‘Air Pollution Knows No Boundaries’

Recently, nine of the South Coast Air Quality District’s scientific advisors resigned, saying that AQMD policies and decisions are failing to protect the Los Angeles Basin’s 13 million residents from severe pollution. While air pollution is an equal opportunity threat, some of the highest concentrations of AQMD-regulated businesses are found in the minority communities of South and South-Central Los Angeles. JIM BLAIR asked residents, business owners and activists for their reactions to the resignations, how air pollution affects their lives and what they can do about it.

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TYRONE BLAND, Economic consultant, Compton

Along with our state legislators, I find it difficult to create a balance between economic growth and development while simultaneously addressing environmental needs--not that it can’t be done.

Clean air obviously is just as important to minority and urban communities as it is to more suburban areas. Economic conditions may vary but generally, clean air concerns are similar statewide.

Small business owners clearly need technical assistance. Entities like AQMD and CalEPA need to come to the table and be sure that local businesses understand their responsibilities.

I think environmental protection will be the issue that will unite communities because everybody wants clean air. That’s the bottom line--minority or non-minority.

It’s going to be a tough fight. They talked about that large sucking sound we would hear as a result of NAFTA. I would certainly say there were some industrial jobs in my community--solid wage-earning jobs--that went south because of less stringent environmental regulations. What happened is this environmental problem became an economic problem, because the employees who lived in my community ended up without jobs.

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JOSE J. GONZALEZ

President, Latino Health Care, Santa Fe Springs.

In our experience, the largest group of employees who lack medical benefits through their employer is the Latino community. Latinos, because of their education and because of their lack of training, are usually involved in light manufacturing or the service industry.

When we talk to those employers, we consistently [hear] that they have to meet all these regulations because they’re located in the city or located in a populated area and that that additional cost makes it more difficult for them to buy medical benefits for their employees.

So Latinos as a whole are sort of caught in this dilemma where there needs to be regulation, because obviously we want to work in a safe environment, but at the same time those same regulations increase costs and make it difficult for the small-business owner--and there are more than 180,000 Latino-owned businesses in Southern California--to be able to afford medical benefits.

There’s an added element that the whole issue of air pollution brings: We have a changing population that doesn’t have the experience, the knowledge that those of us who have been here for a long time have. I remember when you could burn trash in the backyard. Then that became against the law. Well, a lot of recent immigrants don’t know that you’re not supposed to do that.

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CARLOS PORRAS

Southern California director, Communities for a Better Environment, Los Angeles

Our local organizing campaign, known as La Causa, targets the Southeast portion of Los Angeles County, otherwise known as the Alameda corridor. The issue [of air quality] is very close to my work, because in the Southeast, we have a lot of intersection with the Air Quality Management District. Over the years, there have been several criticisms of the AQMD’s policies as they relate to impoverished communities of color. The resignations of the AQMD advisors legitimizes those criticisms.

There was recently a study by Occidental College that pointed to treatment, disposal and storage facilities being located [in] three times higher incidence in communities of color. One thing we find is the proximity of Superfund sites or hazardous material handlers to elementary schools. I find that quite sickening myself.

The AQMD does a disservice to the business community as well as the residential community. It is not playing fair with either party and in particular, the business interests that I think suffer the most are the small to medium-sized businesses that don’t have political clout.

Air pollution knows no boundaries. I think it comes back to the fact that we’re all in [the South Coast Air Basin] together and the basinwide policy is leading us astray.

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DELISHA STANLEY

Junior, Bravo Medical Magnet High School, Los Angeles. Participant in Drew University Pre-College Research Partnership Program.

I have asthma, so if the air gets really bad, I get really sick.

I think that we should have strong clean air rules in Los Angeles. The air is already bad, why make it worse? And the people who have no respect and say “I don’t care”--that [what they do] is making air dirty and it doesn’t matter--something should happen to them, because I’m the one who has to suffer. The air keeps getting dirtier and people like me keep getting sicker. There should be stronger laws to tell polluters to stop, at least stop now before it gets any worse than it is already.

I think [the AQMD scientific advisors quitting] was very good and I think a lot more people need to take a stand instead of staying on the sidelines and just going with the flow. They need to make a statement and say, “I’m not going to go for it. This needs to change.” It shows me that they’re really willing to help people.

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JUANITA TATE

Executive director, Concerned Citizens of South-Central Los Angeles

Concerned Citizens was the first African American environmental organization in Southern California. We fought the Lancer trash incinerator and stopped it from coming in to our community.

The [AQMD scientific advisory] committee quitting is going to be even a bigger detriment to us. We’re in a minority community and that’s where most of the concentration of the businesses are that give off pollution.

It’s real important to have someone who’s monitoring these high-polluting businesses; it’s one of the biggest concerns that we have in our community. We already have a UCLA study that shows we have the highest concentration of black lung. We have a heavy concentration of asthma.

I think you get listened to when there’s a high-profile condition like Lancer, but on just a general, everyday business level, we’re ignored because there’s no one monitoring these businesses.

The community now has to rise to the occasion. We need a community board that’s monitoring the situation and bringing these issues to the forefront.