OntheWilderSide

A New Website for the New Year: www.chej.org
Participate in the Wal-Mart Watch Environmental Survey
CHEJ’s colleagues at Wal-Mart Watch are gearing up for an unprecedented grassroots survey of Wal-Mart stores across the country. Your participation and analysis is essential to the success of this project. Wal-Mart has promised to phase out PVC private label packaging, promote a “zero-waste” policy, pursue renewable energy sources, and prevent the run-off of chemical hazards. Now with a simple survey, you can help monitor their progress on this initiative and help hold them accountable for their commitments. Check out the survey (and print out a hard copy) by clicking here or going to http://action. walmartwatch. com/EnviroSurvey .

Child Proofing Our Communities
DC Buildings Go Green!
Legislation passed last month will make Washington, DC the first major city to require developers to adhere to the standards of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The USGBC’s system, called “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” or LEED, awards credits in categories such as site selection, energy and water efficiency, and materials, and requires buildings to amass a certain number of credits to become certified. The bill also requires the mayor to adopt separate green building standards specific to schools. Over 500 new buildings are LEED-certified nationwide, with developers of another 3,700 projects declaring their intent to meet the standards. The DC bill will go into full effect beginning in 2012, helping to create healthier indoor environments in many of the buildings in our nation’s capital. While DC is the first major city to pass such legislation, other local bills have been passed in Pasadena, California and Montgomery County, Maryland. CHEJ congratulates DC on joining these pioneers of green building!

New Jersey Community Works to Secure Clean Site for New Schools
Parents in Clifton, New Jersey are organizing to secure the safest school site possible for the construction of a new junior high and high school. According to local residents, the Board of Education in Clifton owns clean land in another neighborhood, which could be used as the school site. However, residents of that neighborhood, as well as the mayor and other city officials, are mobilizing to generate support for siting the school on a former steel factory instead, so that the current clean land can remain parkland. Seniors in the neighborhood have shared anecdotal stories of illegal dumping of waste on the factory site while the steel plant was still in operation. Parents are organizing to generate public support to move the School Board to choose the clean site. A major part of their campaign is to involve seniors in opposing the contaminated site. CHEJ’s Child Proofing Our Communities Campaign has helped guide this community and will continue to provide
organizing support until they win their fight.

New Green Building Council School Standards Fall Short
The US Green Building Council (USGBC) has recently taken on the laudable task of creating guidelines for green schools. The new program, called LEED for Schools, aims to provide measurable criteria for building healthy, high-performance schools and will be launched in early 2007. Schools would earn the credits needed to become LEED-certified by choosing from a number of “green” options, including proximity to public transportation, reduced water use, and indoor air quality. However, schools would also earn a credit for being constructed on a Brownfield site, with the idea that it is a positive environmental move to turn contaminated land into public-use space. Yet Brownfields are among the most toxic and health threatening properties in our country and so it is counterintuitive to create an incentive for schools to place children–our most vulnerable population– on these contaminated sites. Help us convince USGBC to remove the Brownfield credit from LEED for Schools by calling the organization at (202) 82-USGBC. CHEJ’s CPOC Campaign is encouraging the USGBC to fully consider children’s special vulnerabilities, pointing to CHEJ’s school siting guidelines, which explicitly prohibit the siting of schools on a Brownfields site. We have submitted comments to USGBC opposing this proposal.

Europe Adopts Groundbreaking Precautionary Policy
Last month, the European Parliament gave final approval to a sweeping reform that will force companies to gather health and safety data on thousands of chemicals used everyday, including those chemicals currently on the market with no toxicity information. Though the legislation was weakened by an unprecedented lobbying campaign, the core pieces of the legislation remain intact and represent a major shift in chemicals control. The REACH (for Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals) legislation will require companies to share health and safety information about their chemicals. Some of the more hazardous chemicals will require formal authorization, providing a stronger incentive for safer alternatives. In fact, the most dangerous chemicals will not be allowed at all if safer substitutes are available. If substitutes are not available, chemical makers will be forced to draw up a substitution research and adoption plan.

REACH is expected to enter into force in April of 2007 and will roll out in stages over the next decade or so. American environmental groups have listed their hopes for chemicals policy reform in this country, which can be viewed at www.louisvillechart er.org. Several states are moving ahead with chemical policy reform initiatives. For more information, contact CHEJ’s BE SAFE Campaign Coordinator at anne@besafenet. com; for REACH information, go to www.chemicalspolicy.org/reach.shtml

Watch Videos of the PVC Campaign in Action!
Check out new videos of the PVC Campaign in action, urging Target to phase out the “poison plastic.” You can watch videos of our giant PVC-free rubber ducky protest outside of a Target store in California, as well as the Raging Grannies singing PVC songs at the Green Festival. After you watch the video, be sure to “rate it” and tell your friends so that we can build and win this campaign!

CHEJ’s BE SAFE Campaign Speaks at Healthy Economy, Healthy Environment Symposium
Green businesses, state agencies, policymakers, and environmentalists joined together at the first-ever gathering in New York on clean production and sustainable energy. CHEJ’s BE SAFE Coordinator Anne Rabe spoke at a plenary focused on a ten-year vision for a green economy in New York. “By 2017, we look forward to businesses using 40 percent less hazardous substances and generating 65 percent less toxic waste, with more than $14 million in overall cost savings for the entire state, thanks to a NY Pollution Prevention Institute,” reported Rabe. These statistics reflect the success that has been achieved in Massachusetts through that state’s efforts in this area.

If New York follows in Massachusetts’ footsteps by adopting a green purchasing program, New York, too, could help stimulate the industrial growth of safer products and services. CHEJ’s BE SAFE Campaign hopes that New York’s program will include provisions to clean up the majority of currently polluted sites to unrestricted use levels, meaning communities may build anything they wish on these clean and green sites without having to worry that their children’s health will be at risk. Additional goals for New York by 2017 include conducting a number of precedent-setting health studies documenting the link between toxic exposures and certain diseases and incorporating precautionary- based language into government agency assessments.

Concerned Citizens Organize in New York to Oppose Cement Plant
A cement plant has been operating in Kingston, New York for over a decade, but the situation has worsened and local community members are now organizing to take action. In search of more sandstone to make cement, the company has begun blasting nearby areas, leveling two mountains so far. The main environmental health issues include the noise created by the blasting, groundwater contamination caused by the explosive chemicals used in the process, and the truck traffic necessary to cart the sandstone out of the blasting sites. Since everyone in the surrounding communities uses wells as their main water supply, the groundwater contamination is especially worrisome. In the meantime, the community is working to have clean water piped in from a neighboring town. Additionally, the vibrations generated by the blasting have been strong enough to crack foundations in nearby homes. This community is in the early stages of its grassroots work and CHEJ has assisted them with basic
organizing. We will continue to work with activists in Kingston in their fight for clean water and a safer community.

Maryland Community Cautious About Development on Old Golf Course Site
The group Responsible Growth in Our Neighborhood (RGION) is getting organized in Howard County, Maryland to ensure the safe development of an old golf course site. A developer has expressed interest in turning the site into a housing complex, however RGION has concerns about this plan given that the site is contaminated with mercury, arsenic, chlordane, DDT, and other hazards from the pesticides used on the grass while the golf course was in operation. Although the developers hired a site consultant to test the area (who found some contamination) , RGION is pushing for more extensive testing. So far CHEJ has provided initial technical support and will help this group in their struggle to prevent harm before it happens.

Really Great Ways to Help CHEJ

About CHEJ
Responding to communities facing chemical exposures is the core of CHEJ’s mission. CHEJ empowers communities to take an organized, unified stand in order to hold industry and government accountable for contaminating their water, air, or soil. Responding to the national outcry for protection from toxic hazards, our campaigns have unified voices around the world, creating a powerful chorus for health and the environment. To learn more, please visit our website: www.chej.org

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