date we have brought more than 30 facilities into compliance and will be monitoring their compliance over the next 3-5 years. In addition we have brought settlement funds back to the local communities to address impacts to the Santa Ana Watershed.
CCAEJ has started a Boards and Commissions Training to provide information and develop skills for local residents to join local boards and commissions and bring the lived experience and perspective of our communities into decision making. Application are now being accepted for the January class.
CCAEJ joined with the People’s Senate – local communities living near contaminated sites – to address and reform the Department of Toxic Substances Control. On the heels of the Exide tragedy, and dozens of other sites where residents have faced inaction by DTSC placing their lives at risk, we joined with allies to legislatively create an Independent Review Panel to investigate and present recommendations to the legislature on how to restructure and reform the agency. CCAEJ and communities around the state have provided testimony and examples of failure by the department. So far, the recommendations have been close to what the communities have suggested.
CCAEJ is working to bring State Funds to the Inland Valleys. We traveled with representatives of the County of San Bernardino to a hearing before the Strategic Growth Council to advocate for funding from the Transformative Climate Communities program, created by our bill AB 2722, for the Inland Valleys. We presented a reportoutlining the needs of the region and three potential projects that could be funded.
We advanced our civic engagement work. Working with Next Gen Climate, CCAEJ combined our voter registration efforts with allied groups to register more than 1 million new voters! We also join with our partners in the Inland Empowerment collaborations to reach more than 26,000 voters in our combined Get Out the Vote effort.
We are proud of the work completed in 2016 and look forward to advancing our programs and successes in the new year. From all of us at CCAEJ we wish you and your family a very Happy, and Healthy Holiday Season and a Sane, Safe and Peaceful New Year.
Penny Newman and CCAEJ
Penny Newman
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
Centro de Acción Comunitaria y Justicia Ambiental
PO Box 33124
Jurupa Valley, CA 92519
CCAEJ Staff and Board:
Front left: Gwen D’Archangelis, Brinda Sarathy, Graciela Larios, Maggie Hawkins.
Back left: Liz Lopez, Bronwyn Leebaw, Penny Newman. Teresa Flores-Lopez, Cindy Newman, Hakan Jackson, Jean Kayano, Piya Chatterjee, Ericka Flores, Juliann Anderson, and Jade Sunara Sasser. Missing are Michele Hasson, Esther Portillo, Josephine Young, Wendy Eads, Heidi Millard, Nanette Pratin
CCAEJ Recognized for its 38-Year Legacy of Work
Group Travels to San Francisco for Awards Ceremony
Members of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice traveled to San Francisco on Friday, November 11th to receive an award from the Planning and Conservation League (PCL). CCAEJ was recognized for its 38-year legacy of work in environmental justice culminating this year with the passage of a CCAEJ sponsored bill, SB 1000, authored by Senator Connie Leyva. SB 1000 mandates that all cities and counties include an Environmental Justice Element in their General Plans.
“This bill provides an institutional mechanism for cities to identify the disadvantaged neighborhoods within their boundaries and develop a plan to reduce the heavy pollution burdens, and address the economic, social and services inequities that have long existed in these low income and communities of color”, said Penny Newman, founder and Executive Director of CCAEJ. SB 1000 is seen as a major environmental justice bill that will institutionalize a process for addressing disadvantaged communities in California.
PCL celebrated its first 50 years as a force in achieving some of the most significant environmental successes in California – including the California Environmental Quality Act (1970), Coastal Act (1972), Wild Rivers (1973), Rail Bond Act (1990), and Tejon Ranch (2008).
The event was held at the City Club of San Francisco and be emceed by radio talk show host Bill Press, first full-time Executive Director of PCL. The 50th Gala Celebration will honor environmental heroes of the last 50 years.
CCAEJ was joined in being honored with other “environmental heroes” such as, Fran Pavley, Senator – 27th California State Senate District; Byron Sher, California State Senator – Retired; Mary Nichols, Chair of California Air Resources Board; and, our statewide alliance -California Environmental Justice Alliance.
SB 1000 wasn’t the only legislative success we saw this year. In all we passed six bills into law.
- SB 1000 (Levya) Planning for Healthy Communities Act
- AB 2722 (Burke and Arambula) Transformative Climate Communities
- SB 32 (Pavley) 2030 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets
- AB 197 (E. Garcia) Equity & Transparency in Climate Act
- AB 1550 (Gomez) Increased Climate Investments
- AB 1937 (Gomez) EJ in Power Plant Siting
Passing bills is one thing – implementing them is another. With the passage of AB 2722 $140 Million were allocated to go to disadvantaged communities around the state. $70 Million off the top is allocated to the City of Fresno and $35 Million to the City of Los Angeles with another $35 Million to go to a third region. CCAEJ has pulled together a coalition of organizations and agencies to advocate that the IE be that third region. We traveled to Fresno for one of the first hearings and presented a sampling of projects that demonstrate a report outlining a comprehensive approach to transforming disadvantaged communities.
In our local communities we made significant progress as well.
We continue to stand with Moreno Valley residents to fight the world’s largest planned industrial warehouse complex – World Logistics Center. This proposed project covering more than 700 football fields of warehousing, will be the largest single source of greenhouse gases in California and would add 14,000 additional trucks daily to local freeways already at a standstill. While other agencies have backtracked and settled, CCAEJ continues to fight in court to stop this ill-conceived project.
We joined with local residents near the Ag Park contaminated site to force confirmation testing and a new cleanup at the site. The Ag Park is 63 acres of land contaminated by PCB s upon which the City of Riverside and the developer planned to build homes. Sitting on the edge of the Santa Ana River (the drinking water source for Orange County) the Department of Toxics Substances Control deemed the site “cleaned” under a voluntary cleanup plan. The confirmation testing we forced found that the site still had high levels of PCBs throughout the site. Without CCAEJs stepping in, new residents would be living in homes built on contaminated land right now. We are still fighting to get the site addressed properly and nearby homes testing for contaminates that might have blown into their yards and homes. CCAEJ has been working with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to investigate the health issues surrounding this site.
In finding that the Water Board was not enforcing storm water run-off violations, CCAEJ stepped forward to file citizen suits under the Clean Water Act. We worked with the facilities to bring them into compliance through settlements. To date we have brought more than 30 facilities into compliance and will be monitoring their compliance over the next 3-5 years. In addition we have brought settlement funds back to the local communities to address impacts to the Santa Ana Watershed.
CCAEJ has started a Boards and Commissions Training to provide information and develop skills for local residents to join local boards and commissions and bring the lived experience and perspective of our communities into decision making. Application are now being accepted for the January class.
CCAEJ joined with the People’s Senate – local communities living near contaminated sites – to address and reform the Department of Toxic Substances Control. On the heels of the Exide tragedy, and dozens of other sites where residents have faced inaction by DTSC placing their lives at risk, we joined with allies to legislatively create an Independent Review Panel to investigate and present recommendations to the legislature on how to restructure and reform the agency. CCAEJ and communities around the state have provided testimony and examples of failure by the department. So far, the recommendations have been close to what the communities have suggested.
CCAEJ is working to bring State Funds to the Inland Valleys. We traveled with representatives of the County of San Bernardino to a hearing before the Strategic Growth Council to advocate for funding from the Transformative Climate Communities program, created by our bill AB 2722, for the Inland Valleys. We presented a reportoutlining the needs of the region and three potential projects that could be funded.
We advanced our civic engagement work. Working with Next Gen Climate, CCAEJ combined our voter registration efforts with allied groups to register more than 1 million new voters! We also join with our partners in the Inland Empowerment collaborations to reach more than 26,000 voters in our combined Get Out the Vote effort.
We are proud of the work completed in 2016 and look forward to advancing our programs and successes in the new year. From all of us at CCAEJ we wish you and your family a very Happy, and Healthy Holiday Season and a Sane, Safe and Peaceful New Year.
Penny Newman and CCAEJ