Dear Mr. Hoyt,

You owe the residents of the West Side an apology.  Last week the authority you chair was allowed to go ahead and demolish eight homes on Busti Avenue, and in fewer than twelve hours the homes were mere rubble.  During the coverage of this momentous event you said that you and the authority are “going to send a message [that] you’re not entering a ghetto when you cross into the great city of Buffalo.”

If the West Side is a “ghetto”, Mr. Hoyt, it is because the Public Bridge Authority has made it so.  They have owned those eight homes on Busti for more than 20 years and have let them deteriorate. They have created uncertainty in our neighborhood – no one knows what will happen in our neighborhood because the authority has been talking about expansion for the past 20 years.  Our neighborhood has been disinvested in because no one knew what the future would look like; our sidewalks are un-walkable, or streets un-drivable, and our people are un-interested. Not to mention the consistent lack of inclusion by the PBA of the residents that live adjacent to the Peace Bridge.  Because of the ambiguity and lack of transparency displayed by your authority, Mr. Hoyt, it is becoming far too easy, and far too common for my neighbors to throw their hands up in the air.

This is not what a community should be like.  Neighbors should talk to each other, they should care about each other, and they should care for their community. If the West Side, our community, is a ghetto, Mr. Hoyt, it is because the authority that you chair made it one- and we should get an apology for it.

– Natasha Soto
Organizer for the Clean Air Coalition of WNY, compiling feelings held by our West Side members

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130313%2FOPINION%2F130319777%2F1074

West Side members of the Clean Air Coalition were shocked to hear that the Busti Avenue homes had already been demolished early Monday morning.

“Community members should have definitely received more notice that the homes were going to come down on Saturday.  The Peace Bridge Authority should have taken the weekend to inform residents that the homes were coming down- we’re only a couple of steps away” was resident Tangia Delk’s initial reaction to learning that the Busti Homes were on their way down on Monday morning.  Similarly, Reverend Dr. Lanzot of Primera Iglesia Unida Metodista on Virginia Street “doesn’t understand why the powers that be took the powers to do without consulting the community”.

News of the judge’s decision was announced Friday afternoon, and by Saturday morning the houses were pretty much heaps on the ground.  The Coalition does not believe this is how a good neighbor would act- a good neighbor will give you advance notice of such a dusty, noisy and impactful project.  “There is just no consideration or transparency between the PBA and the residents.  They feel they can do what they want when they want”, was Natasha Soto’s- an organizer for the Coalition who works on the West Side, “would it have been too much to ask for a mailing or leaflet, or a meeting hosted by the PBA over the weekend and have the houses demoed on Monday? What is the rush if all that they’re putting up is green space?  Now the residents who live near there have nothing blocking them from the thousands of carcinogenic diesel exhaust emitting trucks passing through the truck plaza.”

Not only were the demolitions executed in record time, but residents are not even sure of what will be put in their place. “They [PBA] was doing it on the low, they were hiding it.  Everything is being done behind closed doors.  The situation for the past 20 years has been to expand the plaza, and they want us to believe that they are getting rid of these homes so quickly to build green space?! I don’t buy it”, says Ana Martinez, a resident who lives on Niagara Street.

“Now that the homes are gone, they have to at least give us answers before they start construction of the so-called ‘green space’. Who does it benefit? Is it for residents, business owners, who decides what gets put there? They already call us lazy- so this is a perfect opportunity to prove them right, especially when they cut out the first step and don’t even inform us of what’s going on.  We’re really concerned; we have issues we’re concerned about.  They are making us play catch up in our own neighborhood when they put news out on a Friday, and things are already in action on Saturday!” exclaims Ms. Delk.

Clean Air has been asking the PBA’s Chair, Sam Hoyt, to release plans they have for the area for over a year.  If all they doing is putting in green space once they remove those houses, the Coalition sees no reason why the PBA can’t release those plans with the green spaces in them.  They should make these plans public, and they should be including the residents that live on the West Side every step of the way.  The PBA should be ashamed that residents had no idea that the houses were down already on Monday, especially since the members of the PBA making these decisions do not live on the West Side.

You have the Right to Know!

Do you want to know what companies in your community release into the air and water?

Are you curious about which facilities don’t have to report their emissions?

Interested in learning which companies are reducing their pollution?

Join us on March 13th!

The Toxic Release Inventory or TRI is a user friendly database run by the Environmental Protection Agency that tracks pollution from companies across the United States that are required to report by law.

The Clean Air Coalition has been recently recognized by the United Nations as a world leader in training communities on the TRI database. Last year, executive director Erin Heaney was invited to UN Headquarters in Geneva Switzerland to provide training to non-government organization (NGO) community members from Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Honduras, Peru, Ecuador, and the Ukraine. To learn more about this 3 day conference click here.

On the 13th you will learn about the movement behind TRI, and the history of communities that stood up and demanded more information about toxics in their neighborhoods. Trainers will also teach how to use the EPA TRI tool Myrtk.gov, give opportunities for attendees to dig into the data, discover what companies are polluting, and the potential health effects of their emissions.

This training is open to the public and for people with all comfort levels with computers are able to participate. 

Join us!

March 13th

6:30 – 8:30pm

University at Buffalo South Campus

Kimball Building Room 111

Questions? Call or email us at 716-852-3813 or info@cacwny.org

Thank you to everyone who came out to our big Tonawanda wide risk ranking event on February 20th!

Nearly 200 people joined us at the Brounshidle Post #2 to learn the results of a years-worth of community-based environmental health research in Tonawanda NY. City of Tonawanda Mayor Ronald Pilozzi & Erie County Legislator Kevin Hardwick were in attendance.  There was also representation from Congressman Brian Higgins office, State Senator Mark Grisanti’s office, the Town Supervisor’s office.

This process was made possible through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Community Action for a Renewed Environment or CARE program. Through CARE, a community is able to conduct a broad based assessment using citizen based research to identify the most dangerous risks to health then and create solutions to reduce toxics and save lives.

At the Clean Air Coalition we value resident knowledge. The research Tonawanda residents have conducted over the last year has been built on this value. Over the last year, we’ve engaged 1,341people  in activities such as:

• 8 workshops, including workshops on the Toxic Release Inventory, Freedom of Information Act, Zoning and Land Use, and Pollution Prevention.
• Air testing in 3 community identified locations
• PhotoVoice; a participatory photography method for resident’s to capture the social and environmental determinants of health
• 3 focus group sessions to receive feedback on community health concerns
• Went door to door to 1,000 residents homes

During the meeting on the 20th, residents received a ballot and after visiting 7 research stations, voted on the top 5 environmental health risks in Tonawanda. The results of these ballots will be counted  by our CARE leadership team and released to the public in March.

The top 5 environmental health risks will guide our future work in Tonawanda. Thank you to everyone who attended! 

 On Monday the NYS Department of Health finally released it’s long-anticipated Tonawanda health study. The study was initiated after Tonawanda residents called on the agency to investigate the seemingly high rates of illness in their community.

NYS DOH found that lung cancer, bladder cancer, and total cancers were elevated among both males and females; esophageal cancer was elevated among males and uterine cancer was elevated among females. In sub-areas, oral cavity was elevated among males, and leukemia among females. Pre-term births and heart defects were also elevated.  The full report can be found here: http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/investigations/tonawanda/.

 The Clean Air Coalition’s membership is encouraging political leadership to take the following steps to address the cancer crisis in the Town and City of Tonawanda:

• NYS DEC Commissioner Joe Martens should honor his promise to come to Tonawanda and meet with sick residents by March 31^st. He should publicly announce his trip by the end of February.
• Town of Tonawanda should pass a comprehensive land use plan that incorporates residents suggestions to phase out burning coal in the town and improves public access to the waterfront.
• Policy makers should encourage DuPont to phase out vinyl fluoride at DuPont Tonawanda, the highly flammable carcinogen that led to the explosion that killed a worker in 2011.
• Get tough on Tonawanda Coke by mandating the company agree to all conditions set out in the consent order. If the conditions are not met by June, DEC and EPA should take the company to court.
• Empire State Development and the Regional Economic Development Council should allocate more funding for pollution prevention projects that help business’ identify opportunities to eliminate the use of toxic chemicals.
• Reform our economic development agencies to prevent chronic polluters from continuing to receive our tax-dollars in the form of government subsidies
• Governor Cuomo and the NYS Legislature should pass campaign finance reform to ensure resident voices are not drowned out by corporate polluters.

People interested in learning more about pollution in the town can attend the Clean Air Coalition’s public meeting on February 20th at 6:30 at the Brounshidle Post at 3354 Delaware Ave. Residents will share their years-worth of community-based research results. The data presented will include results of air monitoring, the emissions from large manufacturing plants, photographs taken by residents, information on worker safety in the town and more. Attendees will vote on their top health concerns. The results will be used to drive policy change in the Tonawandas.  We know that together we can create a healthier community. 

NYS DOH will also hold a public meeting about the study on February 26^th at the Sheridan Parkside Community Center.

At the Clean Air Coalition we believe that grassroots fundraising is an essential strategy for building a healthier and more just community. Fundraising is a form of organizing and movement-building. The challenges in our community are too big to face alone. It’s through collective action that we make change – and fundraising is no different.

It’s easier than ever to join our movement for a healthier region. Today we launched a new page on our website to allow you to make a sustaining gift to the Clean Air Coalition. Your monthly gift will allow us to have a source of support we can count on all year round.

To kick us off, the first 20 sustainers will recieve a Clean Air button and be entered in a drawing for two free tickets to our Annual Dinner on May 9th! If you are one of the first 20 to give, you also will be reconized on our blog, annual report and at our dinner.

Will you will join us?

Judge Paula Feroleto ruled in our favor on Wednesday and issued us a protective order!

In August, Tonawanda Coke demanded that we turn over thousands of pages worth of documents to the company. In order to comply we would have had to turn over every record ever generated, every phone call log, every e-mail and all databases. TCC also demanded publicly available government data, press clippings, social media posts, scientific studies, internal memos, private health information about it’s membership, and all documents about: “any entities operating in a twenty-five (25) mile radius of Tonawanda Coke Corporation.”

We had made several requests for the company to narrow the scope of the subpoena. The company refused and dragged us into court.

Wednesday, Judge Feroleto ruled that the subpoena was overbroad and granted us a protective order from TCC.

Check out the coverage in The Buffalo News and Tonawanda News.

Our attorneys were amazing! A huge thank you goes out to Jim Duggan and Neil Pawlowski who fought for us bravely!

Thanks goes out to all of our members for their support during this time. Your membership support made certain that our voices will continue to be heard, and assured that we will not back down when our health is on the line.

Over the last year, The Clean Air Coalition of WNY has built a partnership with 12 organizations and hundreds of residents to conduct community based research on the environmental health issues in Tonawanda NY.

This process, funded through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) CARE Program, included activities such as multiple focus groups, citizen led air testing, a photography project and a door to door canvass. On Wednesday, February 20th 2013 The Coalition will coordinate a community wide risk ranking event where all of the information collected over the past year will be presented and the community will vote on the 5 top hazards of most concern. Our ‘Tonawanda Toxic Top 5’ document will be released in March.

2012 has been a busy year. Though our CARE Program alone we have:

• Held 8 workshops with over 100 attendees, including workshops on the Toxic Release Inventory, Freedom of Information Act, Zoning and Land Use, and Pollution Prevention.
• Air tested in 3 community identified locations
• Met one on one with 37 Tonawanda residents
• Partnered with 12 Tonawanda Organizations
• Coordinated PhotoVoice; a participatory photography method for resident’s to capture the social and environmental determinants of health
• Held 3 focus group sessions to receive feedback on community health concerns
• Went door to door to 1,000 residents homes
• Read  and reported on hundreds of DEC and EPA documents on Tonawanda industrial releases and on-site worker injuries

The work of our members and staff all leads up to one main event: on February 20^th the public is invited to cast their vote for Tonawanda Toxic Top 5. Our Toxic Top 5 will set our agenda on Tonawanda health priorities. This is a vote that will count.

Be on the Top 5 Organizing Committee! Our first meeting is on January 3^rd at 6pm at the Sheridan Parkside Community Center. Call Rebecca at 852-3813 for more information.

Internship Overview

The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York is a grassroots environmental health and justice organization based in Buffalo, New York. It works to build power by developing grassroots leaders who run and win campaigns that advance environmental justice and public health in the region.  The Clean Air Coalition envisions a world where our environment promotes health and equity and where communities are actively engaged in decisions that impact their lives. The Coalition works in Tonawanda to reduce emissions from industrial polluters, on the lower west side of Buffalo to reduce community exposure to diesel exhaust and in several other neighborhoods in Erie County to phase out toxic chemical storage and reduce exposure to school bus exhaust in residential neighborhoods.

We seek interns to help with our organizing, community-based research, and leadership development. All internships include some operations and development work. The Clean Air Coalition’s internships are ideal for highly motivated individuals looking to deepen and practice their skills engaging community leaders in solving environmental health and justice organizations.

Our interns work out of our Buffalo office. The Winter/Spring placements starting in January and end in May summer interns begin in June and end in August and the fall interns begin in September and end in December (exact dates are flexible).

The Coalition accepts two interns per semester. Internship goals are set between the intern and their supervisor based on the needs of the organization and the interests of the intern.   Past intern projects include producing a report on toxic releases and worker exposures in Tonawanda, developing educational materials on how Erie County government passes laws, publishing a report on Tier 2 compliance in Erie County, making recommendations to improve the Coalition’s brand and identifying national foundations interested in supporting the Coalition’s work.

2013 internship needs:

The Coalition if currently seeking interns to work on projects in the following areas:

• Political Education and Research  Projects will include creating popular education documents on local municipalities that govern our organizing areas, tracking decision makers through www.littlesis.org and researching and developing popular education materials on the City of Buffalo’s budget.
• Land Use, Zoning and Mapping Projects will include completing research on zoning in the town of Tonawanda, historical research on the industrial corridor in Tonawanda, Buffalo’s east and west side, and supporting the Gearing Up for Action program by researching the history of businesses and land-use decisions on Buffalo’s west side.
• Toxics and environmental regulations Projects will include research on Huntley, the coal burning power plant in Tonawanda and research on Special Environmental Projects.
• Spanish Language. This intern will support the Coalition’s transition to bi-lingualism. He or she will work closely with the Executive Director and west side organizer to translate educational and fundraising materials, translate at membership meetings and drive member turn out through turnout calls and mailings.
• Development. This intern will work closely with the Executive Director and Board Chair. Projects will include doing research on major donor prospects and foundations, produce support for the board retreat, annual dinner and and several targeted direct mail appeals.

The ideal candidates will have:

• Ability to work independently
• strong interest in social justice, participatory democracy, environmental justice or non-profit management
• strong communication, writing, and organizational skills
• experience or interest working with non-profit organizations
• strong skills working with Powerpoint, Word, GoogleDocs, Mailchimp, salesforce
• Research experience, in or out of the classroom, on issues related to public policy, participatory democracy, public health, urban planning, environmental justice, spanish language, or development

We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, and LGBTQ individuals. The internship is unpaid, though it may lead to paid work depending on the intern’s performance and available resources. For more information, visit our website at www.cacwny.org

To apply, send a letter of interest, resume, and work sample (e.g. a brochure, flyer, powerpoint presentation, report, info sheet) to erin@cacwny.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

I’ll never forget the graduation night of the Lois Gibbs Fellows this year. Like many of our events, our staff and members brought along their families to celebrate their hard work and share a delicious meal. Lois brought down the house, reminding us that working people are how change always happens in this country and reaffirming our commitment to building power and confronting the already-powerful. I’ll never forget the beautiful smiles on our Fellows faces as they received their graduation certificate. As our organizers shared stories about the growth in each of our fellows I felt extremely blessed to be part of a community of such strong and hard-working people. I can’t wait to see the changes each one of them will make in the years to come! Erin Heaney

My favorite moment of 2012 was when over 100 of our members, residents and organizational partners marched to Front Park by the Peace Bridge. We had signs, sang songs, and chanted to tell Governor Cuomo that the community needs an air monitor to measure the diesel exhaust from the 4,000 trucks that run past their homes daily.  At the end one of our members grabbed all the used asthma pumps that we had collected and threw them in a coffin to demonstrate the amount of illness in the community. Everyone started singing. A few months later an air monitor was installed at the base of the bridge. This year demonstrated that when people organize we have the power to make our neighborhoods better places to live. I can’t wait to continue to work with our coalition for a healthy west side in 2013.  Natasha Soto

My favorite moment of 2012 was the morning I found out that Amigone Crematory was issued the Assurance of Discontinuance by the Attorney General. I was reminded that organizing works.  I thought about what the people I am working with have been putting up with over the past 20 years.; the inability to sleep because the smells from the crematory were so bad, the noise, the inability to have their grandchildren over because they were afraid of what types of chemicals were in the air. I met one woman who would vomit because the smells were so bad in her house. When I got the call that the AOD had been issued, and the Amigones had to suspend their operation, I could not wait to call everyone and tell them the news.  I know the fight is not over, but I have been honored to work along-side folks on Werkley, Parker, Springfield, Fries, Maplegrove & Melody Ln this past year and I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday. Rebecca Newberry