On August 15, residents of Old Town National City joined us to demand National City Council prohibit pollution from local auto body shop Perry Ford.

Perry Ford has been operating without permits and against zoning requirements established by National City’s Westside Specific Plan, which passed in 2010.

Residents of the Paradise Creek Park Apartments approached City Council one by one to express frustration about Perry Ford operating close to homes and schools in the neighborhood.

Alicia Sanchez, a longtime community member who was initially involved in drafting the Westside Specific Plan, took a moment to remind everyone how imperative it is to prohibit pollution in communities if we truly want #healthyhoods.

Thank you to National City Councilmembers Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, Mona Rios, Jerry Cano and Albert Mendivil made the right decision to uphold the Old Town National City Westside Specific Plan and prevent toxic businesses from contaminating where we live, work and play.

Thank you to every community member who made this victory a possibility and put us one step closer to achieving our vision of environmental justice in National City.

To join our movement, please click here.

Environmental Health Coalition stands in solidarity with the people of Charlottesville and everywhere who stand on the side of justice in the face of hate.

The bigotry, hate and violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville and encouraged by our president, underscores the urgency of our movement for justice and democracy. We know that to combat hate, we have to build long-lasting, sustainable people-powered movements.

That means growing the power of everyday people to build and defend vibrant and free communities.

EHC leaders organize every day in the most challenging and dangerous circumstances – from human rights abuses to environmental and public health assaults.

Living in the most polluted neighborhoods in the San Diego/Tijuana region, our leaders stand up to environmental racism with grace, determination grit and persistence.

Every year, EHC celebrates our members and leaders at a community picnic. This Saturday, August 19, we will do so again. Kids will play, parents will share stories and we will all be grateful for a moment to enjoy each other.

This year we will also observe a moment of silence for those we lost in the struggle for justice – those who died, those who were torn from their families by deportation, those who suffer from illnesses and those who live in fear.

We invite you all to join EHC as we celebrate and mourn and restore ourselves to fight again. Please join us.

Last month, our staff celebrated the introduction of their very own bikeshare program to promote transportation justice and healthy living in the workplace.

Now, you may spot EHC staff pedaling around National City for meals, meetings – or maybe just for fun.

By installing bike racks and working with the San Diego County Bike Coalition to teach safe biking to our team, we hope to slowly but surely reduce the number of cars the streets in our neighborhood and encourage our community to use alternative modes of transportation. Now, we’re talking the talk and biking the bike.

Want to learn what you can do to bring transportation justice to your community? Click here.

On a sunny Saturday morning in July, we took 21 eager passengers on our BarrioLive! Tijuana Tour.

During the course of the day, we made numerous stops to highlight environmental justice in our cross-border communities.

• Alamar River channelization project: The binational Alamar River and the invaluable ecosystem it contains were being paved. Now, we’re working to preserve it. We showed our progress first-hand saving this precious natural resource.
• Metales y Derivados: Many years ago, we helped lead the cleanup of 45,000 tons of toxic waste and establish a structure for cross-border collaboration on toxic-site cleanups. We visited the site that symbolizes environmental justice achieved and a monumental neighborhood victory.
• Maquiladoras viewpoint: Maquiladora assembly plants in Colonia Chilpancingo have contaminated the neighborhood and its resources for many years. Our tour allowed guests to see and understand them from a new point of view.

For several hours, our guests learned about critical community victories that have come from a 20-year-old campaign that has helped relieve numerous communities of pollution and displacement. The tour included personal struggles shared first-hand by the local community members, as well as their motivation to form the Colonia Chilpancingo.

Our youth group (Grupo de Jovenes) joined us to share stories from their experiences. 22-year-old Fernando and his family have been EHC activists for close to eight years. He told the group he, “is motivated to know he has and will continue to make a difference.” His conviction and determination inspired and touched everyone.

To conclude the tour, we enjoyed a mixer with community members and had the opportunity to meet the people who have brought environmental justice to Tijuana for more than 25 years.

Here is some of the feedback we received:

• “I liked the Alamar River because we really got to see an area in use and its effects on the community.”
• “The tour had good detail on the history of the toxicity and remediation; good presentation of existing problems; excellent company; excellent lunch”
• “Can't thank EHC enough. It is an incredible organization that I wish everyone advocated for.”

We look forward to the next BarrioLive! Tour, in San Diego this fall – October 19^, 2017.

Mark your calendars and send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve your seat today.

SALTA provides community leaders with skill-building training in community organizing, policy advocacy and effective communication.

From mothers who envision a healthier future for their children, to community advocates that want to gain new tools to be leaders in their own neighborhoods, our SALTA graduates now have the skills necessary to move our region toward environmental justice.

The 2017 class reminds us that every one of us is a leader, and leadership is best cultivated from the ground up. Congratulations to all our community leaders and graduates – we’re very proud of you and look forward to all that we will achieve together. #IamEJ #YoSoyEJ

Want to keep reading about our leaders? Click here to read more incredible stories.