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Campaigns
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Northern California Campaigns and Projects - Oakland
East Oakland's "Freedom to Breathe" Campaign
CBE East Oakland Summer 2009 Truck Survey
CBE recently launched a new program area in East Oakland's Hegenberger Corridor focusing on the environmental health and equity aspects of a 10-year redevelopment initiative in Oakland.
CBE’s Diesel Truck Factsheet has information on the impacts of diesel trucks to community health and the environment, the 5-minute idling law in California, and what CBE is doing about it. Click below for the factsheet in English or Español: Hoja informativa sobre los camiones diesel
Read CBE's "Cumulative Impacts in East Oakland" Report, launched Sept. 22, 2008:
The campaign goal is to improve community health and quality of life in Hegenberger Corridor by addressing air quality and toxic exposure. Communities for a Better Environment launched a ground breaking report “Cumulative Impacts in East Oakland: Findings from a Community-Based Mapping Study” on September 22, 2008 at an event held at the Tassafaronga Recreation Center in East Oakland. The study, conducted in large part by residents of the affected area, shows major gaps in the emission inventory that Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and California Air Resource Board’s (CARB) maintain. As a result of the gaps, agency inventories are underestimating sources of toxic pollution, such as idling diesel trucks and small industrial facilities. Because existing agency inventories overlook these pollution sources, they are not on the radar screen of regulators and are not controlled or monitored. In addition, the study documents a large number of “sensitive receptors”, such as schools and day care facilities, in close proximity to pollution sources, and a lack of adequate health-protective services to care for the area’s impacted residents. This community-based participatory research study is being carried out in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz's Center for Justice, Tolerance & Community, UC Berkeley and Occidental College. (Campaign poster)
The report finds that East Oakland has 216 stationary sources of pollution and 49 places where sensitive populations, like children and the elderly play and live. "We’re in the midst of toxic pollution because we’re a disenfranchised community and that our health is not being taken seriously,” said Maxine Oliver-Benson, community advocate with the Communities for a Better Environment. “There are seven women in my neighborhood that have contracted cancer in the 14 years I’ve lived in East Oakland. Out of the seven, five have died.”
News coverage:
CBE East Oakland is building a grassroots base of members from the Hegenberger Corridor. We are raising awareness around environmental justice due to exposure from multiple pollution sources and cumulative impacts in East Oakland. We are improving the quality of life by fighting the impacts of environmental injustice. Community monitoring of PM 2.5 CBE East Oakland is now conducting Phase II of our community-based research. We are monitoring stationary and mobile sources of air pollution for particulate matter (PM) 2.5. This pollutant, PM 2.5, is linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. PM 2.5 is smaller than the eye can see. When inhaled, it goes deep into the lungs and can have very serious health impacts.
Collaborations |
CBE and partners, Youth Uprising, East Bay Academy of Young Scientist, West Oakland Environmental Indicator Project and Tassafarongo Recreation Center join forces to monitor mobile sources of pollution, especially diesel trucks and other commercial vehicles. On July 27th we deployed 20 youth and 5 adult community members on the busy streets of East Oakland’s Hegenburger Corridor. You could say we were young, intergenerational and proud to be on the case like environmental justice soldiers for health in East Oakland. For two weeks, four hours per day, we counted, identified, categorized and monitored more than 10,000 trucks. This important community participatory research project will provide critical data on the correlation between truck-related activity and its impact on the health of East Oakland residents.
