Fieldnote Jan 31 2023

Notes Taken from Kim's Eco Gov Class: Attended by Jose and by Sam from the Vaquer@s

Jose: Santa Ana also suffers from Jet fuel emissions from being in the landing path of the John Wayne Airport. Do they capture average air emissions of PM only? Do they manage all forms of air emission types? How often do they capture emissions? What about unburned fuels from planes and spills and distribution?

[referring to AQMD] They said, in reference to the site of a school. (its a land zoning issue, not part of our jurisdiction). Ton of warehouses, near the school. That’s not us, the most we can do is help you understand the issues. But we don’t regulate it.

Kim: did she express frustration with that answer?

AQMD Said: Oh, we can help you explain it, help you analyze data. But you have to deal with the city. 

City of Santa Ana: amendment to zoning ordinance for industrial/noxious uses. 1) noxious uses near vulnerable institutions, schools, 2) noxious uses for places in breach of their permit. 

^^But what is that going to look like? How do we make this work? 

Permitting infractions are only reported if they are watching. 

Markland had violations in the past. Who is checking on them? Have they been fined? How do we know they have improved? 

Jose: Cluster of leukemia cases. 5 kids. AQMD came down, Jose went to the meetings. Franklin Elementary. (Wow, ton of data and numbers. How are we expecting these community members to understand. No translations. Lots of non-english speakers. No expertise translations). All they got was that the data did not support the concentration of the disease. The stuff they presented was way over the head of the community.  

Kim: how do the city and AQMD work with public health department, etc. t understand 

Sean: Precedent for multi-department taskforce? All the finger pointing. If this responsibility falls between you. You might need to come together. 

^James: Any literature on this?

Sean: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537742/from-the-inside-out/

Margaret: https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4559/Bridging-SilosCollaborating-for-Environmental 

Kim: How do we know when a lawsuit is the right tool for the job?

Hopes Sam can help us understand DTSC. DTSC blatant failure to respond. “We are in receipt of your email…” 

SAM: DTSC is an abysmal failure (compared to other regulators). There was a chemical spill.. Unaware of the origin. It was visible though. Obvious. Road closures. Driving by, saw white powder that had spilled into the street. Cars drove over it. Clouds. Spreading. What was it?!?!?!

Called DTSC. no response. Lots of calls. More calls. Eventually they showed up. A week after, they came to investigate. 

Hazmat came. So it’s concerning. The community needs to know. It’s going into the air. Going into a creek which flows into the public water sources. Need that information. 

The sheriff said, oh don’t worry about it. It’s lime. 

Sam: Why is hazmat here?

Sheriff: dont worry about it. It wasn’t serious. 

Last month. Got a letter from DTSC. Asks to fill out the survey. They got the community to fill out the survey (not our job! But we value it. So we did). We said… forget this! We deserve a meeting. Was just prior to the settlement that was announced last month. 2.3 million,. Largest ever paid by this battery company. 

“Ok. now in good compliance to out agency. “

Ok. that means nothing. To us. Because we have reason to believe we are still at risk. Meeting tomorrow. What is the most efficient use of that meeting? 

Basically:  regulatory agencies representing engagement. Keep us busy. Do “work.” 

We are civic investigators. Can’t ignore it. Our job/goal is to Empower community 

Sean Ferguson's Note: Sam mentioned a community health assessment being needed. Local health agencies should be doing this. If they aren’t and need support the CDC has a relatively new project that supports improving community health assessment. It could be used as a point of leverage to get the baselining of community health that is a means of future action (or long term health data collection): https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/cha/resources.html ; see also: https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/docs/nphii/Compendium.pdf 

DTSC Meeting Feb 8, 6-8pm. Wednesday: 1234 Valencia Avenue, Hacienda Heights, Ca

DTSC Uploaded thousands of pages, only in english. And it's an 80% latino community. Census tract has a large asian population as well. That’s a problem. They give you 30 days/or 3 months (for us). So we had to go through the documents, then parallel campaign to get folks to send letters. Set up a template. Explain to them that volume is important. They have to respond. And, set up a separate campaign to have people sign up to speak. And then… it stops. You don't hear anything. No document. Nothing. 

Well. so we went through the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) process. But that’s not all we can do. What leverage do we have? How do we delay this facility? When you realize the bureaucracy. The delay. Is all we can do. 

Everything we do, bring people into the process. Because the problem was lack of participation. The problem is the population at the highest risk is not participating. 

Everything we do is informed by research. Create an archive of that research. Have the articles ready. So next EIR comes up. 

Sukriti: what if they don’t’ respect your data? 

Sam: it’s not for them. Its for us. To help us understand. We don’t trust their data. Only 30% f the houses they asked to sample said yes. That is because they dont trust them. 

Public comment and public records are two of the most powerful tools that the public has. If you are strategic, you can get information. 

Writ of mandate: if they don't produce the information. Ask a judge to intervene. Because the entity will not produce the information in compliance with the law. 

“For us, a victory is a delay. … even if we slow it down for three years, that's three years to organize the community” and produce the data, and diagnose the problem. This is not an overnight campaign. I grew up in the community, I live in the community, I plan to die in the community. I have my whole life. I have asthma. My sister is a cancer survivor. This is not an abstraction. 

DTSC Meeting this Friday, Feb 3, 9am. 

Sam: “Cultural organizing” “people won't show up if you're the victim. Speak the language that the community speaks.”

Don’t make your organizing about shutting down the facility. You need achievable goals to keep up motivation.