Environmental Justice Community Event
With sponsorship from Union of Concerned Scientists’ Science for the Public Good Fund we hosted a fun day with pizza and popsicles discussing environmental justice and engaging with the community at Wilmington Waterfront Park in Los Angeles. Wilmington and its neighboring communities are on the frontlines of many environmental injustices. They face significantly higher rates of cancer, asthma, and various other negative health impacts from chemical industry, freeways, power plants, and refineries that are concentrated in their neighborhoods. Meanwhile, neighboring wealthy communities experience some of the best air quality in the state. Check out the map of pollution burden below from Cal EPA/CalEnviroScreen.
As LA and Long Beach bid to become hydrogen hubs with funding from the federal government, there must be community engagement to develop a shared understanding about what hydrogen is, how it might benefit a community, and all the ways it might harm their community. We were joined by Andrea Vega, Senior Southern California Organizer with Food and Water Watch, who explained how companies and choices by government officials effectively make Wilmington into a “sacrifice zone” (defined as a geographic area that has been permanently changed by heavy environmental alterations or economic disinvestment, often through locally unwanted land use). With LADWP, SoCalGas, and the city council pushing forward plans for more hydrogen infrastructure in communities like Wilmington, residents should be aware of the risks associated with this infrastructure (from higher NOx exposure levels when combusting hydrogen, to explosions resulting from transporting or storing hydrogen). Andrea stressed not only the environmental burden for the Wilmington community, but also urged policymakers to consider the vast water resources required to make and use hydrogen in a state that already faces water-scarcity.
We were also joined by Jesse Marquez, a lifelong resident of Wilmington who has advocated for environmental justice as Director of Coalition for a Safe Environment. Jesse shared his long history of advocacy in the Wilmington community and shared his excitement for hydrogen as a fuel of the future, as long as it is not blended with natural gas for combustion in power plants.
We look forward to more opportunities to learn from and understand the needs of communities around UCLA and to work together with them toward evidence-based policy and a more just society. Check out some of our previous work, illuminating the potential harms of hydrogen combustion in Knowing Neurons.
