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Climate Justice

Climate change affects all of us, but it hits low-income communities first and worst.

Toxic-Free Neighborhoods

Low income communities of color have long struggled with racist land use practices that diminish their health, safety and quality of life.

Community Land-Use Planning

Under California law, all municipalities are required to complete General Plans which provide a blueprint and long range vision for cities.

Clean Air

For many years, residents in the community of Barrio Logan complained about the increasing heavy-duty diesel truck traffic on their neighborhood streets.

Border Environmental Justice

EHC reduces toxic pollution caused by maquiladora industries in Tijuana and promotes fair trade and globalization for justice.

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Since 1980, Environmental Health Coalition has defended the right to live in healthy and sustainable communities. We empower people, organize communities and achieve justice.

Through leadership development, organizing and advocacy, EHC improves the health of children, families, neighborhoods and the natural environment in the San Diego/Tijuana region.

The cumulative impacts of environmental, social, political and economic vulnerabilities that affect the quality of life in our communities inspires our work. We focus on climate justice, healthy kids, border environmental justice, leadership development, voter empowerment and toxic-free neighborhoods because we believe in the right of everyone to live, work and play in a healthy community.

Since 1980, Environmental Health Coalition has defended the right to live in healthy and sustainable communities. We empower people, organize communities and achieve justice.

Through leadership development, organizing and advocacy, EHC improves the health of children, families, neighborhoods and the natural environment in the San Diego/Tijuana region.

The cumulative impacts of environmental, social, political and economic vulnerabilities that affect the quality of life in our communities inspires our work. We focus on climate justice, healthy kids, border environmental justice, leadership development, voter empowerment and toxic-free neighborhoods because we believe in the right of everyone to live, work and play in a healthy community.

Children and toxics don't mix. We understand your concerns and want to answer any questions you may have about keeping your children safe from lead in candy, including:

Facts about candy with lead
Why might lead be present in candy?

What are symptoms of lead poisoning in children?
Where can I find a list of candies that have been tested for lead?
Should I discuss lead in candies with my healthcare provider?
What is being done about lead in candy?
More questions, more information

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Facts about candy with lead:

  • Lead has been found in some chili and tamarind candy and some candy wrappers
  • Lead damages children's brains and causes irreversible development problems
  • It is against the law to sell candy that has more than .1ppm lead in California

Why might lead be present in candy?
Some candies brought into the United States may contain lead, coming from lead-containing inks found in wrappers, unwashed chilis or acidic, lead-laden spices (tamarind, chili powder and paprika, to name a few).

What are symptoms of lead poisoning in children?
Children can be poisoned by lead without looking or acting sick. As a result, lead poisoning may go unrecognized. A blood-lead test is the best way to determine the diagnosis of lead poisoning.

Potential signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children include:

  • Learning disabilities
  • Reduced IQ
  • Hyperactivity
  • Aggressiveness 

Click here to learn more about lead-poisoning in children. 

Where can I find a list of candies that have been tested for lead?
You can find a list of candies that have been tested for lead here. You may contact the California Department of Public Health for more information.

Patients and families should be well informed before ingesting any candy. A blood-lead level test is the most readily available method to evaluate lead exposure. 

Should I discuss lead in candy with my healthcare provider?

Yes. Many cases of childhood lead poisoning occur in children under the age of six from sources other than candy, such as lead-based paint, paint chips, dust, dirt and/or glazed pottery. Such exposures are normally augmented by hand-to-mouth behavior during normal child development. Environmental Health Coalition recommends testing children once a year until age six.

Candies are likely to be ingested well beyond the recommended ages for screening, however. As a result, many cases of lead poisoning in older children, pre-teens, and adolescents may be missed. If this is a concern for you, ask your healthcare provider about a blood-lead test.

What is being done about lead in candy?

  • Environmental Health Coalition advocated for years to enact a California law that removes lead from candy by requiring frequent lead-level testing and a change in candy manufacturing processes
  • The California Food and Drug Branch continually monitors candies for traces of lead
  • Manufacturers are regularly audited to ensure safe production of candies
  • Standards are being raised statewide: to be certified as lead free in California, companies must have their candy tested for lead and checked by an independent food quality auditor
  • When lead is found in candy, a recall warning is sent out by the California State Health Department. Get more information here

I still have questions.

You can find more answers to your concerns about lead in candy here.

If your question was not answered, you have several options.

  • Call or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Environmental Health Coalition - (619) 474-0220
  • Contact your County Lead Prevention Program: Find your local prevention program here
  • Contact the California Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch:
    • 850 Marina Bay Parkway, Building P, Third Floor, Richmond, CA 94804
    • (510) 620-5600

Healthy Kids Image

Children deserve healthy homes and communities where they can grow up without exposure to toxic chemicals. Asthma attacks resulting in hospitalizations and emergency room visits are up to three times higher for children living in communities with high levels of air pollution. Many homes in low-income communities of color were built before 1979 and may have lead-based paint hazards in and around their homes, which can cause permanent brain damage and other serious health problems in children. Environmental Health Coalition’s Healthy Kids Campaign empowers parents to become leaders at home, works to protect children from the dangerous health risks of exposure to toxins and lead pollution by reducing or eliminating environmental childhood health hazards and promoting homes and communities that are safe, healthy, accessible and affordable.

Healthy Homes

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A home should be a place where children can grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment. Residents in  low-income communities of color spend the bulk of their income on housing, yet poorly maintained housing stock makes it difficult to ensure a healthy home for many families.

Environmental Health Coalition’s Healthy Homes project helps families make their homes healthier and more comfortable by:

  • Improving ventilation in older homes to reduce respiratory illnesses resulting from mold and carbon monoxide poisoning
  • Ensuring that families are reducing the use of pesticides
  • Helping families switch to non-toxic household cleaning products
  • Assisting families to apply for programs that can provide home improvements
  • Ensuring that families live in lead-safe homes

 

Click here for resources on lead poisoning prevention or call the hotline phone number (858) 694-7000.

photo-interior-fpo-1Climate change has come to San Diego.

A recent climate change study (link to SDF study) concludes that by 2050 San Diego will not meet its energy needs and will face severe environmental and public health crises. With the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions statewide, San Diego continues to grow rapidly,  heading towards greater problems if we do not take action to reduce our carbon footprint.

From rising temperatures, worsening air quality, increased wildfires, and dwindling rainfall, these impacts pose the biggest threats to low income communities who already have less access to services and adequate health care.

Environmental Health Coaltion's Green Energy/Green Jobs campaign ensures that these environmental justice communities participate in policy development and advocacy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and benefit from the shift to clean and efficient energy practices.

Our Green Energy/Green Jobs program also participates in state and national alliances that address climate change from an environmental justice perspective.

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Thank you for taking action to demand clean air for all San Diegans!

Please help us spread the word and share this call to action on your social channels:

Share on Twitter           Post on Button Facebook


You can also share this call to action over email by copying and pasting this link in your message:

http://bit.ly/demandcleanair

The unequal burden placed on low-income communities of color resulting from historically discriminatory policies calls for an environmental justice (EJ) analysis of the City of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). Start Here, Start Now: An Environmental Justice Assessment of the San Diego Climate Action Plan evaluates implementation progress and recommends immediate and long-term solutions.

Start Here Start NowDivided into six sections, Start Here, Start Now: analyzes the overall allocation of funds to program management and implementation, the CAP’s strategies, and air quality. It is important to highlight that this is a baseline analysis, which includes recommendations to advance equity and data collection necessary to assess progress.

For key findings, please see executive summary.

When cities advance environmental justice, everyone benefits. Through this assessment, it is evident that climate investments need to be measured to demonstrate a clear benefit to EJ communities. The assessment also demonstrates the centrality of mass transportation. Nearly all of the key priorities of the San Diego Climate Action Plan would benefit from significant investments in public transit and active transportation. Transportation Justice – here and now – is the most important message of this report. Vast improvements in transportation will improve air quality, create jobs, increase access to economic opportunity and do more to achieve GHG reductions than any other action.

Download full report here.

What to learn more, support, and get involved:
•Contact Caro This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 619-474-0220 ext 131
DONATE to EHC
 

climate justice

Low-income communities of color must lead when it comes to climate solutions. The climate crisis is real, is here, and affects us all, but it hits low-income communities of color first and worst. Environmental Justice (EJ) communities are at the center of the issue and we are the solution.

The Climate Justice Working Group defines climate justice as: “ensuring that the people and communities who are least culpable in the warming of the planet, and most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, do not suffer disproportionately as a result of historical injustice and disinvestment”. Unfortunately, the impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt by low-income communities of color, and it is these same communities who “have been kept out of the global processes to address climate change” (Indigenous Environmental Network, North America).1 As a result, Climate Justice affirms the rights of indigenous people and communities most affected by climate change to lead with the solutions. EJ communities represent and speak for themselves.

Climate justice sign

Llesenia Cevallos at the Transportation Justice Poster Making Workshop, 2015

Climate scientists predict significant changes in the San Diego region, like extreme heat, water shortages, drought, increased wild fire intensity and frequency, increased air pollution, sea-level rise and coastal flooding. The effects of climate change hit first and worst in EJ communities such as Barrio Logan, City Heights and National City. The effects are magnified because these neighborhoods house the largest sources of pollution and are already burdened by inadequate infrastructure, limited transportation options, and poor economic opportunities.

EHC’s Climate Justice Campaign works to ensure that the residents of Barrio Logan, City Heights and National City are able to speak for themselves and advance climate policies at the local, regional, state levels.

Campaign Core Elements:

1. Start Here, Star Now: An Environmental Justice Assessment of the San Diego Climate Action Plan. The prioritization of Environmental Justice Communities for climate related investments is key to real climate solutions. When cities advance environmental justice, everyone benefits.
2. Transportation Justice. Transformation of the San Diego region into a mass transit paradise where EJ community residents will not have to own a car to access jobs, go to the doctor, go to school and take care of their basic needs. Mass transit is the way.
3. Energy Democracy. Organizing to ensure investments in renewable energy are achieved for residents of low-income communities of color. Renters want solar too.

1 Indigenous Environmental Network, North America, et al. Bali Principles of Climate Justice (2002) https://www.ejnet.org/ej/bali.pdf

Homepage rotator transportation justice freeways can waitWe all need to move. How we get from place to place is deeply connected to our quality of life. Unfortunately, not all communities have the same access to healthy, safe, reliable and affordable transportation options, such as public transit and biking and walking paths. That means some people don't have access to the same quality of life, just because of where they live. Transportation justice is the equal access of all people to the transportation they need for a better quality of life.

Start Here. Start Now.
How we move matters, but not all communities have the same access to healthy and safe transportation options.

Public transit in communities south of the I-8 is often unaffordable, inaccessible and inconvenient. For those that don’t travel by car, a trip to the grocery store may require an hour walk on an unsafe sidewalk. Work commutes can be up to two hours longer by transit than they are by car. Improvements in transportation infrastructure must be prioritized for the people that need them most. It’s time that we demand transportation justice.

Transportation Justice Means:

  • Accessibility – Better and more abundant transportation options and increased affordability give community member's greater access to goods, jobs, housing and services.
  • Increased public health and safety – Pollution, along with pedestrian and bicyclist collisions with cars, are reduced through improved infrastructure.
  • Equity in investment and benefits – Investment in transportation for historically underserved communities creates an equal distribution of transportation benefits for all San Diegans.

Complete Streets
Transportation justice begins by transforming streets and public space into safe places to walk, bike and take advantage of comprehensive mass transit and drive. The Complete Streets program encourages the creation of streets not just built for cars, but for all modes of transportation. The program also promotes roundabouts to slow traffic, wide sidewalks to encourage walking and protected bike lanes to separate bicyclists from traffic and streetlights.

Get involved to make your voice heard and ensure transportation justice for all. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. today: (619) 474-0220.

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People in low-income communities struggle with high rates of unemployment and limited economic opportunities. The Green Energy/Green Jobs Campaign advocates for programs and policies that invest in local communities to create career-track jobs and create a new energy economy.

In addition to having the greatest potential to meet our energy needs, {tip Also Known As::In the business, we call this Local Distributed Generation}rooftop solar{/tip} also boosts local jobs. For example, a recent report from UC Berkeley has determined that local distributed resources create three times as many jobs as a “business as usual” renewable energy implementation—mainly centralized plants located outside the load centers.

EHC wants to make certain people living in low income communities can take advantage of these job opportunities.  

Accomplishments include:

  • In 2010 we hosted a two-day energy efficiency training for our staff and allies, including representatives of City Heights Community Development Corporation.  These workers are conducting energy assessments in hundreds of homes in Barrio Logan, Sherman Heights, Logan Heights, City Heights and National City.
  • In all EHC energy efficiency assessment and education programs, we refer eligible families to programs that provide free energy efficiency retrofits.  These energy efficiency retrofit programs are done by nonprofit organizations that have specific energy efficiency job training programs and include the MAAC Project’s Pathways Out Of Poverty, San Diego Urban Corps’ Green Streets, and Grid Alternatives.
  • EHC successfully partnered with San Diego Gas & Electric to provide 1,000 free energy efficiency retrofits for low-income families with work being partially done by the MAAC Project’s Pathways Out Of Poverty program apprentices.
  • Worked with San Diego City Council President Tony Young to create a Green Energy Jobs task force.  
  • In 2011, we influenced the outcomes of SDG&E's Smart Grid Deployment Plan by successfully having them integrate language and policy outcomes that we wanted. These items include:
    • In the Vision Statement: "It is also important to SDG&E that all market segments have access to distributed energy systems, including underserved communities."
    • In the Vision Statement and Roadmap section: "SDG&E has a strong commitment to ensure its workforce reflects the labor markets it serves.   Therefore, as with all of its recruitment strategies, SDG&E will ensure the outreach for all employment opportunities related to Smart Grid is inclusive to all communities."
  • We secured a “local business” preference in their pending release of a RFP for 100MW of solar in San Diego County by SDG&E.  “In weighing different proposals, if two are close in value, the solar developer that agrees to subcontract with a local business and local hire will win the bid.”
  • In 2012, we influenced the California Public Utilities Commission to direct large gas and electric companies, like SDG&E, to do a number of things:
    • Develop a comprehensive Workforce Education and Training (WE&T) program that increases inclusion of disadvantaged workers and connects training with job opportunities.
    • Track WE&T data throughout all efficiency programs, so we learn where the opportunities are for improving inclusion of disadvantaged workers.
    • Fund classes and collaborate with community colleges, adult education programs, & community-based organizations.

Aaaaa home should be a place where children can grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment. Sadly, families in low-income communities spend the bulk of their income on housing, and deteriorating housing stock intensifies the challenge for many families to find healthy homes.

Saving Energy At Home

EHC has helped families save on energy costs and make their homes healthier and more comfortable by:

  • Improving ventilation in older homes to reduce respiratory illnesses resulting from mold and carbon monoxide poisoning
  • Ensuring that families are reducing the use of pesticides
  • Helping families switch to non-toxic household cleaning products 
  • Working with families to make simple changes to their daily lifestyles that will reduce their energy consumption
  • Assisting families to apply for programs that can provide home improvements

Home Energy Assessments

A home energy assessment is the first step to make a home more energy efficient. EHC’s Promotoras work with residents and owners to make changes that help residents use less energy and save money.

Once families make the connection that energy from polluting power sources is used every time they leave a light switch on or take a long, hot shower, they understand that their actions are saving money on their energy bill and saving our environment, protecting workers and improving our health.

Contact EHC for your home energy assessment, or click here to conduct your own.

Building A Healthy Home

There are many programs available to make a home as healthy as possible for our families. If you live in National City or in the communities of Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights or City Heightscontact EHCabout our current programs.

Outside of EHC, the San Diego Housing Commission has several programs available. Visit its Rehab Loanprogram (most are zero or low-interest deferred loans), the HELP Loan program (forgivable loans for exterior and interior enhancement and water and energy conservation improvements) and the Lead Safety Collaborative Program to explore which options are best for you.

A home should be a place where children can grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment.  Despite spending the bulk of their income on housing, the deteriorating housing stock in low-income communities makes this goal a challenge for many families.  

EHC’s Green and Healthy Homes project helps families save on energy costs and make their homes healthier and more comfortable by:

  • Improving ventilation in older homes to reduce respiratory illnesses resulting from mold and carbon monoxide poisoning;
  • Ensuring that families are reducing the use of pesticides;
  • Helping families switch to non-toxic household cleaning products; and
  • Working with families to make simple changes to their daily lifestyles that will reduce their energy consumption.
  • Assisting families apply for programs that can provide home improvements.

Home Energy Assessments

A home energy assessment is the first step to make a home more energy efficient. As part of the energy assessment, EHC’s Promotoras evaluate a home’s energy efficiency and work with residents and owners to make changes that help residents use less energy and save money.

Energy audits help families understand that every time they leave on light switch or take a long warm shower, energy from polluting power sources is used. Once families make the connection, they know that their actions are not just saving money on their energy bill but saving our planet, protecting workers and improving our health.

Click here to conduct your own energy assessment.

Help is available

There are many programs available to make San Diego’s housing green and healthy. If you live in National City or in the communities of Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, or City Heights, contact EHC (link to email) about our current programs.

The San Diego Housing Commission has several programs available to help make homes repairs.  Visit the Rehab Loan (most are zero or low interest deferred loans), the HELP Loan program (forgivable loans for exterior and interior enhancement and water and energy conservation improvements) and “Home Safe Home” sections of their website.

Thank you for being a part of Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Community Planning to Overcome Injustice.

The 20-minute video below (in both English and Spanish) illustrates seven steps to fight for environmental justice through community-engaged planning.

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods explores the interconnectedness of issues facing communities and uses real-life examples and case studies to show how real people can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice in seven steps:

Step One: Identify the Problem
Step Two: Build Power
Step Three: Develop Strategy
Step Four: Develop Core Community Principles
Step Five: Develop the Community Vision
Step Six: Organize and Advocate to Win
Step Seven: Achieve the Vision

To begin your introduction to our community-proven, seven-step process, watch the full Creating Healthy Neighborhoods video and download our leadership training below.

The movie is available for download, or you can purchase a copy of the DVD in English and Spanish.


SESSION 1

SESSION 2

SESSION 3

SESSION 4

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods - English (Download Here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods - Español (Descargar Aqui)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Community Planning to Overcome Injustice

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods explores the interconnectedness of issues facing communities and uses real-life examples and case studies to show how real people can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice.

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods Trailer - English 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods Trailer - Español

 

Environmental Health Coalition announces a free curriculum and video-learning tool, Creating Healthy Neighborhoods. This inspirational toolkit empowers real people to become leaders for health and justice in their communities, just the way EHC community members have.

The 20-minute full video shows the impacts of toxic pollution and discriminatory land use policies in ways that anyone can understand, empowering everyone to become involved in planning and policymaking. It illustrates seven steps to fight for environmental justice through community-engaged planning. Use this knowledge to gain a fuller understanding of land-use planning – and take action to create healthier, more vibrant and livable communities where you live.

Under California law, all municipalities are required to complete General Plans which provide a blueprint and long range vision for cities. These can be very useful documents providing clear objectives (rollover comment: EHC successfully advocated for an Environmental Health and Justice element in the National City General Plan and a buffer zone between polluters and homes/schools in the Chula Vista General Plan – both firsts in the state), or can have lofty but vague goals. Community, area and specific plans are not required to be completed under state law but when executed are intended to apply General Plan standards to a specific geographic area and can enable communities to determine the density, building height, zoning and amenities for their neighborhood.

These plans have been the focus of EHC’s Community-Driven Planning efforts because they offer the opportunity for self-determination for residents and enable residents to be proactive rather than only reacting to inappropriate development proposals. The planning process is also the most holistic strategy for a community to engage in. It may allow residents, perhaps for the first time, to envision their community using their values and aspirations, not the developer’s or the city councilmember’s.

EHC is currently working on community-driven land-use planning in Barrio Logan, the Greater Logan area and City Heights in the City of San Diego, and in Old Town National City and West Chula Vista. Click on these links for the most current updates.

In each community, the underlying process is the same.

Building Community Power

Authentic community involvement in every aspect of community planning and visioning leads to better outcomes that respect neighborhoods and their residents. EHC’s core strategies, for all our efforts, are community organizing and policy advocacy, which we combine with grassroots leadership development, research and media communications to implement each strategic plan. To ensure that the community’s voice is heard, EHC employs the following tactics:

Community Action Teams: In each community, an EHC Community Action Team comprised of residents who are EHC leaders has been established. These leaders develop the community vision and priorities that direct EHC’s efforts. They serve as the spokespersons for the campaign meetings with elected officials and government agency representatives and on various planning committees established to oversee plan development.

José Medina, National City resident since 1969 and EHC leader, expressed his hopes for the Old Town National City Specific Plan when he said: “The plan will allow me to see the neighborhood change into something I remember when I was a boy, when a lot of residents were connecting with each other. In the mid-80s it changed for the worse – I saw houses flattened and autobody shops moved in.”

Leadership Training—Salud Ambiental Líderes Tomando Acción -- SALTA (Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action): All EHC leaders complete an eight session Core SALTA training program providing them with skills and knowledge to become effective advocates and community organizers. A five session mini-SALTA focusing on land use also provides training on redevelopment, zoning, and affordable housing, plus air quality, contaminated site clean-up, reducing industrial pollution, and sustainable building, including green building materials and renewable energy options.

Community Surveying: EHC Leaders are committed to understanding the priorities of their neighbors, and representing those needs when developing EHC platforms and positions. Community surveying is often utilized as a method for collecting and documenting these needs. In Old Town National City, for example, leaders surveyed residents and found that development of affordable housing, relocation of autobody shops and changing zoning to prohibit incompatible mixed-use were the highest priorities by far, which were incorporated into the community plan.

Community Visioning: Once aware of the impact and importance of community planning EHC leaders in both Barrio Logan and Old Town National City elected to develop their own neighborhood vision. EHC raised funds to employ a land use planning firm which, working with residents, developed detailed plans including zoning changes, volume and affordability levels of new housing units, identification of industries for relocation, park acreage, school requirements and more.

Barrio Logan’s community plan—one of the City of San Diego’s oldest—has not been updated since 1978. After years of promises and delays, residents took planning into their own hands. The result was the Barrio Logan Vision, now endorsed by over 1000 area residents, 28 community organizations and 16 local businesses. EHC then secured $1.5 million from a neighboring downtown development agency to update and revise the official Barrio Logan Community Plan, a process starting in early 2008. EHC is advocating for the community plan update to be consistent with the Barrio Logan Vision.

Hilda Valenzuela, EHC leader and Barrio Logan resident, expressed her excitement about the start of the planning process: “I hope with the Community Plan Update process we can resolve the problems sooner – improve affordable housing, have a healthier environment for children and a better place to live.”

Ensure Healthy Neighborhoods

For many years, EHC has promoted pollution prevention and the precautionary principle as the best solution to preventing toxic exposure for community residents and workers. Significant changes to these industrial practices are critical for safety but can take many years to accomplish. Communities subjected to toxic exposure due to discriminatory zoning need to take action to protect themselves and create separation between residential and industrial uses.

Buffer Zones

To accomplish this, EHC proposed the Toxic-Free Neighborhoods Ordinance in the City of San Diego in 1990, which would have required a buffer between industries using or emitting hazardous materials and residences, schools, and day care centers. Local polluters spent thousands of dollars lobbying against the ordinance and were ultimately successful in defeating it.

Without an ordinance EHC targeted polluters that chronically violated the law. Master Plating fit the bill with over 150 violations on the books. Community organizing efforts compelled the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and local government to take action resulting in Master Plating’s shutdown in 2002. CARB’s monitoring revealed a cancer risk four times higher than a ‘typical urban area’ due to hexavalent chromium emissions. As a result of this local action, CARB developed the Air Quality and Land Use Handbook in 2005 which recommended buffers for many polluters for the first time in state or local regulatory history. The recommended buffer for chrome platers is 1000 feet. The distance between Master Plating and the house next door was 4 feet! The guidance document also recommends separation of housing and major roadways which is often difficult given that ‘transit-oriented development’ may encourage development very near freeways.

Elvia Martinez, Master Plating’s next door neighbor and EHC leader, said: “This is the way it’s supposed to work…when a community works together to make its neighborhood a better place to live.”

Zoning

Community plans can include zoning ordinances that determine where industrial, commercial and residential areas will be located. Barrio Logan and Old Town National City are plagued with ‘mixed-use’ zoning that allows all three uses to be in the same area. EHC is seeking specific zoning designations that separate industrial areas from residential areas in the new community plans, and removal of mixed-use zoning.

Polluter Relocation and Removal

Rules that prohibit new sensitive uses near pollution sources are important, but in order for residential neighborhoods to truly be restored and healthy, polluters adjacent to homes and schools must be removed or relocated. EHC has pursued a few tactics to accomplish this. In National City, the City Council adopted an amortization ordinance that will phase out industries currently allowed to operate near sensitive uses, which sets up a process for relocation of prioritized industries when the amortization period is triggered.

One of the poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods, City Heights takes the title for the most ethnically diverse community in San Diego, too.

Like other EHC target communities, much of the housing in City Heights remains old and poorly maintained. Our work in City Heights began through our Healthy Kids Campaign, helping families get their children tested for lead poisoning, helping them eliminate lead hazards, and making their homes more energy efficient. This work opened opportunities to participate more fully in broad-based community planning.

In 2010, The California Endowment embarked on a new, 10-year strategic direction: Building Healthy Communities. It aims to support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn. It selected City Heights as one of 14 communities in California to participate in this initiative. We lead the Built Environment Team that also includes City Heights Community Development Corporation, Proyecto Casas Saludables, and the International Rescue Committee.

Through house meetings, surveys, and community meetings, the team identified heavy traffic on University and Fairmont Avenues as a major concern. Heavy-duty trucks and cars emit air pollution and frustrate walkability for families.

Sherman-Heights-Comm-Ctr

The communities of Sherman Heights, Grant Hill and Stockton are connected to Logan Heights and Memorial by the Commercial Street/Imperial Avenue Corridor. These communities are referred to as Historic Barrio District. All of these communities are included in the large Southeastern San Diego Community Plan, adopted in 1987.

Individual neighborhoods have created various official revitalization plans and community visions:

Sherman Heights Revitalization Action Plan - 1995

Grant Hill Revitalization Action Program - 1998

Greater Logan Heights Neighborhoods First Quality of Life Plan – 2008/09

The Planning Department of the City of San Diego is currently coordinating development of a Commercial/Imperial Corridor Master Plan. EHC is working primarily with the Historic Barrio District Community Development Corporation (that includes the neighborhoods of Sherman Heights, Grant Hill, Stockton, Logan Heights and Memorial) to influence this vision of the Corridor as a vibrant community link.

Merchants located on Imperial Avenue have long complained that the area is "red lined" making it difficult to get loans and insurance. Insurance rates are 5-10 times higher than other parts of the city.

EHC's Associate Director Georgette Gomez is Vice President of the Historic Barrio District Community Development Corporation, chairing the community and economic development committee.

According to the Industrial Element of the Community Plan:

Rezonings in the 1970s, aimed at upgrading uses and providing industrial sites have not resulted in a change of uses. "Strip" industrial zoning in the western portion of the community has resulted in access problems and conflicts with adjoining uses. These strips are located along Imperial Avenue between Interstate 5 and 22nd Street, and along Commercial Street between Interstate 5 and Bancroft Street. In these strips, there is a mixture of residential and industrial uses which is permitted under the current industrial zoning. These areas were chosen for industrial development in part on the basis of the existence of railroad tracks within Commercial Street; however little use has been made of this advantage. The expected development has not materialized since the adoption of the community plan in 1969, as residences have not given way to industrial development. The industrial activities present in these areas are typified by warehousing, distribution and automobile dismantling. These uses hire few people, are environmentally incompatible with adjacent development and are aesthetically unpleasant. (emphasis added)

Atlas Chemical, Inc. on Commercial Street is one of these incompatible business. It stores and distributes a wide variety of toxic and hazardous materials within feet of homes.

Unfortunately, the draft Master Plan calls for the continuation of Commercial Street for light industrial, only gradually transitioning to commercial, residential, community serving and cultural uses.

Welcome to Environmental Health Coalition's SALTA Community Leadership Training Program. This page has everything you need to learn about SALTA, create a registration account to download the curriculum and log in to return for more downloads and to provide feedback.

What is SALTA?
What is the SALTA approach?
What are the SALTA sessions?
How can my organization use SALTA?

WHAT IS SALTA?

SALTA (Salud Ambiental Lideres Tomando Accion – Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action) is a web-based, interactive leadership development curriculum that provides community leaders with skill-building training in community organizing, policy advocacy, building power, community health, environmental justice and effective communication.

SALTA is a key component to ensuring that EHC achieves our core mission. More than education, SALTA is integrated with EHC's organizing and advocacy efforts to achieve environmental and social justice.

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WHAT IS THE SALTA APPROACH?

SALTA programs represent the organic educational efforts of the different campaigns, teams, leaders, and staff that make up EHC and were designed specifically for our leaders based on our local efforts. We began SALTA trainings in 1996, and now more than 2,000 individuals have been trained.

Developed and field tested by EHC staff and leaders during the past 15 years, SALTA uses a popular education approach that makes the training inclusive and accessible to all participants. Trainings are based on the knowledge, skills and real-world experiences of EHC staff, leaders and training participants. 

Popular education, which has varying interpretations, is best defined by the practice where participants share their own understanding and feelings about a specific topic or issue and that understanding and feelings are considered valid. The idea of popular education (often described as "education for critical consciousness") as a teaching methodology came from a Brazilian educator and writer named Paulo Freire, who was writing in the context of literacy education for poor and politically disempowered people in his country. It's different from formal education (in schools, for example) and informal education (learning by living) in that it is a process which aims to empower people who feel marginalized socially and politically to take control of their own learning and to effect social change.

The SALTA sessions improve participants' sense of belonging to a community as participants and stakeholders of their societies. They begin to see themselves as empowered members who can make change.

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What are the SALTA sessions?

Click the sessions below to learn more.

SALTA leadershipSALTA leadership training environmental justiceSALTA leadership training environmental health 1SALTA leadership training environmental health 2SALTA leadership training change the power structureSALTA leadership training messaging for social changeSALTA leadership training organizing sessionSALTA leadership training advocacySALTA leadership training land use and leadership

Leadership

Social change relies on leaders who act to improve conditions for themselves and their communities. In this session participants explore the roles and responsibilities of community leaders working for social and environmental justice.

Environmental Justice

In this session, the concepts of environmental racism and justice are discussed and defined through the lens of the history of the civil rights and environmental justice movements. Participants identify injustices in their neighborhoods and learn about inspiring organizing victories.

Environmental Health I

This session makes the link between pollution and human health in the workplace and community. The basics of the routes of exposure with a focus on childhood lead poisoning are presented.

Environmental Health II

Building on the Environmental Health I session, here the problem of air pollution with focus on diesel and greenhouse gas emissions is presented. Solution-oriented prevention strategies such as pollution prevention, the precautionary principle and cumulative impacts assessment are discussed.

Power

In this session we answer the questions: What is power? How can community organizations build power to make change? Power analysis and EHC’s Social Change for Justice model are presented.

Messaging for Social Change

Participants in this session will learn effective methods of persuading individuals and decision-makers through effective messaging. Use of personal stories is encouraged to inspire trust and hope.

Organizing

The foundation of community organizing is relationship building. In this session participants learn basic organizing skills and how to use them to build on their messaging skills.

Advocacy

Participants learn basic advocacy skills and how to use them to influence policy makers to take actions for environmental and social justice.

Land Use and Leadership

The last session provides a comprehensive review of the program and combines learning to develop a model organizing and advocacy plan. The plan incorporates the Problem/Solution/Action method.

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HOW CAN MY ORGANIZATION USE SALTA?

The main objectives of SALTA are:

  • To develop unity, commitment and shared consciousness on core principles
  • To enhance leader's skills and effectiveness
  • To develop an understanding of all efforts

If these objectives are consistent with your organization's mission and theory of change, SALTA can provide a forum for learning and growing. SALTA training works best when integrated with active campaigns and opportunities to use the skills in the real world.

Each session builds on the prior one. You may use individual activities or sessions as stand alone workshops but be aware that there may be topics covered in prior sessions that are integral to full understanding.

You will find it necessary in some cases to change or adapt some of the information or activities to suit your purposes, communities and local efforts. EHC encourages adaptation for individual needs of non-profits, environmental and social justice organizations, unions and public schools however any for-profit enterprise must first get permission directly from EHC.

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Download Your SALTA Curriculum

Below, you'll find the curriculum and supporting materials for each of the SALTA sessions. To download them you'll need Adobe Reader or another PDF reader program.Please have patience - files are large and may take a few minutes to download.

SALTA leadership training leadership sessionSESSION 1: LEADERSHIP
Social change relies on the leadership of people who understand the urgency of addressing injustice and who decide to act to improve their life conditions. In the Leadership Session, participants explore the concept of leadership within communities affected by social and environmental injustice, and their roles and responsibilities as EHC leaders. Participants will begin to recognize their position as an EHC Leader and to identify themselves as such. EHC's overall ideology is introduced, along with the general goals for the Leader SALTA training.

 

SALTA leadership training environmental justice

SESSION 2: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
The Environmental Justice movement grew from hundreds of local struggles by taking a civil rights and social justice approach to environmental health protection. This session defines environmental justice and environmental racism (environmental injustice). It provides an opportunity for EHC leaders to identify environmental racism in their neighborhoods. It demonstrates the effectiveness of local organizing to achieve environmental justice. 

 

SESSION 3: ENVIRONMENSALTA leadership training environmental health 1TAL HEALTH I 
Environmental Justice is the right of all people to work, live, and play in a healthy and safe environment. Environmental Health makes the link between pollution in the environment and human health. This session focuses on how toxic pollution denies this right to many, especially to workers and people living in low-income communities of color. Participants will learn how EHC leaders have taken actions and promoted policies to protect communities. Participants learn the basics of environmental health and the basics of childhood lead poisoning prevention.

 

SALTA leadership training environmental health 2

SESSION 4: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH II
Air Toxics are substances known to have adverse effects on human health and the environment. In this session participants will learn about the sources and health impacts of Air Toxics affecting EHC's communities. Participants will also learn about EHC's current efforts to combat community air toxics through community driven land use and sustainable energy campaigns, and see how EHC's goal for prevention (pollution prevention, the precautionary principal and cumulative impacts) guide our work in these areas.

 

SALTA leadership training change the power structure

SESSION 5: POWER 
This session will cover the role of power in winning environmental and social justice for environmental justice communities, how to assess an existing power structure and how to gain enough power to win. The first step of EHC's Process for Action (analyze) will be introduced and the use of EHC's power mapping tool in this process will be demonstrated.

 

SALTA leadership training messaging for social change

SESSION 6: MESSAGING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Persuading individuals and organizations to support EHC's goals and objectives and to take action requires effective messaging. In this session, EHC Leaders will learn the basics of message development and how their personal stories can be used to inspire trust and hope in the target audience and create the will to take action. The framework for this session flows from EHC's Power Analysis. Certain activities and concepts are adapted from The Spitfire Strategies' Smart Chart 3.0 and the work of Marshall Ganz' Camp Obama trainings. 

 

SALTA leadership training organizing session

SESSION 7: ORGANIZING
Community organizing is a value-based strategy which empowers people to take action to win real improvements for the benefit of their communities and the common good. The foundation of community organizing is relationship building. In this session participants learn how to develop a relationship as a representative of EHC by sharing stories and broaden the "My Story" developed in the last session to "Our Story." EHC's organizing model and some of the organizing tactics are introduced.

 

SALTA leadership training advocacy

SESSION 8: ADVOCACY
Advocacy is the process of influencing public policy and the distribution of public resources. For EHC the purpose of advocacy is to influence policy makers to take actions to protect public health and the environment. EHC is proactive in developing public policy solutions, participating in setting the agenda and framing the issue. Solutions are based on our beliefs and values and are developed through the Process for Action. EHC Leaders have specific advocacy responsibilities, authority, and personal characteristics that help them become strong advocates.

 

SALTA leadership training land use and leadership

SESSION 9: LAND USE ADVOCACY & LEADERSHIP II
This last SALTA session will serve as a comprehensive review of all previous sessions by combining learnings through several activities. Participants will develop a vision for a model community and then prepare a presentation advocating for the new vision before an elected official. The presentation will incorporate the Problem/Solution/Action and personal story telling framework from prior sessions. Participants will sign a Leadership Commitment pledge.

The Stories of #IAMEJ

No one knows the struggle of living with toxic pollution like our community members who face this challenge every day. EHC believes that those affected should have the opportunity to raise their own voice and demand change, becuase we are all environmental justice.

Meet Paw Wah6

After leaving a refugee camp in Thailand, Paw Wah moved to City Heights in 2008. She got involved with EHC to help her neighbors fight for environmental justice and engage the Karen community to vote. She recently graduated from SALTA, EHC’s leadership-development training program, to empower residents to become leaders in our communities.

Meet Philomena Marino5

Philomena has lived in Barrio Logan for most of her life. She has been a relentless advocate for public safety and senior citizens in our community. When the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal Port Expansion project was proposing more pollution for Neighborhood Logan and jeopardizing the health of their family, Philomena joined EHC. Today, she is a SALTA graduate, a neighborhood Logan promoter and is currently leading a truck survey to monitor air pollution in her neighborhood.

Meet Silvia Calzada4

Silvia Calzada recently joined EHC and the California Environmental Justice Alliance in Sacramento, where she talked to elected officials about what our communities need to become safe and healthy places to live, work and play. Silvia, a resident of National City, says the experience has changed her life. Thank you for being a leader for #healthyhoods, Silvia.

Meet Elizabeth Alvarado3

When Elizabeth's daughters were six-months old, she realized that she needed a healthy community to raise a healthy family. After taking EHC's SALTA leadership-development classes, she learned how to make her neighborhood a better place for her daughters to grow up. Today, she continues to be a leader for her family and for #healthyhoods in Sherman Heights.

Meet Trong Dinh2

In City Heights, Trong Dinh and its neighbors, struggle with the lack of affordable transportation access. Trong motivates his Vietnamese neighbors to get involved with EHC because he knows his community deserves to healthier place to live, work and play.

 

 

Meet the SALTA 2017 Graduating Class1

At the end of June, we celebrated community leaders who completed our leadership-development training, SALTA. The 2017 class reminds us that every one of us is a leader, and leadership is best cultivated from the community.

 

 

 

Meet Margarita Morenom moreno

Margarita Moreno has lived in Old Town National City for seven years. With a son at Kimball Elementary School, she wanted to make positive changes in her neighborhood for the wellbeing of her family. Now, Margarita is taking EHC's SALTA Leadership Development Training to become a leader with the tools and knowledge that will improve her community.

Meet Margarita Garcia margarita garcia

Margarita lives in National City, where poor air quality threatens the health of children and families. She goes door-to-door with EHC to inform her neighbors about toxics in the air they breathe and encouraging them to demand change. To Margarita, environmental justice means, "staying informed about what's happening in our city," and empowering her community to have a voice in the process.

Meet Vanessa Condevanessa code

At only 23 years old, Vanessa already knows that environmental justice is essential to creating a better place for herself and her family to call home. Vanessa's mother and three sisters are all involved with with our Colectivo Chilpancingo to advocate for #healthyhoods in Tijuana. As an environmental engineering student at the Technological Institute of Tijuana, Vanessa is a shining example of a young person tirelessly working toward a healthier future.

Meet Veronica Gohlkeveronica gohlke

After growing up in Barrio Logan, Veronica wanted to set an example for her daughters by giving back to her community. Now, she works to make her neighborhood a healthier, more vibrant place by volunteering with EHC as a caretaker of the Chicano Park Herb Garden and teaching parents to use non-toxic cleaning supplies at home.
 

Meet Carolina Gámez

Carolina GamezAt only 22 years old, Carolina is making a big difference in Colonia Chilpancingo in Tijuana. Carolina took a SALTA training to learn about the environmental issues in her community, but got so much more than she bargained for. Carolina found out that all of the inspiring leaders she met had started just like her – concerned residents looking for change and willing to do the hard work.

Meet Monica de la Lanzamonica equal voice

Monica knows her voice is powerful and she’s advocated for border justice since she was just nine years old. As a long-time member of EHC’s Grupo de Jóvenes, she makes our community’s perspective heard by writing newsletters, creating murals and speaking at press conferences. Monica is living proof that young people have power to bring justice to our communities.

Meet Lisette Zavala

Equal voice lisetteLisette Zavala experiences the effects of environmental injustice every day as she and her children suffer from the air pollution in her neighborhood. After getting involved with EHC, Lisette learned more about how environmental issues affect the health of families like hers. She consistently speaks out to urge political leaders to improve local air quality because her children and neighbors deserve a safe, healthy environment to live, work and play.

Meet Paw Say

Paw SaySince joining EHC last year, Paw Say has already become a local leader. With the help of EHC’s City Heights Community Action Team, Paw educates her fellow Karen-speaking residents about air quality, public transportation and other important issues facing City Heights. Thanks to her hard work, local residents are taking action to transform our community.

Meet Alicia Sanchez

Alicia Sanchez Equal Voice 1

Eight years ago, Alicia Sanchez came to an EHC community meeting to learn about an affordable housing project in her neighborhood. She quickly became inspired and remained involved to see the project through to city approval. Last year, Alicia witnessed the groundbreaking of the 201-unit housing project that she worked to make a reality. Alicia says she is proud to know that the local housing will bring many families an improved quality of life.

 

Meet Alma AlcantarAlma Alcantar Equal Voice

Four years ago, Alma Alcantar came to a community meeting with EHC’s Healthy Kids Campaign community organizer, to learn about EHC’s work protecting the environment and the health of children. Today, Alma remains an active volunteer and a resource for families in her Sherman Heights community. She informs her neighbors about toxic pollution so everyone can participate in improving our communities and quality of life.

 

Meet Bea BarrazaBea Barraza

Beatriz Barraza became involved with EHC in 1987 after meeting Diane Takvorian in a fitness class. Bea asked Diane to sign her petition to stop the Navy Development in Florida Canyon, and they began discussing passion and dedication for public health issues. Since then, Bea has been an active supporter of EHC who served as the chair of the Board of Directors for many years. She currently serves as chair of the fund development committee.

Meet Adriana Covarrubias

Adriana Covarrubias

Adriana Covarrubias is a member of EHC's Community Action Team (CAT). She lives in Old Town National City and started volunteering with EHC in 2008.   "I was interested in EHC because the organization wants to achieve a better quality of life for the people who live in National City," says Adriana. "I like participating in the fight for social justice and environmental justice. I will continue participating to involve more members of my community and achieve positive changes so we can have a better, toxic-free environment". 

Meet Axel Ruiz

Axel Ruiz

Axel has been a member of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign's Youth Group for over five years. From the moment he joined the group, he showed how interested he was in improving his community's quality of life, as well as his ability to be a voice for the rest of his peers. He is now 18, and has just begun studying for his Environmental Engineering degree in Tijuana. He likes playing soccer and doing martial arts. He also inspired his younger brother to join the Youth Group. Axel is a great example of how hard our young people work and how interested they are in the well-being of the community; all they need is an opportunity to develop their potential.

Meet Irma Ortizunnamed

Ever since Irma became interested in building a healthier community for her family in 2009, she's been an active EHC member. She has infectious energy. After a short chat with Irma, her neighbors become inspired to get involved and make their neighborhood a better place to live. She is part of the Community Action Team in Barrio Logan and rarely misses a monthly meeting. According to Irma, "It's important that we get involved with organizations such as EHC in order to become more conscious of the things that are contaminating our communities. We can become more aware of what we can do to help."

Meet Sonia Perézsonia

(Right next to Myrna, Ana, Lourdes and Eva)
Sonia has been a member of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign for more than eight years. Along with 11 other women, she has worked tirelessly improving air quality and saving the Arroyo Alamar as part of the Chipancingo community action team in Tijuana, Murua. She is also an active participant in local school programs, her community church and the Creative Hands cooperative. Her constant engagement with the health of her neighborhood is a shining example of the power of community action. She makes a difference every day and never ceases to inspire us. Plus, she's an excellent cook.

Meet Erick Ortega Erick photo cropped

Erick Ortega found his calling three years ago when he learned that nearby industries were polluting his neighborhood, making people sick. Before long, Erick found himself on a mission to share this information and educate his neighbors on environmental justice. Today Erick is part of the EHC Barrio Logan Community Action Team and the City of San Diego Barrio Logan Community Planning Group, where his goal is simply "to be the voice of the pueblo." Erick says that it's up to all of us, no matter where we live or how marginalized our communities are, to get involved in the wellbeing of our neighborhood. 

Meet Bui Cong Tuong Leader SALTA 2014 Graduation 075

Bui Cong Tuong became one of our newest members after graduating SALTA, our community leadership program. Upon graduation he made a promise to his community, "By all means necessary, I will organize and educate the Vietnamese community of San Diego. Every family will know how to fight for environmental justice in San Diego, our second home." Bui is also a poet under the pseudonym Song Cuu. We love this excerpt from one of his poems: "We love the blue sky like we love the freedom and peace in the United States. The Earth is our common home. Together lets protect our environment."

Meet Leonor Garcia 559

Leonor Garcia is a member of the Old Town National City Community Action Team. She began her involvement with EHC in 2007 as a promotora and has been active ever since. Leonor is motivated by the opportunity to be a part of social and environmental change. She feels, "Community involvement is essential. When our voices are heard, our needs can be met and we can achieve a better quality of life in a toxic-free community." 

Meet Carolina GámezCarolinaGamez

Carolina (left) with Amelia Simpson, Yesenia and Lourdes.

Carolina, now 20 years old, has been a member of EHC's youth group in the Environmental Border Justice Campaign since she was 14. Now her ten year-old sister Katia has joined the youth group's second generation. Carolina is passionate about improving the quality of life for people in her community, making her attentive at every meeting and event and always involved in the logistics. She is a talented public speaker, a spokesperson for her team and has participated in making two comic books and four coloring books to showcase the work of her team. In the photo above she appears with Amelia Simpson, former director of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign, and Yesenia and Lourdes, two of the first promotoras in Tijuana. Carolina currently studies sociology and continues participating in EHC's youth group as a shining example of consistency and conviction. 

National City Celebrates Safe Routes to School with Adriana

 

National City Celebrates Safe Routes to School with Lorena

 

Meet Enrique SanabriaEnrique S

Enrique (top) stands with EHC staff and community members at the Port of San Diego

Enrique Senabria got involved with EHC about a year ago after an invitation from Community Organizer. He likes to participate because he learns about important issues and how he can contribute to protect his community, live better and be healthy. Enrique likes being involved with EHC because it brings awareness to the importance of taking care of our planet and having clean air for all and he hopes more people will participate and help change polluting habits. He believes what is happening in the world is a direct result of the industries and people that pollute, and the very reason we should unite and work together to better ourselves and live our world. Enrique recently attended a meeting on the Port of San Diego climate plan and felt good after giving testimony asking the commissioners to include environmental justice in the plan to ensure a better quality of life for us all.

Meet Ana Langaricaana langarica (1)

Ana speaks for Border Environmental Justice

In 2005, Ana Langarica joined EHC's Border Environmental Justice Campaign. Back then her son Alan was only a few months old. On meeting days, Ana would leave her older son, Angel, at school and would run to the meeting with Alan in the stroller to make the meeting on time. At first Ana was shy but her commitment was evident. Even during bad weather she would cross the creek to get to the meeting on time, and if the rain did not allow her to, she would walk ten blocks. With her actions, Ana is teaching her children how to work and love their community. Alan and Angel are now members of the Youth Group and together with their mom, they are fighting for the Arroyo Alamar.

Meet Lorena ChavezLorena y Carolina cropped

Lorena (right) with Policy Advocate, Carolina Martinez

Lorena Chavez has been involved with EHC since 2005, mostly because she lives in Old Town National City, where industry is mixed with residential land uses. This mixed zoning affects the health of the families living in Lorena's neighborhood since most of the industry found there consists of auto body and paint shops. Lorena has three children; a 15 year-old daughter, another 12 years-old and a three year-old son. For Lorena, protecting the health of her children is most important. She participated in the implementation of the Old Town Specific Plan which changed the land use for this area. The plan, approved in 2010 by the National City City Council, will no longer allow the polluting industries into the community. Lorena has also participated in the Healthy Homes Program, showing families how to make their homes toxic-free and energy efficient. She has been an active National City Community Action Team member and wants to continue being involved in making positive changes in her community.

Meet Maribel GuzmánAlternative 1 32 ROTATED

Maribel (left) with Policy Advocate Silvia Leon at San Diego City Council

Maribel Guzmán. Mom, wife, sister, volunteer, community organizer and more. Maribel has lived in Sherman Heights for 39 years, currently with her three boys who are 17, 10 and five. "They keep me on my toes," she adds. For the past seven years, Maribel has volunteered for EHC and went through the SALTA training curriculum. "I've learned so much from my participation here at EHC, which impacted me on a very personal level because my 10-year-old son has asthma." Maribel says her raised awareness about environmental toxins and asthma triggers changed her life, realizing she wanted to be part of the change and movement toward healthier communities. She became a member of the Healthy Kids Community Action Team, and loves helping families every day by going to their homes and educating them about healthy homes and energy efficiency. "I talk to families about health hazards found in the home as well as outside of the home to give them a full picture of environmental justice," she says.

Meet Roddy JeromeRoddy Jerome

Roddy (left) advocating for his community

Originally from Hawaii but now a resident of City Heights for many years, Roddy Jerome has a vested interest in what goes on in his community. A little more than a year ago, he started to attend EHC community meetings in City Heights and began to find out more about how his neighborhood and the entire region is impacted by dirty energy, lack of good transportation and a variety of other environmental justice issues. In 2013, Roddy attended and testified at state energy hearings, at San Diego City Council Committees about the City's climate plan, at SANDAG hearings about the Mid-City bike corridor and in Sacramento to lobby state Legislators. But the aspect of community advocacy Roddy enjoys most is knocking on doors and informing his friends and neighbors about the common issues that effect all of us, urging them to get involved. Roddy continues his involvement with City Heights and EHC and is a perfect example of social change for justice.

Meet Vanesa Hernándezdec toxi 2

Vanessa (center) with Andrea (left) and Isaac (right) in the woods near Arroyo Alamar

Vanesa Hernández has been an inspiring member of the Youth Group Jóvenes Pro Justicia Ambiental for more than five years. Vanesa is a seventeen year-old critical thinker who likes to write. She participates in conferences and gives media interviews on the hazards of industrial polluters in her community. "There are companies that generate nothing but garbage, that sell things that stop working quickly so we will buy them again, creating more and more trash and making the companies richer and richer," says Vanessa. "The answer is lack of information, and our best alternative is organizing." Her mother, Karina Zavala, and brother, Bryan, join Vanesa as members of the border campaign. Click here to read her essay, and get to know Vanesa and other members of the Youth Group here.

Meet Edith MaldonadoNov Toxi Cropped

Edith and her son

Edith Maldonado has lived in Old Town National City for eight years, and has been involved with EHC for the last four. "My interest in getting involved in the organization was to be able to better my community, because there are a lot of polluting shops around where I live," explains Edith. "I have two children who live with me - one is 6 and the other 8 years old - and I want them to have a better life, to live in a healthier community. I also like participating as a volunteer so I can educate other parents about the dangers of living in an area where polluting industries and homes are all mixed together." She would like to live in a community that is free of toxic pollution and for no child to get asthma due to the pollution in their neighborhood.

Meet Maria Esther Aguayo

Maria (center) at a community meetingOctober Toxinformer Maria Esther Aguayo

Maria Esther Aguayo is an active community member in Barrio Logan, passionate about healthy and toxic-free neighborhoods. She allowed EHC to set up video cameras on her front porch and record all the industrial activity at a fruit warehouse across the street from her home. Cameras filmed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for two weeks, recording the real-life impact of mixed land-uses on residents in Barrio Logan. Soon after the videos were exposed, the warehouse was relocated to an industrial area in National City - something EHC had been trying to do for years. "We have the power to make positive changes in our community by coming together," says Maria. "Although I know no change happens overnight, I am hopeful it comes little by little and excited we are finally on the right path." A Barrio Logan resident for 23 years, Maria currently resides in Logan Heights with her husband, two teenage daughters and young son. Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Maria loves Barrio Logan because it reminds her of her home in Mexico.

MEET Itzia López Luján

Itzia and her video camera itzia1

Itzia López Luján is 13 years old and has been a member of the EHC Youth Group since she was seven. She is the daughter of Guadalupe Luján, one of the first promotoras of the Colectivo Chilpancingo. Itzia has done radio and television interviews on issues regarding air and the Arroyo Alamar. She was born in the community in which she participates and has been involved in all the campaign's activities to promote environmental justice in her community. "I like making things like comic books and games to teach others about the issues we work on, like air pollution and the Arroyo Alamar," says Itzia. "I live very close to the maquila and I would like to see my community clean and have safe jobs."
Get to know Itzia and other members of the Youth Group.

MEET JOAQUINA HERNANDEZ FROM NATIONAL CITY

Joaquina Hernandez August Equal VoiceJoaquina and her daughter, Brisa

Joaquina recently joined the group of leaders in National City, even though she has lived in this neighborhood for four years. Two years ago became involved with EHC to improve her community. When Joaquina began participating, she attended community meetings to support an affordable housing project in Old Town National City. Joaquina says, "We need more affordable housing because rent here is very expensive and most of the residents are low-income." She works to make her community a place where her 10 year-old daughter, Brisa, can have more recreational space and green areas. Joaquina wants to make their community safer and eliminate pollution to protect the health of children and elderly people. 

 MEET NALLELY ACEVES AND JESSICA VILLANUEVA

nallely aceves

Nallely Aceves

EHC celebrates the academic achievement of two children of the National City Community Action Team (CAT) members. Both families are getting ready to send their daughters off to college. Fabiola Aceves' daughter, Nallely, will be attending the University of California, Berkeley and has been awarded the very prestigious Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program. Maria Villanueva's daughter, Jessica will be going to California State University San Marcos. We are proud of our CAT members and all their hard work to provide a healthy and vibrant future for their families. We wish the best to Jessica and Nallely in their academic endeavors.

 MEET EHC'S ROSARIO "CHAYO" GARCIA 

CHAYO

Chayo (second from right) with Jay Powell, Martha Cortés, and former Council President Tony Young

Rosario "Chayo" Garcia has been a proud member of EHC since 1995. She first became involved with EHC by taking SALTA leadership classes, looking to get hands-on involvement with the issues affecting her community. "One of the first things that I learned in SALTA was that I could make changes in my neighborhood," she said. "This motivated me to continue to participate and learn as much as possible." Chayo describes herself as a shy person who was encouraged through SALTA to be outgoing, talk to her neighbors, and share her knowledge with others. She sees education as a prerequisite for change. "It is important to spread information so others can take action and protect their families," she says.

MEET MARTHA CORTÉS FROM SHERMAN HEIGHTS

Martho Cortes_EHC

Martha (in EHC teal) at a recent blood-lead testing event

Martha started community-organizing work with EHC when she was three-months pregnant. At the time, she lived in a very old home and didn't know about the health risks of lead in older homes. Martha got involved with EHC to help her children and others. She continues to support her community and its children by educating her neighbors and friends about the health risks of lead poisoning, including advocating for policies that ensure rental properties are lead free. Martha recently was awarded EHC's Healthy Kids Champion Award in April for her work. She encourages everyone to get involved to protect children's health and told us, "With the information that we share, we can all protect our children!"

MEET PATRICIA SAENZ FROM CITY HEIGHTS

IMG 2020

Patty's an EHC Community Action Team founder, SALTA graduate, board member, and most importantly - mom. After her home tested positive for lead a few years ago, she decided to start a movement in City Heights to ensure other homes were tested and kids were safe from lead poisoning. We can count on Patty to talk to elected officials or her neighbor down the street about quality of life and health issues in City Heights. She works hard to make her community better. Read more about Patty and her work in a recent interview with the UT San Diego. We really appreciate your leadership in City Heights, Patty!

MEET MARIA MARTINEZ FROM BARRIO LOGAN

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Maria (left) and EHC's Maria Moya speaking with Voice of San Diego

Maria lives adjacent to industries that in the past were terrible to the environment and residents' health. A Barrio Logan resident for 18 years, she's fought for cleaner air and water in her community since finding out that one of her three boys has asthma. María is a frequent spokesperson for the community and was nominated by the Community Action Team to represent them on the EHC Board in 2009. Thank you for your leadership in Barrio Logan, Maria. 

MEET CATHEY WILLIAMS, A MEMBER OF OUR CITY HEIGHTS COMMUNITY ACTION TEAM

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Cathey says that participating at city council and port commission hearings on behalf of EHC has taught her more about issues facing her community. She also recently attended advocacy training with our statewide partner organization, the California Environmental Justice Alliance. Thank you for your leadership in City Heights, Cathey. 

 

SAN DIEGO'S COMMUNITIES OF COLOR, ESPECIALLY THOSE SOUTH OF THE I-8, ARE THE MARGIN OF VICTORY IN THE ELECTIONS.

 

 

EHC LEADER PATRICIA SAENZ TALKS ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE IN EHC'S SALTA LEADERSHIP TRAINING

 

 

MESSAGES TO INSPIRE YOU FROM GRADUATES OF EHC'S SALTA PROGRAM

 

 

FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH COALITION HAS CONFRONTED ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICES IN THE SAN DIEGO/TIJUANA REGION. 

 

 

 

Jovenes

"Jóvenes Pro Justicia Ambiental" es parte del Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental y un proyecto de Environmental Health Coalition.

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Está conformado por más de 20 jóvenes de entre ocho y 19 años de edad que además de aprender a organizar y sobre temas que afectan su calidad de vida se encargan de desarrollar herramientas y crear vínculos con la comunidad para apoyar las campañas de trabajo del Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental.

Algunos ejemplos de los materiales que han desarrollado son cuatro libros para colorear con la información de las campañas de Environmental Health Colalition. El Grupo de Jóvenes también elaboró dos cómics, el primero, "La historia de mi colonia", cuenta la lucha de la comunidad para limpiar Metales y Derivados. El segundo, "Queremos Aire Limpio" explica el problema de contaminación por el paso de camiones de carga pesada por la comunidad y las posibles soluciones para mejorar esta situación.

Contactar Jóvenes Pro Justicia Ambiental en Facebook 

Environmental Health Coalition, Colectivo Ollín Calli, and members of the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, Jóvenes Pro Justicia Ambiental, residents of the Colonia Chilpancingo and neighborhoods adjacent to the Arroyo Alamar and their supporters announced the submission of a petition to procure an injunction against the Arroyo Alamar channelization project that the National Water Commission is developing.

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For more information visit www.alamarsustentable.org or email EHC's Border Environmental Justice Campaign Organizer.

The Arroyo Alamar originates in the United States near Campo in eastern San Diego County, flows into the Tecate River near the town of Tecate in Baja California, and changes its name to the Arroyo Alamar once it enters Tijuana. It then flows through the community of Chilpancingo, into the Tijuana River, and eventually into the Pacific Ocean near Imperial Beach, California. A few decades ago, it was a clean space where people from the nearby communities could fish and drink its water. The presence of the maquiladora assembly plant industry seriously contaminated the river near Colonias Chilpancingo, Murúa and Nueva Esperanza. Residents there would have liked to see it returned to a riparian habitat, but channelization of the river has already begun.

However, the portion of the river closest to the Tecate River contains a wide variety of plants and animals native to the region. It is an invaluable ecosystem that could mitigate the contamination resulting from the Maquiladora industries. The youth group of EHC's Tijuana affiliate, the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental (the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice), is working to save this watershed.

 

Cómic Book: Mi Comunidad y el Alamar

air-pollutionOn October 11, 2011, EHC and our Mexican affiliate the Chilpancingo Collective for Environmental Justice marked an important victory in the bi-national campaign to restrict maquiladora truck traffic from Colonia Chilpancingo and Murúa, where diesel emissions from the trucks have caused respiratory problems for school children.

Signage was posted in August 2011 banning the trucks from the streets where the schools are located. EHC, alongside members of the Collective and its youth group, conducted a campaign for more than two years seeking to restrict semi-truck traffic driving past the three public schools in the neighborhood.

Semi-trucks serving the maquiladora assembly plants take shortcuts through the neighborhood exposing 2,000 school children, and everyone who lives and works in the area, to high levels of diesel emissions. Experts associate these diesel emissions with serious health risks, including asthma, cancer and heart disease. More than 1,000 supporters signed the petition circulated by EHC, the collective and youth group, demanding a halt to the invasion of semi-trucks from the adjacent industrial park, the largest in Tijuana.

The World Health Organization recently changed diesel emissions from the "possible carcinogen" list to the "carcinogen" list.

Citizen's Petition to the NAFTA
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)

The CEC established a process for citizens of the NAFTA countries to file a petition against the government of any of the participating countries (the United States, Mexico and Canada) for failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws. EHC was one of the first to take advantage of this process in October 1998. A copy of our petition can be found at: http://www.cec.org/files/pdf/sem/98-7-SUB-OE.pdf

Information on submitting a citizen's petition is at: http://www.cec.org/citizen/guide_submit/index.cfm?varlan=english

CEC report NAFTA's Commission for Environmental Cooperation accepted [EHC and the Colonia Chilpancingo's Citizens' Submission Petition] in 1998 and released its [Metales y Derivados Final Factual Record] in 2002, confirming the community's concerns about high levels of toxics at the site.

http://www.cec.org/citizen/submissions/details/index.cfm?varlan=english&ID=67

Community/Government Agreements

The cleanup agreement, the agreement to establish the Working Group, and the agreement to finalize the cleanup project, signed in June and July 2004 and July 2008 respectively, are landmarks for environmental justice. These documents are only available in Spanish.

Selected Cleanup Process Documents

These documents record key moments in the struggle to clean up Metales y Derivados.
Foro sobre Metales y Derivados Historia y Lucha de la Colonia Chilpancingo. These documents are only available in Spanish.

Community Monitoring Record

Independent Consultant's Final Monitoring Report to the Community on the cleanup.

Media coverage

For links to many of the print articles written over the past ten years, click here.

Toxinformer articles

Environmental Health Coalition has documented many important moments in the struggle to clean up the toxic Metales y Derivados site in our newsletters.

The Great March for Border Environmental Justice: (August 2001)

Tijuana residents demand cleanup of

toxic site during 24-hour vigil: (April 2002)

Community pressure makes Mexican officials

take action at Metales site: (Click to View)

Chilpancingo residents present

community-based solution ... (July 2003, page 3

Update: Developments in the fight

to cleanup Metales y Derivados (October 2003, page 10)

EHC, Colectivo Chilpancingo form Metales cleanup... (April 2004, page 8)

Victory at last! Community celebrates... (August 2004, page 3)

Metales Y Derivados Update: (February 2006, page 9)

After More Than a Decade of Struggle,

Community Celebrates... (December 2007, page 4)

Articles and Books

The following writings put the struggle to clean up the toxic Metales y Derivados site in the worldwide context of environmental justice.

1. WARREN COUNTY'S LEGACY FOR MEXICO'S BORDER MAQUILADORAS, an article by Amelia Simpson, Director of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign, published by the Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal, August 22, 2007. 

2. In "Reading Chilpancingo," English teacher Linda Christensen describes a visit to Colonia Chilpancingo in Tijuana, Spring 2006.

3. The following books all contain chapters featuring the work of EHC and the Colectivo Chilpancingo.

Challenging the Chip

Ted Smith, David Sonnenfeld, David Naguib Pellow, eds., 2006, Temple University Press, includes a chapter discussing NAFTA, environmental justice and labor rights in the U.S.-Mexico border region written by Connie García and Amelia Simpson, Director of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign.

Out of the Sea and Into the Fire: Latin American-U.S. Immigration in the Global Age

Kari Lydersen, 2005, Common Courage Press, includes a chapter featuring EHC and the Colectivo's struggle to clean up Metales y Derivados and address the injustices of NAFTA in the border region.

Nafta from Below

Published by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, includes a chapter on the Metales y Derivados struggle.

Video

See EHC communities mobilizing for environmental justice in the cross-border region.

1. Maquilápolis

2. Journey to Planet Earth "Future Conditional"

The ten-year struggle to clean up the abandoned Tijuana lead smelter, Metales y Derivados, culminated in late 2008 and represents a binational environmental justice and public health victory. EHC and the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental thank the following people and organizations, whose support and efforts made the cleanup of Metales y Derivados possible, as well as the thousands more who signed petitions and postcards, joined us for actions, and shared their talents and resources supporting our efforts:

Irene Silvia Aguilar  • Guadalupe Aguirre De Luján • María Luisa Altamirano • Martha Ángel Arias • José Bravo  • Trinidad Calleros Isabel  • Lupita Castaneda • Inés Castillo M • Magdalena Cerda • Martha Cervantes Soberanez • María De La Luz Chávez Pérez • Paula Contreras Delgadillo • Soledad Contreras Salazar • María Coronado Jiménez • Carolina Cruz García • Verónica Cruz García • Marisol Díaz Bautista • Beatriz Domínguez Macías • Dora Esther Domínguez Ramos • Luz Elena Félix • María de Jesús Flores • Myrna Patricia Flores Díaz • Yanira Fonseca Mendoza • Julieta Fuentes Ramos • Vicky Funari • Blanca Ofelia Gallardo • Connie García • Elva García Calleros • Eva García Calleros • José Antonio García • Parvin Elvira García Calleros • Sandra V García Chincoya • Jorge Glackman-Guerra • Carmen Hernández Preciado • Pilar Jaime Castro • Margarita Jaimes • Cruz Adriana Jiménez Rodríguez • Martina Juárez Rodarte • Ana Langarica Vallecillos • Evangelina Langarica V • Geomara Lara Ruíz • Joanna Itzel Lerma Luján • Blanca E López • Casimira López Solórzano • Luz López Hernández • María Guadalupe Luján Aguirre • María De Lourdes Luján Aguirre • César Luna • Adela Martínez Castro • Sandra Martínez • Enrique Medina • María Meléndez De Fong • Rosalba Mendoza Ibarra • María Guadalupe Mercado • Kenia Elizabeth Meza Cervantes • María Consuelo Muñoz López • Esteban Naranjo • Martha Ojeda • Micaela Ontiveros B • José Efraín Ortega Contreras • María Leonor Ortega Ledesma • Sara Noemí Osuna • Jermán Páez Rodríguez • Yesenia Palomares Rodríguez • Andrea Pedro Aguilar • María Luisa Pérez Mendoza • Margarita Pérez De Chávez • Sonia Pérez Gómez • María Alicia Ramos O • Silvia Rangel López • Olga Marta Rendón • María Elena Rojo Ramírez • Guadalupe Ruíz • Juan M. Ruíz Ofiga • María Guadalupe Ruíz Mendoza • Aurora Salazar Flores • María De La Luz Salcedo • David Saldaña Seguro • Vicenta Saucedo Escobedo • Magdalena Silva Ramírez • Amelia Simpson • Kazuo Tanaka • Sergio De La Torre • Dulce María Torres Velarde • Gonzalo Valdez Delgado • Martha Valdes • Yolanda Valez D • Graciela Villalvaso • Emeteria Areli Villatoro Córdova • Karina Elizabeth Zavala Romero • Border 2012 Program • Border Environmental Cooperation Commission • CITTAC • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency • Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales • Secretaría de Protección al Ambiente del Estado de Baja California • Charles Stewart Mott Foundation • Colin Rodríguez Griswold Memorial Fund • French American Charitable Trust • Ford Foundation Global Greengrants Fund • Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation • Marguerite Casey Foundation • Marisla Foundation • Mitchell Kapor Foundation • Nathan Cummings Foundation • New World Foundation • New York Community Trust • North American Fund for Environmental Cooperation • Orca Fund at the San Diego Foundation • Panta Rhea Foundation • Solidago Foundation • Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock

Subcategories

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Low-income communities of color must lead when it comes to climate solutions. The climate crisis is real, is here, and affects us all, but it hits low-income communities of color first and worst. Environmental Justice (EJ) communities are at the center of the issue and we are the solution.

The Climate Justice Working Group defines climate justice as: “ensuring that the people and communities who are least culpable in the warming of the planet, and most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, do not suffer disproportionately as a result of historical injustice and disinvestment”. Unfortunately, the impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt by low-income communities of color, and it is these same communities who “have been kept out of the global processes to address climate change” (Indigenous Environmental Network, North America).1 As a result, Climate Justice affirms the rights of indigenous people and communities most affected by climate change to lead with the solutions. EJ communities represent and speak for themselves.

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Climate scientists predict significant changes in the San Diego region, like extreme heat, water shortages, drought, increased wild fire intensity and frequency, increased air pollution, sea-level rise and coastal flooding. The effects of climate change hit first and worst in EJ communities such as Barrio LoganCity Heights and National City The effects are magnified because these neighborhoods house the largest sources of pollution and are already burdened by inadequate infrastructure, limited transportation options, and poor economic opportunities.

EHC’s Climate Justice Campaign works to ensure that the residents of Barrio Logan, City Heights and National City are able to speak for themselves and advance climate policies at the local, regional, state levels.

Campaign Core Elements:

1. Start Here, Star Now: An Environmental Justice Assessment of the San Diego Climate Action Plan.
The prioritization of Environmental Justice Communities for climate related investments is key to real climate solutions. When cities advance environmental justice, everyone benefits.
2. Transportation Justice. Transformation of the San Diego region into a mass transit paradise where EJ community residents will not have to own a car to access jobs, go to the doctor, go to school and take care of their basic needs. Mass transit is the way.
3. Energy Democracy. Organizing to ensure investments in renewable energy are achieved for residents of low-income communities of color. Renters want solar too.

1 Indigenous Environmental Network, North America, et al. Bali Principles of Climate Justice (2002) https://www.ejnet.org/ej/bali.pdf

Renters need clean energy too. In San Diego, non EJ communities have more than double the residential solar (40 per 1000 residents) compared to EJ communities (18 per 1000 residents).55 We attribute this discrepancy to a variety of barriers making solar installation difficult to access and afford for all people.

San Diego is a “solar star,” but not for environmental justice communities. According to a 2018 report by Environment California, San Diego has the second most solar power capacity among the 69 cities surveyed. Unfortunately, installed solar power does not extend to EJ communities.

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The map titled Installed Residential KiloWatts of Solar Power, per 1000 Residents, by Zipcode, City of San Diego, 2017 shows the geography of the number of kilowatts installed per 1,000 residents. The table titled Average Number of Solar Installations per 1000 people includes this metric and the average number of installations broken out by EJ communities, City, and non-EJ communities. Both statistics highlight that residential solar power installation in EJ communities is minimal.

A study done by the California Energy Commission identified barriers and recommendations to bridge the clean energy gap for low-income customers and small business contracting opportunities in disadvantaged communities. The structural barriers identified include low home ownership rates, insufficient access to capital, and aged buildings. The report by the California Energy Commission is an excellent guide to inform the implementation of the San Diego CAP.

Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH)

In 2015, the California Environmental Justice Alliance together with the Center for Sustainable Energy, GRID Alternatives, and the Association for Energy Affordability, with the support of EJ allies like Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) secured passage of California Assembly Bill 693. This legislation provides $1 billion to install solar on multifamily affordable homes in disadvantaged communities across the state.

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EHC will build awareness of AB 693 and the need for solar energy in EJ Communities and provide funding application technical support to increase solar deployment on low-income multifamily housing complexes in National City, Barrio Logan, and City Heights, so that they too can benefit from the utility savings from renewable energy and energy efficiency.

What to learn more, support, and get involved:

• Contact Caro This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 619-474-0220 ext 131
DONATE to EHC

Children in our communities deserve healthy homes and communities where they can grow up without exposure to toxic chemicals.

  • Asthma attacks resulting in hospitalizations and emergency room visits are up to three times higher for children living in communities with high levels of air pollution
  • Many homes in low-income communities were built before 1979 and still have lead-based paint
  • More than 15 years ago, parents reported their children getting sick after ingesting candy later found to have high levels of lead

EHC’s Healthy Kids Campaign works to reduce or eliminate environmental childhood health hazards and promote homes and communities that are safe, healthy, accessible and affordable.

Learn more about Children and Toxics, Childhood Lead-Poisoning Prevention and Lead-Free Candy.

Low-income communities of color have long struggled with discriminatory land-use practices that diminish our health, safety, and quality of life.

Toxic mixes of industrial development, freeways, and truck routes are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods alongside homes and schools. At the root of this all-too-common pattern are discriminatory land-use regulations that do not protect the community's health.

The way our neighborhoods are planned– or are allowed to degrade because of lack of planning – determines the levels of air pollution and concentration of toxic industries residents experience. Simultaneously, low-income communities of color experience a lack of affordable housing and limited access to public transit, open space and healthy food. Environmental justice will exist when all neighborhoods are treated equally.

The diligence of our dedicated community leaders has resulted in monumental environmental justice victories. Some of these include:

No one is more entitled to determine the future of a community than the residents themselves. EHC's Social Change for Justice Model embodies this belief. By empowering community members through leadership development, organizing and collective advocacy efforts, residents become community leaders whom we advocate with for healthy communities, healthy homes, and environments that are both safe and clean, working to ultimately achieve social and environmental justice.

Under California law, all municipalities are required to complete General Plans that provide a blueprint for a long-range vision for cities. EHC successfully advocated for an Environmental Health and Justice element in the National City General Plan and a buffer zone between polluters and homes/schools in the Chula Vista General Plan – both firsts in the state. State law does not require the completion of community, area and specific plans, but when executed they apply General Plan standards to a specific geographic area to enable communities to determine the density, building height, zoning and amenities for their neighborhoods.

EHC’s community-driven planning efforts have focused on these plans because they offer the opportunity for self-determination for residents and enable residents to be proactive rather than reactive to inappropriate development proposals. The process also represents a holistic strategy for a community to engage in planning. It may allow residents, perhaps for the first time, to envision their community using their values and aspirations, not the developer’s or the city councilmember’s.

EHC currently works on community-driven land-use planning in Barrio Logan, City Heights and Sherman/Logan Heights in the City of San Diego, and in National City.

In each community, the underlying process is the same.

Building Community Power

BarrioLoganCommunityPlanningAuthentic community involvement in every aspect of community planning and visioning leads to better outcomes that respect neighborhoods and their residents. EHC’s core strategies for all our efforts include community organizing and policy advocacy, which we combine with grassroots leadership development, research and communications to implement each strategic plan. To ensure that the community’s voice is heard, EHC employs the following tactics:

  • Community Action Teams
    In each community, EHC establishes a Community Action Team comprising residents trained as EHC leaders. These leaders develop the community vision and priorities that direct our efforts. They serve as spokespersons for the campaign at meetings with elected officials and government agency representatives and on various planning committees established to oversee plan development.

    José Medina, National City resident since 1969 and EHC leader, expressed his hopes for the Old Town National City Specific Plan when he said: “The plan will allow me to see the neighborhood change into something I remember when I was a boy, when a lot of residents were connecting with each other. In the mid-80s it changed for the worse – I saw houses flattened and autobody shops moved in.”
  • Leadership Training— SALTA (Salud Ambiental Líderes Tomando Acción -- Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action)
    All EHC leaders complete an eight-session Core SALTA training program providing them with skills and knowledge to become effective advocates and community organizers. A five-session mini-SALTA focusing on land use also provides training on redevelopment, zoning, and affordable housing, plus air quality, contaminated site cleanup, reducing industrial pollution, and sustainable building, including green building materials and renewable energy options.

  • Conducting Community Surveys
    EHC Leaders commit to understanding the priorities of their neighbors and representing those needs when developing EHC platforms and positions. They utilize community surveying as a method for collecting and documenting these needs. In National City, for example, leaders surveyed residents and found that the highest priorities included development of affordable housing, relocation of auto body shops and changing zoning to prohibit incompatible mixed-use. These community priorities were incorporated into the community plan.

  • Community Visioning
    Once aware of the impact and importance of community planning EHC leaders in both Barrio Logan and Old Town National City elected to develop their own neighborhood vision. EHC raised funds to employ a land-use planning firm to work with residents to develop detailed plans with zoning changes, volume and affordability levels of new housing units, identification of industries for relocation, park acreage, school requirements and more. Barrio Logan’s community plan—one of the City of San Diego’s oldest—had not been updated since 1978. After years of promises and delays, residents took planning into their own hands. This resulted in the Barrio Logan Vision, now endorsed by over 1,000 area residents, community organizations and local businesses. EHC then secured $1.5 million from a neighboring downtown development agency for the City to update and revise the official Barrio Logan Community Plan, a process starting in early 2008. EHC pushes for the community plan update to be consistent with the Barrio Logan Vision.

    Hilda Valenzuela, EHC leader and Barrio Logan resident, expressed her excitement about the start of the planning process: “I hope with the Community Plan Update process we can resolve the problems sooner – improve affordable housing, have a healthier environment for children and a better place to live.”

Ensure Healthy Neighborhoods

For many years, EHC has promoted pollution prevention and the precautionary principle as the best way to prevent toxic exposure for community residents and workers. Communities subjected to toxic exposure due to discriminatory zoning need to take action to protect themselves and create separation between residential and industrial land uses. They must also ensure that industrial businesses adopt and implement the most up-to-date technology.

  • Buffer Zones
    EHC proposed the Toxic-Free Neighborhoods Ordinance in the City of San Diego in 1990, which would have required a buffer between industries using or emitting hazardous materials and residences, schools, and day care centers. Local polluters spent thousands of dollars lobbying against the ordinance and ultimately defeated it. Without an ordinance, EHC targeted polluters that chronically violated the law. Master Plating fit the bill with over 150 violations on the books. Community organizing efforts compelled the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and local government to take action resulting in Master Plating’s shutdown in 2002. CARB’s monitoring revealed a cancer risk four times higher than a "typical urban area" due to hexavalent chromium emissions. As a result of this local action, CARB developed the Air Quality and Land Use Handbook in 2005 that recommended buffers for many polluters for the first time in state or local regulatory history. The recommended buffer for chrome platers is 1,000 feet. The distance between Master Plating and the house next door was 4 feet. The guidance document also recommends separation of housing and major roadways, which presents difficulties with "transit-oriented development" that may encourage development very near freeways.

    Elvia Martinez, Master Plating’s next door neighbor and EHC leader, said: “This is the way it’s supposed to work…when a community works together to make its neighborhood a better place to live.”

  • Zoning
    Community plans can include zoning ordinances that determine where industrial, commercial and residential areas can be located. "Mixed-use" zoning that allows free uses in the same area plagues Barrio Logan and National City. EHC seeks specific zoning designations in the new community plans that separate industrial areas from residential areas and remove incompatible mixed-use zoning.

  • Polluter Relocation and Removal
    Rules that prohibit new sensitive uses near pollution sources help, but to restore residential neighborhoods and make them healthy places to live, polluters adjacent to homes and schools must be relocated. EHC has pursued several tactics to accomplish this. In National City, the City Council adopted an amortization ordinance that will phase out industries currently allowed to operate near sensitive uses such as schools. The ordinance sets up a process for relocation of prioritized industries when the amortization period is triggered.

No one knows the struggle of living with toxic pollution like the people who face this challenge every day. “We Speak for Ourselves” is the principle that EHC works to achieve through our leadership development program that ensures that those affected should have the opportunity to raise their own voices and demand change.

Leadership development is critical to achieving success and is a one of EHC’s three primary strategies in our Social Change for Justice Model that enables the power of the base to be directed towards our goals.

EHC Tree

EHC’s signature leadership training, SALTA (Salud Ambiental, Líderes Tomando Acción – Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action), is provided to all EHC leaders who serve on our Community Action Teams. In 2017, SALTA celebrated its 20th anniversary with more than 2,500 local graduates who have participated. . EHC has now packaged the successful training into a web-based, interactive leadership development curriculum that enables leaders around the globe have the skills and experience necessary to achieve environmental justice in their own communities.

For leaders passionate about transforming their neighborhoods, our Creating Healthy Neighborhoods:Community Planning to Overcome Injustice video and curriculum uses real-life examples and case studies to show how anyone can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice through community planning.

Communities on an international border have the great privilege and responsibility of transcending boundaries and merging two cultures into one unique way of life. EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign reduces toxic pollution caused by maquiladora industries in Tijuana and promotes fair trade and globalization for justice.

Our involvement in the border region began in 1983 with the co-sponsorship of an International Environmental Conference in Tijuana. Cross-border relationships continued to grow around a variety of social and environmental justice issues. We formed our Border Environmental Justice Campaign in 1993 with efforts to halt the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, in recognition of the devastation caused by unjust trade along the border.

Our Tijuana Community Action Team, the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, inaugurated EHC's office in Colonia Chilpancingo in 2002 to support local residents committed to the struggle for environmental justice in Mexico and along the border.

Watch the videos and read more about EHC's historic successful efforts, including:

leadbundlesWith corporate globalization, trade increased along the U.S.-Mexico border and so did pollution. However, trade agreements like NAFTA fail to hold polluting corporations responsible or to provide resources for environmental protection.

Of the 66 documented toxic waste sites in Mexican border states, the most infamous is Tijuana's Metales y Derivados, a U.S.-owned maquiladora factory that recycled batteries imported from the U.S. The owner, José Kahn, fled across the border when the maquiladora was shut down in 1994 after community reports of health problems and repeated violations of environmental law documented by the Mexican government. Mr. Kahn left behind 23,000 tons of mixed contaminated waste, including 7,000 tons of lead slag, exposed to the elements and threatening workers and families living in the adjacent Tijuana neighborhood of Colonia Chilpancingo.

EHC and the community conducted a campaign for over a decade to compel a cleanup. In 1998, EHC and the community filed a petition with NAFTA's environmental agency, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

The commission's report, released in 2002, concluded that the site represented a "grave risk to human health." Yet the commission has no authority or resources to clean up toxic sites. After over a decade of organizing and advocacy, EHC and the community finally celebrated the signing of a landmark cleanup agreement in 2004 with the Mexican government and the formation of a bi-national, community/government working group. The cleanup was completed in 2008, ahead of schedule, and included independent community monitoring. (Download the full cleanup chronology.)

Metales y Derivados is the poster child for the failure of NAFTA to live up to its negotiators' promise to protect public health and the environment. However, Metales y Derivados symbolizes environmental justice achieved. The case established for the first time a structure for cross-border and community/government collaboration on toxic site cleanups.