Environmental Injustice

The Chelsea Collaborative is fighting back! They are fighting what appears to be an unlikely candidate, energy developer Jim Gordon of Energy Management Inc and the Cape Wind project, who is being called, by some, an environmental hero; to keep a polluting fossil fuel burning power plant out of their already poor, disadvantaged and overly polluted community.

And the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is also fighting back. They are fighting this same developer who is determined to place 130 440' tall wind turbines and a 100' electrical platform filled with oil smack in the middle of a declared marine sanctuary critical to migratory birds, marine mammals and endangered species.

What we have here is Environmental Injustice at both ends of the spectrum.

Let's define Environmental Injustice: "An environmental injustice exists when members of disadvantaged, ethnic, minority or other groups suffer disproportionately at the local, regional (sub-national), or national levels from environmental risks or hazards, and/or suffer disproportionately from violations of fundamental human rights as a result of environmental factors, and/or denied access to environmental investments, benefits, and/or natural resources, and/or are denied access to information; and/or participation in decision making; and/or access to justice in environment-related matters."

But, environmental injustice also includes:

'The interdependence of all species, and right to be free from ecological destruction.'

The town of Chelsea, Ma has been declared and Environmental Justice community by the EPA (*click to read what they say about the community of Chelsea and the environmental injustice they already suffer) any yet private energy developer Jim Gordon insists his addition to this community is nothing more than an answer to the growing need for more power.

But, whose power is he talking about? Certainly not the power of the people that live and work in Chelsea. This plant can operate 2,000 hours/year spewing sulfur, nitrogen oxide and 37 tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere and straight into the lungs of the citizens and school children of Chelsea, MA. In fact Gordon totally bypassed them and went straight to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office, and therefore obtained a local zoning waiver at the state levels and silencing their voices.

"If built, this power plant will affect ALL of Chelsea. Chelsea is just under 2 square miles with more than 35,000 residents.  Thirty-two percent of Chelsea’s population lives below the US average income. Chelsea has 90 hazardous waste sites per square mile. 

Chelsea Creek is home to:

• 70-80% of New England’s Heating Fuel
• 100% of the Jet Fuel used at Logan International Airport
• Road Salt for more than 200 New England cities and town
• 3 of the Massachusetts Action Center’s Award Winners for Worst of the Worst Polluters
• Oil Storage Tanks holding +/- 22 Billion Gallons of Oil (per year)
• Oil Spills totaling 96,653 gallons, over the past 15 years (41,866 over the past 6 months)

And Chelsea residents pay the price for all of the industry.  Chelsea has the highest Asthma Hospitalization Rate in the State.  Chelsea has the highest Major Cardio Vascular Diseases Hospitalization Rate in the State." *Quote from the Chelsea Collaborative.

On Cape Cod, there is a different situation but the same environmental injustice is occurring there at the hands of this developer.

The Nantucket Sound was declared in the early 1970s, a Cape and Islands State Marine Sanctuary to protect Nantucket Sound from industrial development by Massachusetts Legislature. In the 1980s, state officials nominated Nantucket Sound as a National Marine Sanctuary due to its unique ecological nature, endangered species habitat  for many state and federally protected species, including roseate terns, piping plovers, leatherback sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, and grey seals.

Yet once again, Jim Gordon of EMI bypassed the People of Massachusetts and their Cape and Islands communities by going straight to the Federal Government to place his project, Cape Wind, in the middle of the Nantucket Sound where there is a donut-hole of federal waters.

Inside this donut-hole of Federal waters Cape Wind will dredge miles of industrial power cables, killing the life in the seabed and driving off species that depend on the Nantucket Sound for their very survival. Inside this donut-hole of Federal waters Cape Wind will erect 130 440' wind turbines with blades that move at over 200mph at their tips (and a 100' tall electrical platform filled with oil waiting for a catastrophic oil spill) which will kill migratory birds, bats and endangered species just as a facility off the coast of Norway killed off an entire breeding population of endangered White-tailed (Sea) Eagles and all of their babies in less than ten months. Inside this donut-hole of Federal waters the noise of pile driving will drive away marine mammals, and kill off their food sources, like squid, which may never return.

The Principles of Environmental Justice are probably best stated by this multinational group from the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit:

PREAMBLE

WE, THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to insure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental Justice:

1) Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.

2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

3) Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

4) Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.

5) Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.

6) Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

7) Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

8) Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

9) Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

10) Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

11) Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

12) Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

13) Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

14) Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

15) Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

16) Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

17) Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to insure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

As you will note, they do not call for more industrial development. They call for action to clean up our communities, make personal choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources and produce as little waste as possible and to respect the interdependence of all species and their right to be free from ecological destruction.