From Inside Washington Publishers, September 28, 2009. Appears here with permission of the publisher. Click here to view article (pdf format): Jackson Orders Agency to Speed Civil Rights Claims Reviews
Posts from ‘September, 2009’
Heart of America NW Offers Free Screening of Hanford Documentary in Vancouver
Heart of America NW is holding a free screening of the documentary ARID LANDS at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Vancouver, WA. ARID LANDS is a internationally acclaimed documentary is about the land and people of the Columbia River Basin in Eastern WA – home to the Hanford nuclear site – the largest environmental clean-up [...]
Press Release: RNA Wins Landmark Environmental Justice Case Against EPA’s Office of Civil Rights
justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Chris Winter
CRAG Law Center
Dvija Michael Bertish
Rosemere Neighborhood Association
ROSEMERE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION WINS LANDMARK ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CASE AGAINST EPA’S OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Criticizes EPA for a “Pattern of Delay” in Implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act
(September 18, 2009) Rosemere Neighborhood Association (“Rosemere”) is a non-profit community organization in Clark County, Washington, dedicated to environmental protection and the pursuit of improvements to low-income environmental justice communities.
In February 2003, Rosemere first filed a Title VI administrative complaint with EPA’s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) alleging that the City of Vancouver, WA had discriminated in the provision of municipal services in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rosemere alleged that Vancouver failed to use EPA funds to address fairly long-standing problems in low-income and minority neighborhoods in West Vancouver.
Lead Pipe Replacement in England & Wales – Part 2
Ancient Lead Pipe, Bath, England
The solution to the lead issue in drinking water would optimally be replacement of all lead piping.
However, there are certain issues:
The ownernership of the lead piping is between the supplier and the property owner, leading to possible legal aspects.
The replacement costs are very high. Approximately 8-10 billion sterling pounds to replace all lead piping in the UK
The density of properties with lead piping can be up to 75% in many cities. The replacment program would create much disruption to road users and property owners
When the lead in water is not visible, tasted, odorless, it is not perceived as a problem. Property owners are then reluctant to take expensive actions.
Corrective Treatment
The good old days
The inconvenient “good old” days contained some very “good old” ecological ways.
I grew up seventy-two years ago in a small seaside town in England. To anyone under thirty-five, seventy-two is ancient; the rest of us marvel at how fast time passes. With no refrigeration, you shopped once a week or you ate something out of a can for dinner. Before plastic, people all over the world used some sort of cloth shopping bag. It might be a fancy store-bought item or something simple, sewn from a piece of left over cotton. The burlap that potato’s used to come in made useful shopping bags. Thankfully the cloth bag has re-appeared, but the supermarkets still have thick rolls of smaller plastic bags for vegetables and bulk items and the ‘I will not disintegrate for about twenty thousand years’ plastic bags are still very much in place.
