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"content": "\u003cp>The city of Oakland landed a legal victory on Tuesday in a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10681403/oakland-moves-to-block-coal-at-new-terminal\"> years-long battle over a potential coal export terminal\u003c/a> at the site of the former West Oakland Army Base near the Port of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County Superior Court Judge Noël Wise\u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024-01-23-Final-Judgment.pdf\"> ruled against a group of developers \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024-01-23-Final-Judgment.pdf\">(PDF)\u003c/a> who were\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985591/oakland-might-have-lost-its-coal-war-and-could-have-to-pay-millions\"> seeking nearly $160 million from the city in what they said was lost profits\u003c/a> after the city terminated its ground lease for the terminal, thwarting the controversial project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge instead agreed with attorneys for the city, who argued the group’s projected profits were speculative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order, however, means that development of the new bulk terminal — which had been halted for years due to the litigation — can now resume under an extended deadline more than two years out, putting environmental activists opposed to the project on high alert.[aside postID=\"science_1985591\" hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/portofoakland-qut-1020x675.jpg']“We applaud the court’s refusal to reward the would-be coal terminal developers with the massive payoff they sought by suing the City,” Ted Franklin, an organizer with the activist group No Coal in Oakland, said in a statement. But he also acknowledged the battle to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extended development deadline is “setting the stage for a renewed campaign to keep coal out of Oakland,” Franklin said. “We are ready for the fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Franklin’s group is among a handful of local environmental justice organizations that have long opposed a prospective coal terminal, citing concerns over increased levels of pollution from coal dust and truck exhaust that would disproportionately impact already hard-hit communities of color in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the developers decide to move forward with their plan to put a polluting coal export terminal in the Port of Oakland, even in light of the court’s decision, they can expect a long, uphill battle,” Ben Eichenberg, an attorney with San Francisco Baykeeper, said in a statement, following Tuesday’s order. “For over a decade, frontline communities have demonstrated their resolve to keep this poisonous project out of West Oakland, and the Oakland city council and city attorney’s office have remained steadfast in opposing it every step of the way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wise’s latest decision follows her ruling last month, when she sided with Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal LLC (OBOT) and its owner, Phil Tagami, ruling that the city had improperly terminated its lease in 2018 when it claimed the group had missed key construction deadlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its suit against the city, Tagami’s group also accused officials of blocking access to necessary documents related to the project, which it argued created costly delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge then gave the group a choice between restoring its lease with the city, with the new deadline or taking just under $320,000 and walking away from the project altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group opted to renew the lease, but it continued to press for the $159.6 million in damages it had originally sought — an effort the judge quashed on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OBOT’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland could still choose to appeal the court’s decision to stop the project from moving forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we appreciate that the trial court ultimately correctly rejected OBOT’s attempts to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that it is not entitled to under the contract or law, the City’s position remains that the court erred in making its initial finding in favor of OBOT on the City’s and OBOT’s dueling breach of contract claims,” Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker said in an email.”The City will continue to evaluate all of its legal options as it pursues its rights to bring this longstanding dispute to final resolution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "But the judge’s order means development of the new bulk terminal can now resume under an extended deadline, putting environmental activists opposed to the project on high alert.\r\n",
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"description": "But the judge’s order means development of the new bulk terminal can now resume under an extended deadline, putting environmental activists opposed to the project on high alert.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The city of Oakland landed a legal victory on Tuesday in a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10681403/oakland-moves-to-block-coal-at-new-terminal\"> years-long battle over a potential coal export terminal\u003c/a> at the site of the former West Oakland Army Base near the Port of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County Superior Court Judge Noël Wise\u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024-01-23-Final-Judgment.pdf\"> ruled against a group of developers \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024-01-23-Final-Judgment.pdf\">(PDF)\u003c/a> who were\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985591/oakland-might-have-lost-its-coal-war-and-could-have-to-pay-millions\"> seeking nearly $160 million from the city in what they said was lost profits\u003c/a> after the city terminated its ground lease for the terminal, thwarting the controversial project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge instead agreed with attorneys for the city, who argued the group’s projected profits were speculative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order, however, means that development of the new bulk terminal — which had been halted for years due to the litigation — can now resume under an extended deadline more than two years out, putting environmental activists opposed to the project on high alert.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We applaud the court’s refusal to reward the would-be coal terminal developers with the massive payoff they sought by suing the City,” Ted Franklin, an organizer with the activist group No Coal in Oakland, said in a statement. But he also acknowledged the battle to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extended development deadline is “setting the stage for a renewed campaign to keep coal out of Oakland,” Franklin said. “We are ready for the fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Franklin’s group is among a handful of local environmental justice organizations that have long opposed a prospective coal terminal, citing concerns over increased levels of pollution from coal dust and truck exhaust that would disproportionately impact already hard-hit communities of color in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the developers decide to move forward with their plan to put a polluting coal export terminal in the Port of Oakland, even in light of the court’s decision, they can expect a long, uphill battle,” Ben Eichenberg, an attorney with San Francisco Baykeeper, said in a statement, following Tuesday’s order. “For over a decade, frontline communities have demonstrated their resolve to keep this poisonous project out of West Oakland, and the Oakland city council and city attorney’s office have remained steadfast in opposing it every step of the way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wise’s latest decision follows her ruling last month, when she sided with Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal LLC (OBOT) and its owner, Phil Tagami, ruling that the city had improperly terminated its lease in 2018 when it claimed the group had missed key construction deadlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its suit against the city, Tagami’s group also accused officials of blocking access to necessary documents related to the project, which it argued created costly delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge then gave the group a choice between restoring its lease with the city, with the new deadline or taking just under $320,000 and walking away from the project altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group opted to renew the lease, but it continued to press for the $159.6 million in damages it had originally sought — an effort the judge quashed on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OBOT’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland could still choose to appeal the court’s decision to stop the project from moving forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we appreciate that the trial court ultimately correctly rejected OBOT’s attempts to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that it is not entitled to under the contract or law, the City’s position remains that the court erred in making its initial finding in favor of OBOT on the City’s and OBOT’s dueling breach of contract claims,” Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker said in an email.”The City will continue to evaluate all of its legal options as it pursues its rights to bring this longstanding dispute to final resolution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'Our Worst Nightmare': As Storms Raged, Some 62 Million Gallons of Sewage Spilled Into Bay Area Waterways, Streets and Yards",
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"headTitle": "‘Our Worst Nightmare’: As Storms Raged, Some 62 Million Gallons of Sewage Spilled Into Bay Area Waterways, Streets and Yards | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11:45 a.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Close to 5 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into Oakland waterways during record-breaking rainfall on New Year’s Eve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In nearby Castro Valley, residents reported sewage backing up into their drains and front yards.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Eileen White, executive officer, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board\"]‘When we’re out of the reactive mode, I think it’ll be good to reflect afterwards about what can the Bay Area do to be better prepared for these events.’[/pullquote]“This is our worst nightmare,” said Michael Nelson, spokesperson for the Castro Valley Sanitary District. “Nobody wants to have to go stay in a hotel because their home is flooded with sewage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nine atmospheric river storms that began dumping vast amounts of rain on the state in late December, and refused to let up until last weekend, overwhelmed aging sewer systems, forcing wastewater agencies in the nine-county Bay Area to collectively release some 62 million gallons of raw or only partially treated sewage into nearby waterways, according to initial estimates from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s enough sewage to fill about 94 Olympic swimming pools — more than three times the amount the board initially reported after the first round of storms in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eileen White, the board’s executive officer, confirmed those figures on Thursday, but emphasized that they are “preliminary” and “not exactly precise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local wastewater agencies are required to immediately report the estimated volume of any unauthorized sewage discharges, she said, but noted that a more accurate accounting of the extent of the spillage wouldn’t be available until next month, when their final analyses are submitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it definitely gives you the magnitude,” said White, who until recently oversaw wastewater operations at the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). “The intensity of the storms went beyond [most agencies’] storage and treatment capacity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to a rather disgusting realization: We’re going to have to change how we get rid of all our poop.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The new normal’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“You forget about it when you’re in drought for many years,” White said. “But then when you get to events that occurred over the last week, it’s a wake-up call. Because I think that’s going to be the new normal with climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These types of massive rainstorms, she notes, are expected to hit the region more frequently — and even increase in intensity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re out of the reactive mode,” she added, “I think it’ll be good to reflect afterwards about what can the Bay Area do to be better prepared for these events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938381\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11938381 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"A sketch of the municipal wastewater pathway\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simplified sketch of the basic path our sewage takes from toilet to treatment facility. \u003ccite>(Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Usually — ideally — when you flush your toilet or wash your dishes, waste drains into sewer laterals, which are maintained by property owners. From there it flows into the city’s pipes, and is then diverted to \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/951ee3f1ff624b3f97f2983a5f5d0bcf\">the pipes of the local utility district\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In much of the East Bay, the wastewater then passes through interceptors that act as gatekeepers: If the flow is below a certain volume, it continues to EBMUD’s main wastewater treatment facility, where it is cleaned and released into the bay. During some severe storms, excess water is also diverted to wet weather storage tanks, treated to basic standards, and then released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on New Year’s Eve — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1609513939376943111\">Oakland’s wettest day on record\u003c/a> — multiple points along that system were overwhelmed and failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unprecedented rainfall saturated the soil and seeped into old, cracked sewer laterals, adding to the volume of flow. As Castro Valley’s pipes filled to capacity, sewage backed up onto some people’s properties, spilling onto their yards — toilet paper and all.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A torrent of poop\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A mighty, mounting flood of poop and rainwater surged through much of EBMUD’s wastewater system. It percolated out of maintenance holes in Berkeley, Albany and Alameda, and overflowed at the utility’s south interceptor near the Oakland Coliseum, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/2022-12-31-1700-Sanitary-sewer-overflow-advisory-__-East-Bay-Municipal-Utility-District-1.pdf\">dumping some 4.7 million gallons into San Leandro Creek and the Oakland Estuary (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The huge influx of rainwater exceeded our ability to move and treat that wastewater,” said Andrea Pook, spokesperson for EBMUD. “It overflowed before it even got to our system, despite the activation of all of our wet-weather facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11938382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A large drain pipe sticking out into a muddy creek.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A drainpipe leading to a very swollen San Leandro Creek in East Oakland on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spillage in the East Bay was hardly unique. Major spills occurred throughout the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to White, from the water board, entire neighborhoods along San Francisco’s Folsom Street flooded with a mixture of stormwater and sewage. (Interestingly, San Francisco and Sacramento, which also experienced flooding, are the only two cities in California that have a single-pipe system for both wastewater and stormwater.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among a host of other soiled locations, sewage also flowed into scenic Half Moon Bay, when Pilarcitos Creek flooded the area’s wastewater treatment plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Serious health hazards\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Raw sewage — even diluted with rainwater — poses serious health hazards. “When we talk about these sewage spills, we’re talking about people being exposed to pathogens, bacteria, viruses that can cause really serious illnesses,” said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, a regional environmental group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choksi-Chugh strongly recommends avoiding any contact with bay water or creek water — or even street puddles — for at least several days after a major storm. “Anyone who is walking down the street is possibly exposed to raw sewage when there’s an overflow in the street from a manhole,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Choksi-Chugh notes, lower-income communities of color often live in the most affected neighborhoods — the ones more susceptible to flooding and closer to the bayshore where the sewage ends up. She points out that EBMUD’s main treatment facility, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/east-bay/50k-gallons-of-raw-sewage-spilled-into-estuary-after-power-outage-affects-ebmud-wastewater-plant/2345085/\">50,000 gallons of sewage spilled during a 2020 power outage\u003c/a>, is located in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s already a community that’s impacted really heavily by industrial pollution, and other environmental factors,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938427\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11938427\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial view of a large wastewater treatment plant.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314-800x520.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314-1020x662.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of EBMUD’s wastewater treatment plant in West Oakland. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And then there’s the broader environmental impact: The pathogens and bacteria in the sewage — even a large amount of treated sewage — can also sicken fish and other wildlife, Choksi-Chugh said. “It can cause low dissolved oxygen, which can lead to fish not being able to breathe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was on full, fetid display during a heat wave in late August, when thousands of dead fish \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/28/thousands-of-dead-fish-found-at-oaklands-lake-merritt/\">washed up at Oakland’s Lake Merritt and nearby shorelines\u003c/a>. The fish die-off followed an uncontrolled algal bloom — known as a “red tide” event — likely caused by the discharge of too much sewage or fertilizer into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>So, how do we fix this?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With bigger and more frequent storms predicted, most Bay Area wastewater agency officials interviewed for this story agreed on the need to strengthen the region’s aging infrastructure. The question is, which parts of it?[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"wastewater\"]EBMUD contends that it is pivotal to start at the source, and encourages property owners to fix old, cracked sewer laterals that connect their toilets to municipal pipes. Doing so would prevent less rainwater from entering the system, reducing the risk of it being overwhelmed. The utility says it has already seen a 22% decrease in flow since 2011, which it attributes to homeowners and cities fixing their pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are we done yet? No,” said Pook. “But we’re definitely on our way to helping to decrease those flows into our wastewater system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cities can also upgrade their pipes — the next segment of the wastewater system — to increase capacity. But that’s extremely expensive, and generally requires exceedingly unpopular rate hikes. For instance, replacing the relatively small sewer system in Castro Valley — a community of fewer than 65,000 people — would cost around $500 million, said Nelson, of the sanitary district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pipes are underground, they’re not sexy, they’re out of sight, out of mind,” the Baykeeper’s Choksi-Chugh said. “City councils just don’t tend to prioritize funding maintenance of these pipes and making sure that they’re upgraded and maintained properly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while acknowledging the importance of these localized approaches, Choksi-Chugh also argues that more of the onus should be placed on the utilities, rather than their customers. Water districts, she says, need to overhaul their sorely outdated treatment plants — an intimidatingly expensive proposition, but one whose costs can be partially offset by new \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/11/15/1055841358/biden-signs-1t-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill-into-law\">federal\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/\">state\u003c/a> infrastructure grants and loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because then we wouldn’t be discharging all of this untreated sewage into the bay,” she said. “We would actually be capturing it all and recycling it. And it wouldn’t be having these kinds of impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really hoping,” Choksi-Chugh added, “that this is a wake-up call for the wastewater industry and for the local government agencies to say we need to invest in better infrastructure around the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes additional reporting from KQED’s Lesley McClurg.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "'Our Worst Nightmare': As Storms Raged, Some 62 Million Gallons of Sewage Spilled Into Bay Area Waterways, Streets and Yards | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11:45 a.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Close to 5 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into Oakland waterways during record-breaking rainfall on New Year’s Eve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In nearby Castro Valley, residents reported sewage backing up into their drains and front yards.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘When we’re out of the reactive mode, I think it’ll be good to reflect afterwards about what can the Bay Area do to be better prepared for these events.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is our worst nightmare,” said Michael Nelson, spokesperson for the Castro Valley Sanitary District. “Nobody wants to have to go stay in a hotel because their home is flooded with sewage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nine atmospheric river storms that began dumping vast amounts of rain on the state in late December, and refused to let up until last weekend, overwhelmed aging sewer systems, forcing wastewater agencies in the nine-county Bay Area to collectively release some 62 million gallons of raw or only partially treated sewage into nearby waterways, according to initial estimates from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s enough sewage to fill about 94 Olympic swimming pools — more than three times the amount the board initially reported after the first round of storms in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eileen White, the board’s executive officer, confirmed those figures on Thursday, but emphasized that they are “preliminary” and “not exactly precise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local wastewater agencies are required to immediately report the estimated volume of any unauthorized sewage discharges, she said, but noted that a more accurate accounting of the extent of the spillage wouldn’t be available until next month, when their final analyses are submitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it definitely gives you the magnitude,” said White, who until recently oversaw wastewater operations at the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). “The intensity of the storms went beyond [most agencies’] storage and treatment capacity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to a rather disgusting realization: We’re going to have to change how we get rid of all our poop.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The new normal’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“You forget about it when you’re in drought for many years,” White said. “But then when you get to events that occurred over the last week, it’s a wake-up call. Because I think that’s going to be the new normal with climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These types of massive rainstorms, she notes, are expected to hit the region more frequently — and even increase in intensity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re out of the reactive mode,” she added, “I think it’ll be good to reflect afterwards about what can the Bay Area do to be better prepared for these events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938381\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11938381 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"A sketch of the municipal wastewater pathway\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Untitled_Artwork-1-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simplified sketch of the basic path our sewage takes from toilet to treatment facility. \u003ccite>(Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Usually — ideally — when you flush your toilet or wash your dishes, waste drains into sewer laterals, which are maintained by property owners. From there it flows into the city’s pipes, and is then diverted to \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/951ee3f1ff624b3f97f2983a5f5d0bcf\">the pipes of the local utility district\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In much of the East Bay, the wastewater then passes through interceptors that act as gatekeepers: If the flow is below a certain volume, it continues to EBMUD’s main wastewater treatment facility, where it is cleaned and released into the bay. During some severe storms, excess water is also diverted to wet weather storage tanks, treated to basic standards, and then released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on New Year’s Eve — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1609513939376943111\">Oakland’s wettest day on record\u003c/a> — multiple points along that system were overwhelmed and failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unprecedented rainfall saturated the soil and seeped into old, cracked sewer laterals, adding to the volume of flow. As Castro Valley’s pipes filled to capacity, sewage backed up onto some people’s properties, spilling onto their yards — toilet paper and all.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A torrent of poop\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A mighty, mounting flood of poop and rainwater surged through much of EBMUD’s wastewater system. It percolated out of maintenance holes in Berkeley, Albany and Alameda, and overflowed at the utility’s south interceptor near the Oakland Coliseum, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/2022-12-31-1700-Sanitary-sewer-overflow-advisory-__-East-Bay-Municipal-Utility-District-1.pdf\">dumping some 4.7 million gallons into San Leandro Creek and the Oakland Estuary (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The huge influx of rainwater exceeded our ability to move and treat that wastewater,” said Andrea Pook, spokesperson for EBMUD. “It overflowed before it even got to our system, despite the activation of all of our wet-weather facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11938382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A large drain pipe sticking out into a muddy creek.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS61947_020_KQED_EBMUDWastewater_01092023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A drainpipe leading to a very swollen San Leandro Creek in East Oakland on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spillage in the East Bay was hardly unique. Major spills occurred throughout the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to White, from the water board, entire neighborhoods along San Francisco’s Folsom Street flooded with a mixture of stormwater and sewage. (Interestingly, San Francisco and Sacramento, which also experienced flooding, are the only two cities in California that have a single-pipe system for both wastewater and stormwater.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among a host of other soiled locations, sewage also flowed into scenic Half Moon Bay, when Pilarcitos Creek flooded the area’s wastewater treatment plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Serious health hazards\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Raw sewage — even diluted with rainwater — poses serious health hazards. “When we talk about these sewage spills, we’re talking about people being exposed to pathogens, bacteria, viruses that can cause really serious illnesses,” said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, a regional environmental group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choksi-Chugh strongly recommends avoiding any contact with bay water or creek water — or even street puddles — for at least several days after a major storm. “Anyone who is walking down the street is possibly exposed to raw sewage when there’s an overflow in the street from a manhole,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Choksi-Chugh notes, lower-income communities of color often live in the most affected neighborhoods — the ones more susceptible to flooding and closer to the bayshore where the sewage ends up. She points out that EBMUD’s main treatment facility, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/east-bay/50k-gallons-of-raw-sewage-spilled-into-estuary-after-power-outage-affects-ebmud-wastewater-plant/2345085/\">50,000 gallons of sewage spilled during a 2020 power outage\u003c/a>, is located in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s already a community that’s impacted really heavily by industrial pollution, and other environmental factors,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938427\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11938427\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial view of a large wastewater treatment plant.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314-800x520.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314-1020x662.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1221901314-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of EBMUD’s wastewater treatment plant in West Oakland. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And then there’s the broader environmental impact: The pathogens and bacteria in the sewage — even a large amount of treated sewage — can also sicken fish and other wildlife, Choksi-Chugh said. “It can cause low dissolved oxygen, which can lead to fish not being able to breathe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was on full, fetid display during a heat wave in late August, when thousands of dead fish \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/28/thousands-of-dead-fish-found-at-oaklands-lake-merritt/\">washed up at Oakland’s Lake Merritt and nearby shorelines\u003c/a>. The fish die-off followed an uncontrolled algal bloom — known as a “red tide” event — likely caused by the discharge of too much sewage or fertilizer into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>So, how do we fix this?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With bigger and more frequent storms predicted, most Bay Area wastewater agency officials interviewed for this story agreed on the need to strengthen the region’s aging infrastructure. The question is, which parts of it?\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>EBMUD contends that it is pivotal to start at the source, and encourages property owners to fix old, cracked sewer laterals that connect their toilets to municipal pipes. Doing so would prevent less rainwater from entering the system, reducing the risk of it being overwhelmed. The utility says it has already seen a 22% decrease in flow since 2011, which it attributes to homeowners and cities fixing their pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are we done yet? No,” said Pook. “But we’re definitely on our way to helping to decrease those flows into our wastewater system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cities can also upgrade their pipes — the next segment of the wastewater system — to increase capacity. But that’s extremely expensive, and generally requires exceedingly unpopular rate hikes. For instance, replacing the relatively small sewer system in Castro Valley — a community of fewer than 65,000 people — would cost around $500 million, said Nelson, of the sanitary district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pipes are underground, they’re not sexy, they’re out of sight, out of mind,” the Baykeeper’s Choksi-Chugh said. “City councils just don’t tend to prioritize funding maintenance of these pipes and making sure that they’re upgraded and maintained properly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while acknowledging the importance of these localized approaches, Choksi-Chugh also argues that more of the onus should be placed on the utilities, rather than their customers. Water districts, she says, need to overhaul their sorely outdated treatment plants — an intimidatingly expensive proposition, but one whose costs can be partially offset by new \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/11/15/1055841358/biden-signs-1t-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill-into-law\">federal\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/\">state\u003c/a> infrastructure grants and loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because then we wouldn’t be discharging all of this untreated sewage into the bay,” she said. “We would actually be capturing it all and recycling it. And it wouldn’t be having these kinds of impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really hoping,” Choksi-Chugh added, “that this is a wake-up call for the wastewater industry and for the local government agencies to say we need to invest in better infrastructure around the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes additional reporting from KQED’s Lesley McClurg.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "'The Jury's Out': Is California's Landmark Environmental Justice Law Helping Communities With the Dirtiest Air?",
"title": "'The Jury's Out': Is California's Landmark Environmental Justice Law Helping Communities With the Dirtiest Air?",
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"content": "\u003cp>The South Stockton classroom where Ashley Pearl Pana spent recess trapped indoors is still there, 16 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the wind stirred up dust and soot, when the sun stewed smokestack and tailpipe exhaust into smog, when pollution squeezed her airways, Pana’s asthma forced her inside, behind the classroom’s closed door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the kids were playing outside, and I’d just watch them through the windows,” Pana, now 23, said while visiting her old elementary school. A new generation of children, masked against COVID-19’s newest threats to still-developing lungs, ran in the playground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Ashley Pearl Pana, Stockton resident\"]'No matter what, air quality is always an issue in my life, something I have to be constantly aware about.'[/pullquote]It was a clear day, the kind that makes South Stockton’s consistently filthy air difficult to imagine. But in \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/maps-data\">one of California’s most dangerously polluted communities\u003c/a>, emergency room visits for asthma attacks are among the highest in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No matter what, air quality is always an issue in my life,” Pana said, “something I have to be constantly aware about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">Assembly Bill 617, passed in 2017\u003c/a>, requires local air districts and the state Air Resources Board to reduce air pollution in marginalized communities. The law established the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp\">Community Air Protection Program\u003c/a>, which tasks residents and local officials with shaping regulations and steering state money to a handful of hot spots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hailed as “\u003ca href=\"https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2017/07/12/california-models-climate-and-air-pollution-action-with-balanced-approach/\">unprecedented\u003c/a>” by some environmental groups, the law was supposed to create a program to measure and combat air pollution at the neighborhood level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, more than $1 billion in state funds has been appropriated for community grants, industry incentives and government costs. But it's still not possible to gauge whether the program will improve the smoggy and toxic air that almost 4 million people breathe in \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp-communities\">15 communities.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of those \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp-communities\">communities\u003c/a> — including Richmond, West Oakland, Stockton, San Bernardino and Wilmington — have high poverty rates and are predominantly Latino, Black and Asian American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, even as the law’s clean-air program prepares to fold in new neighborhoods, a major question lingers: Is it working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The jury’s out,” said \u003ca href=\"https://humanecology.ucdavis.edu/jonathan-london\">Jonathan London\u003c/a>, an associate professor of human ecology at UC Davis who is keeping tabs on the law. It’s “an ongoing experiment with the potential for significant benefits, but also significant obstacles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental justice advocates have called the law \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/2017/07/justice-deferred-a-break-down-of-californias-cap-trade-bill-from-the-environmental-justice-perspective/\">toothless\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CEJA_AB617_r4-2.pdf\">warn that\u003c/a> it has “largely failed to produce the promised quantifiable, permanent, and enforceable emissions reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1399px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11903595\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM.png\" alt=\"Left photo: A woman wearing glasses. Right photo: A woman's hands, filled with various breathing medications.\" width=\"1399\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM.png 1399w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM-800x277.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM-1020x354.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM-160x55.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1399px) 100vw, 1399px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Pearl Pana (left) in South Stockton, where she grew up. Pana (right) shows the inhalers and other medication she uses daily to manage her asthma. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The struggle to achieve the law’s ambitious goals has been marked by battles between residents and local air regulators, and by jurisdictional juggling among agencies, each responsible for a different portion of pollution. Meanwhile, people continue to suffer from inhaling dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it having the improvements that I want it to have, at the level that I wanted to have? No, we need a lot more,” said Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://a58.asmdc.org/\">Cristina Garcia\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, who authored the bill. “Is it engaging the community and empowering them, so they could push for change? Oh, definitely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law is just one tool — and, its author acknowledges, an imperfect one at that — intending to fix decades of environmental racism, questionable land-use decisions and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/11/california-housing-crisis-podcast-freeways/\">freeway construction\u003c/a> that have left \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2019/02/cv-air-pollution-CA-web.pdf\">poor communities of color\u003c/a> hemmed in \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f555670d30a942e4b46b18293e2795a7\">by California’s industrial corridors\u003c/a>. It’s a monumental task, and experts say no one law will be a panacea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At stake is the health of \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f555670d30a942e4b46b18293e2795a7\">millions of people\u003c/a> who live near California’s refineries, ports and freeways that are the sources of smog and other toxic pollutants that trigger asthma attacks and have been linked to cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Air Resources Board staff recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.arb.ca.gov/board/mt/2021/mt102821.pdf?_ga=2.69808464.133961995.1641835269-324582198.1598231589\">called it\u003c/a> “a catalyst to change the way we work with communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet some Stockton residents and community groups have had a far different experience, tangling with local air regulators about funding decisions and delayed air-pollution monitoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the beginning of this process, we were all kumbaya,” said Dillon Delvo, executive director of Little Manila Rising, a historic preservation organization turned environmental justice group in South Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By the end,” he said, “it was terrible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-tremendous-amount-of-frustration\">'Tremendous amount of frustration'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For more than half a century, California’s \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/history\">state\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/home/research/publications/50-years-of-progress\">local air regulators\u003c/a> have enacted pioneering rules to clean up pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes. Trailblazing mandates \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/03/california-diesel-rules/\">to tackle diesel exhaust\u003c/a> — a known carcinogen — and other toxic air contaminants \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.5b02766\">cut Californians’ risk of getting cancer from bad air by 76%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t been enough. Parts of California still have the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities\">worst air quality in the country\u003c/a>, with about 87% of Californians living in areas that exceeded federal healthy air standards in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the San Joaquin Valley alone, breathing fine particles is estimated to cause \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/clean-air-plan-san-joaquin-valley-first-meet-all-federal-standards-fine-particle-pollution\">1,200 premature deaths\u003c/a> from respiratory and heart disease per year. Poor communities of color are still exposed to \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/final_community_air_protection_blueprint_october_2018_acc.pdf\">double the cancer-causing diesel exhaust\u003c/a> than that of their more affluent neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://calmatters-ab617-maps.netlify.app/#amp=1\" width=\"1000\" height=\"780\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia’s law aimed to tackle pollution hot spots by creating a greater role for community activists and residents in the complex regulatory process. Local air districts responsible for regulating smokestack pollution must now work with communities to craft clean-air plans. The law also calls for increased air monitoring, bigger fines for polluters and faster deployment of new pollution-scrubbing retrofits on smokestacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-announces-new-director-office-community-air-protection#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Today%20CARB%20Executive%20Officer,Community%20Air%20Protection%20(DOCAP).\">Deldi Reyes\u003c/a>, director of the Air Resources Board’s Office of Community Air Protection, told board members at an October meeting that there has been progress since the environmental justice law was enacted, with an estimated 75 tons of fine particles expected to be cut across 11 communities — equivalent to removing 75,000 heavy-duty diesel trucks from California roads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But neither \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">the law\u003c/a> nor \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/final-community-air-protection-blueprint\">the state-developed guidelines\u003c/a> for its implementation include specific targets for measurably improving air quality or public health in the selected communities. Though the program relies heavily on time and effort from community members, decision-making is ultimately left to state and local air regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to see more accountability built into the program,” said \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/john-r-balmes-md\">Dr. John Balmes\u003c/a>, a professor of medicine at UCSF and a member of the California Air Resources Board. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reyes, however, urged patience. \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/board/books/2021/102821/21-11-3pres.pdf\">Of the 15 communities\u003c/a>, three are still developing their clean-air plans and four are in their first year of implementation, she said. “It’s just too early to point to any of the communities and say, ‘Oh, they haven’t met their goals.’ Air quality does not change on a dime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An environmental justice advocate in Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://woeip.org/about-woeip/margaret-gordon/\">Margaret Gordon\u003c/a>, agreed. “This is not instant. This is not Top Ramen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2017/07/california-environmental-success-poor-communities-remain-polluted/\">Even the law’s birth\u003c/a> was contentious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation was framed as a companion to a bill \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2017/08/california-climate-deal-net-big-bucks-polluters/\">extending the life of cap and trade\u003c/a>, California’s trailblazing carbon market designed to reduce climate-warming emissions. Under cap and trade, companies operating refineries, power plants and other industrial facilities can buy or trade credits to meet a declining cap on greenhouse gases without cutting local pollution.[aside label=\"Related Coverage\" tag=\"environmental-justice\"]Environmental justice advocates fought the cap-and-trade extension, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2017/07/pollution-bill-legislature-just-passed-downpayment-environmental-justice/\">declaring it a “deal with the devil”\u003c/a> that \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/reporttopics/envother/env17_other/From-Plan-to-Progress-Appendix-A.pdf\">usurped local power\u003c/a> to cut carbon emissions from industrial facilities like refineries. \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604\">One analysis\u003c/a> found that neighborhoods with increasing pollution during cap and trade’s early years were more likely home to people of color and people living in poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law — less stringent than \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB378\">an earlier version\u003c/a> that died in the Assembly — was supposed to end the unequal pollution burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet many residents and environmental justice advocates say the law pits disadvantaged communities against each other for selection in the program, and its effectiveness varies drastically by air district. In \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/17RD035%20-%20English%20-%20AB%20617%20UC%20Davis%20Report%20Final%20for%20distribution.pdf\">a UC Davis assessment\u003c/a>, participants described a program that fails to provide adequate training for community members who may have language barriers and limited knowledge of topics like refinery flares and pollution controls for ships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was like a beautiful thing that was going to bring us something into our communities to protect them from cap and trade, and also try to get the community involved,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/magali-sanchez-hall-4617b048/\">Magali Sanchez-Hall\u003c/a>, an environmental activist and resident of Wilmington, in Los Angeles County. “That’s not what I have experienced, at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil industry, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/applications/stationary-source-emissions\">a major source\u003c/a> of industrial air pollution, has said it supports the intent of the environmental justice law. But at the negotiating table with legislators, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2017/07/california-environmental-success-poor-communities-remain-polluted/\">it pushed back against stricter controls\u003c/a> over pollution and later tried, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-10/final_community_air_protection_blueprint_october_2018_appendix_c.pdf\">but failed\u003c/a>, to remove language in state guidelines that called for the “most stringent approaches for reducing emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and local air regulators list frustrations of their own in implementing the law: insufficient funding, inadequate time to repair community relationships damaged over decades, and no new authority over local governments’ land-use decisions, such as warehouse construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a tremendous amount of frustration between the various community groups and the district,” said Wayne Nastri, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the powerful agency responsible for the\u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/nav/about\"> air quality of about17 million people\u003c/a> in the Los Angeles basin. “It’s difficult to put those programs together when there isn’t trust between the community groups and the regulators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-asthma-freeways-and-port-pollution-in-stockton\">Asthma, freeways and port pollution in Stockton\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the banks of the \u003ca href=\"http://delta.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Delta-Map-2020-508.pdf\">San Joaquin River\u003c/a> sits Stockton, home to an inland port. Trucks roar over freeways that cleave a city spotted with heavy industry, creased by rail lines and ringed by farm fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vehicles are a major source of smog and fine particles in South Stockton, with port-related operations accounting for about a quarter of the area’s dangerous diesel exhaust. Two of the 18 Stockton census tracts included in the state \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp\">program\u003c/a> are ranked within the top 1% of the most pollution-burdened areas in California. Eleven are in the top 25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642.jpeg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11903575\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642.jpeg\" alt=\"A large highway over a river.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642.jpeg 1024w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642-1020x679.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Interstate 5 cuts over a channel off the San Joaquin River in Stockton, where freeways are a major source of pollution. The city has some of the highest rates of emergency room visits for asthma in the state. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.usnews.com/info/blogs/press-room/articles/2020-01-22/us-news-special-report-stockton-calif-is-the-most-diverse-city-in-america\">racially diverse cities in the country\u003c/a>, Stockton bears the scars of \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f167b251809c43778a2f9f040f43d2f5\">racial residential segregation and redlining\u003c/a>. State and local officials plowed the Crosstown Freeway through communities of color, with demolitions and displacements starting in the late 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the neighborhoods crushed beneath freeway expansion was Little Manila, where only two of the original buildings in a once-vibrant Filipino American community remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton neighborhoods, especially those near the freeways, have some of the highest rates of asthma-related emergency room visits in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delvo, a second-generation Filipino American who co-founded Little Manila Rising, a community preservation group, is also fighting for clean air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be irresponsible for us to try to save these buildings and expect people to come here, when \u003cem>this,” \u003c/em>said Delvo, gesturing at the freeway looming over him, his voice raised over the roaring trucks, “exists right here. And the fact is that there are families in this community that need to breathe this air.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Pana, the consequences of a childhood spent in South Stockton still linger. Her family moved there from the Philippines when she was 2 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pana has gone to the emergency room twice in just the past year for asthma attacks, and uses inhalers and other medications on a daily basis to keep her airways open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s just my life, and it was normalized,” said Pana, an aspiring social worker and former youth climate advocate with Little Manila Rising. “It’s not normal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joining the Community Air Protection Program, however, hasn’t been the salve for generations of environmental racism that Pana, Delvo and others had hoped for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delvo once sat on \u003ca href=\"https://community.valleyair.org/media/1697/member-reference-guide.pdf\">the program’s community steering committee\u003c/a> before a colleague took over the role. Now he wonders whether the law can ever really be effective, given its reliance on air districts like the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District that have long presided over \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sanjoaquinvalley/epa-activities-cleaner-air\">some of the most polluted air in the country\u003c/a>. At a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/hjn8PFJ0M-g?t=8459\">board meeting\u003c/a>, a top air district official called the committee merely a “consultative body” without “any direct authority.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903574\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690.jpeg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11903574\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690.jpeg\" alt=\"A man with glasses stands against a blue wall outside of a building.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690.jpeg 1024w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690-1020x679.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dillon Delvo, executive director of Little Manila Rising, stands in front of a Stockton building that was originally the Filipino Recreation Hall but is now boarded up. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the intention of the legislation is good,” Delvo said. “But once it comes into the hands of whatever local agency is controlling it, they control the outcome of it. That’s the problem. That’s why you have widespread marginalization, specifically in the Central Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort in Stockton has been plagued by delays and jurisdictional infighting. One example: A program to monitor the air at local schools that stalled after the Stockton Unified School District refused to host the devices, according to the air district. Stockton Unified representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article253058573.html\">biggest battle\u003c/a> came when advocacy groups questioned a district program to provide $5 million to the port to help pay for cleaner equipment, tugboat engines and a pollution capture device for tankers.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dillon Delvo, executive director, Little Manila Rising\"]'I think the intention of the legislation is good. But once it comes into the hands of whatever local agency is controlling it, they control the outcome of it.'[/pullquote]“If this is just a process where we’re handing out money to industry to subsidize expanding their emissions, then that’s not something that [we] can be in support of,” Catherine Garoupa White, executive director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, said at a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/MvPAVp7opWU?t=2978\">community steering committee meeting\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, state and local regulators approved a plan that eliminated the port incentives, but did not reallocate the $5 million to another Stockton program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Home to fertilizer importers, petroleum and biodiesel storage, cement companies, a biomass burning facility and other industries, the port supports \u003ca href=\"https://www.portofstockton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/POS_Facts_infographic.pdf\">thousands of jobs\u003c/a>. Another 400 acres are approved for new development. Some of its tenants are planning expansions, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jeff Wingfield, the port’s director of environmental and public affairs, said port expansion and pollution don’t necessarily go hand in hand. About 60% of the port’s cargo-handling equipment is zero emission, he said. Cleaning up operations is costly, so extra funding would help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our annual budget is, like, $50 million. That’s a significant risk, and a significant investment for us,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-a-decades-long-battle-in-la-county-s-port-communities\">A decades-long battle in LA County's port communities\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About 350 miles south, in the southwestern end of Los Angeles County, Wilmington, Carson and West Long Beach joined the Community Air Protection Program a year ahead of Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials say two sets of important emission-cutting rules enacted last year were accelerated because of the environmental justice law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People in the region, which is predominantly Latino, live with polluting industries almost in their backyards: \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/ab-617-ab-134/steering-committees/wilmington/cerp/chapter-5b---draft---refineries---july-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=4#:~:text=The%20Wilmington%2C%20Carson%2C%20West%20Long,and%20two%20hydrogen%20production%20plants.\">five oil refineries\u003c/a>, nine rail yards, \u003ca href=\"https://www.porttechnology.org/news/top-5-ports-in-the-united-states/\">the nation’s two busiest ports\u003c/a>, 43 miles of freeway, three Superfund hazardous waste sites and other industrial facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents in the\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Los Angeles/Long Beach port area visit emergency rooms for asthma attacks \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/planning/mates-v/mates-v-final-report-9-24-21.pdf?sfvrsn=6\">40% more often\u003c/a> than the state average. And their cancer risk from toxic air, primarily from diesel exhaust, was \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/home/air-quality/air-quality-studies/health-studies/mates-v\">35% higher\u003c/a> than the Los Angeles basin’s average in 2018 — although less than \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/home/air-quality/air-quality-studies/health-studies/mates-iv\">half the estimates\u003c/a> for 2012 and 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]After months of discussion with community activists, the South Coast Air Quality Management District \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/ab-617-ab-134/steering-committees/wilmington/cerp/final-cerp-wcwlb.pdf?sfvrsn=8\">committed \u003c/a>to cutting smog-forming gases and sulfur from oil refineries in half by 2030, and in November set \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/news-archive/2021/board-adopts-refinerery-rules-nov5-2021.pdf\">new mandates\u003c/a> to eliminate up to eight tons a day of emissions from 16 oil refineries and other industrial plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rules, projected to cost the companies \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/Agendas/Governing-Board/2021/2021-Nov5-034.pdf?sfvrsn=6\">more than $2 billion\u003c/a>, are intended to satisfy \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">the environmental justice law’s requirement\u003c/a> that industries accelerate installation of the best available technology to control smog-forming emissions and other pollution. They also play a key role in the Los Angeles basin’s latest efforts to comply with national health standards for smog — a half-century-long quest for the nation’s smoggiest region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their negotiations, oil companies \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/rule-book/Proposed-Rules/1109.1/wspa-pr1109-1-small-refinery-heaters-comment-letter-to-scaqmd-august-4-2021-(final)---copy.pdf?sfvrsn=4\">asked the district\u003c/a> to prove “both technical feasibility and cost effectiveness” and “provide a reasonable schedule” to install new technology on refinery heaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, the timelines stretch to 2035 — far beyond the law’s Dec. 31, 2023, deadline. About half of the emissions reductions are expected by next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another measure adopted last year takes aim at \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/news-archive/2021/board-adopts-waisr-may7-2021.pdf\">diesel exhaust and smog-forming gases \u003c/a>from Southern California’s warehouses, a growing source in the San Bernardino area, which is another of the 15 communities in the state’s environmental justice program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2021/reg6_5_210721_2021_023-pdf.pdf?la=en\">The Bay Area also enacted a rule \u003c/a>last year to cut refinery pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the Wilmington, Carson and West Long Beach area, advocates called the new refinery rule a limited victory that has taken, and will take, far too long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now all eyes have turned to pollution from the ports, where recent shipping backups have caused soot and smog to \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/SPBP_Congestion_Anchorage_Emissions_Final.pdf\">skyrocket\u003c/a>. After years of negotiations with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the air district board decided that if the port fails to come up with an acceptable \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/planning/fbmsm-docs/08112021-draft-marine-ports-mou-pola-polb-staff.pdf?sfvrsn=6\">clean-air plan\u003c/a> by this Friday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/home/air-quality/clean-air-plans/air-quality-mgt-plan/facility-based-mobile-source-measures/comm-ports-wkng-grp\">the board will draft mandatory rules\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s still a battle to get clean-air regulation,” said Chris Chavez, who grew up in West Long Beach and is now deputy policy director with the Coalition for Clean Air. “It’s just that we have a better shot at it now than we had a couple years ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-community-groups-call-for-change\">Community groups call for change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After more than four years, the law has reached an inflection point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-09/PBP%20Writers%20Group%20Draft%20for%20CARB%202021.09.08_acc.pdf\">The People’s Blueprint\u003c/a>, proposed by community groups and environmental advocates, seeks explicit new policies and training promoting equity and inclusion. It also calls for greater transparency and community control over budgets, and consequences for air districts that fail to show progress or act without community input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State air board officials \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-09/Blueprint%20Process%209.8.21%20FNL_v3.pdf\">are reviewing\u003c/a> the proposal, and plan to draft new guidelines expected to be considered next year. “There is nothing off the table,” the air board’s Reyes told CalMatters. “We really need to find ways to expand the benefits of the program … because it’s not sustainable, especially if the funding levels stay consistent in the way that they have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Millions of Californians live in thousands of census tracts the state \u003ca href=\"https://calepa.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/04/SB-535-Designation-Final.pdf\">considers disadvantaged\u003c/a>, in part because they may bear disproportionate burdens of pollution. Focusing on only 15 communities “is not satisfying,” said Garcia, the original bill's author. “We’re leaving behind a bunch of potential communities, and they all deserve justice.”[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Chris Chavez, deputy policy director, Coalition for Clean Air\"]'It's still a battle to get clean air regulation. It's just that we have a better shot at it now than we had a couple years ago.'[/pullquote]Legislative efforts \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccair.org/advancing-environmental-justice-through-law/\">to tackle environmental justice\u003c/a> more widely, however, have stalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Garcia introduced a bill barring refineries and other facilities that fail to promptly install the latest pollution-scrubbing technology from participating in cap and trade. Bills in the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB342\">Senate\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1296\">Assembly\u003c/a> proposed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB342\">adding environmental justice representatives\u003c/a> to the Los Angeles basin air district’s board. Two more bills tried to take aim at \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB499\">industrial\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1547\">warehouse\u003c/a> expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None succeeded, though some have \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB342\">already\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1001\">been\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1547\">revived\u003c/a> for another pass through the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, residents across the state are still waiting to find out whether California’s landmark environmental justice law will make a difference in their daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If not, “then community members and organizations have to take matters into their own hands,” Pana said, standing outside her old school in Stockton. “We’re going to keep fighting for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The 2017 law is meant to improve air quality in 15 hot spot communities, home to nearly 4 million people. But after more than 4 years and $1 billion invested, it remains unclear how much of a difference it's made.\r\n\r\n",
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"description": "The 2017 law is meant to improve air quality in 15 hot spot communities, home to nearly 4 million people. But after more than 4 years and $1 billion invested, it remains unclear how much of a difference it's made.\r\n\r\n",
"title": "'The Jury's Out': Is California's Landmark Environmental Justice Law Helping Communities With the Dirtiest Air? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The South Stockton classroom where Ashley Pearl Pana spent recess trapped indoors is still there, 16 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the wind stirred up dust and soot, when the sun stewed smokestack and tailpipe exhaust into smog, when pollution squeezed her airways, Pana’s asthma forced her inside, behind the classroom’s closed door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the kids were playing outside, and I’d just watch them through the windows,” Pana, now 23, said while visiting her old elementary school. A new generation of children, masked against COVID-19’s newest threats to still-developing lungs, ran in the playground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'No matter what, air quality is always an issue in my life, something I have to be constantly aware about.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It was a clear day, the kind that makes South Stockton’s consistently filthy air difficult to imagine. But in \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/maps-data\">one of California’s most dangerously polluted communities\u003c/a>, emergency room visits for asthma attacks are among the highest in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No matter what, air quality is always an issue in my life,” Pana said, “something I have to be constantly aware about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">Assembly Bill 617, passed in 2017\u003c/a>, requires local air districts and the state Air Resources Board to reduce air pollution in marginalized communities. The law established the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp\">Community Air Protection Program\u003c/a>, which tasks residents and local officials with shaping regulations and steering state money to a handful of hot spots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hailed as “\u003ca href=\"https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2017/07/12/california-models-climate-and-air-pollution-action-with-balanced-approach/\">unprecedented\u003c/a>” by some environmental groups, the law was supposed to create a program to measure and combat air pollution at the neighborhood level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, more than $1 billion in state funds has been appropriated for community grants, industry incentives and government costs. But it's still not possible to gauge whether the program will improve the smoggy and toxic air that almost 4 million people breathe in \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp-communities\">15 communities.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of those \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp-communities\">communities\u003c/a> — including Richmond, West Oakland, Stockton, San Bernardino and Wilmington — have high poverty rates and are predominantly Latino, Black and Asian American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, even as the law’s clean-air program prepares to fold in new neighborhoods, a major question lingers: Is it working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The jury’s out,” said \u003ca href=\"https://humanecology.ucdavis.edu/jonathan-london\">Jonathan London\u003c/a>, an associate professor of human ecology at UC Davis who is keeping tabs on the law. It’s “an ongoing experiment with the potential for significant benefits, but also significant obstacles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental justice advocates have called the law \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/2017/07/justice-deferred-a-break-down-of-californias-cap-trade-bill-from-the-environmental-justice-perspective/\">toothless\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CEJA_AB617_r4-2.pdf\">warn that\u003c/a> it has “largely failed to produce the promised quantifiable, permanent, and enforceable emissions reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1399px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11903595\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM.png\" alt=\"Left photo: A woman wearing glasses. Right photo: A woman's hands, filled with various breathing medications.\" width=\"1399\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM.png 1399w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM-800x277.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM-1020x354.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-01-at-1.29.49-PM-160x55.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1399px) 100vw, 1399px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Pearl Pana (left) in South Stockton, where she grew up. Pana (right) shows the inhalers and other medication she uses daily to manage her asthma. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The struggle to achieve the law’s ambitious goals has been marked by battles between residents and local air regulators, and by jurisdictional juggling among agencies, each responsible for a different portion of pollution. Meanwhile, people continue to suffer from inhaling dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it having the improvements that I want it to have, at the level that I wanted to have? No, we need a lot more,” said Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://a58.asmdc.org/\">Cristina Garcia\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, who authored the bill. “Is it engaging the community and empowering them, so they could push for change? Oh, definitely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law is just one tool — and, its author acknowledges, an imperfect one at that — intending to fix decades of environmental racism, questionable land-use decisions and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/11/california-housing-crisis-podcast-freeways/\">freeway construction\u003c/a> that have left \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2019/02/cv-air-pollution-CA-web.pdf\">poor communities of color\u003c/a> hemmed in \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f555670d30a942e4b46b18293e2795a7\">by California’s industrial corridors\u003c/a>. It’s a monumental task, and experts say no one law will be a panacea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At stake is the health of \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f555670d30a942e4b46b18293e2795a7\">millions of people\u003c/a> who live near California’s refineries, ports and freeways that are the sources of smog and other toxic pollutants that trigger asthma attacks and have been linked to cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Air Resources Board staff recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.arb.ca.gov/board/mt/2021/mt102821.pdf?_ga=2.69808464.133961995.1641835269-324582198.1598231589\">called it\u003c/a> “a catalyst to change the way we work with communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet some Stockton residents and community groups have had a far different experience, tangling with local air regulators about funding decisions and delayed air-pollution monitoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the beginning of this process, we were all kumbaya,” said Dillon Delvo, executive director of Little Manila Rising, a historic preservation organization turned environmental justice group in South Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By the end,” he said, “it was terrible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-tremendous-amount-of-frustration\">'Tremendous amount of frustration'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For more than half a century, California’s \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/history\">state\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/home/research/publications/50-years-of-progress\">local air regulators\u003c/a> have enacted pioneering rules to clean up pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes. Trailblazing mandates \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/03/california-diesel-rules/\">to tackle diesel exhaust\u003c/a> — a known carcinogen — and other toxic air contaminants \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.5b02766\">cut Californians’ risk of getting cancer from bad air by 76%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t been enough. Parts of California still have the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities\">worst air quality in the country\u003c/a>, with about 87% of Californians living in areas that exceeded federal healthy air standards in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the San Joaquin Valley alone, breathing fine particles is estimated to cause \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/clean-air-plan-san-joaquin-valley-first-meet-all-federal-standards-fine-particle-pollution\">1,200 premature deaths\u003c/a> from respiratory and heart disease per year. Poor communities of color are still exposed to \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/final_community_air_protection_blueprint_october_2018_acc.pdf\">double the cancer-causing diesel exhaust\u003c/a> than that of their more affluent neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://calmatters-ab617-maps.netlify.app/#amp=1\" width=\"1000\" height=\"780\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia’s law aimed to tackle pollution hot spots by creating a greater role for community activists and residents in the complex regulatory process. Local air districts responsible for regulating smokestack pollution must now work with communities to craft clean-air plans. The law also calls for increased air monitoring, bigger fines for polluters and faster deployment of new pollution-scrubbing retrofits on smokestacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-announces-new-director-office-community-air-protection#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Today%20CARB%20Executive%20Officer,Community%20Air%20Protection%20(DOCAP).\">Deldi Reyes\u003c/a>, director of the Air Resources Board’s Office of Community Air Protection, told board members at an October meeting that there has been progress since the environmental justice law was enacted, with an estimated 75 tons of fine particles expected to be cut across 11 communities — equivalent to removing 75,000 heavy-duty diesel trucks from California roads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But neither \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">the law\u003c/a> nor \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/final-community-air-protection-blueprint\">the state-developed guidelines\u003c/a> for its implementation include specific targets for measurably improving air quality or public health in the selected communities. Though the program relies heavily on time and effort from community members, decision-making is ultimately left to state and local air regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to see more accountability built into the program,” said \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/john-r-balmes-md\">Dr. John Balmes\u003c/a>, a professor of medicine at UCSF and a member of the California Air Resources Board. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reyes, however, urged patience. \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/board/books/2021/102821/21-11-3pres.pdf\">Of the 15 communities\u003c/a>, three are still developing their clean-air plans and four are in their first year of implementation, she said. “It’s just too early to point to any of the communities and say, ‘Oh, they haven’t met their goals.’ Air quality does not change on a dime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An environmental justice advocate in Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://woeip.org/about-woeip/margaret-gordon/\">Margaret Gordon\u003c/a>, agreed. “This is not instant. This is not Top Ramen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2017/07/california-environmental-success-poor-communities-remain-polluted/\">Even the law’s birth\u003c/a> was contentious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation was framed as a companion to a bill \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2017/08/california-climate-deal-net-big-bucks-polluters/\">extending the life of cap and trade\u003c/a>, California’s trailblazing carbon market designed to reduce climate-warming emissions. Under cap and trade, companies operating refineries, power plants and other industrial facilities can buy or trade credits to meet a declining cap on greenhouse gases without cutting local pollution.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Environmental justice advocates fought the cap-and-trade extension, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2017/07/pollution-bill-legislature-just-passed-downpayment-environmental-justice/\">declaring it a “deal with the devil”\u003c/a> that \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/reporttopics/envother/env17_other/From-Plan-to-Progress-Appendix-A.pdf\">usurped local power\u003c/a> to cut carbon emissions from industrial facilities like refineries. \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604\">One analysis\u003c/a> found that neighborhoods with increasing pollution during cap and trade’s early years were more likely home to people of color and people living in poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law — less stringent than \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB378\">an earlier version\u003c/a> that died in the Assembly — was supposed to end the unequal pollution burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet many residents and environmental justice advocates say the law pits disadvantaged communities against each other for selection in the program, and its effectiveness varies drastically by air district. In \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/17RD035%20-%20English%20-%20AB%20617%20UC%20Davis%20Report%20Final%20for%20distribution.pdf\">a UC Davis assessment\u003c/a>, participants described a program that fails to provide adequate training for community members who may have language barriers and limited knowledge of topics like refinery flares and pollution controls for ships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was like a beautiful thing that was going to bring us something into our communities to protect them from cap and trade, and also try to get the community involved,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/magali-sanchez-hall-4617b048/\">Magali Sanchez-Hall\u003c/a>, an environmental activist and resident of Wilmington, in Los Angeles County. “That’s not what I have experienced, at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil industry, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/applications/stationary-source-emissions\">a major source\u003c/a> of industrial air pollution, has said it supports the intent of the environmental justice law. But at the negotiating table with legislators, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2017/07/california-environmental-success-poor-communities-remain-polluted/\">it pushed back against stricter controls\u003c/a> over pollution and later tried, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-10/final_community_air_protection_blueprint_october_2018_appendix_c.pdf\">but failed\u003c/a>, to remove language in state guidelines that called for the “most stringent approaches for reducing emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and local air regulators list frustrations of their own in implementing the law: insufficient funding, inadequate time to repair community relationships damaged over decades, and no new authority over local governments’ land-use decisions, such as warehouse construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a tremendous amount of frustration between the various community groups and the district,” said Wayne Nastri, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the powerful agency responsible for the\u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/nav/about\"> air quality of about17 million people\u003c/a> in the Los Angeles basin. “It’s difficult to put those programs together when there isn’t trust between the community groups and the regulators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-asthma-freeways-and-port-pollution-in-stockton\">Asthma, freeways and port pollution in Stockton\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the banks of the \u003ca href=\"http://delta.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Delta-Map-2020-508.pdf\">San Joaquin River\u003c/a> sits Stockton, home to an inland port. Trucks roar over freeways that cleave a city spotted with heavy industry, creased by rail lines and ringed by farm fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vehicles are a major source of smog and fine particles in South Stockton, with port-related operations accounting for about a quarter of the area’s dangerous diesel exhaust. Two of the 18 Stockton census tracts included in the state \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/capp\">program\u003c/a> are ranked within the top 1% of the most pollution-burdened areas in California. Eleven are in the top 25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642.jpeg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11903575\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642.jpeg\" alt=\"A large highway over a river.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642.jpeg 1024w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642-1020x679.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_642-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Interstate 5 cuts over a channel off the San Joaquin River in Stockton, where freeways are a major source of pollution. The city has some of the highest rates of emergency room visits for asthma in the state. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.usnews.com/info/blogs/press-room/articles/2020-01-22/us-news-special-report-stockton-calif-is-the-most-diverse-city-in-america\">racially diverse cities in the country\u003c/a>, Stockton bears the scars of \u003ca href=\"https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f167b251809c43778a2f9f040f43d2f5\">racial residential segregation and redlining\u003c/a>. State and local officials plowed the Crosstown Freeway through communities of color, with demolitions and displacements starting in the late 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the neighborhoods crushed beneath freeway expansion was Little Manila, where only two of the original buildings in a once-vibrant Filipino American community remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton neighborhoods, especially those near the freeways, have some of the highest rates of asthma-related emergency room visits in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delvo, a second-generation Filipino American who co-founded Little Manila Rising, a community preservation group, is also fighting for clean air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be irresponsible for us to try to save these buildings and expect people to come here, when \u003cem>this,” \u003c/em>said Delvo, gesturing at the freeway looming over him, his voice raised over the roaring trucks, “exists right here. And the fact is that there are families in this community that need to breathe this air.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Pana, the consequences of a childhood spent in South Stockton still linger. Her family moved there from the Philippines when she was 2 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pana has gone to the emergency room twice in just the past year for asthma attacks, and uses inhalers and other medications on a daily basis to keep her airways open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s just my life, and it was normalized,” said Pana, an aspiring social worker and former youth climate advocate with Little Manila Rising. “It’s not normal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joining the Community Air Protection Program, however, hasn’t been the salve for generations of environmental racism that Pana, Delvo and others had hoped for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delvo once sat on \u003ca href=\"https://community.valleyair.org/media/1697/member-reference-guide.pdf\">the program’s community steering committee\u003c/a> before a colleague took over the role. Now he wonders whether the law can ever really be effective, given its reliance on air districts like the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District that have long presided over \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sanjoaquinvalley/epa-activities-cleaner-air\">some of the most polluted air in the country\u003c/a>. At a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/hjn8PFJ0M-g?t=8459\">board meeting\u003c/a>, a top air district official called the committee merely a “consultative body” without “any direct authority.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903574\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690.jpeg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11903574\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690.jpeg\" alt=\"A man with glasses stands against a blue wall outside of a building.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690.jpeg 1024w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690-1020x679.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/101321-_Stockton_Pollution_FG_CM_690-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dillon Delvo, executive director of Little Manila Rising, stands in front of a Stockton building that was originally the Filipino Recreation Hall but is now boarded up. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the intention of the legislation is good,” Delvo said. “But once it comes into the hands of whatever local agency is controlling it, they control the outcome of it. That’s the problem. That’s why you have widespread marginalization, specifically in the Central Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort in Stockton has been plagued by delays and jurisdictional infighting. One example: A program to monitor the air at local schools that stalled after the Stockton Unified School District refused to host the devices, according to the air district. Stockton Unified representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article253058573.html\">biggest battle\u003c/a> came when advocacy groups questioned a district program to provide $5 million to the port to help pay for cleaner equipment, tugboat engines and a pollution capture device for tankers.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“If this is just a process where we’re handing out money to industry to subsidize expanding their emissions, then that’s not something that [we] can be in support of,” Catherine Garoupa White, executive director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, said at a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/MvPAVp7opWU?t=2978\">community steering committee meeting\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, state and local regulators approved a plan that eliminated the port incentives, but did not reallocate the $5 million to another Stockton program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Home to fertilizer importers, petroleum and biodiesel storage, cement companies, a biomass burning facility and other industries, the port supports \u003ca href=\"https://www.portofstockton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/POS_Facts_infographic.pdf\">thousands of jobs\u003c/a>. Another 400 acres are approved for new development. Some of its tenants are planning expansions, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jeff Wingfield, the port’s director of environmental and public affairs, said port expansion and pollution don’t necessarily go hand in hand. About 60% of the port’s cargo-handling equipment is zero emission, he said. Cleaning up operations is costly, so extra funding would help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our annual budget is, like, $50 million. That’s a significant risk, and a significant investment for us,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-a-decades-long-battle-in-la-county-s-port-communities\">A decades-long battle in LA County's port communities\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About 350 miles south, in the southwestern end of Los Angeles County, Wilmington, Carson and West Long Beach joined the Community Air Protection Program a year ahead of Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials say two sets of important emission-cutting rules enacted last year were accelerated because of the environmental justice law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People in the region, which is predominantly Latino, live with polluting industries almost in their backyards: \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/ab-617-ab-134/steering-committees/wilmington/cerp/chapter-5b---draft---refineries---july-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=4#:~:text=The%20Wilmington%2C%20Carson%2C%20West%20Long,and%20two%20hydrogen%20production%20plants.\">five oil refineries\u003c/a>, nine rail yards, \u003ca href=\"https://www.porttechnology.org/news/top-5-ports-in-the-united-states/\">the nation’s two busiest ports\u003c/a>, 43 miles of freeway, three Superfund hazardous waste sites and other industrial facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents in the\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Los Angeles/Long Beach port area visit emergency rooms for asthma attacks \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/planning/mates-v/mates-v-final-report-9-24-21.pdf?sfvrsn=6\">40% more often\u003c/a> than the state average. And their cancer risk from toxic air, primarily from diesel exhaust, was \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/home/air-quality/air-quality-studies/health-studies/mates-v\">35% higher\u003c/a> than the Los Angeles basin’s average in 2018 — although less than \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/home/air-quality/air-quality-studies/health-studies/mates-iv\">half the estimates\u003c/a> for 2012 and 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>After months of discussion with community activists, the South Coast Air Quality Management District \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/ab-617-ab-134/steering-committees/wilmington/cerp/final-cerp-wcwlb.pdf?sfvrsn=8\">committed \u003c/a>to cutting smog-forming gases and sulfur from oil refineries in half by 2030, and in November set \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/news-archive/2021/board-adopts-refinerery-rules-nov5-2021.pdf\">new mandates\u003c/a> to eliminate up to eight tons a day of emissions from 16 oil refineries and other industrial plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rules, projected to cost the companies \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/Agendas/Governing-Board/2021/2021-Nov5-034.pdf?sfvrsn=6\">more than $2 billion\u003c/a>, are intended to satisfy \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">the environmental justice law’s requirement\u003c/a> that industries accelerate installation of the best available technology to control smog-forming emissions and other pollution. They also play a key role in the Los Angeles basin’s latest efforts to comply with national health standards for smog — a half-century-long quest for the nation’s smoggiest region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their negotiations, oil companies \u003ca href=\"http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/rule-book/Proposed-Rules/1109.1/wspa-pr1109-1-small-refinery-heaters-comment-letter-to-scaqmd-august-4-2021-(final)---copy.pdf?sfvrsn=4\">asked the district\u003c/a> to prove “both technical feasibility and cost effectiveness” and “provide a reasonable schedule” to install new technology on refinery heaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, the timelines stretch to 2035 — far beyond the law’s Dec. 31, 2023, deadline. About half of the emissions reductions are expected by next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another measure adopted last year takes aim at \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/news-archive/2021/board-adopts-waisr-may7-2021.pdf\">diesel exhaust and smog-forming gases \u003c/a>from Southern California’s warehouses, a growing source in the San Bernardino area, which is another of the 15 communities in the state’s environmental justice program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2021/reg6_5_210721_2021_023-pdf.pdf?la=en\">The Bay Area also enacted a rule \u003c/a>last year to cut refinery pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the Wilmington, Carson and West Long Beach area, advocates called the new refinery rule a limited victory that has taken, and will take, far too long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now all eyes have turned to pollution from the ports, where recent shipping backups have caused soot and smog to \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/SPBP_Congestion_Anchorage_Emissions_Final.pdf\">skyrocket\u003c/a>. After years of negotiations with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the air district board decided that if the port fails to come up with an acceptable \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/planning/fbmsm-docs/08112021-draft-marine-ports-mou-pola-polb-staff.pdf?sfvrsn=6\">clean-air plan\u003c/a> by this Friday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aqmd.gov/home/air-quality/clean-air-plans/air-quality-mgt-plan/facility-based-mobile-source-measures/comm-ports-wkng-grp\">the board will draft mandatory rules\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s still a battle to get clean-air regulation,” said Chris Chavez, who grew up in West Long Beach and is now deputy policy director with the Coalition for Clean Air. “It’s just that we have a better shot at it now than we had a couple years ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-community-groups-call-for-change\">Community groups call for change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After more than four years, the law has reached an inflection point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-09/PBP%20Writers%20Group%20Draft%20for%20CARB%202021.09.08_acc.pdf\">The People’s Blueprint\u003c/a>, proposed by community groups and environmental advocates, seeks explicit new policies and training promoting equity and inclusion. It also calls for greater transparency and community control over budgets, and consequences for air districts that fail to show progress or act without community input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State air board officials \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-09/Blueprint%20Process%209.8.21%20FNL_v3.pdf\">are reviewing\u003c/a> the proposal, and plan to draft new guidelines expected to be considered next year. “There is nothing off the table,” the air board’s Reyes told CalMatters. “We really need to find ways to expand the benefits of the program … because it’s not sustainable, especially if the funding levels stay consistent in the way that they have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Millions of Californians live in thousands of census tracts the state \u003ca href=\"https://calepa.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/04/SB-535-Designation-Final.pdf\">considers disadvantaged\u003c/a>, in part because they may bear disproportionate burdens of pollution. Focusing on only 15 communities “is not satisfying,” said Garcia, the original bill's author. “We’re leaving behind a bunch of potential communities, and they all deserve justice.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Legislative efforts \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccair.org/advancing-environmental-justice-through-law/\">to tackle environmental justice\u003c/a> more widely, however, have stalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Garcia introduced a bill barring refineries and other facilities that fail to promptly install the latest pollution-scrubbing technology from participating in cap and trade. Bills in the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB342\">Senate\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1296\">Assembly\u003c/a> proposed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB342\">adding environmental justice representatives\u003c/a> to the Los Angeles basin air district’s board. Two more bills tried to take aim at \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB499\">industrial\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1547\">warehouse\u003c/a> expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None succeeded, though some have \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB342\">already\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1001\">been\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1547\">revived\u003c/a> for another pass through the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, residents across the state are still waiting to find out whether California’s landmark environmental justice law will make a difference in their daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If not, “then community members and organizations have to take matters into their own hands,” Pana said, standing outside her old school in Stockton. “We’re going to keep fighting for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California officials have filed a statewide lawsuit against Walmart Inc. alleging that the company illegally disposed of hazardous waste at landfills across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Walmart%20Complaint.pdf\">42-page document filed Monday by state prosecutors\u003c/a>, the lawsuit alleges the retail giant illegally dumped nearly 160,000 pounds of hazardous waste, or more than 1 million items, each year in California over the last six years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 12 California district attorneys said Walmart violated California’s environmental laws and regulations by dumping hazardous waste products at landfills that aren’t equipped to handle the materials, including alkaline and lithium batteries, insect killer sprays, aerosol cans, toxic cleaning supplies and LED lightbulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Rob Bonta, California Attorney General\"]‘Walmart’s own audits found that the company is dumping hazardous waste at local landfills at a rate of more than one million items each year.’[/pullquote]The lawsuit also claims Walmart dumped “confidential customer information” at these landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walmart’s own audits found that the company is dumping hazardous waste at local landfills at a rate of more than one million items each year. From there, these products may seep into the state’s drinking water as toxic pollutants or into the air as dangerous gases,” Bonta said \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-statewide-lawsuit-against-walmart-illegal\">in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said the lawsuit filed against the retail giant should serve as a warning to the state’s “worst offenders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to NPR, Walmart said the company will defend itself and said the lawsuit is “unjustified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have met with the state numerous times and walked them through our industry-leading hazardous waste compliance programs in an effort to avoid litigation. Instead, they filed this unjustified lawsuit,” Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said. “The state is demanding a level of compliance regarding waste disposal from our stores of common household products and other items that goes beyond what is required by law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest lawsuit filed against Walmart isn’t the company’s first with the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='environment']In 2010, the California Attorney General’s Office reached a $25 million settlement against the retail giant for illegally disposing of hazardous waste. But according to the attorney general’s office, a 2015 inspection found that Walmart continued to dump waste illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walmart is a responsible corporate citizen in California and everywhere we operate. We take our obligation to protect the environment seriously and have industry-leading processes in place to comply with local, state and federal environmental laws,” Hargrove said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2015, California investigators said 58 inspections of trash compactors taken from Walmart stores found dozens of items classified as either hazardous waste, medical waste or customer records with personal information.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California officials have filed a statewide lawsuit against Walmart Inc. alleging that the company illegally disposed of hazardous waste at landfills across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Walmart%20Complaint.pdf\">42-page document filed Monday by state prosecutors\u003c/a>, the lawsuit alleges the retail giant illegally dumped nearly 160,000 pounds of hazardous waste, or more than 1 million items, each year in California over the last six years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 12 California district attorneys said Walmart violated California’s environmental laws and regulations by dumping hazardous waste products at landfills that aren’t equipped to handle the materials, including alkaline and lithium batteries, insect killer sprays, aerosol cans, toxic cleaning supplies and LED lightbulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The lawsuit also claims Walmart dumped “confidential customer information” at these landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walmart’s own audits found that the company is dumping hazardous waste at local landfills at a rate of more than one million items each year. From there, these products may seep into the state’s drinking water as toxic pollutants or into the air as dangerous gases,” Bonta said \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-statewide-lawsuit-against-walmart-illegal\">in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said the lawsuit filed against the retail giant should serve as a warning to the state’s “worst offenders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to NPR, Walmart said the company will defend itself and said the lawsuit is “unjustified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have met with the state numerous times and walked them through our industry-leading hazardous waste compliance programs in an effort to avoid litigation. Instead, they filed this unjustified lawsuit,” Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said. “The state is demanding a level of compliance regarding waste disposal from our stores of common household products and other items that goes beyond what is required by law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest lawsuit filed against Walmart isn’t the company’s first with the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "ahead-of-californias-ban-on-gas-powered-tools-some-landscapers-call-the-states-subsidy-inadequate",
"title": "Ahead of California's Ban on Gas-Powered Tools, Some Landscapers Call the State's Subsidy Inadequate",
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"headTitle": "Ahead of California’s Ban on Gas-Powered Tools, Some Landscapers Call the State’s Subsidy Inadequate | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/calmatters-en-espanol/2021/11/un-cupon-del-50-de-descuento-para-una-herramienta-electrica-los-jardineros-dicen-que-el-subsidio-de-california-es-inadecuado/\">\u003cem>Leer en español.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1977168/the-sounds-of-silence-california-bans-new-gas-powered-leaf-blowers\">banning the sale of most new gas-powered tools by 2024\u003c/a>, gardeners and landscapers say a $30 million state subsidy isn’t nearly enough to help small operators make the switch to electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency responsible for administering the subsidy estimates it has only enough to give each self-employed gardener a 50% coupon for one tool, far from the truckload of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, small chain saws, brush cutters and trimmers most haul around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1977168\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS52049_GettyImages-1346603572-qut-1020x695.jpg\"]In fact, local governments have learned they need to offer more. In Southern California, a regional air quality district that has been running a similar incentive program since 2017, saw few takers until it increased rebates to 75% per tool. The district paired that with an outreach program and encouraged landscapers to test electric equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Air Resources Board is still figuring out who will qualify for the rebate, and Assemblymember Marc Berman, one of the authors of the bill, said he’s open to adding more funding if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s not make the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said the Menlo Park Democrat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists hailed the first-in-the-nation law for advancing California’s clean energy goals, noting the state estimates that smog-forming pollution from small gas-powered engines will surpass emissions from passenger cars this year. But electrifying the landscaping industry creates financial and physical burdens for the estimated 60,000 one-person and often unlicensed landscaping operations, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes373011.htm\">an industry that sees an average income under $40,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11897482\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11897482 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03.jpg\" alt=\"A chain saw lies on the ground, next to a red gasoline tank.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chain saw and gas can on the ground during fire mitigation work at a property along Via Floreado in Orinda on Nov. 16, 2021. Ken’s Rototilling and Landscaping owns around 50 gas-powered tools that could be affected by a state ban on new small gas motors. \u003ccite>(Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s an argument for subsidizing the transition. An electric leaf blower and batteries cost nearly twice as much as a comparable gas version. California estimates that \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2021/sore21/isor.pdf#page=22\">a full transition of nearly 3 million tools used by landscaping professionals will cost $1.29 billion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan, a landscaper who asked to be identified by his first name only because he fears losing business, uses a mix of electric and gas equipment. The electric ones fall short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have 10 to 15 houses a day right now, but with electric [tools], I may do seven or five houses a day,” he said. That’s a loss of $1,000 a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, Bryan has told his kid he can’t afford books or a new laptop. The cost of a full conversion by purchasing all electric tools, he said, would require him to raise prices 30%. He fears his residential clients will purchase their own tools and do it themselves, pushing him out of a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bill was signed, Berman and Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego called it a win for both the environment and human health. Electric tools have already been widely adopted by California homeowners, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/3.24.21%20Workshop%20Staff%20Presentation.pdf\">but only a fraction of commercial landscaping companies have made the switch, according to a 2018 survey by the air resources board\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1977672\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/11/RS52246_029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateStrike_10292021-qut-1020x680.jpg\"]At that time, 8 in 10 landscapers said they planned on buying gas-powered equipment with many prioritizing performance, run time and cost. But operating a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour, for example, emits the same amount of pollution as driving a Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver, according to the air board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawn equipment conversion will bring the rest of the state in line with cities such as Palo Alto, Los Altos and Menlo Park, which have already banned noisy leaf blowers. The law also directs the air resources board to come up with statewide regulations for other small motor equipment, such as golf carts, small generators and power washers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the landscaping industry, the main target of the ban, says the transition has already been costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Wood purchased four batteries for his electric leaf blower after a number of communities in the Bay Area banned gas-powered leaf blowers. Woods, who owns a small landscaping business, immediately noticed the batteries don’t go far enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never spent $200 on something that lasted 45 minutes,” Wood said, “and it doesn’t last for six to eight houses a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the batteries drain, Wood’s two employees resort to raking, which takes three times as long to complete a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tests back him up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumer Reports rated gas and electric tools, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerreports.org/lawn-mowers-and-tractors/ego-electric-mower-vs-honda-gas-mower-face-off-a6853992124/\">lawn mowers\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/leaf-blowers/buying-guide/index.htm\">leaf blowers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/leaf-blowers/buying-guide/index.htm\">string trimmers\u003c/a>, side by side. The nonprofit consumer organization found that battery-powered tools, with low maintenance and ease of use, were strong candidates for homeowners with less than an acre of land who could wait to recharge their batteries. But when it came to larger plots, more robust weeds to whack, or long hours of use, gas tools excelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an industry, we want this [battery-powered] equipment to be able to handle what we throw at it,” said Sandra Giarde, executive director of the California Landscape Contractors Association. “But it’s not there yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11897483\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11897483\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01.jpg\" alt=\"A man holds up a chainsaw in the outdoors and looks up at the canopy.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jorge Mijango of Ken’s Rototilling and Landscaping uses a chain saw to cut trees for fire mitigation at a property along Via Floreado in Orinda on Nov. 16, 2021. The landscaping company owns around 50 gas-powered tools that could be affected by a state ban on new small gas motors. \u003ccite>(Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The air resources board said the technology is close enough. While electric tools may not have the same power, they offer other benefits, such as longer life span, better torque for some tools and savings on gas and maintenance, said air pollution specialist Christopher Dilbeck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize that, yes, there will be substantial costs associated with what we are proposing,” said Dilbeck. “That is part of why this funding is available.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='climate']The board, which will allocate the state’s $30 million subsidy, has yet to release how it will hand out incentives other than saying it will target small operators, including those without a business license. In one scenario, California could offer 12,000 small landscapers a 50% discount on all their new tools, or every sole proprietor could receive a 50% discount on one tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You are not going to be able to get the jobs done as fast,” said Ken Tamplen, owner of Ken’s Rototilling and Landscaping in Contra Costa County. “You’re not going to be able to make as much money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/calmatters-en-espanol/2021/11/un-cupon-del-50-de-descuento-para-una-herramienta-electrica-los-jardineros-dicen-que-el-subsidio-de-california-es-inadecuado/\">\u003cem>Leer en español.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1977168/the-sounds-of-silence-california-bans-new-gas-powered-leaf-blowers\">banning the sale of most new gas-powered tools by 2024\u003c/a>, gardeners and landscapers say a $30 million state subsidy isn’t nearly enough to help small operators make the switch to electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency responsible for administering the subsidy estimates it has only enough to give each self-employed gardener a 50% coupon for one tool, far from the truckload of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, small chain saws, brush cutters and trimmers most haul around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In fact, local governments have learned they need to offer more. In Southern California, a regional air quality district that has been running a similar incentive program since 2017, saw few takers until it increased rebates to 75% per tool. The district paired that with an outreach program and encouraged landscapers to test electric equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Air Resources Board is still figuring out who will qualify for the rebate, and Assemblymember Marc Berman, one of the authors of the bill, said he’s open to adding more funding if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s not make the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said the Menlo Park Democrat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists hailed the first-in-the-nation law for advancing California’s clean energy goals, noting the state estimates that smog-forming pollution from small gas-powered engines will surpass emissions from passenger cars this year. But electrifying the landscaping industry creates financial and physical burdens for the estimated 60,000 one-person and often unlicensed landscaping operations, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes373011.htm\">an industry that sees an average income under $40,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11897482\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11897482 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03.jpg\" alt=\"A chain saw lies on the ground, next to a red gasoline tank.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-03-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chain saw and gas can on the ground during fire mitigation work at a property along Via Floreado in Orinda on Nov. 16, 2021. Ken’s Rototilling and Landscaping owns around 50 gas-powered tools that could be affected by a state ban on new small gas motors. \u003ccite>(Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s an argument for subsidizing the transition. An electric leaf blower and batteries cost nearly twice as much as a comparable gas version. California estimates that \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2021/sore21/isor.pdf#page=22\">a full transition of nearly 3 million tools used by landscaping professionals will cost $1.29 billion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan, a landscaper who asked to be identified by his first name only because he fears losing business, uses a mix of electric and gas equipment. The electric ones fall short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have 10 to 15 houses a day right now, but with electric [tools], I may do seven or five houses a day,” he said. That’s a loss of $1,000 a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, Bryan has told his kid he can’t afford books or a new laptop. The cost of a full conversion by purchasing all electric tools, he said, would require him to raise prices 30%. He fears his residential clients will purchase their own tools and do it themselves, pushing him out of a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bill was signed, Berman and Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego called it a win for both the environment and human health. Electric tools have already been widely adopted by California homeowners, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/3.24.21%20Workshop%20Staff%20Presentation.pdf\">but only a fraction of commercial landscaping companies have made the switch, according to a 2018 survey by the air resources board\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At that time, 8 in 10 landscapers said they planned on buying gas-powered equipment with many prioritizing performance, run time and cost. But operating a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour, for example, emits the same amount of pollution as driving a Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver, according to the air board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawn equipment conversion will bring the rest of the state in line with cities such as Palo Alto, Los Altos and Menlo Park, which have already banned noisy leaf blowers. The law also directs the air resources board to come up with statewide regulations for other small motor equipment, such as golf carts, small generators and power washers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the landscaping industry, the main target of the ban, says the transition has already been costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Wood purchased four batteries for his electric leaf blower after a number of communities in the Bay Area banned gas-powered leaf blowers. Woods, who owns a small landscaping business, immediately noticed the batteries don’t go far enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never spent $200 on something that lasted 45 minutes,” Wood said, “and it doesn’t last for six to eight houses a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the batteries drain, Wood’s two employees resort to raking, which takes three times as long to complete a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tests back him up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumer Reports rated gas and electric tools, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerreports.org/lawn-mowers-and-tractors/ego-electric-mower-vs-honda-gas-mower-face-off-a6853992124/\">lawn mowers\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/leaf-blowers/buying-guide/index.htm\">leaf blowers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/leaf-blowers/buying-guide/index.htm\">string trimmers\u003c/a>, side by side. The nonprofit consumer organization found that battery-powered tools, with low maintenance and ease of use, were strong candidates for homeowners with less than an acre of land who could wait to recharge their batteries. But when it came to larger plots, more robust weeds to whack, or long hours of use, gas tools excelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an industry, we want this [battery-powered] equipment to be able to handle what we throw at it,” said Sandra Giarde, executive director of the California Landscape Contractors Association. “But it’s not there yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11897483\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11897483\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01.jpg\" alt=\"A man holds up a chainsaw in the outdoors and looks up at the canopy.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/111621-Gas-Lawn-Ban-CAD-CM-01-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jorge Mijango of Ken’s Rototilling and Landscaping uses a chain saw to cut trees for fire mitigation at a property along Via Floreado in Orinda on Nov. 16, 2021. The landscaping company owns around 50 gas-powered tools that could be affected by a state ban on new small gas motors. \u003ccite>(Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The air resources board said the technology is close enough. While electric tools may not have the same power, they offer other benefits, such as longer life span, better torque for some tools and savings on gas and maintenance, said air pollution specialist Christopher Dilbeck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize that, yes, there will be substantial costs associated with what we are proposing,” said Dilbeck. “That is part of why this funding is available.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The board, which will allocate the state’s $30 million subsidy, has yet to release how it will hand out incentives other than saying it will target small operators, including those without a business license. In one scenario, California could offer 12,000 small landscapers a 50% discount on all their new tools, or every sole proprietor could receive a 50% discount on one tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You are not going to be able to get the jobs done as fast,” said Ken Tamplen, owner of Ken’s Rototilling and Landscaping in Contra Costa County. “You’re not going to be able to make as much money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Richmond to Chevron: Listen to Our Residents' Safety Concerns",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://youtu.be/zeUjeOeM24s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond city leaders sent a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeUjeOeM24s\">recording of a recent city council meeting\u003c/a> to Chevron executives documenting the concerns local residents have about a significant malfunction the oil giant's refinery recently experienced that has led the facility to send gases to its flares on and off for days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal to send the video to the company, which passed unanimously last Tuesday night, came after two Chevron officials gave a presentation to the city council about the accident that took place during last month's massive storm, which triggered the facility to belch out flames and smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the city council and local residents said at the meeting they were dissatisfied by the explanation and are looking for answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That Chevron presentation was a lot of talk and nothing was learned,\" said Randy Joseph, who lives in Richmond. \"There were a bunch of non-answers. We've learned nothing about what happened during the flaring.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894150/chevron-refinery-malfunction-during-storm-shut-down-processing-units-causing-fire-and-toxic-flaring\">problems began Oct. 4\u003c/a>, when an \"atmospheric river\" brought strong rain and wind to the Bay Area. The refinery says it lost some power and steam production, leading to a small fire and several process units going offline. That triggered a safety technique, known as flaring, in which the facility sends gases to its flares to relieve pressure and stabilize operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That day, Richmond resident Floy Andrews said she could smell what seemed like fuel from her porch. \"I was basically slammed with this petroleum odor. It was overwhelming,\" she told the council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11860400\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11860400 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring.jpg\" alt=\"View from a rocky shoreline across the bay to a refinery spewing a massive plume of smoke.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-632x474.jpg 632w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flaring at Chevron's Richmond refinery as seen from Berkeley's César Chávez Park on Nov. 2, 2020. \u003ccite>(Queena Kim/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several days after the refinery lost steam and power, the company sent a \u003ca href=\"https://cchealth.org/hazmat/pdf/chevron-incident-2021-1024-72hr-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary report\u003c/a> to Contra Costa County health officials that revealed that, in the first two days of flaring, the facility released close to 17 tons of sulfur dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its report to the county, during last Tuesday's presentation and in multiple statements, Chevron has emphasized that the air quality tests it took — and ones that local agencies conducted — did not detect any violations of health standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, local air regulators are investigating whether Chevron's flaring led to a series of odors in the area, according to Ralph Borrmann, a representative of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day after the storm, the West Contra Costa Unified School District closed Richmond High along with Ford and Peres elementary schools because of a strong fuel-like odor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three days later, on Oct. 28, teachers and students at Richmond High smelled gas again and were briefly evacuated.[aside postID=news_11894150,news_11893678,news_11894079 label='Related Posts']It's unclear what caused the odors at the school campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As recently as last Friday afternoon, county supervisor John Gioia, who sits on the board that oversees the air district, said he felt sick from an odor at Richmond's Martin Luther King Jr. track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There is a strong objectionable gasoline odor here,\" Gioia tweeted. \"I can hardly stand it. It makes me feel nauseous.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the weekend, Chevron representative Linsi Crain emphasized that the company does not believe the odor Gioia experienced was tied to the refinery's flaring and that company crews conducted air samplings and found no health violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We don't believe this report is linked to our facility,\" Crain wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During last Tuesday's council meeting, Chevron's refinery process safety manager Patricia Roberts tried to soothe concerns from local residents and city officials about the problems the refinery has been experiencing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Normally, we only want to come to the city council with good news,\" Roberts said at the beginning of her presentation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm sorry to have to come to talk to you guys about an incident. I understand there's a lot of community concern about flaring and the noise and the visual impacts that it makes,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberts emphasized that flaring is a safety technique that helps the refinery reduce dangers to the surrounding area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We never want to flare. We do everything that we can to avoid it. And, when we do have to flare, we try to stop it as fast as possible,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another Chevron official, refinery reliability manager Laura Leeds, told the council all of the company's air quality tests showed that none of the releases violated health regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't feel that anybody should be concerned about their health because there was nothing detectable,\" Leeds said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company's presentation before the council did not reveal anything the Chevron's 72-hour report hadn't said a week earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Tom Butt said the refinery should have provided more details, an apology and a plan to fix the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm disappointed in the presentation,\" Butt said. \"I expect something better from Chevron when they're invited to come to talk to the public like this. I think you should show a little contriteness.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberts and Leeds explained that another refinery official, who could have addressed some of the council's questions, couldn't make the meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several members of the council, including Melvin Willis, said the intermittent releases had their constituents worried about their health and yearning for information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Seeing the rain and then seeing flames in the air one day and then to wake up the next day with more flames and wake up in the middle of the night to text messages at 3 a.m., talking about more flaring and people reporting odors, it's kind of hard not to be concerned,\" Willis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City and county officials — and some members of the public — say Chevron just needs to provide more detailed information about what's going on when the refinery is having problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The communication with the community is vital,\" said Richmond resident Don Gosney. \"Chevron needs to do a better job. Everybody needs to do a better job on this.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron does post some information about refinery accidents on its Facebook page and often refers people to its fence-line air monitoring \u003ca href=\"https://richmondairmonitoring.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">page\u003c/a>. County and city officials often issue alerts through Nixle and Twitter. Many of those posts, though, do not include details about the cause of a refinery problem or how long it may lead to gas releases.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Tom Butt, mayor of Richmond\"]'I expect something better from Chevron when they're invited to come to talk to the public like this.'[/pullquote]Councilmember Nate Bates proposed that the city send a recording of the meeting to Chevron executives so they could see and hear the concerns from members of the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They need to understand how serious this community is about flaring,\" Bates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city then sent a link of a one-hour portion of the meeting to Chevron. A top company executive said he watched the video and would share it with others at the firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"After decades working in refining, I understand that flaring can be a concern to some that aren't familiar with its essential function in protecting people and the environment,\" Chris Cavote, a Chevron executive, wrote to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cavote said a key refinery official, a facility manager, couldn't make it to the meeting because the closed session of the hearing ran longer than expected and the manager had to leave for a personal matter. He said that the company plans to respond to some of the questions the council posed that the two other refinery officials couldn't answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While we would rather not flare, it is sometimes necessary to relieve pressure or combust gases we can't recover so that they aren't vented into the atmosphere,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cavote then warned that as the refinery ramped up to full operations over several days, there could be more intermittent flaring on the horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron has had more flaring operations than any other refinery in the county the last five years, according to data from the health department. The recent round, though, has increased worries from Contra Costa's top refinery regulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Contra Costa Health Services is extremely concerned with the increased number of flaring incidents at [the] Chevron Richmond refinery,\" Matthew Kaufmann, director of the county's hazardous materials program, wrote in an email last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That agency has asked Chevron to provide more details about its recent problems, with \u003ca href=\"https://cchealth.org/hazmat/\">a response due later this month and set to be posted here\u003c/a>. The air district also requires the company to submit a causal report 60 days after the initial incident, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/about-air-quality/research-and-data/flare-data/flare-causal-reports\">which is expected to be posted here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/zeUjeOeM24s'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/zeUjeOeM24s'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Richmond city leaders sent a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeUjeOeM24s\">recording of a recent city council meeting\u003c/a> to Chevron executives documenting the concerns local residents have about a significant malfunction the oil giant's refinery recently experienced that has led the facility to send gases to its flares on and off for days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal to send the video to the company, which passed unanimously last Tuesday night, came after two Chevron officials gave a presentation to the city council about the accident that took place during last month's massive storm, which triggered the facility to belch out flames and smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the city council and local residents said at the meeting they were dissatisfied by the explanation and are looking for answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That Chevron presentation was a lot of talk and nothing was learned,\" said Randy Joseph, who lives in Richmond. \"There were a bunch of non-answers. We've learned nothing about what happened during the flaring.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894150/chevron-refinery-malfunction-during-storm-shut-down-processing-units-causing-fire-and-toxic-flaring\">problems began Oct. 4\u003c/a>, when an \"atmospheric river\" brought strong rain and wind to the Bay Area. The refinery says it lost some power and steam production, leading to a small fire and several process units going offline. That triggered a safety technique, known as flaring, in which the facility sends gases to its flares to relieve pressure and stabilize operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That day, Richmond resident Floy Andrews said she could smell what seemed like fuel from her porch. \"I was basically slammed with this petroleum odor. It was overwhelming,\" she told the council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11860400\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11860400 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring.jpg\" alt=\"View from a rocky shoreline across the bay to a refinery spewing a massive plume of smoke.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-632x474.jpg 632w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/chevron-flaring-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flaring at Chevron's Richmond refinery as seen from Berkeley's César Chávez Park on Nov. 2, 2020. \u003ccite>(Queena Kim/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several days after the refinery lost steam and power, the company sent a \u003ca href=\"https://cchealth.org/hazmat/pdf/chevron-incident-2021-1024-72hr-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary report\u003c/a> to Contra Costa County health officials that revealed that, in the first two days of flaring, the facility released close to 17 tons of sulfur dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its report to the county, during last Tuesday's presentation and in multiple statements, Chevron has emphasized that the air quality tests it took — and ones that local agencies conducted — did not detect any violations of health standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, local air regulators are investigating whether Chevron's flaring led to a series of odors in the area, according to Ralph Borrmann, a representative of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day after the storm, the West Contra Costa Unified School District closed Richmond High along with Ford and Peres elementary schools because of a strong fuel-like odor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three days later, on Oct. 28, teachers and students at Richmond High smelled gas again and were briefly evacuated.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It's unclear what caused the odors at the school campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As recently as last Friday afternoon, county supervisor John Gioia, who sits on the board that oversees the air district, said he felt sick from an odor at Richmond's Martin Luther King Jr. track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There is a strong objectionable gasoline odor here,\" Gioia tweeted. \"I can hardly stand it. It makes me feel nauseous.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the weekend, Chevron representative Linsi Crain emphasized that the company does not believe the odor Gioia experienced was tied to the refinery's flaring and that company crews conducted air samplings and found no health violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We don't believe this report is linked to our facility,\" Crain wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During last Tuesday's council meeting, Chevron's refinery process safety manager Patricia Roberts tried to soothe concerns from local residents and city officials about the problems the refinery has been experiencing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Normally, we only want to come to the city council with good news,\" Roberts said at the beginning of her presentation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm sorry to have to come to talk to you guys about an incident. I understand there's a lot of community concern about flaring and the noise and the visual impacts that it makes,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberts emphasized that flaring is a safety technique that helps the refinery reduce dangers to the surrounding area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We never want to flare. We do everything that we can to avoid it. And, when we do have to flare, we try to stop it as fast as possible,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another Chevron official, refinery reliability manager Laura Leeds, told the council all of the company's air quality tests showed that none of the releases violated health regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't feel that anybody should be concerned about their health because there was nothing detectable,\" Leeds said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company's presentation before the council did not reveal anything the Chevron's 72-hour report hadn't said a week earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Tom Butt said the refinery should have provided more details, an apology and a plan to fix the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm disappointed in the presentation,\" Butt said. \"I expect something better from Chevron when they're invited to come to talk to the public like this. I think you should show a little contriteness.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberts and Leeds explained that another refinery official, who could have addressed some of the council's questions, couldn't make the meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several members of the council, including Melvin Willis, said the intermittent releases had their constituents worried about their health and yearning for information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Seeing the rain and then seeing flames in the air one day and then to wake up the next day with more flames and wake up in the middle of the night to text messages at 3 a.m., talking about more flaring and people reporting odors, it's kind of hard not to be concerned,\" Willis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City and county officials — and some members of the public — say Chevron just needs to provide more detailed information about what's going on when the refinery is having problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The communication with the community is vital,\" said Richmond resident Don Gosney. \"Chevron needs to do a better job. Everybody needs to do a better job on this.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron does post some information about refinery accidents on its Facebook page and often refers people to its fence-line air monitoring \u003ca href=\"https://richmondairmonitoring.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">page\u003c/a>. County and city officials often issue alerts through Nixle and Twitter. Many of those posts, though, do not include details about the cause of a refinery problem or how long it may lead to gas releases.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Councilmember Nate Bates proposed that the city send a recording of the meeting to Chevron executives so they could see and hear the concerns from members of the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They need to understand how serious this community is about flaring,\" Bates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city then sent a link of a one-hour portion of the meeting to Chevron. A top company executive said he watched the video and would share it with others at the firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"After decades working in refining, I understand that flaring can be a concern to some that aren't familiar with its essential function in protecting people and the environment,\" Chris Cavote, a Chevron executive, wrote to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cavote said a key refinery official, a facility manager, couldn't make it to the meeting because the closed session of the hearing ran longer than expected and the manager had to leave for a personal matter. He said that the company plans to respond to some of the questions the council posed that the two other refinery officials couldn't answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While we would rather not flare, it is sometimes necessary to relieve pressure or combust gases we can't recover so that they aren't vented into the atmosphere,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cavote then warned that as the refinery ramped up to full operations over several days, there could be more intermittent flaring on the horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron has had more flaring operations than any other refinery in the county the last five years, according to data from the health department. The recent round, though, has increased worries from Contra Costa's top refinery regulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Contra Costa Health Services is extremely concerned with the increased number of flaring incidents at [the] Chevron Richmond refinery,\" Matthew Kaufmann, director of the county's hazardous materials program, wrote in an email last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That agency has asked Chevron to provide more details about its recent problems, with \u003ca href=\"https://cchealth.org/hazmat/\">a response due later this month and set to be posted here\u003c/a>. The air district also requires the company to submit a causal report 60 days after the initial incident, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/about-air-quality/research-and-data/flare-data/flare-causal-reports\">which is expected to be posted here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "‘A Crisis on Our Hands’: Children Near San Jose’s Reid-Hillview Airport Exposed to Dangerously High Lead Levels, New Study Shows",
"title": "‘A Crisis on Our Hands’: Children Near San Jose’s Reid-Hillview Airport Exposed to Dangerously High Lead Levels, New Study Shows",
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"content": "\u003cp>Some children living near a small airport in San Jose have dangerously high blood lead levels — similar to those found in kids in Flint, Michigan, during the peak of its water crisis — according to a new study commissioned by Santa Clara County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report details the findings of 17,000 blood samples collected from 2011-2020 from children under 18 years of age living near the Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose. Children downwind from the airport had significantly higher blood lead levels than those upwind, with elevated levels of 0.4 micrograms per deciliter, it found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In comparison, lead levels found in children during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/flint-water-crisis\">Flint water crisis\u003c/a> were between 0.35 to 0.45 micrograms per deciliter over the baseline.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County supervisor\"]'We know this is damaging children's developing brains. What this very thorough study proves is that we literally have a crisis on our hands.'[/pullquote]“This is a public health issue, it's an environmental justice issue and it's an equity issue,” County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know this is damaging children's developing brains,” she said. “What this very thorough study proves is that we literally have a crisis on our hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the small planes that fly in and out of the airport have piston engines that still run on leaded fuel, even though leaded gas for cars was banned decades ago. Lead from aircraft exhaust and unburned fuel can filter from the air and settle on houses and public surfaces, putting residents at risk of lead poisoning — especially those living downwind within a half-mile of the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, in the case of airborne lead, children will [inhale] some, but it will also settle out onto the windowsills, onto the floors of their home, onto the tabletops and they will ingest it,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a pediatric epidemiologist whose work is referenced multiple times in the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanphear, a professor at Simon Fraser University, emphasized that lead is a neurotoxin that affects developing brains and nervous systems. For children, he said, there is no safe level of consumption. The younger the child, the more harmful it is to ingest, and even small amounts of lead exposure add up over time and have severe long-lasting impacts, increasing the risk of developmental delays and other negative health outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said toddlers were most at risk of higher blood lead levels because they discover the world through their mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanphear said the study’s results all pointed to the same conclusion: “The airport endangers the lives of people who live around the airport, but especially children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sammy Zahran, a professor of epidemiology and economics at Colorado State University, and the study's lead author, said the evidence provides “compelling reason to reduce or eliminate aviation lead emissions to safeguard the welfare and life chances of at-risk children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]He said numerous studies have linked elevated blood levels in children to “cognitive and intellectual impairments, poor academic achievement, and higher risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, among other things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Controlling for many variables, researchers also calculated how many aircraft running on leaded gas took off from the airport and how much lead formula gas was sold there. The total amounted to more than 5 metric tons of lead between January 2011 and December 2018, they found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, a 2020 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report identified Reid-Hillview as the 25th-highest lead-emitting airport in the country, with lead emissions from piston aircraft exceeding safety thresholds set by the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"lead-poisoning\"]And 95122, the ZIP code of the airport and surrounding neighborhoods, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/CLPPB/Pages/data.aspx\">one of the top 200 ZIP codes\u003c/a> for lead poisoning among children in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In comparing the lead levels in children near the airport to those found in kids in Flint, Zahran noted that Flint's water crisis lasted less than a year and a half, while the release of lead into the environment around Reid-Hillview is “continuous, a daily unabated stream of an undeniably harmful toxic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The airport is mainly used by private pilots, flight schools and San Jose State University's aviation program. In recent decades, with the rapid expansion of the city, more developments have sprouted around the facility, and an increasing number of families have moved in. The community is home to many low-income Latino and Asian families, and there are now at least 21 sites serving children within a 1.5-mile radius of the airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I'm not blaming the people who bought houses or the people who are flying airplanes,” Chavez said. “That was a mistake of government to not better protect them. These land uses are incongruous. We didn't know as much as we do now about air pollution then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armed with these recent findings, she said, the county should move to quickly close the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted last year to phase out the airport, but the soonest it could close under the current arrangement would be 2031 because of obligations connected to Federal Aviation Administration grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Dr. Stephen Harris, a pediatrician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, said the situation calls for more immediate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I've seen a number of children who have been lead poisoned. I've seen the effects on their brain development, their cognitive abilities and IQ,” Harris said. “I want people to take a good, hard look at this study. We need to think very seriously about what our priorities are in this community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from Jana Kadah of Bay City News.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some children living near a small airport in San Jose have dangerously high blood lead levels — similar to those found in kids in Flint, Michigan, during the peak of its water crisis — according to a new study commissioned by Santa Clara County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report details the findings of 17,000 blood samples collected from 2011-2020 from children under 18 years of age living near the Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose. Children downwind from the airport had significantly higher blood lead levels than those upwind, with elevated levels of 0.4 micrograms per deciliter, it found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In comparison, lead levels found in children during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/flint-water-crisis\">Flint water crisis\u003c/a> were between 0.35 to 0.45 micrograms per deciliter over the baseline.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is a public health issue, it's an environmental justice issue and it's an equity issue,” County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know this is damaging children's developing brains,” she said. “What this very thorough study proves is that we literally have a crisis on our hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the small planes that fly in and out of the airport have piston engines that still run on leaded fuel, even though leaded gas for cars was banned decades ago. Lead from aircraft exhaust and unburned fuel can filter from the air and settle on houses and public surfaces, putting residents at risk of lead poisoning — especially those living downwind within a half-mile of the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, in the case of airborne lead, children will [inhale] some, but it will also settle out onto the windowsills, onto the floors of their home, onto the tabletops and they will ingest it,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a pediatric epidemiologist whose work is referenced multiple times in the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanphear, a professor at Simon Fraser University, emphasized that lead is a neurotoxin that affects developing brains and nervous systems. For children, he said, there is no safe level of consumption. The younger the child, the more harmful it is to ingest, and even small amounts of lead exposure add up over time and have severe long-lasting impacts, increasing the risk of developmental delays and other negative health outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said toddlers were most at risk of higher blood lead levels because they discover the world through their mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanphear said the study’s results all pointed to the same conclusion: “The airport endangers the lives of people who live around the airport, but especially children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sammy Zahran, a professor of epidemiology and economics at Colorado State University, and the study's lead author, said the evidence provides “compelling reason to reduce or eliminate aviation lead emissions to safeguard the welfare and life chances of at-risk children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He said numerous studies have linked elevated blood levels in children to “cognitive and intellectual impairments, poor academic achievement, and higher risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, among other things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Controlling for many variables, researchers also calculated how many aircraft running on leaded gas took off from the airport and how much lead formula gas was sold there. The total amounted to more than 5 metric tons of lead between January 2011 and December 2018, they found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, a 2020 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report identified Reid-Hillview as the 25th-highest lead-emitting airport in the country, with lead emissions from piston aircraft exceeding safety thresholds set by the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And 95122, the ZIP code of the airport and surrounding neighborhoods, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/CLPPB/Pages/data.aspx\">one of the top 200 ZIP codes\u003c/a> for lead poisoning among children in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In comparing the lead levels in children near the airport to those found in kids in Flint, Zahran noted that Flint's water crisis lasted less than a year and a half, while the release of lead into the environment around Reid-Hillview is “continuous, a daily unabated stream of an undeniably harmful toxic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The airport is mainly used by private pilots, flight schools and San Jose State University's aviation program. In recent decades, with the rapid expansion of the city, more developments have sprouted around the facility, and an increasing number of families have moved in. The community is home to many low-income Latino and Asian families, and there are now at least 21 sites serving children within a 1.5-mile radius of the airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I'm not blaming the people who bought houses or the people who are flying airplanes,” Chavez said. “That was a mistake of government to not better protect them. These land uses are incongruous. We didn't know as much as we do now about air pollution then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armed with these recent findings, she said, the county should move to quickly close the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted last year to phase out the airport, but the soonest it could close under the current arrangement would be 2031 because of obligations connected to Federal Aviation Administration grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Dr. Stephen Harris, a pediatrician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, said the situation calls for more immediate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I've seen a number of children who have been lead poisoned. I've seen the effects on their brain development, their cognitive abilities and IQ,” Harris said. “I want people to take a good, hard look at this study. We need to think very seriously about what our priorities are in this community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from Jana Kadah of Bay City News.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Extreme Heat Is Getting Worse for Low-Income, Non-White Americans, New Study Finds",
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"content": "\u003cp>As record-high heat hammers much of the country, a new \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002016\">study\u003c/a> shows that in many American cities, residents of lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color often endure far higher temperatures than those who live in whiter, wealthier communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urban areas are known to be hotter than more rural ones, but the research published Tuesday in the journal Earth’s Future provides one of the most detailed looks to date at how differences in heat extremes break down along racial and socioeconomic lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors used satellite imagery to measure land surface temperature in 1,056 counties across the country, home to about 300 million people. They found that in more than 70% of those counties, neighborhoods that are lower income and those that have larger percentages of people of color “experience significantly more extreme surface urban heat than their wealthier, whiter counterparts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relying on U.S. census data, the researchers found that in areas with higher rates of poverty, temperatures can be as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer during the summer months than in nearby wealthier neighborhoods. The same held true for predominantly minority communities, as compared to nearby non-Hispanic, white neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study is the latest to show how climate change driven by human activity disproportionately harms people of color and poor people. The warming climate is \u003ca href=\"https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/1/\">making\u003c/a> heat waves more frequent and intense. And even without heat waves, Americans can expect\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/30/climate/how-much-hotter-is-your-hometown.html\"> far more days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit\u003c/a> than there were just a few decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-related-deaths\">Heat is the biggest weather-related killer of Americans, \u003c/a>according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kuow.org/stories/nearly-700-people-believed-to-have-died-in-northwest-heat-wave\">estimated 800 people\u003c/a> have already died in the heat wave that has gripped the Pacific Northwest this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers — Susanne Benz and Jennifer Burney of UC San Diego — found that in 76% of the counties they studied, lower-income communities experienced higher temperatures than those with higher incomes. When looking at neighborhoods by race, in 71% of counties, people of color lived in neighborhoods with higher temperatures than residents in largely white communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers point to several factors that are driving up temperatures in these neighborhoods, including more buildings, less vegetation, and to a lesser extent, higher population density.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249715\">studies\u003c/a> have shown that less vegetation can impact a city’s temperature, and that neighborhoods that are lower income and where there are more people of color tend to have less tree cover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11879641,science_1975631,science_1975668\"]The researchers also note that the temperature differences they found weren’t unique to larger, more developed cities; heat disparities were also evident in many smaller, more rural areas with newer developments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The existence of these gradients implies that the inequality we find in our cities does not only develop after large urbanization and growth, but manifests early in the existence of a city itself,” the report states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its authors also point to a long history of racist land-use policies that have driven such disparities, and urge local policymakers to make equitable development decisions that incorporate heat mitigation strategies, among other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These areas have less tree canopy, more streets, and higher building densities,” the authors contend, “meaning that in addition to their other racist outcomes, redlining policies directly codified into law existing disparity in urban land use and reinforced urban design choices that magnify urban heating into the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Extreme+Heat+Is+Getting+Worse+For+Low-Income%2C+Non-White+Americans%2C+A+New+Study+Shows&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Matthew Green contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As record-high heat hammers much of the country, a new \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002016\">study\u003c/a> shows that in many American cities, residents of lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color often endure far higher temperatures than those who live in whiter, wealthier communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urban areas are known to be hotter than more rural ones, but the research published Tuesday in the journal Earth’s Future provides one of the most detailed looks to date at how differences in heat extremes break down along racial and socioeconomic lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors used satellite imagery to measure land surface temperature in 1,056 counties across the country, home to about 300 million people. They found that in more than 70% of those counties, neighborhoods that are lower income and those that have larger percentages of people of color “experience significantly more extreme surface urban heat than their wealthier, whiter counterparts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relying on U.S. census data, the researchers found that in areas with higher rates of poverty, temperatures can be as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer during the summer months than in nearby wealthier neighborhoods. The same held true for predominantly minority communities, as compared to nearby non-Hispanic, white neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study is the latest to show how climate change driven by human activity disproportionately harms people of color and poor people. The warming climate is \u003ca href=\"https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/1/\">making\u003c/a> heat waves more frequent and intense. And even without heat waves, Americans can expect\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/30/climate/how-much-hotter-is-your-hometown.html\"> far more days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit\u003c/a> than there were just a few decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-related-deaths\">Heat is the biggest weather-related killer of Americans, \u003c/a>according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kuow.org/stories/nearly-700-people-believed-to-have-died-in-northwest-heat-wave\">estimated 800 people\u003c/a> have already died in the heat wave that has gripped the Pacific Northwest this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers — Susanne Benz and Jennifer Burney of UC San Diego — found that in 76% of the counties they studied, lower-income communities experienced higher temperatures than those with higher incomes. When looking at neighborhoods by race, in 71% of counties, people of color lived in neighborhoods with higher temperatures than residents in largely white communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers point to several factors that are driving up temperatures in these neighborhoods, including more buildings, less vegetation, and to a lesser extent, higher population density.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249715\">studies\u003c/a> have shown that less vegetation can impact a city’s temperature, and that neighborhoods that are lower income and where there are more people of color tend to have less tree cover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The researchers also note that the temperature differences they found weren’t unique to larger, more developed cities; heat disparities were also evident in many smaller, more rural areas with newer developments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The existence of these gradients implies that the inequality we find in our cities does not only develop after large urbanization and growth, but manifests early in the existence of a city itself,” the report states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its authors also point to a long history of racist land-use policies that have driven such disparities, and urge local policymakers to make equitable development decisions that incorporate heat mitigation strategies, among other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These areas have less tree canopy, more streets, and higher building densities,” the authors contend, “meaning that in addition to their other racist outcomes, redlining policies directly codified into law existing disparity in urban land use and reinforced urban design choices that magnify urban heating into the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Extreme+Heat+Is+Getting+Worse+For+Low-Income%2C+Non-White+Americans%2C+A+New+Study+Shows&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Matthew Green contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Nephew of Slain Activist Berta Cáceres Renews Calls for Ending Aid to Honduran Military",
"title": "Nephew of Slain Activist Berta Cáceres Renews Calls for Ending Aid to Honduran Military",
"headTitle": "KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>A Bay Area family member of slain environmental and Indigenous rights defender Berta Cáceres is calling on the federal government to stop U.S. funding of Honduran military and police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After years of threats, Cáceres was assassinated in her hometown of La Esperanza in western Honduras in 2016. The renowned environmentalist and Goldman Environmental Prize \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/560202/goldman-environmental-prize-winner-murdered-in-honduras\">winner\u003c/a> had been leading a campaign to stop the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River, a river considered sacred by the Lenca people. In 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/americas/honduras-bertha-caceres.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seven men hired as hitmen were convicted in her murder\u003c/a> – but until this month no one accused of masterminding her killing had been held accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 5, the former head of Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), the company overseeing the dam project Cáceres fought against, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-honduras-3c44bd8b698092aaabb99b94605d311c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was found guilty of participating in her killing\u003c/a>. Prosecutors argued Roberto David Castillo – who was trained in the U.S. and was a former member of the Honduran army during a coup in 2009 – had masterminded Cáceres' murder. He was convicted of being a co-conspirator. The court will determine his sentence, which could be between 24 and 30 years, on Aug. 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_560202]“It is a victory. I can't deny that,” Silvio Carrillo, Cáceres' Oakland-based nephew, told KQED. “But, it doesn't feel like a victory. It is one small drop in the sea of corruption in Honduras and we have a long way to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Twitter the day of the ruling he added: \"Berta didn't die, she multiplied.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/angryburrito/status/1412118957578854409\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/five-years-since-berta-c%C3%A1ceres-assassination-honduran-defenders-face-greater-danger-than-ever/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Global Witness\u003c/a> reported at least 40 environmental activists have been murdered in Honduras since Cáceres' death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is literally the first time a case like this has been successful — successful in that someone was charged. That is incredibly sad,” Carrillo said. He grew up in Washington, D.C., and is now an Oakland-based journalist who has written op-eds for The New York Times on his \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/opinion/an-idealists-martyrdom-fails-to-move-honduras.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">aunt\u003c/a>, as well as on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/opinion/america-honduras-hernandez-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">politics in Honduras\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suyapa Portillo Villeda, a Honduran historian and associate professor at Pitzer College in Southern California, attributes the victory of the dam company executive's conviction to organizers on the ground. She credits COPINH (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), an organization Cáceres started in 1993, for their persistence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's really a testament to the organizing,\" Portillo Villeda said, also referencing the collective of organizations that camped out in front of the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Silvio Carrillo, nephew of slain Indigenous rights defender Berta Cáceres\"]'This situation is closer than you think ... And the reason for that is because it's our money, it's our tax dollars paid to train Honduran police and the Honduran military.'[/pullquote]Since a 2009 coup, \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-has-roots-in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">corruption in Honduras has continued to worsen\u003c/a>. Carrillo, who was born in the U.S. and grew up spending many summers in Honduras, recalled the dangers his aunt faced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They tried to plant a gun on her ... At one point she had to flee — this was just a part of her life,\" he said. Carrillo also recalled traveling with her one night and said it was \"terrifying\" having to take two or three taxi cabs in different directions just to make sure she wasn't being followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, after Cáceres was murdered, Carrillo spent time in the halls of the U.S. Capitol lobbying for accountability. The network that Cáceres had established throughout her long years of advocacy allowed him access to meet with members of Congress and their staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This situation is closer than you think,\" Carrillo said, in reference to why the assassination of an environmental activist in Honduras should matter to those living in the U.S. \"And the reason for that is because it's our money, it's our tax dollars paid to train Honduran police and the Honduran military.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the lobbying Carrillo began over five years ago may finally be paying off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companion legislation being considered in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2716/text?\">House\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/388/all-info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate\u003c/a> would suspend support for the Honduran government until corruption and human rights abuses are no longer systemic. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1574?\">separate bill\u003c/a> in the House, the \"Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act,\" is a continuation of what Carrillo was advocating for in 2016 and would stop U.S. assistance to the Honduran police or military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Withdrawing funding from the military speaks to Cáceres' legacy, Pitzer College's Portillo Villeda said. She remembers being tear-gassed alongside Cáceres in 2011 while protesting at an airbase. \"Berta was of the generation that understood profoundly what militarization did. The bill really speaks to her legacy and efforts to end militarization and funding for the military,\" Portillo Villeda said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corruption and violence in Honduras is also directly related to why Hondurans make up a large number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many people have to leave because they can't eat, they can't feed their children, they can't get educated, they can't get health care,\" Carrillo said. \"And so they come here to the U.S.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11881108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1309px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1309\" height=\"704\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11881108\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut.jpg 1309w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut-800x430.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut-1020x549.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut-160x86.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1309px) 100vw, 1309px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Indigenous woman lights a candle after Roberto David Castillo, president of Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), was found guilty in the murder of Honduran environmentalist and Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, in Tegucigalpa on July 5, 2021. \u003ccite>(ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in the region, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/why-central-american-migrants-are-arriving-us-border\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Council on Foreign Relations\u003c/a>. The president's brother is \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56589088\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">currently in prison\u003c/a> in the U.S. for drug trafficking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When U.S. Vice President Harris took a recent trip to Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border, she notably did not stop in Honduras. The Biden administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/13/biden-harris-central-america-policy-migration-corruption\">appears to be walking a thin line\u003c/a> to avoid showing overt support for the government, while continuing to provide aid to Honduras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think [the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act] is really important,\" Portillo Villeda said. But she added it's also important to scrutinize the federal aid money earmarked for Honduras with the goal of helping stem migration from that country to the U.S. \"We're not going to see what happens with that money,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11703189,news_11738062 label='Related Coverage']For Carrillo, as a journalist thinking through the legacy of his aunt's story, he'd like to make sure it is preserved and shared, perhaps as a documentary. “I have this trove of video, and I'm just waiting for the right time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's hoping to produce something in the near future, but he also knows that it will take time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want this project, whatever it turns out to be — to not just reflect her legacy, but also to reflect what we can accomplish because we lost her,” he said. His plan is to create something that can show people that not only is it worth the fight, but that \"change can come.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Portillo Villeda sees the most recent court win as a continuation of Cáceres' work. She said some people thought the Indigenous women were crazy for thinking they could stop a huge corporation when they protested the hydroelectric dam, \"crazy for thinking that people would care about the environment,\" Portillo Villeda said. But Cáceres \"intentionally gave young women the possibility to become activists, to become organizers — the idea that they could do the impossible.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A former executive and ex-military official was just convicted in the murder of Indigenous rights defender Berta Cáceres. Her Oakland-based nephew says much more needs to be done.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Bay Area family member of slain environmental and Indigenous rights defender Berta Cáceres is calling on the federal government to stop U.S. funding of Honduran military and police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After years of threats, Cáceres was assassinated in her hometown of La Esperanza in western Honduras in 2016. The renowned environmentalist and Goldman Environmental Prize \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/560202/goldman-environmental-prize-winner-murdered-in-honduras\">winner\u003c/a> had been leading a campaign to stop the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River, a river considered sacred by the Lenca people. In 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/americas/honduras-bertha-caceres.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seven men hired as hitmen were convicted in her murder\u003c/a> – but until this month no one accused of masterminding her killing had been held accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 5, the former head of Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), the company overseeing the dam project Cáceres fought against, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-honduras-3c44bd8b698092aaabb99b94605d311c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was found guilty of participating in her killing\u003c/a>. Prosecutors argued Roberto David Castillo – who was trained in the U.S. and was a former member of the Honduran army during a coup in 2009 – had masterminded Cáceres' murder. He was convicted of being a co-conspirator. The court will determine his sentence, which could be between 24 and 30 years, on Aug. 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It is a victory. I can't deny that,” Silvio Carrillo, Cáceres' Oakland-based nephew, told KQED. “But, it doesn't feel like a victory. It is one small drop in the sea of corruption in Honduras and we have a long way to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Twitter the day of the ruling he added: \"Berta didn't die, she multiplied.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/five-years-since-berta-c%C3%A1ceres-assassination-honduran-defenders-face-greater-danger-than-ever/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Global Witness\u003c/a> reported at least 40 environmental activists have been murdered in Honduras since Cáceres' death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is literally the first time a case like this has been successful — successful in that someone was charged. That is incredibly sad,” Carrillo said. He grew up in Washington, D.C., and is now an Oakland-based journalist who has written op-eds for The New York Times on his \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/opinion/an-idealists-martyrdom-fails-to-move-honduras.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">aunt\u003c/a>, as well as on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/opinion/america-honduras-hernandez-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">politics in Honduras\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suyapa Portillo Villeda, a Honduran historian and associate professor at Pitzer College in Southern California, attributes the victory of the dam company executive's conviction to organizers on the ground. She credits COPINH (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), an organization Cáceres started in 1993, for their persistence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's really a testament to the organizing,\" Portillo Villeda said, also referencing the collective of organizations that camped out in front of the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Since a 2009 coup, \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-has-roots-in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">corruption in Honduras has continued to worsen\u003c/a>. Carrillo, who was born in the U.S. and grew up spending many summers in Honduras, recalled the dangers his aunt faced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They tried to plant a gun on her ... At one point she had to flee — this was just a part of her life,\" he said. Carrillo also recalled traveling with her one night and said it was \"terrifying\" having to take two or three taxi cabs in different directions just to make sure she wasn't being followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, after Cáceres was murdered, Carrillo spent time in the halls of the U.S. Capitol lobbying for accountability. The network that Cáceres had established throughout her long years of advocacy allowed him access to meet with members of Congress and their staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This situation is closer than you think,\" Carrillo said, in reference to why the assassination of an environmental activist in Honduras should matter to those living in the U.S. \"And the reason for that is because it's our money, it's our tax dollars paid to train Honduran police and the Honduran military.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the lobbying Carrillo began over five years ago may finally be paying off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companion legislation being considered in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2716/text?\">House\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/388/all-info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate\u003c/a> would suspend support for the Honduran government until corruption and human rights abuses are no longer systemic. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1574?\">separate bill\u003c/a> in the House, the \"Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act,\" is a continuation of what Carrillo was advocating for in 2016 and would stop U.S. assistance to the Honduran police or military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Withdrawing funding from the military speaks to Cáceres' legacy, Pitzer College's Portillo Villeda said. She remembers being tear-gassed alongside Cáceres in 2011 while protesting at an airbase. \"Berta was of the generation that understood profoundly what militarization did. The bill really speaks to her legacy and efforts to end militarization and funding for the military,\" Portillo Villeda said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corruption and violence in Honduras is also directly related to why Hondurans make up a large number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many people have to leave because they can't eat, they can't feed their children, they can't get educated, they can't get health care,\" Carrillo said. \"And so they come here to the U.S.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11881108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1309px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1309\" height=\"704\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11881108\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut.jpg 1309w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut-800x430.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut-1020x549.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/RS50218_GettyImages-1233820169-qut-160x86.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1309px) 100vw, 1309px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Indigenous woman lights a candle after Roberto David Castillo, president of Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), was found guilty in the murder of Honduran environmentalist and Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, in Tegucigalpa on July 5, 2021. \u003ccite>(ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in the region, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/why-central-american-migrants-are-arriving-us-border\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Council on Foreign Relations\u003c/a>. The president's brother is \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56589088\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">currently in prison\u003c/a> in the U.S. for drug trafficking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When U.S. Vice President Harris took a recent trip to Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border, she notably did not stop in Honduras. The Biden administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/13/biden-harris-central-america-policy-migration-corruption\">appears to be walking a thin line\u003c/a> to avoid showing overt support for the government, while continuing to provide aid to Honduras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think [the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act] is really important,\" Portillo Villeda said. But she added it's also important to scrutinize the federal aid money earmarked for Honduras with the goal of helping stem migration from that country to the U.S. \"We're not going to see what happens with that money,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For Carrillo, as a journalist thinking through the legacy of his aunt's story, he'd like to make sure it is preserved and shared, perhaps as a documentary. “I have this trove of video, and I'm just waiting for the right time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's hoping to produce something in the near future, but he also knows that it will take time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want this project, whatever it turns out to be — to not just reflect her legacy, but also to reflect what we can accomplish because we lost her,” he said. His plan is to create something that can show people that not only is it worth the fight, but that \"change can come.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Portillo Villeda sees the most recent court win as a continuation of Cáceres' work. She said some people thought the Indigenous women were crazy for thinking they could stop a huge corporation when they protested the hydroelectric dam, \"crazy for thinking that people would care about the environment,\" Portillo Villeda said. But Cáceres \"intentionally gave young women the possibility to become activists, to become organizers — the idea that they could do the impossible.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "trucks-are-banned-on-oaklands-i-580-these-sixth-graders-wondered-why",
"title": "Trucks are Banned on Oakland's I-580. These Sixth Graders Wondered Why",
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"headTitle": "Trucks are Banned on Oakland’s I-580. These Sixth Graders Wondered Why | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A handful of kids sit in teacher Patrick Messac’s sixth grade classroom at \u003ca href=\"https://lifeacademyoak.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Life Academy of Health and Bioscience\u003c/a> in East Oakland. They’re surrounded by colorful wall displays of human anatomy, moon cycles, and books categorized by scientific topics. Then there are the signs of the pandemic: one kid at each table, each distanced from their neighbors, air filters and stacks of unused chairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chairs are for the rest of the class, who are at home, zooming into the discussion instead. While this makes the conversation stop-and-go, the students are focused. They’re talking about air pollution, and it’s personal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just hurts to know that our community is slowly dying because of this air pollution,” says student Jasmine Orejudos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orejudos and her classmates live in East Oakland, a region traversed by the Interstate 880 highway. The freeway is heavily used by large trucks, bringing goods from the Port of Oakland to the rest of California and the country. The majority of those trucks are powered by diesel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879651\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920.jpg\" alt=\"Sixth grade teacher Patrick Messac teaches a science class at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. Students are studying the health impacts of air pollution and asking questions about their own exposure.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grade teacher Patrick Messac teaches a science class at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. Students are studying the health impacts of air pollution and asking questions about their own exposure. \u003ccite>(Laura Klivans/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of students at Life Academy are Latino, and studies show communities where Black and Latino people live are overburdened with pollution. Students have been making connections between the dirty air they breathe and some of the poor health they experience.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Me and my granny both have asthma and sometimes we can’t even go outside to enjoy ourselves because of the diesel-burning trucks,” said student Rodney Moten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many factors \u003ca href=\"https://www.aafa.org/asthma-triggers-causes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">can cause and exacerbate asthma\u003c/a>, diesel exhaust is one of them. Residents of East and West Oakland have the \u003ca href=\"https://acphd-web-media.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/data-reports/city-county-regional/docs/maps2016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highest asthma hospitalization rates in Alameda County,\u003c/a> which health experts say is worsened by breathing diesel pollution wafting down from the highway and over from the nearby Port of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the class studied air quality issues, they came across a state law that seemed odd to them. For 70 years, large trucks have been banned on a stretch of the Interstate 580 freeway that runs along the base of the East Bay Hills in Oakland and San Leandro. As a result, large trucks nearly exclusively drive through — and pollute — neighborhoods in Oakland’s flatlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879652\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879652\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920.jpg\" alt=\"Sixth grade science teacher Patrick Messac helps a student with his microscope.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grade science teacher Patrick Messac helps a student with his microscope at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. \u003ccite>(Laura Klivans/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This realization got students like Belinda Castro wondering: “Why are large polluting trucks banned on I-580, the highway that runs through the Oakland hills, but not the 880, the highway that runs through my neighborhood?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students aren’t the only ones questioning this decades-old ban. Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who supported the ban in 1999 when he was on the Oakland City Council, said he’s changed his thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Knowing what I know now, I would make a different decision to try to phase it out,” Miley said. “We need to take steps to phase that ban out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miley was quick to add that he wants to improve air quality along I-880, but not at the expense of reducing air quality along I-580.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan called the ban “a troubling example of environmental racism.” Kaplan said the state law “should be reconsidered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Leandro City Councilmember Fred Simon supports lifting the ban as well. He plans to reach out to local elected leaders and agencies “to build a coalition to overturn the 580 truck ban through state legislative efforts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But changing the law will take more than statements to the press. Others have tried, and failed, to lift the ban in its 70-year history. To actually get it done would require support from Oakland, San Leandro and state government.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Ban Goes All the Way Back to the 1950s\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Oakland is sandwiched between hills to the east and the San Francisco Bay to the west.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I-880 traverses the flatlands and I-580 largely hugs the hills,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.brown.edu/academics/history/people/robert-self\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Self\u003c/a>, a history professor at Brown University. His book \u003ca href=\"https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691124865/american-babylon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is about the fight for civil rights after World War II. “This has been historically a representation of the class and to some extent racial divide in the East Bay,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hills were middle and upper middle class, and the flatlands were working class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truck ban on 580 \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80150442/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dates back to 1951\u003c/a>, before the road was even a highway. Then it was called MacArthur Boulevard and Oakland’s City Council wanted to keep it free from truck traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“MacArthur Boulevard was what you might call the heart of middle class white Oakland in those years,” Self said. “It was a neighborhood whose opinions about the world had the ear of city hall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a neighborhood that didn’t have heavy industry like the flatlands. The trucks were re-routed onto the already-constructed 880 highway (then State Route 17).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city, at the time, certainly did not believe that [flatland] neighborhoods mattered in the same way that the hill neighborhoods mattered,” Self said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Road Evolves, But the Ban Remains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When MacArthur Boulevard became a highway in the early 1960s, the City of Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20972147/6789-cms-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">continued the ban\u003c/a> on a roughly nine mile stretch of highway without significant debate. It applied to vehicles weighing more than 9,000 pounds, like big rigs, but not smaller trucks like those delivering packages on residential streets. The ban also excluded buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1484px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80173555/oakland-tribune/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879658\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping.png\" alt=\"Oakland Tribune article from November 14, 1967\" width=\"1484\" height=\"1298\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping.png 1484w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping-800x700.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping-1020x892.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping-160x140.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1484px) 100vw, 1484px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Tribune article from November 14, 1967 on the truck ban controversy. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1967, the ban was up for renewal, this time sparking a more intense deliberation. The possibility that trucks could barrel down both East Bay highways made people irate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80173555/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">news articles\u003c/a> in the Oakland Tribune outlined the \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80175750/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">controversy\u003c/a>. Those wanting to continue the ban to keep heavy-duty trucks off 580 were led by Oakland’s then-mayor John Reading, and known as “Citizens Against Trucks on MacArthur Freeway.” They argued the area around the highway was far more residential, had more schools and hospitals, and that the road itself was curvier and hillier than 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the loudest voices on the other side was Richard Zeller of the California Trucking Association. He argued that taxes on trucks partially funded the freeway. He also brought up equity, saying the ban was “discriminatory against the people who live near the Nimitz Freeway [ I-880 ] or must use it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879659\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80175750/oakland-tribune/#\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland tribune article from July 4, 1967\" width=\"800\" height=\"1821\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip-160x364.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip-675x1536.jpg 675w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland tribune article from July 4, 1967 discussing the truck ban on 580. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He continued, “Are the senses of those living along the MacArthur Freeway more acute than those living along all the other freeways in the state? Are the schools and hospitals more valuable?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Transportation, Caltrans, \u003ca href=\"https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/legal-truck-access/restrict-route-580\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studied the issue\u003c/a> in 1967 to verify that trucks could travel an alternate route instead of 580. The study looked at traffic, not impacts on health or quality of life. According to their website, the department concluded that “there was no strong evidence either to retain or to terminate the truck ban.” Caltrans recommended the ban be extended indefinitely, but with periodic reviews of “operations of the alternate routes, 238 and 880.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reviews happened just a few times, with none occurring after 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The 1990s: Asking ‘A Simple Question’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 1999, Robert Ramorino, head of Roadstar Trucking, asked what he called “a simple question.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How come my trucks are banned on this stretch of 580?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramorino would later go on to become the president of the California Trucking Association. Like his predecessor, he found the ban insulting. He was paying federal highway use taxes for his trucks, which were not allowed to go on the highway running near his business. If heavy trucks were allowed on 580 it would be convenient for both his company and freight movement in general, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramorino said he and the California Trucking Association asked Caltrans to study lifting the ban on trucks on the 580 freeway. And according to their website, Caltrans officials said if they found good reasons to lift the ban — and the City of Oakland was onboard — they would recommend opening the freeway to trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That study never happened though. Residents living along 580 worried studying the issue would open the door to lifting the ban, so they put pressure on their representatives to stop the study before it started. And the Oakland City Council passed a resolution affirming they wanted to continue the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We thought keeping trucks off of 580 was a good thing based on traffic safety. I don’t think we were really thinking a lot about air quality at the time,” said Miley, the Alameda County supervisor, who was on the Oakland City Council in 1999.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State legislators also wanted to stop the study and continue the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was getting dozens and dozens of calls from angry neighbors who wanted to know why this was happening,” said former Assemblymember Ellen Corbett, whose district included Alameda, San Leandro and much of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corbett was a newly-elected state assemblymember at the time. She held a meeting for constituents and Caltrans representatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ended up with hundreds of people. In fact, there were so many people that came to the meeting, there was overflow out into the parking lot,” Corbett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said residents were worried about noise and road safety. Corbett said her research about the I-580 showed it wasn’t made for trucks, which Caltrans refuted: “the freeway was designed to be safe for all vehicular traffic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond this, however, Corbett says her constituents felt that if Oakland and San Leandro lifted the ban, they would be breaking a promise made to residents decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were actually displaced and homes were taken from people,” she said. “There was a commitment made that trucks would not be on that freeway because these neighborhoods had been destroyed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building freeways through established neighborhoods was \u003ca href=\"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3539889\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">commonplace by that time\u003c/a>. It often happened to communities of color, who didn’t have the political clout to extract promises like a ban on trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corbett said she did not hear from any of her constituents who lived or worked along the I-880 freeway. She wrote a bill to make the ban permanent. It was signed into law in 2000 by California Governor Gray Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large truck ban on an interstate is exceedingly rare, and the I-580 highway ban is the only one of its kind meant to assuage the concerns of local residents. According to the Federal Highway Authority, there are only nine such bans nationwide. Seven of those bans are due to construction or structural engineering constraints. One ban — on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge in D.C. — was \u003ca href=\"https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/dcrevolt/part01.pdf\">ordered by President Eisenhower to keep trucks away from the Lincoln Memorial\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Considering the Truck Ban from a Health Perspective\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Residents living along the I-880 corridor in East Oakland experience some of the \u003ca href=\"https://acphd-web-media.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/data-reports/city-county-regional/docs/maps2016.pdf\">highest rates of asthma hospitalizations in Alameda County\u003c/a>, according to the Alameda County Public Health Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Life Academy sixth graders learned one of the factors contributing to asthma is polluted air: The tiny particles in diesel exhaust are some of the most dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We may not see this bad air, but we can breathe it,” said student Abrianna Meza. “These diesel trucks burn fuel that causes \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-12/documents/black-carbon-fact-sheet_0.pdf\">black carbon\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Martien, of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, agreed. “Those particles are small enough to get deep into lungs and in some cases even pass through the lung barrier to get into the bloodstream.” In Martien’s role as director of the Assessment, Inventory, & Modeling Division, he reviews how air pollution is distributed in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said diesel particles, and the chemicals attached to them, can lead to heart attacks, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of diseases that make it hard to breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Young people are particularly vulnerable because their lungs are still developing,” Martien said. “There’s actually been \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60037-3/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studies\u003c/a> where they’ve looked at young lungs of children who live near freeways and their lungs don’t ever fully develop,” as compared to kids living farther from busy freeways. Martien says living by freeways can also \u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.0901232\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cause asthma\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879605\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1772px\">\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b00891\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11879605 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1.png\" alt=\"Levels of black carbon (BC), nitric oxide (NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in neighborhoods along Interstate 580 (purple) and Interstate 880 (red). Large trucks are not permitted on a section of I-580.\" width=\"1772\" height=\"1296\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1.png 1772w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-800x585.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-1020x746.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-160x117.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-1536x1123.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1772px) 100vw, 1772px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Levels of black carbon (BC), nitric oxide (NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in neighborhoods along Interstate 580 (purple) and Interstate 880 (red). Large trucks are not permitted on a section of I-580. \u003ccite>(Image Courtesy Environmental Defense Fund)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b00891\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">collaborative project\u003c/a> by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.edf.org/airqualitymaps/oakland/tale-two-freeways\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Environmental Defense Fund,\u003c/a> a technology company \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclima.io/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aclima\u003c/a>, Google Street View and The University of Texas at Austin found that concentrations of harmful pollutants from diesel exhaust were significantly higher in neighborhoods along 880 than those along 580. Black carbon concentrations were roughly 80% higher, nitrogen dioxide concentrations were 60% higher, and nitric oxide were more than double.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What a Truck Ban Means for Equity\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Historian Robert Self said what’s happened with the 580 truck ban is the definition of structural racism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People can make decisions that don’t on their face, seem as if they’re motivated by racial animosity but have profound downstream racial effects,” Self said. “Any individual person can make a decision within that system that appears entirely neutral, and yet it’s got massive racial impacts and effects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angela Scott, an East Oakland community organizer with the environmental justice group \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbecal.org/\">Communities for a Better Environment\u003c/a>, agreed. She said she’s talked with people across East Oakland about whether they’d want to push back on the 580 truck ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks said, ‘We don’t want to put that on anybody else because it’s horrible,'” Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Scott thinks if East Oakland residents don’t push back against policies like this one it hides the problem. Truck emissions are just one example of the outsized pollution burden her community bears, she said. She thinks it’s time for change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to go beyond, ‘Oh, that was maybe a bad decision,'” Scott said. “How do we undo all those bad decisions with all the things that we know now? How do we fix it so that people are sharing burdens? That’s solidarity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial/video/6987554195729583365\" data-video-id=\"6987554195729583365\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@kqedofficial\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@kqedofficial\u003c/a>We explain how a truck policy affects POC in East and West parts of Oakland. \u003ca title=\"racismawareness\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/racismawareness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#racismawareness\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"oaklandca\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/oaklandca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#oaklandca\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"socialjustice\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/socialjustice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#socialjustice\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"environmental\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/environmental\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#environmental\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"fyp\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#fyp\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"bayarea\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayarea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#bayarea\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - kqed\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6987558479233846022\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – kqed\u003c/a>\n\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What Happens Now\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The sixth grade students at Life Academy have plenty of ideas to improve air quality along their highway, from electrifying trucks to planting more trees in the community, to distributing free air purifiers to people living in heavily polluted areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials have some of the same ideas. Last summer, the California Air Resources Board announced a rule \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/california-takes-bold-step-reduce-truck-pollution#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Today%2C%20the%20California%20Air,California%20will%20be%20zero%2Demission.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">requiring truck manufacturers to transition from diesel to electric\u003c/a> starting in 2024. These regulations say by 2045 every new truck sold in California will be zero-emission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angela Scott, of Communities for a Better Environment, wants to take things further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lift that ban,” she said. “I know people are not going to like it, but it’s such a racist policy. Lift the ban!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students are pushing for one more thing, something community advocates have been demanding for decades: a study of the ban’s health effects. And there has been some movement on that front. Bay Area air district officials said in an email to KQED they are committed to studying health impacts of the 580 truck ban, “probably in the 2022-2023 time frame.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A 70-year-old ban on large trucks on Interstate 580 pushes diesel-burning vehicles, and their pollution, to Interstate 880. Students living along the 880 corridor want their elected officials to do something about it.\r\n",
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"title": "Trucks are Banned on Oakland's I-580. These Sixth Graders Wondered Why | KQED",
"description": "A 70-year-old ban on large trucks on Interstate 580 pushes diesel-burning vehicles, and their pollution, to Interstate 880. Students living along the 880 corridor want their elected officials to do something about it.\r\n",
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"subhead": "A Ban Pushes Large Trucks through East Bay Flatlands, Causing Harmful Air Pollution",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A handful of kids sit in teacher Patrick Messac’s sixth grade classroom at \u003ca href=\"https://lifeacademyoak.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Life Academy of Health and Bioscience\u003c/a> in East Oakland. They’re surrounded by colorful wall displays of human anatomy, moon cycles, and books categorized by scientific topics. Then there are the signs of the pandemic: one kid at each table, each distanced from their neighbors, air filters and stacks of unused chairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chairs are for the rest of the class, who are at home, zooming into the discussion instead. While this makes the conversation stop-and-go, the students are focused. They’re talking about air pollution, and it’s personal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just hurts to know that our community is slowly dying because of this air pollution,” says student Jasmine Orejudos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orejudos and her classmates live in East Oakland, a region traversed by the Interstate 880 highway. The freeway is heavily used by large trucks, bringing goods from the Port of Oakland to the rest of California and the country. The majority of those trucks are powered by diesel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879651\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920.jpg\" alt=\"Sixth grade teacher Patrick Messac teaches a science class at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. Students are studying the health impacts of air pollution and asking questions about their own exposure.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-class-1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grade teacher Patrick Messac teaches a science class at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. Students are studying the health impacts of air pollution and asking questions about their own exposure. \u003ccite>(Laura Klivans/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of students at Life Academy are Latino, and studies show communities where Black and Latino people live are overburdened with pollution. Students have been making connections between the dirty air they breathe and some of the poor health they experience.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Me and my granny both have asthma and sometimes we can’t even go outside to enjoy ourselves because of the diesel-burning trucks,” said student Rodney Moten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many factors \u003ca href=\"https://www.aafa.org/asthma-triggers-causes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">can cause and exacerbate asthma\u003c/a>, diesel exhaust is one of them. Residents of East and West Oakland have the \u003ca href=\"https://acphd-web-media.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/data-reports/city-county-regional/docs/maps2016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highest asthma hospitalization rates in Alameda County,\u003c/a> which health experts say is worsened by breathing diesel pollution wafting down from the highway and over from the nearby Port of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the class studied air quality issues, they came across a state law that seemed odd to them. For 70 years, large trucks have been banned on a stretch of the Interstate 580 freeway that runs along the base of the East Bay Hills in Oakland and San Leandro. As a result, large trucks nearly exclusively drive through — and pollute — neighborhoods in Oakland’s flatlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879652\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879652\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920.jpg\" alt=\"Sixth grade science teacher Patrick Messac helps a student with his microscope.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Messac-w-student-1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grade science teacher Patrick Messac helps a student with his microscope at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in East Oakland. \u003ccite>(Laura Klivans/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This realization got students like Belinda Castro wondering: “Why are large polluting trucks banned on I-580, the highway that runs through the Oakland hills, but not the 880, the highway that runs through my neighborhood?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students aren’t the only ones questioning this decades-old ban. Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who supported the ban in 1999 when he was on the Oakland City Council, said he’s changed his thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Knowing what I know now, I would make a different decision to try to phase it out,” Miley said. “We need to take steps to phase that ban out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miley was quick to add that he wants to improve air quality along I-880, but not at the expense of reducing air quality along I-580.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan called the ban “a troubling example of environmental racism.” Kaplan said the state law “should be reconsidered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Leandro City Councilmember Fred Simon supports lifting the ban as well. He plans to reach out to local elected leaders and agencies “to build a coalition to overturn the 580 truck ban through state legislative efforts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But changing the law will take more than statements to the press. Others have tried, and failed, to lift the ban in its 70-year history. To actually get it done would require support from Oakland, San Leandro and state government.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Ban Goes All the Way Back to the 1950s\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Oakland is sandwiched between hills to the east and the San Francisco Bay to the west.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I-880 traverses the flatlands and I-580 largely hugs the hills,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.brown.edu/academics/history/people/robert-self\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Self\u003c/a>, a history professor at Brown University. His book \u003ca href=\"https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691124865/american-babylon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is about the fight for civil rights after World War II. “This has been historically a representation of the class and to some extent racial divide in the East Bay,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hills were middle and upper middle class, and the flatlands were working class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truck ban on 580 \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80150442/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dates back to 1951\u003c/a>, before the road was even a highway. Then it was called MacArthur Boulevard and Oakland’s City Council wanted to keep it free from truck traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“MacArthur Boulevard was what you might call the heart of middle class white Oakland in those years,” Self said. “It was a neighborhood whose opinions about the world had the ear of city hall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a neighborhood that didn’t have heavy industry like the flatlands. The trucks were re-routed onto the already-constructed 880 highway (then State Route 17).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city, at the time, certainly did not believe that [flatland] neighborhoods mattered in the same way that the hill neighborhoods mattered,” Self said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Road Evolves, But the Ban Remains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When MacArthur Boulevard became a highway in the early 1960s, the City of Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20972147/6789-cms-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">continued the ban\u003c/a> on a roughly nine mile stretch of highway without significant debate. It applied to vehicles weighing more than 9,000 pounds, like big rigs, but not smaller trucks like those delivering packages on residential streets. The ban also excluded buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1484px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80173555/oakland-tribune/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879658\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping.png\" alt=\"Oakland Tribune article from November 14, 1967\" width=\"1484\" height=\"1298\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping.png 1484w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping-800x700.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping-1020x892.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Truck-ban-clipping-160x140.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1484px) 100vw, 1484px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Tribune article from November 14, 1967 on the truck ban controversy. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1967, the ban was up for renewal, this time sparking a more intense deliberation. The possibility that trucks could barrel down both East Bay highways made people irate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80173555/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">news articles\u003c/a> in the Oakland Tribune outlined the \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80175750/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">controversy\u003c/a>. Those wanting to continue the ban to keep heavy-duty trucks off 580 were led by Oakland’s then-mayor John Reading, and known as “Citizens Against Trucks on MacArthur Freeway.” They argued the area around the highway was far more residential, had more schools and hospitals, and that the road itself was curvier and hillier than 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the loudest voices on the other side was Richard Zeller of the California Trucking Association. He argued that taxes on trucks partially funded the freeway. He also brought up equity, saying the ban was “discriminatory against the people who live near the Nimitz Freeway [ I-880 ] or must use it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879659\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80175750/oakland-tribune/#\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland tribune article from July 4, 1967\" width=\"800\" height=\"1821\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip-160x364.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/MacArthur-clip-675x1536.jpg 675w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland tribune article from July 4, 1967 discussing the truck ban on 580. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He continued, “Are the senses of those living along the MacArthur Freeway more acute than those living along all the other freeways in the state? Are the schools and hospitals more valuable?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Transportation, Caltrans, \u003ca href=\"https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/legal-truck-access/restrict-route-580\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studied the issue\u003c/a> in 1967 to verify that trucks could travel an alternate route instead of 580. The study looked at traffic, not impacts on health or quality of life. According to their website, the department concluded that “there was no strong evidence either to retain or to terminate the truck ban.” Caltrans recommended the ban be extended indefinitely, but with periodic reviews of “operations of the alternate routes, 238 and 880.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reviews happened just a few times, with none occurring after 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The 1990s: Asking ‘A Simple Question’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 1999, Robert Ramorino, head of Roadstar Trucking, asked what he called “a simple question.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How come my trucks are banned on this stretch of 580?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramorino would later go on to become the president of the California Trucking Association. Like his predecessor, he found the ban insulting. He was paying federal highway use taxes for his trucks, which were not allowed to go on the highway running near his business. If heavy trucks were allowed on 580 it would be convenient for both his company and freight movement in general, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramorino said he and the California Trucking Association asked Caltrans to study lifting the ban on trucks on the 580 freeway. And according to their website, Caltrans officials said if they found good reasons to lift the ban — and the City of Oakland was onboard — they would recommend opening the freeway to trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That study never happened though. Residents living along 580 worried studying the issue would open the door to lifting the ban, so they put pressure on their representatives to stop the study before it started. And the Oakland City Council passed a resolution affirming they wanted to continue the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We thought keeping trucks off of 580 was a good thing based on traffic safety. I don’t think we were really thinking a lot about air quality at the time,” said Miley, the Alameda County supervisor, who was on the Oakland City Council in 1999.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State legislators also wanted to stop the study and continue the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was getting dozens and dozens of calls from angry neighbors who wanted to know why this was happening,” said former Assemblymember Ellen Corbett, whose district included Alameda, San Leandro and much of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corbett was a newly-elected state assemblymember at the time. She held a meeting for constituents and Caltrans representatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ended up with hundreds of people. In fact, there were so many people that came to the meeting, there was overflow out into the parking lot,” Corbett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said residents were worried about noise and road safety. Corbett said her research about the I-580 showed it wasn’t made for trucks, which Caltrans refuted: “the freeway was designed to be safe for all vehicular traffic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond this, however, Corbett says her constituents felt that if Oakland and San Leandro lifted the ban, they would be breaking a promise made to residents decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were actually displaced and homes were taken from people,” she said. “There was a commitment made that trucks would not be on that freeway because these neighborhoods had been destroyed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building freeways through established neighborhoods was \u003ca href=\"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3539889\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">commonplace by that time\u003c/a>. It often happened to communities of color, who didn’t have the political clout to extract promises like a ban on trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corbett said she did not hear from any of her constituents who lived or worked along the I-880 freeway. She wrote a bill to make the ban permanent. It was signed into law in 2000 by California Governor Gray Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large truck ban on an interstate is exceedingly rare, and the I-580 highway ban is the only one of its kind meant to assuage the concerns of local residents. According to the Federal Highway Authority, there are only nine such bans nationwide. Seven of those bans are due to construction or structural engineering constraints. One ban — on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge in D.C. — was \u003ca href=\"https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/dcrevolt/part01.pdf\">ordered by President Eisenhower to keep trucks away from the Lincoln Memorial\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Considering the Truck Ban from a Health Perspective\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Residents living along the I-880 corridor in East Oakland experience some of the \u003ca href=\"https://acphd-web-media.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/data-reports/city-county-regional/docs/maps2016.pdf\">highest rates of asthma hospitalizations in Alameda County\u003c/a>, according to the Alameda County Public Health Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Life Academy sixth graders learned one of the factors contributing to asthma is polluted air: The tiny particles in diesel exhaust are some of the most dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We may not see this bad air, but we can breathe it,” said student Abrianna Meza. “These diesel trucks burn fuel that causes \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-12/documents/black-carbon-fact-sheet_0.pdf\">black carbon\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Martien, of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, agreed. “Those particles are small enough to get deep into lungs and in some cases even pass through the lung barrier to get into the bloodstream.” In Martien’s role as director of the Assessment, Inventory, & Modeling Division, he reviews how air pollution is distributed in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said diesel particles, and the chemicals attached to them, can lead to heart attacks, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of diseases that make it hard to breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Young people are particularly vulnerable because their lungs are still developing,” Martien said. “There’s actually been \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60037-3/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studies\u003c/a> where they’ve looked at young lungs of children who live near freeways and their lungs don’t ever fully develop,” as compared to kids living farther from busy freeways. Martien says living by freeways can also \u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.0901232\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cause asthma\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879605\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1772px\">\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b00891\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11879605 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1.png\" alt=\"Levels of black carbon (BC), nitric oxide (NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in neighborhoods along Interstate 580 (purple) and Interstate 880 (red). Large trucks are not permitted on a section of I-580.\" width=\"1772\" height=\"1296\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1.png 1772w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-800x585.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-1020x746.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-160x117.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-24-at-3.32.37-PM-1-1536x1123.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1772px) 100vw, 1772px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Levels of black carbon (BC), nitric oxide (NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in neighborhoods along Interstate 580 (purple) and Interstate 880 (red). Large trucks are not permitted on a section of I-580. \u003ccite>(Image Courtesy Environmental Defense Fund)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b00891\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">collaborative project\u003c/a> by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.edf.org/airqualitymaps/oakland/tale-two-freeways\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Environmental Defense Fund,\u003c/a> a technology company \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclima.io/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aclima\u003c/a>, Google Street View and The University of Texas at Austin found that concentrations of harmful pollutants from diesel exhaust were significantly higher in neighborhoods along 880 than those along 580. Black carbon concentrations were roughly 80% higher, nitrogen dioxide concentrations were 60% higher, and nitric oxide were more than double.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What a Truck Ban Means for Equity\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Historian Robert Self said what’s happened with the 580 truck ban is the definition of structural racism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People can make decisions that don’t on their face, seem as if they’re motivated by racial animosity but have profound downstream racial effects,” Self said. “Any individual person can make a decision within that system that appears entirely neutral, and yet it’s got massive racial impacts and effects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angela Scott, an East Oakland community organizer with the environmental justice group \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbecal.org/\">Communities for a Better Environment\u003c/a>, agreed. She said she’s talked with people across East Oakland about whether they’d want to push back on the 580 truck ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks said, ‘We don’t want to put that on anybody else because it’s horrible,'” Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Scott thinks if East Oakland residents don’t push back against policies like this one it hides the problem. Truck emissions are just one example of the outsized pollution burden her community bears, she said. She thinks it’s time for change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to go beyond, ‘Oh, that was maybe a bad decision,'” Scott said. “How do we undo all those bad decisions with all the things that we know now? How do we fix it so that people are sharing burdens? That’s solidarity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial/video/6987554195729583365\" data-video-id=\"6987554195729583365\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@kqedofficial\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@kqedofficial\u003c/a>We explain how a truck policy affects POC in East and West parts of Oakland. \u003ca title=\"racismawareness\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/racismawareness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#racismawareness\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"oaklandca\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/oaklandca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#oaklandca\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"socialjustice\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/socialjustice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#socialjustice\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"environmental\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/environmental\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#environmental\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"fyp\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#fyp\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"bayarea\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayarea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#bayarea\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - kqed\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6987558479233846022\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – kqed\u003c/a>\n\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What Happens Now\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The sixth grade students at Life Academy have plenty of ideas to improve air quality along their highway, from electrifying trucks to planting more trees in the community, to distributing free air purifiers to people living in heavily polluted areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials have some of the same ideas. Last summer, the California Air Resources Board announced a rule \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/california-takes-bold-step-reduce-truck-pollution#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Today%2C%20the%20California%20Air,California%20will%20be%20zero%2Demission.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">requiring truck manufacturers to transition from diesel to electric\u003c/a> starting in 2024. These regulations say by 2045 every new truck sold in California will be zero-emission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angela Scott, of Communities for a Better Environment, wants to take things further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lift that ban,” she said. “I know people are not going to like it, but it’s such a racist policy. Lift the ban!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students are pushing for one more thing, something community advocates have been demanding for decades: a study of the ban’s health effects. And there has been some movement on that front. Bay Area air district officials said in an email to KQED they are committed to studying health impacts of the 580 truck ban, “probably in the 2022-2023 time frame.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated July 30 at 4:45 p.m. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When José G. González, the founder of Latino Outdoors, was on a panel recently, he heard one of the organization’s local leaders explaining how she’d first found the group. She’d typed “outdoor” and “Latino” into Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I did that six or seven years ago, that wasn’t \u003cem>there\u003c/em>,” González says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the whole reason González created Latino Outdoors in 2013: to fill a need. According to its mission statement, the organization wants to \u003ca href=\"https://latinooutdoors.org/about-us/\">create a space\u003c/a> in which “all Latino communities enjoy nature as a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their work includes the provision of inclusive programs and resources for those camping for the first time, as well as for those with more experience. It also furthers understanding of ecological history, alongside human history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nature is essential,” says González. “We really need to see it as a necessity rather than just a nicety.” He’s now a consultant and advisor, serving on different boards and working to increase equitable access for communities of color to nature and the outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while he and his colleagues have been advocating in this space for years, it’s a wider issue that recently made headlines when the executive director of the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830300/sierra-club-apologizes-for-founder-john-muirs-racist-views\">apologized for the racist views\u003c/a> perpetuated by the organization’s founder: iconic environmentalist John Muir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11793084\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11793084\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-1200x801.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">How can outdoor spaces like Muir Woods be made more welcoming spaces for communities of color? \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A Natural Reckoning\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Muir had, wrote Brune in a letter on the Sierra Club’s website, made “derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir’s words on the environment and nature can be found on gift shop paraphernalia around the U.S. National Parks network. One such quotation: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe,” Muir said\u003ca href=\"https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/misquotes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> in 1911\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For González, there’s a particular irony in these words. For him, they also apply to the very history of conservation in the U.S. — and its relationship to race. As the Sierra Club’s apology spotlighted, Muir’s own image of pristine wilderness unshaped by humans only existed if Indigenous people weren’t part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parks system, much like the founding of the U.S. itself, was designed by a specific demographic — landowning white males and after WWII served “a primarily white middle class,” González said. “We’re now facing the question of: what does that look like, and how does it need to be different, with a different demographic in mind?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People can debate whether or not Muir was racist, says González says, but it “only gets us so far.” For him, it’s more about rethinking of the future of conservation with our current — and future demographics — at its heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we look at the demographics of the new world in 2050, compared to 1950, they’re very different,” González says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11830711\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1900px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11830711\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1900\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1.jpg 1900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-1536x1035.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1900px) 100vw, 1900px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francis Mendoza on Mount Umunhum in Santa Clara County \u003ccite>(Francis Mendoza )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>Doing the Work\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“There’s a history of racism that you can’t erase” says Francis Mendoza, a Filipinx naturalist and park ranger, about the current reckoning within the conservation movement’s regarding its \u003cem>whole\u003c/em> past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to people like Muir, says Mendoza, “it is important to look at him and other figures with a whole view — not just his racism. We have to look at the whole person and decide for ourselves what that person has contributed to and what they have taken \u003cem>away\u003c/em> from, in our social movements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Mendoza wrote \u003ca href=\"https://baynature.org/2018/11/27/feeling-like-an-outsider-in-an-outside-world/\">an online essay\u003c/a> about often feeling “like an outsider in the outdoors world.” He felt privileged, he wrote, to be part of an inclusion movement that was “shifting the narrative, helping to remove exclusionary barriers, and conserving and protecting these beautiful open spaces that we can all enjoy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendoza applauds others currently doing important work to confront some of the racist history within organizations: like Teresa Baker, co-founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.diversifyoutdoors.com/about-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge\u003c/a> , which \u003ca href=\"https://www.insolidarityproject.com/the-pledge\">aims to connect\u003c/a> “leading outdoor brands with inclusion advocates to advance representation for people of color across the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also folks like Corinna Gould working to counteract the structures of the past. Gould co-founded the \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sogorea Te Land Trust\u003c/a>, with a mission to return indigenous ownership of Bay Area land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[ad fullwidth]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also about \u003cem>who\u003c/em> gets celebrated from the past. During John Muir’s time, there were also people like \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/ynes-mexia-accomplished-latina-botanist-k6bggm/13948/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ynés Mexía\u003c/a> (1870-1938) a botanist and plant collector. Mexía contributed greatly to the fields of conservation and environmentalism, but people aren’t taught about her, says José G. González.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not the history that gets shared when we learn about conservation — because we idolize John Muir so much,” González said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s about “unearthing our conservation \u003cem>cultura,\u003c/em>” he says: “acknowledging that while so much of this is ‘new,’ it’s rooted in the work of a lot of other organizations and individuals throughout our history that have been buried, excluded, and ignored.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Nature as Essential\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Spending time in nature has clear, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/50949/suffering-from-nature-deficit-disorder-try-forest-bathing\">proven benefits\u003c/a> for physical \u003cem>and\u003c/em> mental health. And it’s especially crucial to be able to access nature during the COVID-19 pandemic, says González.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nature is health,” he confirms. “It supports our mental cognitive health, our emotional health. For some people, it’s a spiritual connection as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that the coronavirus crisis has amplified existing social inequities means it’s even more crucial to see regular time in nature as “part of well-being and a healthy lifestyle,” says González. “When we close parks, or when we already have access issues, that only gets amplified — especially for Black and Indigenous communities of color who already may be facing some lack of access.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>González emphasizes the need for people in the United States to regard nature and its associated access issues as a \u003cem>public system\u003c/em>: the same way we talk about public education, or public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, the public land component, the nature component — it’s essential,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Resource: Inclusive Environmental Groups\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are several organizations working nationally and locally to further diversity and inclusion outdoors, and to make natural spaces welcoming for everyone. They include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://latinooutdoors.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Latino Outdoors\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/OutdoorAfro/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outdoor Afro\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/NativeWomensWilderness/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native Women Wilderness\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/OutdoorAsian/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outdoor Asian\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://jennybruso.com/unlikelyhikers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Unlikely Hikers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/LEJyouth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Literacy for Environmental Justice\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Bayview\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.yesfamilies.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yes Nature to Neighborhoods\u003c/a> in Richmond\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youthoutside.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Youth Outside\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pgmone.org/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PGM One\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.girlventures.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GirlVentures\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Know another group we should mention? \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kqednews\">Tweet us at @kqednews\u003c/a>!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated July 30 at 4:45 p.m. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When José G. González, the founder of Latino Outdoors, was on a panel recently, he heard one of the organization’s local leaders explaining how she’d first found the group. She’d typed “outdoor” and “Latino” into Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I did that six or seven years ago, that wasn’t \u003cem>there\u003c/em>,” González says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the whole reason González created Latino Outdoors in 2013: to fill a need. According to its mission statement, the organization wants to \u003ca href=\"https://latinooutdoors.org/about-us/\">create a space\u003c/a> in which “all Latino communities enjoy nature as a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their work includes the provision of inclusive programs and resources for those camping for the first time, as well as for those with more experience. It also furthers understanding of ecological history, alongside human history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nature is essential,” says González. “We really need to see it as a necessity rather than just a nicety.” He’s now a consultant and advisor, serving on different boards and working to increase equitable access for communities of color to nature and the outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while he and his colleagues have been advocating in this space for years, it’s a wider issue that recently made headlines when the executive director of the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830300/sierra-club-apologizes-for-founder-john-muirs-racist-views\">apologized for the racist views\u003c/a> perpetuated by the organization’s founder: iconic environmentalist John Muir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11793084\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11793084\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-1200x801.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">How can outdoor spaces like Muir Woods be made more welcoming spaces for communities of color? \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A Natural Reckoning\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Muir had, wrote Brune in a letter on the Sierra Club’s website, made “derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir’s words on the environment and nature can be found on gift shop paraphernalia around the U.S. National Parks network. One such quotation: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe,” Muir said\u003ca href=\"https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/misquotes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> in 1911\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For González, there’s a particular irony in these words. For him, they also apply to the very history of conservation in the U.S. — and its relationship to race. As the Sierra Club’s apology spotlighted, Muir’s own image of pristine wilderness unshaped by humans only existed if Indigenous people weren’t part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parks system, much like the founding of the U.S. itself, was designed by a specific demographic — landowning white males and after WWII served “a primarily white middle class,” González said. “We’re now facing the question of: what does that look like, and how does it need to be different, with a different demographic in mind?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People can debate whether or not Muir was racist, says González says, but it “only gets us so far.” For him, it’s more about rethinking of the future of conservation with our current — and future demographics — at its heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we look at the demographics of the new world in 2050, compared to 1950, they’re very different,” González says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11830711\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1900px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11830711\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1900\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1.jpg 1900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/nature-1-1536x1035.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1900px) 100vw, 1900px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francis Mendoza on Mount Umunhum in Santa Clara County \u003ccite>(Francis Mendoza )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>Doing the Work\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“There’s a history of racism that you can’t erase” says Francis Mendoza, a Filipinx naturalist and park ranger, about the current reckoning within the conservation movement’s regarding its \u003cem>whole\u003c/em> past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to people like Muir, says Mendoza, “it is important to look at him and other figures with a whole view — not just his racism. We have to look at the whole person and decide for ourselves what that person has contributed to and what they have taken \u003cem>away\u003c/em> from, in our social movements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Mendoza wrote \u003ca href=\"https://baynature.org/2018/11/27/feeling-like-an-outsider-in-an-outside-world/\">an online essay\u003c/a> about often feeling “like an outsider in the outdoors world.” He felt privileged, he wrote, to be part of an inclusion movement that was “shifting the narrative, helping to remove exclusionary barriers, and conserving and protecting these beautiful open spaces that we can all enjoy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendoza applauds others currently doing important work to confront some of the racist history within organizations: like Teresa Baker, co-founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.diversifyoutdoors.com/about-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge\u003c/a> , which \u003ca href=\"https://www.insolidarityproject.com/the-pledge\">aims to connect\u003c/a> “leading outdoor brands with inclusion advocates to advance representation for people of color across the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also folks like Corinna Gould working to counteract the structures of the past. Gould co-founded the \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sogorea Te Land Trust\u003c/a>, with a mission to return indigenous ownership of Bay Area land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also about \u003cem>who\u003c/em> gets celebrated from the past. During John Muir’s time, there were also people like \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/ynes-mexia-accomplished-latina-botanist-k6bggm/13948/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ynés Mexía\u003c/a> (1870-1938) a botanist and plant collector. Mexía contributed greatly to the fields of conservation and environmentalism, but people aren’t taught about her, says José G. González.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not the history that gets shared when we learn about conservation — because we idolize John Muir so much,” González said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s about “unearthing our conservation \u003cem>cultura,\u003c/em>” he says: “acknowledging that while so much of this is ‘new,’ it’s rooted in the work of a lot of other organizations and individuals throughout our history that have been buried, excluded, and ignored.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Nature as Essential\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Spending time in nature has clear, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/50949/suffering-from-nature-deficit-disorder-try-forest-bathing\">proven benefits\u003c/a> for physical \u003cem>and\u003c/em> mental health. And it’s especially crucial to be able to access nature during the COVID-19 pandemic, says González.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nature is health,” he confirms. “It supports our mental cognitive health, our emotional health. For some people, it’s a spiritual connection as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that the coronavirus crisis has amplified existing social inequities means it’s even more crucial to see regular time in nature as “part of well-being and a healthy lifestyle,” says González. “When we close parks, or when we already have access issues, that only gets amplified — especially for Black and Indigenous communities of color who already may be facing some lack of access.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>González emphasizes the need for people in the United States to regard nature and its associated access issues as a \u003cem>public system\u003c/em>: the same way we talk about public education, or public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, the public land component, the nature component — it’s essential,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Resource: Inclusive Environmental Groups\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are several organizations working nationally and locally to further diversity and inclusion outdoors, and to make natural spaces welcoming for everyone. They include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://latinooutdoors.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Latino Outdoors\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/OutdoorAfro/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outdoor Afro\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/NativeWomensWilderness/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native Women Wilderness\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/OutdoorAsian/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outdoor Asian\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://jennybruso.com/unlikelyhikers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Unlikely Hikers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/LEJyouth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Literacy for Environmental Justice\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Bayview\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.yesfamilies.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yes Nature to Neighborhoods\u003c/a> in Richmond\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youthoutside.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Youth Outside\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pgmone.org/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PGM One\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.girlventures.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GirlVentures\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Know another group we should mention? \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kqednews\">Tweet us at @kqednews\u003c/a>!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Sierra Club Apologizes for Founder John Muir's Racist Views",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Sierra Club apologized Wednesday for racist remarks its founder, naturalist John Muir, made more than a century ago as the influential environmental group grapples with a harmful history that perpetuated white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Executive Director Michael Brune said it was “time to take down some of our own monuments” as statues of Confederate officers and colonists are toppled across the U.S. in a reckoning with the nation’s racist history following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir, who founded the club in 1892, helped spawn the environmental movement and is called “father of our national parks,” figures prominently in what Brune called a “truth-telling” about the group’s early history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He made derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes, though his views evolved later in his life,” Brune wrote on the group’s website. “As the most iconic figure in Sierra Club history, Muir’s words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir, who was born in Scotland, came to the U.S. as a young man and traveled and wrote extensively, romanticizing nature in breathless passages. He emphasized the need to preserve the land but also disdained Indigenous people as dirty savages and Black people as lazy “Sambos,” a particularly offensive slur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also kept company with other early club members and leaders, such as Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan, who advocated for white supremacy and promoting the race through eugenics, which called for forced sterilization of Black people and other minority groups, Brune said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until recent years, Muir’s legacy has been largely untarnished and focused on his conservation efforts, such as saving Yosemite Valley before it became a national park and preserving the world’s largest trees in what became Sequoia National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Richard White, a Stanford history professor, said Muir’s advocacy for wilderness has an inherent racial bias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir’s image of pristine wilderness unshaped by humans only existed if indigenous people weren’t part of it. Even though they had been there for thousands of years, Muir wrote that they “seemed to have no right place in the landscape.” American Indians needed to be removed in order to reinvent those places as untouched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a dark underside here that will not be erased by just saying Muir was a racist,” White said. “I would leave Muir’s name on things but explain that, as hard as it may be to accept, it is not just Muir who was racist. The way we created the wilderness areas we now rightly prize was racist.” [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Richard White, Stanford history professor\"]'As hard as it may be to accept, it is not just Muir who was racist. The way we created the wilderness areas we now rightly prize was racist.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir is so widely revered that his name appears across California on everything from schools to national monuments, one of the state’s highest peaks, a giant swath of scenic Sierra Nevada wilderness that is bisected by a trail in his name and a national historic site. The discernible profile of Muir — with long beard, brimmed hat and walking stick gazing at Yosemite’s Half Dome — was stamped on the 2005 California quarter when the U.S. Mint was producing a commemorative coin for every state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Alaska, where he traveled extensively, a glacier and an inlet in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve are named for Muir, as likely is a mountain east of Anchorage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t walk into a national park gift shop without coming face-to-face with T-shirts, mugs and tchotchkes bearing one of his pithy — often overused — quotes, such as “The mountains are calling and I must go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Revisiting Muir’s offensive remarks comes as environmental groups and the outdoor industry aim to be more inclusive during renewed racial awareness following Floyd’s death. The killing of the Black man in May has sparked weeks of protests and led to calls to rename places named for Confederate officers and remove statues of historical figures who held slaves or colonized or exploited Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brune said the Sierra Club once excluded people of color as it catered to middle- and upper-class whites. He said the focus on preserving recreational lands once inhabited by Indigenous people who had been driven out by white settlers willfully ignored the plight of minorities who were fighting environmental injustices in their own communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For all the harms the Sierra Club has caused, and continues to cause, to Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color, I am deeply sorry,” Brune wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He pledged to hire a more diverse staff and invest in environmental and racial justice work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press journalist Mark Thiessen in Anchorage contributed.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Sierra Club apologized Wednesday for racist remarks its founder, naturalist John Muir, made more than a century ago as the influential environmental group grapples with a harmful history that perpetuated white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Executive Director Michael Brune said it was “time to take down some of our own monuments” as statues of Confederate officers and colonists are toppled across the U.S. in a reckoning with the nation’s racist history following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir, who founded the club in 1892, helped spawn the environmental movement and is called “father of our national parks,” figures prominently in what Brune called a “truth-telling” about the group’s early history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He made derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes, though his views evolved later in his life,” Brune wrote on the group’s website. “As the most iconic figure in Sierra Club history, Muir’s words and actions carry an especially heavy weight. They continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people and people of color.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir, who was born in Scotland, came to the U.S. as a young man and traveled and wrote extensively, romanticizing nature in breathless passages. He emphasized the need to preserve the land but also disdained Indigenous people as dirty savages and Black people as lazy “Sambos,” a particularly offensive slur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also kept company with other early club members and leaders, such as Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan, who advocated for white supremacy and promoting the race through eugenics, which called for forced sterilization of Black people and other minority groups, Brune said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until recent years, Muir’s legacy has been largely untarnished and focused on his conservation efforts, such as saving Yosemite Valley before it became a national park and preserving the world’s largest trees in what became Sequoia National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Richard White, a Stanford history professor, said Muir’s advocacy for wilderness has an inherent racial bias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir’s image of pristine wilderness unshaped by humans only existed if indigenous people weren’t part of it. Even though they had been there for thousands of years, Muir wrote that they “seemed to have no right place in the landscape.” American Indians needed to be removed in order to reinvent those places as untouched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a dark underside here that will not be erased by just saying Muir was a racist,” White said. “I would leave Muir’s name on things but explain that, as hard as it may be to accept, it is not just Muir who was racist. The way we created the wilderness areas we now rightly prize was racist.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir is so widely revered that his name appears across California on everything from schools to national monuments, one of the state’s highest peaks, a giant swath of scenic Sierra Nevada wilderness that is bisected by a trail in his name and a national historic site. The discernible profile of Muir — with long beard, brimmed hat and walking stick gazing at Yosemite’s Half Dome — was stamped on the 2005 California quarter when the U.S. Mint was producing a commemorative coin for every state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Alaska, where he traveled extensively, a glacier and an inlet in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve are named for Muir, as likely is a mountain east of Anchorage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t walk into a national park gift shop without coming face-to-face with T-shirts, mugs and tchotchkes bearing one of his pithy — often overused — quotes, such as “The mountains are calling and I must go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Revisiting Muir’s offensive remarks comes as environmental groups and the outdoor industry aim to be more inclusive during renewed racial awareness following Floyd’s death. The killing of the Black man in May has sparked weeks of protests and led to calls to rename places named for Confederate officers and remove statues of historical figures who held slaves or colonized or exploited Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brune said the Sierra Club once excluded people of color as it catered to middle- and upper-class whites. He said the focus on preserving recreational lands once inhabited by Indigenous people who had been driven out by white settlers willfully ignored the plight of minorities who were fighting environmental injustices in their own communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For all the harms the Sierra Club has caused, and continues to cause, to Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color, I am deeply sorry,” Brune wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He pledged to hire a more diverse staff and invest in environmental and racial justice work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press journalist Mark Thiessen in Anchorage contributed.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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