23 June 2004
At the Southern California offices of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), the South African delegation heard about the environmental injustices faced by residents of Los Angeles, home to the most polluted air in the country. Organizers at CBE described how they have run various campaigns, from raising awareness about environmental injustices through cultural events to pressuring local bodies like the Air Quality Monitoring Department to tightening regulations through measures placed on the ballot.
Tactics such as these were used to get a nearby oil refinery that uses hydrofluoric acid to phase out the use of this chemical. The delegates from South Africa also shared their experiences as well.
CBE community organizer Jesus Torres had participated in groundWork USA’s 2004 Air Quality Exchange and was now hosting the South African delegation in Southeast Los Angeles. For dinner, he brought us to El Ranchito, a local Mexico restaurant. The mural on the back of the restaurant, Jesus explained, is a depiction of the founding of Mexico City. According to legend, the sight of an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake fulfilled determined the location of where the Aztecs would establish Teochtitlan, the capital of their empire
24 June 2004
URPAVV Sectretary, Maria Elvia Vega
The South African delegation visited Union de Residentes para la Proteccion Ambiental de Val Verde (URPAVV), a community group based in Val Verde, California. URPAVV has helped to mobilize residents to improve the quality of life in their community through cultural events and community clean up efforts. The organization has also been working to deal with a landfill located right next door to the community. Many residents have suffered from cancer and repertory problems and the group is looking to do a study to make a correlation between air quality and health. URPAVV successfully lead a campaign to block plans to expand the size of the landfill despite opposition from some white residents and county supervisors.
Members of URPAVV gave us a presentation of how they residents understand their community now and how they would like to see it transformed in the future. This was similar to the People’s Plans that the Ironbound Community Corporation and PODER had shown us, it had been specifically designed so that it could be presented to school children and understood thematically, rather than as a finished ‘plan’. Members of URPAVV also gave us a tour of Val Verde and showed us the proximity of their homes to the landfill.
Staff from the group Pacoima Beautiful, a non-profit organization that helps to educate local residents around various environmental issues, helped to put us in touch with managers of the Sun Valley landfill, run by Waste Management. Kit Cole, the Director of Community Programs arranged a tour for the delegates, taking them around the site.
After the site tour, the South African activists interviewed Director of projects, Mike Williams, asking him questions about how the facility is run and how the landfill managers deal with various technical problems.
25 June 2004
The South African delegation met with Scott Tignac, the District Manager of the Simi Valley landfill and recycling center. He explained how the facility was developed out of a natural crater in a mountain range and how the company has been working to avoid the environmental hazards that arise at other sites like those near Sajitha Khan’s residence in South Durban.
Scott Tignac gave the delegation a tour of the landfill facility. Sajitha Khan was particularly interested in the site’s gas-to-energy generator, which utilizes the methane gas produced from the decomposition of refuse within the landfill through two 16 cylinder internal combustion generators.
