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Covid, Climate & Clean Water—Moving CWFNC Forward for Environmental Justice!
This article is featured in our latest edition of Clean Currents – Clean Water for NC’s quarterly newsletter! You can sign up to receive our free newsletter by mail or online by clicking the button to the right. Also be sure to check out our other news digests! Sign Up to Receive Newsletters! The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically revealed the massive social, economic and environmental injustices still throttling our nation’s ability to ensure we can ALL thrive and be a part of building a just society in the 21st century. We all have seen that Black and Brown, Indigenous and poor people have taken the brunt of severe illness and death at far greater rates than their proportion in our population. Disproportionately stuck in jobs that force them to be essential front line workers, unable to work remotely, and often not provided with personal protective equipment or able to socially distance in crowded workplaces, these communities also have fewer resources to obtain health care and less job flexibility to stay home even when sick. Along with a greater likelihood of large, multi-generational households, the result has been that Covid-19 has often ravaged entire extended families, and hurt those who’ve taken the biggest risks to care for, transport and feed others during the pandemic. Within a few years of CWFNC’s founding in 1984, staff member Nan Freeland (photo right) participated in the 1991 First International People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. She brought the shared values of the “Principles of Environmental Justice” back to our organization, and helped to found the NC Environmental Justice Network. Before she left CWFNC to work at NC State University and as a consultant, those values had deeply influenced our organization, and continue to do so more profoundly in our work with communities, striving for more protective policies, while engaging the leadership of those most adversely impacted. Climate change, as author-activist Naomi Klein has written, “changes everything,” and connects the likelihood of increased disease prevalence with the unequal impacts of disease on People of Color and low income, with the siting and weak permitting of polluting facilities in communities already impacted by health disparities and less access to safe, affordable water. As I step down as Executive Director (but I will stay around in a transition advisory role for a few months), I believe that all of our members, donors and allies will support CWFNC as we become ever more deeply involved in climate activism as linked to our Environmental Justice mission. Thanks and much love and appreciation to you all, -Hope
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Thank YOU for Supporting Our Work to Protect Drinking Water for Everyone!
Clean Water for NC has been working with communities for over 35 years to fight for stronger drinking water protections for all – and we couldn’t do it without your support! Support Our Work! Our Water Justice Campaign organizes customers of private, for-profit water utilities like Aqua NC and Carolina Water Service, to hold these corporations accountable for poor water quality, astronomical rates, and inadequate customer service…
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REPORT: “Bird’s-eye View – Impacts of NC Poultry Production on People and the Environment”
Poultry rules the roost in North Carolina. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, poultry farming is now North Carolina’s #1 agricultural commodity, and with that rise to the top comes a rise in the problems it brings to communities. Clean Water for NC’s report, Bird’s-eye View: Impacts of NC Poultry Production on People and the Environment, gathers research on the social, environmental, and health impacts of NC’s poultry industry. In North Carolina, the number of poultry farms has dramatically increased since the 1997 state moratorium on new hog farms. Poultry operations often house…
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Are Drinking Water Suppliers Communicating Well with Spanish Speaking Communities?
READ THE NEW REPORT! North Carolina is home to over 1 million Hispanic or LatinX inhabitants. While it would be incorrect to assume this entire population only speaks Spanish, our findings during our Mobile Home Park drinking water canvas last summer proved that many residents across the state may not be receiving critical health and service information about their drinking water except in English. The US EPA characterizes a public water system (PWS) as one that “provides water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances to at least 15…
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Amanda Strawderman: Completing Census could help fight pollution in NC
By: Amanda Strawderman, Opinion Editorial in Fayetteville Observer August 20, 2020 Too many communities across the country are faced with living in unhealthy environments due to pollution related to drinking water and air quality. Environmental Justice (EJ) is the reality, backed by statistics, that polluting industries have historically targeted areas of low-income, or communities of color. The federal Environmental Protection Agency created a tool known as the EJ Screen with the purpose of identifying disproportionate impacts of pollution to such communities throughout the country. Grassroots leaders, environmental advocates and the public should be able use this tool to help prevent permits that…
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Keeping an Eye on the impacts of Factory Farms
SIGN UP FOR FACTORY FARM WATCH DIGEST! CWFNC’s newest project addresses the under-regulated poultry industry and its threat to drinking water and community health. Poultry operations are spreading across the state at an alarming speed, while our state agencies downplay their risk to both people and the environment. These farms negatively impact the health of nearby residents, pollute the air and water, and neglect the safety of their workers. Alongside preexisting efforts by Environmental Working Group and the Waterkeeper Alliance, we will push for better permitting, transparency, and enforcement to help mitigate this issue for North Carolinians. Advocacy groups and investigative journalists have released a number of eye-opening reports and news articles to call attention to the dangers of industrial animal operations and how this impacts each and every one of us. Here is a collection of recent news and reports: REPORTS: UNDER THE RADAR NC Regulators have Ignored the Decade-Long Explosion of Poultry CAFOs, which create 5 million tons of nutrient-laden poultry waste a year (4.8 times more nitrogen & 4.1 times more phosphorous waste from poultry than from pigs). EWG, Feb 13, 2019 Investigation: Counties With Meatpacking Plants Report Twice the National Average Rate of COVID-19 Infections Counties with or near meatpacking plants have almost twice the rate of known COVID-19 infections as the national average, according to a geospatial analysis by the Environmental Working Group. EWG, May 14, 2020 NEWS: Nearly a billion birds producing five million tons of waste per year While hog farms and their waste are monitored by DEQ, poultry farms remain under the jurisdiction of the agricultural department, which has limited knowledge of their whereabouts. NC Policy Watch, May 19, 2020 DEQ lists progress on environmental justice, swine farms; critics say enforcement essential NC DEQ released a draft of a violation point system that can be used to better gauge animal farms' permit compliance as well as the first version of an anonymous compliant tool. NC Policy Watch, May 15, 2020 ‘They didn’t tell us anything’: North Carolina poultry plant workers say Butterball isn’t protecting them from COVID-19 Up to 52 workers at the Duplin County Butterball plant tested positive, but the company and NC government won’t confirm the number of cases, leaving communities at risk, confused, and demanding transparency. Southerly Magazine, May 1, 2020 FACTORY FARMS: A PANDEMIC IN THE MAKING. Most recent pandemics have been the result of zoonotic viruses “spilling over” to humans from animals, in many cases through domestic livestock right here in the U.S. US PIRG, Apr 24, 2020 If you’re interested in staying updated on our project and the latest poultry-related news, click the button below! SIGN UP FOR FACTORY FARM WATCH DIGEST!
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Hearings are Virtually Meaningless—But Speak Up For Communities!
Right now, Americans are dealing with the day to day realities of a global pandemic. This is not the time to be burdened by worries about increased pollution that could further threaten human health and the environment, but the Trump administration isn’t taking that into consideration. While the EPA eases pollution controls on industry, Americans are expected to show up for virtual public hearings to speak out, a process that is ineffective, ill-timed and excludes many. Last week, the EPA held virtual hearings…
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Stopping Rate Hikes for Duke Energy’s Dirty Energy & Climate-Busting Plans!
The fight for full excavation of Duke Energy’s toxic coal ash pits finally came to a close when the company signed a settlement agreement with DEQ and community groups to remove over 80 million tons of coal ash from unlined pits across the state. While this marks a major victory for impacted community members living near these sites, Duke is trying to slap them with the bill to pay for massive cleanup. Rate cases for both Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) and Duke Energy Progress (DEP) are currently underway, with Duke seeking to recover costs associated with coal ash cleanup, upgrades…
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Consumers shouldn’t pay cleanup costs for coal ash dumping
Op-Ed by Rachel Velez, Clean Water for North Carolina Published in the Burlington Times-News January 26, 2020 Impacted community members and environmental justice activists won a huge victory earlier this month when the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, community groups and Duke Energy signed a settlement agreement requiring the utility giant to fully excavate 80 million tons of coal ash from leaking, unlined pits in six sites across the state. This isn’t a complete victory, however, if Duke Energy is allowed to shove the cost of its coal ash cleanup onto customers — and that’s exactly what it’s asking the N.C. Utilities Commission…
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NEW REPORT: Working Towards Water Justice in North Carolina Mobile Home Parks
This summer, we worked with our Duke University Stanback intern, Elizabeth Allen, to conduct a “listening canvas,” reaching over 100 mobile home park communities in 9 counties to learn whether and where advocacy was needed to protect residents’ right to drinking water. Our outreach uncovered concerning patterns regarding landord disputes and drinking water access and quality. Read the full report here! Our outreach helped us understand residents’…
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