Data advocacy: The Hawaii Budget and Policy Center was tasked with analyzing state spending on Native Hawaiian-related programs but shifted to data advocacy once the center realized that data on Native Hawaiians was not consistently collected. In 2021, the nonprofit, in collaboration with Papa Ola Lokahi, released a report to urge the state to improve data collection about Native Hawaiians through legislative action. They emphasize the need for greater accountability in state programs funded to help Native Hawaiians (Jung 2021), as well as “data sovereignty,” that is, Native Hawaiian involvement in decision-making (Kauahikaua and Pieper-Jordan 2021).
Mental health support: Environmental advocates have looked at not only physical health impacts, but the “cultural, spiritual and mental health impacts of land-use decisions” (Caulfield 2020). For instance, on the Waianae Coast of West Oahu, community members worked with mental health professionals to confront the mental health burden living in an area that hosts public utilities and is subjected to the negative perceptions attached to those facilities–that is, being seen as a “dumping ground.” Ethnic studies professor Laurel Mei-Singh describes this as a process of material and psychological “dumping” that is tied into forces of militarism, colonialism and racism. All along the coast, there are public utilities that include a municipal landfill, a power plant, a construction waste landfill, and a waste-to-energy burning facility. These facilities emit volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and carbon monoxide. People living in the area are disproportionately affected by cancer, asthma, and birth defects. However, the mental health toll of living in the area is not well studied, though census data shows that the Waianae Coast has the highest concentration of adults suffering from poor mental health on Oahu. Mei-Singh and mental health professionals hope knowledge of the history of the area can help local people recover and “reclaim their mo‘olelo (story)” (Kauanoe et al. 2021).
Caulfield, Claire. 2020. “Is There Environmental Racism In Hawaii?” Honolulu Civil Beat. June 15, 2020. https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/06/is-there-environmental-racism-in-hawaii/.
Jung, Yoohyun. 2021. “Report Calls For Better Data About And For Native Hawaiians.” Honolulu Civil Beat. March 6, 2021. https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/03/report-calls-for-better-data-about-and-for-native-hawaiians/.
Kauanoe, Ku’u and Claire Caulfield. 2021. “From ‘Sacred Place’ To ‘Dumping Ground,’ West Oahu Confronts A Legacy Of Landfills.” Honolulu Civil Beat. December 5, 2021. https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/12/from-sacred-place-to-dumping-ground-west-oahu-confronts-a-legacy-of-landfills/.
Kauahikaua, Lilinoe and Seanna Pieper-Jordan. 2021. “Improving Hawai‘i’s data policy to better serve Native Hawaiians.” Hawai’i Budget and Policy Center and Papa Ola Lokahi. /https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ef66d594879125d04f91774/t/60514869451e1d09b75e4317/1615939719621/Data+Justice+Report_Interactive.pdf.
"The “1-mile rule”: Texas’ unwritten, arbitrary policy protects big polluters from citizen complaints. It’s not found anywhere in state law or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s rules, but for years the agency has denied citizens the ability to challenge air pollution permits because they live more than a mile away." (Baddour 2023)
State power in Hawaii: The state of Hawaii was the first state in the US to declare climate emergency. They have a pretty extensive climate change portal. The state is also reported as enacting many progressive legislations, such as banning some sunscreens to protect coral reefs, raise the smoking age, commited to goals in Paris climate deal. It also aims to be dependent 100% on renewable energy by 2045. The state has also banned chlorpyrifos, a chemical that in other parts of the US is resulting into multiple disabilities for agricultural populations.
According to the maunakeasyllabus, however, the state of Hawaii participates in production of Hawaiin culture as a resource that undermines self-determination. In their words:
“For the state, the work entails producing Hawaiian culture as a resource that can be managed in the first place. (Yúdice 2004: 4). Culture-as-resource works in tandem with public trust jurisprudence to make feasible the settler state’s governance of the differences of Indigenous communities and the pasts that produce it… What is expedient about this rendering of Hawaiian culture is that the state can protect it, usually under a management plan, thereby safeguarding the resource-glue that presumably coheres Hawaiian community; and thus allows the settler state to conclude that it protects Hawaiian culture without having to address Hawaiian self-determination.”
1. Scientists at Columbia university estbalished a link between exposure to chlorpyrifos and alterations in brain structure
2. California Gov. Gavin Newsom banned chlorpyrifos in the state in may 2019
3. EPA banned the chemical in 2015. Trump admin reversed the ban.
4. Cerda family: chronic exposure to chlorpyrifos, suing for general damages, compensatory damages due to Cerda’s loss in earning capacity, medical costs, and “punitive damages for the willful, reckless, and recklessly indifferent conduct of the Defendants,”
Farmers drove pickup trucks loaded with dirt into a breached levee, then covered the trucks with dirt
Schools and colleges have stepped up to provide skilled manufacturing training
Fresno County offers employee training through the New Employment Opportunity program, which reimburses companies that hire through the program
Economic leaders/local government: bringing in diverse occupations and companies to the valley, including a medical complex in Clovis, which will house the first medical school in the valley
Code enforcement doesn't do anything when residents call them, does not have a timeline for re-inspection after a property fails initial inspections
Owners retaliate against renters by raising rent, evicting them, etc. for complaining
Residents must fix things on their own, don't report concerns because of fears of retaliation
Valley Water Management Company (owner) & Sentinel Peak Resources (oil producer): fined $645,000
Clean Water Fund & Association of Irritated Residents: sued using Prop 65 (Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986) to shut down pond
other oil companies: inject wastewater deep underground in or near reservoirs where it originated
Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board: forced closure of pond out of concern that underground plume will reach Kern River and Bakersfield's drinking water
LA County: bought 14,500 acres of a farm for $27.4 million, used 2,500 acres to construct the $130 million composting plant, leased the remaining land back to the farm. The plant processes less than a 10th of what it was supposed to process, providing the farm with much less fertilizer than they expected.
Westlake Farms: sold the land to LA County, sued to have the sale undone after the plant produced much less fertilizer than expecte
Kings County and other nearby counties: banned application of biosolids (human waste) directly onto land, forcing LA to build a composting plant
The current crisis is the opposite of the usual one--instead of fighting over who gets access to water, groups are fighting over how to get rid of it.
Farmers, residents, municipal work crews, and hired contractors are reinforcing levees, pumping out excess water, and evacuating livestock, equipment, and homes.
One group was hired to protect a supply warehouse 3 miles south of Corcoran.
J.G. Boswell Company, which mainly produces cotton, owns most of the lowlands that are the Tulare Lake bed. They have allowed some fields to flood in efforts to protect other areas (the most productive farmland). The County Board of Supervisors forced them to cut another levee and flood more land because they weren't doing enough to protect populated areas.
"Flood protection in California is largely a local affair, with water agencies, special districts and private companies building and maintaining the infrastructure. Smaller towns, like those in the San Joaquin Valley, often don’t have the money to develop their own levee systems, and while the state and federal government help out, winning investment from them isn’t easy. The Tulare Lake basin also doesn’t have major Army Corps of Engineers flood projects to buffer large amounts of water as do some areas such as the Sacramento region."