REDWOOD NEEDLES
REDWOOD NEEDLES
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The Group is co-sponsoring a Potluck Event featuring Lois Gibbs, the original "Housewife From Hell" who organized her neighborhood to force the Hooker Chemical Company (now Occidental) to stop dumping toxics in Love Canal and to clean it up.
Gibbs, the Executive Director of Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, is author of the recently published Dying From Dioxin and is touring the country to promote her book and build local STOP DIOXIN EXPOSURE coalitions. She will explain how citizens can organize against this alarming health crisis. Mary Walsh, the Group's Toxics Chair, interviewed one of Gibb's administrative aids on local Public Radio station KZYX.
Gibbs says the Love Canal story is not over. The government settled with Occidental for $129 million for the Love Canal cleanup. However, Gibbs notes that there are still more than 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals in the center of the community which will eventually leak. State and federal authorities are now allowing the sale of property to private families in the Love Canal area and new families are being moved into the northern end of the neighborhood.
In light of this corporate and governmental irresponsibility, it is ironic that many Congressional Representatives, wanting a rollback on environmental regulations, are arguing that the corporations should be left to voluntariiy do the right thing without burdensome regulations. This Congress would like to change the "polluter pays" element in the Superfund cleanup program to "nobody is responsible" by creating a large pool of funds generated from a tax program. The polluter would have no corporate liability, would have no incentive to stop dumping poisonous wastes, and would only have to pay a tax.
Gibbs points out that if you or I were to poison a neighbor's drinking water or take a human life, we would go to jail. If we destroyed someone's property, we would be forced to pay for the damage. If Congress has its way with rewriting the Superfund legislation, corporations will have the right to pollute at very litle cost and will face no fines or jail terms.
The Group now has a telephone tree and Sierra Club Home Lobbying and other alerts either go out by telephone or postcard to about fifty-five people with an explanation of each crisis issue and with information on which legislators to call. Gerri Morse is in charge of the mailings.
Ron Gunether, Chair, reports that there has been no answer from the City Council to the Friends of Fort Bragg law suit which would bring the overdrafting of the Noyo River to a halt. The Group supports a halt to the overdrafting.
A Candidates night was held for Mendocino County Fifth District Supervisorial candidates and there was a good turnout of about fifty people. Patti Campbell, mayor of Fort Bragg, declined to attend as she thought there would be some conflict with the Noyo River suit. However, the other two candidates, Darryl Galli and Lindy Peters, also members of the City Council, said that the City Attorney saw no problem with members of the City Council showing up. The Noyo River issue was not brought up. The Group also sent out over 700 endorsement cards for the Primary election.
Efforts are still being made to halt development at the site of the old Orca Inn, north of Fort Bragg, on the ocean side of Highway One. Efforts are also being directed at stopping motel development at the pristine Ten Mile River. lf these two projects are allowed to proceed, development in this largely undeveloped and magnificent coastal area could explode. Extra effort is going to be put into protecting beach access points for the public, particularly at Glass Beach.
Judith Vidaver, Forestry Chair and Mary Rose Kaczorowski, Energy Chair, will be in Istanbul for the Habitat II conference. Bon Voyage, Judith. Bon Voyage, Mary Rose.
-- Flo Ann Norvell
Mendocino/Lake Group
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