|
Names of organizations involved in the project: Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), General Woods Boys and Girls Club, Little Village Academy, Communities for a Better Environment, and the University of Illinois School of Public Health
Geographic location of the project
City of Chicago, IL, USA: Community Area #30: South Lawndale
Background/problem statement
South Lawndale (known as "Little Village") is a 120-year-old, five square mile industrialized community of 91,000 people located on Chicago's southwest side. It is the largest sector of the 2nd most populated Mexican American urban area in the United States and has the youngest median age of any of Chicago's 77 communities (20.9 years old). Over 40% of the Little Village population living are living below 200% of the poverty level. Little Village's zip code ranks 3rd out of 60 in the Chicago area in the total amount of Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals generated, treated, transferred or disposed of locally in 1996. The region's largest coal-burning electrical generating plant is in Little Village, releasing 18 million pounds of sulfur dioxide and 75% of the total particulates in the community each year.
The foundation of a sustainable community is the active participation of those who live and work there in the planning, implementation and evaluation of programs. In order to participate in the planning of what will happen to their communities, residents must utilize their talents and access technology and information to negotiate on a level playing field with both public and private parties. Since 1986 the U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) has enabled community residents to find out some of the toxic chemicals they are breathing, which are being transported through their neighborhoods and which flow into waterways near their homes. TRI, AIRS and other public information on toxins and their health effects can be powerful tools by which neighbors can organize, educate and negotiate with private and public bodies to implement pollution prevention. However, particularly in low-income, immigrant communities of color overburdened by toxins there are many obstacles to overcome and steps that must be taken before residents are in a position to take action on pollution prevention.
Goals, activities and outcomes
1. Increase the self-sufficiency of adults and youth to access, understand and utilize environmental data and information. Community members will be trained through use of the bilingual Little Village Guide to Toxic Pollution (TRI/AIRS data) and three Internet computer lab sites.
2. Collect "on the ground" primary data of sources of pollution not required to report toxins. In Little Village there are dozens of industries with less than ten employees and hundreds of unlicensed auto mechanic, body and paint shops. The USEPA funded the Little Village Air Sampling Bucket Brigade Network, trained in the fall of 1999, will collect and analyze samples near reporting and non-reporting facilities.
3. Neighbors want to see the "big picture" of where toxins are in the community. As part of a geographic information system (GIS) project LVEJO staff and community volunteers have categorized and inventoried every property on 125 of the 250 blocks in Little Village. Our goal will be to finish the data collection and geocoding by July, 2001. Adults and youth are being trained in manual and GIS mapping, documentation through photos and video and the building of a LVEJO web site. Primary and secondary data collected will be mapped out during the project and presented in an updated Little Village Guide with health information in community and school forums.
4. Residents will conduct surveys among their neighbors and meet in a community assembly to decide the most important sources of pollution and choose one facility to develop a pollution prevention action plan.
Successes
a) GIS Project: During the summer of the year 2000 five local high school students from our community were teamed with five pre-public health students from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Health Careers’ Opportunity Program (HCOP). All ten students were taught the GIS primary data collection method by LVEJO staff and a UIC faculty member advisor. This included reviewing the categories developed for carrying out an inventory of each land parcel. Land parcels are categorized by their use: residential, commercial, industrial, educational, health, transportation, vacant land, etc. The students formed five pairs and over the 12 weeks do a complete inventory of 50 blocks. This brought the total number of blocks inventoried to 175 out of a total of 250.
Members of the LVEJO youth organization (students ages 12-18) have begun working with college students from the neighborhood to finish the block inventory by the end of this year. The LVEJO students joined the organization as a result of presentations made by the environmental educator/organizer hired by the NAFEC grant at a local elementary school, high school and Boys and Girls Club. Pictures have been taken of significant sites of both land and air pollution. These include the urban Midwest's largest coal burning electrical plant, a steel drum recycler, the largest toxic land site on the southwest side of Chicago and a municipal waste transfer station. An introduction to ArcView GIS was given to the youth group showing how the inventory data collected needs first to be entered and as a Microsoft Excel file and then transferred into ArcView GIS. In the spring of 2002, after all blocks have been inventoried the each student will receive hands on learning to use ArcView GIS to map out the data they each collected. Once they all feel comfortable with the process they will develop one collective map of the entire community area. The ArcView maps will then be utilized to make layered flat maps which they will then present at their schools, churches, parents, block clubs and community based organizations.
Throughout this process the youth group will be working with LVEJO staff to utilize the mapping process as an important foundation for developing a sustainable development plan for the entire community. In January, 2001 LVEJO staff, members and volunteers began meeting with the City of Chicago Department of Planning, Department of Environment, Chicago Park District and various community organizations and agencies to discuss where all open space is in the community and the possible ways it can be utilized. A total of three meetings have taken place and a draft plan for the use of open space is planned for the end of this year. LVBEJO will utilize its mapping data and Little Village Guide to Toxic Pollution in developing the draft plan.
b) LVEJO Youth and college Students correlated their information and data collection with the 1997-1998 "Little Village Guide to Toxic Pollution", which they studied and reviewed with the LVEJO staff and UIC faculty member. During this process the LVEJO staff member explained each of the terms listed on the EPA and other web sites. Youth then worked with the environmental researcher to make a list of each of the toxins listed for each site, adding up the total amount of each toxin for all 150 facilities in the area. Finally, health effects of the 5 most serious toxins were researched and explained to the youth.
The other significant accomplishment over the last 9 months has been extensive research and activity regarding an 11-acre public land site located in Little Village. A factory formerly occupied Seven acres of this site. The land was given to the city in 1995 and the factory demolished a year later. However, the foundation and underground storage tanks remain. Neighborhood residents having only one park for 91,000 residents advocated for the land to become a park. Instead the city wanted to sell it to a plastic recycler, even though it is located across the street from where thousands of children and women of childbearing age live. Soil samples revealed five areas of toxins above TACO standards that needed remediation. While the community continues to advocate for a park, LVEJO youth and students have worked with our researcher to gain an in-dept understanding of the various environmental assessment steps in the process.
c) Bucket Brigade Network:
LVEJO received a grant from the National Bucket Brigade Network in September, 2000. The grant will be used to have a second, larger training session in the Spring that will include those trained in September, 1999 and a new group of adults and youth. The grant will also be used to build 5 more buckets with which to take samples. The youth organization has voted to make air sampling one of their on-going activities beginning this fall. Air samples will be collected in the fall of 2001. Prior to the collection of air samples the bucket brigade network will do a survey of community residents as to what they feel are the most significant sources of air pollution. The results of this survey will be correlated with the updated TRI and AIRS data and the revised Little Village Guide. Finally, the third step will be a series of meetings with USEPA, Region 5 Air Division and GIS personnel to have their input as to the priority sites to do air sampling.
d) Alternative Energy Sources
The most significant source of pollution in the region where Little Village is located is a 55 year old Crawford Station coal burning electrical plant, the largest within any city in the Midwest. In April, 2001 the Harvard School of Public Health published a report on the number of excess deaths directly related to 9 coal burning electrical plants in Illinois. The Crawford station contributes 39 of the 429 excess deaths caused by all 9 plants. The report also states that the vast majority of fine particulate matter fallout is within 1 mile of the Crawford plant where 50,000 Little Village residents live.
LVEJO received its copy of the report and immediately shared it with members of the youth organization, students, members and volunteers who have decided to make it a primary focus of education and organizing over the next few years. We will be working in coalition with the American Lung Association, statewide organizations and community groups in the region where Little Village is located. Our goal is to negotiate cleaner sources of energy for the plant or put in efficient scrubbers to remove most of the particulate matter, dioxin, mercury and other toxins caused by the burning of the coal. The diagram of the fallout of the plant’s plume was explained to youth and adults and linked to the mapping process they were already involved in.
Challenges
Many challenges have faced have arisen in the last year since our NAFEC project began. This includes the unexpected attempt to sell 11 acres of public land to the plastics recycling factory, which has taken up most of our time. The Bucket Brigade project has been delayed due to other obligations of the organization that will be doing the project. Our environmental researcher who did significant high quality work from September, 2000 until May, 2001 left suddenly due to family obligations in another state.
Due to funding cutbacks in the Boys and Girls Club activity there has been much more limited than originally planned
Lessons Learned
The most important lesson is that community residents, young and old have a tremendous capacity to absorb and utilize new information and data if they feel it is relevant to their lives and those of their families and neighbors. The group that has been working on this project of LVEJO staff, members and youth has remained stable and committed throughout the last year. We were idealistic in the number of the objectives we set originally, but have accomplished quite a bit in 12 months.
Next Steps
Fall:
- Bucket Brigade Training and Building of more Buckets
- Survey of where to do air sampling
- Compare survey results with TRI/AIRS data and Little Village Toxic Pollution Guide
- Dialogue with USEPA, Region 5 Air and GIS Divisions on location of air sampling
- Begin collection of air samples
- Continue block inventory for GIS project
Winter-Spring:
- Finish GIS block inventory
- Integrate data collected in ArcView GIS software, including 2000 census data and digital photographs, environmental data
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
For more information about this grant, please contact the CEC Secretariat.
|
|
United States 
