Local Residents Join Environmental Justice Allies to March on the Covanta Incinerator

For Immediate Release – March 20, 2006

Contact: Rosenda and John Mataka, Grayson Neighborhood Council (209) 895-3352

Bradley Angel, Erica Swinney, Greenaction (415) 248-5010

Inspired by Cesar Chavez,

Local Residents Join Environmental Justice Allies

to March on the Covanta Incinerator

Saturday, April 1, 2006, 10:30 a.m. Felipe Garza Park, Patterson, CA

“We Want Clean Air and Health, Not Toxic Pollution from Incineration!”

Patterson, CA – On Saturday, April 1, 2006 at 10:30am, local residents from Patterson, Grayson and Westley along with environmental justice allies from around the state will gather at Felipe Garza Park, corner of Hartley & Lorelei, in Patterson to begin the March on Covanta and for Environmental Justice. Community residents and environmental justice allies will march about two miles to North Park, located at Hwy 33 and E. Las Palmas, where there will be food and speakers to rally the themes of the day. March participants will then caravan to the Covanta incinerator (I-5 & Fink Rd., in Crows Landing), to tell them “WE WANT COVANTA SHUT DOWN.” We will return to North Park for a celebration.

Of all the farm workers, youth and environmental justice advocates who will be there, some will be inspired to participate because they want to honor and celebrate the legacy of Cesar Chavez; some will want to show they are tired of shouldering California’s dangerous waste disposal practices in their backyards and breathing the dirty air those practices create; some will want to demonstrate that communities don’t have to fight these fights alone. Whatever the reason that brings them to the march Saturday, April 1^{st in Patterson, everyone will be marching for the right to live in a healthy community.}

“Cesar Chavez fought for the health of farm workers, and in his name we will continue to do the same regardless if the threat comes from pesticides or incineration,” said Cruz Alcantar, long-time resident of Patterson and health educator for the Grayson Neighborhood Council.

The Grayson Neighborhood Council and Greenaction have been working with community residents to raise awareness around this critical issue. For the last five months, we have been researching this issue and talking to local folks about the connections between incineration, air pollution and our health. “Many people we talked to did not even know they lived near an incinerator, or even what an incinerator is,” said Cindy Honnes, health educator for the Grayson Neighborhood Council.

The Grayson Neighborhood Council and Greenaction would like to see the incinerator closed as demonstration of the California Integrated Waste Management Board’s commitment to the Zero Waste principle, to promote the management of all materials to their highest and best use and to protect public health and safety. The Board has already outlined various measures, such as comprehensive recycling and redesign of consumer product packaging, that would dramatically reduce waste and improve its management which would make incineration largely unnecessary. The only thing that is missing is the political will to implement these kinds of measures. “We know the alternative to incineration will involve a complex solution, but we are marching because we think the health of our communities is worth it,” said Rosenda Mataka, long-time resident of Grayson and Director of the Grayson Neighborhood Council.

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