Noise, non-stop dust, and being buried alive

Grain silo collapse injures Hondo man

Zeke MacCormack
Express-News

A Hondo man was seriously injured Monday when a downtown grain silo collapsed after being the subject of recent neighborhood complaints to city leaders.

John Anthony Garcia, 20, was buried for about 20 minutes in a mountain of corn kernels after the full silo beside U.S. 90 split open at 12:50 p.m., said Police Chief Johnny Martinez.

"At least seven or eight people were trying to dig him out, including myself," he said. "The corn is like sand. When you make a hole, it's going to fill it back up — so we used a front-end loader to get larger quantities out of the way."

When rescued, Garcia was breathing but unconscious, Martinez said. He was flown to University Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

Mayor Jim Danner said the complex of about 10 silos off Avenue O had been idle for a year or more before being bought recently by David Jones. Its renewed use led to a meeting last week in which neighbors complained about noise, dust and more.

"What the community was saying, it is true. They are a safety hazard and they need to be moved out of the community," said Chavel Lopez of the Hondo Empowerment Committee. "The whole tank disintegrated completely. The corn spilled all over the place and into the street."

A follow-up meeting was slated for coming weeks among city officials, residents, regulatory agencies and Jones, who could not be reached for comment after the accident.

Danner noted that the silos have operated for decades, the area is zoned for commercial use and Jones appears to hold all the proper permits.

Danger: Leon Creek can make you sick

Residents want information about pollution in Leon Creek

Web Posted: 08/24/2007 01:55 AM CDT

Joe Conger
KENS 5 Eyewitness News

Protestors say city health officials are taking too long to react to pollution in Leon Creek. They say the remnants of contamination at Kelly AFB are flowing into the creek, and they want more information from the city.

Studies in 2006 showed heavy metals, like mercury, and contaminants, like polychlorinated biphenyls, were found in Lower Leon Creek's water and its fish.

"People still do go fishing and swimming, yet they have no idea that the creek is contaminated," said Sandra Garcia, who lives near Leon Creek.

"We've met people who've been baptized in Leon Creek," said Lara Cushing, with the Southwest Workers Union.

Now, neighbors want to know, where are the official warning signs?

More coverage KENS video: Watch the broadcast

"We ended up putting up these signs, since Metro Health's not doing it, we ended up doing it ourselves," Garcia said.

The Southwest Workers Union took it upon themselves to educate people in the area, like residents who recently dealt with floodwater from the toxic stream.

"Metro Health needs to be out there doing testing. Is there a health risk from this water that's been shown over and over to contain contaminants?" Cushing asked.

Though the contamination is decades old, the protest may be two months too early. Beginning in October, the state has plans for further fish studies and creek bed sampling.

"And then, wait to see what this report shows. You know, as we collect those samples both through fish and the sediments. Maybe they will provide some new information," said Dr. Fernando Guerra, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District.

The city has done some remediation helped by state and federal money. Officials said they should have a cleanup plan in place by January 2008.

Note: the testing MetroHealth is referring to, will only test inside the base, where biannual test are already done. The plan is flawed by design as they continue to waste money and fail to protect the community.

more coverage... from FOX 29

People who live along Leon Creek said the city isn't doing enough to protect them from toxins. Protesters lined up outside the San Antonio Metro Health District demanding answers and results. They said Air Force studies prove the creek is toxic, but people still swim in the creek and eat fish from the creek because the city has not cautioned them against it. They also said toxic creek water has flooded homes in the area and people need to know how to protect themselves. Metro Health Director, Dr. Fernando Guerra said results from the latest round of tests on the creek are expected next month. Meanwhile, people worried about their health can contact Metro Health for screenings.

YES! Magazine: We Saw Another World in Atlanta

by Sarah van Gelder

Since 2001, tens of thousands have been gathering at World Social Forums.
The United States has been slow to catch on, but on June 27, it finally happened.
Poor people, young people, people of color, gays and lesbians, and all manner of people who believe “another world is possible, another U.S. is necessary” joined together by the thousands in Atlanta for the first U.S. Social Forum.

It was a moment organizers in the United States and in many parts of the world had been waiting for. After years in the planning, the United States joined a global movement of movements that comes together under the banner: Another world is possible.

The United States Social Forum (USSF) was led by people of color and representatives of grassroots organizations, some of whom count their members in the thousands. Instead of drawing crowds with superstar speakers and performers, the participants were the stars. Those who are accustomed to being excluded were at the center, and those who were used to being silenced were heard.

... ... ...

... Organizers of the USSF drew on their experiences attending the World Social Forums to prepare for Atlanta. “We saw the power that comes from opening up a space in which all the issues and all the different movements can converge,” said Genaro Rendon, co-director of the San Antonio, Texas, based Southwest Workers Union.

To get people to Atlanta, organizers from many parts of the country organized caravans of cars, vans, and buses. The People’s Freedom Caravan was among the largest. Each stop of the Caravan’s six-day journey from Albuquerque to Atlanta was hosted by a different local group. In Albuquerque, the attention centered on Native American sacred sites and immigrant rights. In Houston and San Antonio, it was pollution from oil refineries and an Air Force base that was harming the health of those living nearby. In New Orleans, Freedom Caravan riders helped clean up a public housing project and learned of the struggle of Katrina survivors to return home. In Jackson and Selma, it was the movement for living wages and efforts to find and prosecute those involved in the murders of civil rights workers decades ago.

Local activists from each stop joined the Caravan; by the time it reached Atlanta, this Social Forum on wheels was 500 people strong.

... read whole article

Justice for Workers!! a march

The Living Wage March this year united Bill Miller employees and School Workers in the struggle for just wages in San Antonio and to fight against poverty in our communities. Bill Millers’ a local Bar-B-Q chain that predominantly employs high school and college age students and pays workers a shockingly $2.50 difference, from North to South. Many have questioned the Bar-B-Q chain of economic racism when questioned about it they commented that workers should drive to the North side of town if they wanted to get paid more. School Workers in San Antonio united with Bill-Miller employees to demand an end in disparity in wages across the city. In San Antonio Independent School District the Superintendent alone makes the annual salary of a cafeteria worker in only eleven (11) days, while the many workers are left to struggle working two or three jobs to make ends meet. Richard Pantojas, a custodian from San Antonio ISD and President of local #3 said “Administrators live while we struggle to survive.” On August 4, 2007 youth, school workers and community leaders united to March against poverty wages and disparity in wages and demand justice for all School workers and Bill Miller employees.

Southwest Workers' Union is now in negotiating to implement a Living Wage Resolution in San Antonio Independent School District. This resolution will raise over 500 workers out of poverty.

SA Express-News article

Diana is a Rockstar!

Cultivating change

Web Posted: 08/13/2007 12:53 PM CDT

Michelle Mondo
Express-News

Diana Lopez wants young people to get involved in their communities.

The 18-year-old is leading by example — helping to start a community garden, becoming an environmental justice coordinator for the Southwest Workers' Union and riding her bike for charity.

Manhattan-based nonprofit organization Do Something recently recognized her efforts and awarded her a national Plum Grant for $500. The grant was in response to Lopez's efforts to start the Roots of Change Community Garden on the East Side.

Plum is a television network that produces shows on American cities, according to a Do Something spokeswoman and the Web site.

"We give out two grants every week in the amount of $500 to young people who are making a change in their communities," said Emily Luke, coordinator of grants and the BRICK Awards at Do Something.

Luke said she considered the community garden "an amazing project."

"Her project embodies the sense of bringing the community together for education and an enriching experience and providing the community with something — food and a beautiful space."

The garden is located behind the Southwest Workers offices on East Commerce.

"We just had an empty piece of land back there," Lopez said. "We knew we wanted to do something, so in February of this year we pushed this project of a garden for the East Side community because there are no groceries (stores) for folks to get organic vegetables or fruit. There just aren't that many around here."

The garden is filled with vegetables, fruits and herbs. During a special "garden time" 4-6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, the community is invited to help work in the garden and share the bounty.

But providing fresh fruits and vegetables wasn't Lopez's only goal. She also wants to educate the public about nutrition and hopes to give young people a place to gather. And she especially wants them to get in touch with their surroundings to learn more about how people's actions affect their community.

The garden has inspired Lopez to take on something new. When she attends St. Philip's College this fall to study aviation, she has decided to take some biology courses as well.

For Lopez, the journey to environmental awareness began with her interest in biking. While riding her bike, she often would see garbage that had been tossed on the side of the road. She realized the impact it made, and not just on the beauty of her surroundings.

The Lopez family also started hearing about contamination at Leon Creek, where she and her five siblings used to swim and her father used to fish.

The creek flows close to her house on Somerset Road.

"It's my area, so I'm emotionally connected to it. It means a lot," she said about previous testing that has shown contamination in the creek caused by pollutants from the former Kelly AFB.

When she attended a variety of conferences, Lopez said she began to hear about urban gardens and how they can be used to bring communities together. She and the rest of the staff at SWU began to look into it. When she learned about the Plum Grant at Do Something, she sent in her application.

As the garden grows, Lopez hopes interest in the environment will as well.

"Organizing directly in my community and living near Kelly AFB has taught me how to develop and strategize towards the issues that I am most concerned about," she wrote in an e-mail. "I want to change the view of young people and teach them to have courage and not to be afraid to speak up and say what's on their mind."

For more information, contact the Southwest Workers Union at (210) 299-2666.

Support TCE Reduction ACT

TCE poisons.

This widely used industrial solvent (degreaser) causes liver and kidney cancer, reproductive problems, birth defects, headaches among many things. In many communities located near industrial sites, it is in our water, our soil and our air.

New studies keep showing how dangerous it is. The EPA is doing nothing. Finally, some Congresspeople have taken note and drafted the 'TCE Reduction Act'. Please ask your Senator for support

The Act establishes that the EPA must: (here for complete text)

* Publish a health advisory for TCE that fully protects, with an adequate margin for safety, the health of susceptible populations;

* Propose and impose a national primary drinking water standard that protects sensitive populations and is set as close to the maximum contaminant level goal for trichloroethylene as is feasible (note: MCLG for TCE is 0ppb);

* Enforce the requirement that all qualified drinking water monitoring systems accommodate the new drinking water standards proposed and imposed above;

* Require monitoring of water supplies currently in the path or proximity of migrating TCE;

* Require that Consumer Confidence Reports include the known health risks of TCE exposure and detail any TCE discovered in the monitored water supplies.

With respect to Vapor Intrusion, the EPA must:
* Publish a health advisory for TCE that fully protects thehealth of susceptible populations from vapor intrusion (again, with an adequate margin for safety);

* Establish an integrated risk information system reference concentration of TCE vapor that protects sensitive populations and apply it to potential vapor intrusion-related investigations or actions carried out under CERCLA.

SWU's letter...

Dear Senator Hutchison:

One of the largest plumes of trichloroethylene (TCE) in the nation moves through the shallow groundwater beneath tens of thousands of homes in San Antonio. Stemming from the former Kelly Air Force Base, this plume of TCE threatens the health of the community, which is plagued with an increased rate of leukemia, liver, and breast cancer; Leon Creek; and the purity of the Edwards Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for San Antonio. Your office at Port San Antonio is very close to several of the most contaminated source areas, where the liquid layer of TCE has measured over two feet deep.

The day before yesterday Senators Clinton, Kerry, Boxer, Dole and Lautenburg introduced the “TCE Reduction Act” (S.1911) directing the Environmental Protection Agency to set revised standards for TCE in a timely manner. I urge you to support this bill and ensure its passage for the health of your community here in southwest San Antonio, as well as the many Texas communities affected by TCE contamination.

The bill is absolutely necessary. In a draft Risk Assessment in 2001, the EPA found TCE to be as much as 40 times more carcinogenic than previously thought. A subsequent review ordered by the Bush Administration and released by the National Research Council (NRC) in 2006 confirmed EPA’s scientific findings, and furthermore found that "the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001." Despite the consensus among the scientific community that new TCE standards need to be set in order to protect our health, EPA has failed to act or set a timeline. According to its website, EPA does not plan to release a revised standard until the end of 2010.

New TCE standards are long overdue, and have huge implications for the Kelly community. Without guidance from the EPA, clean-up plans operate under the current, outdated standards for TCE and will not be adequate to protect the health and future of this community. The TCE Reduction Act also requires EPA to issue a health advisory standard for vapor intrusion into homes from contaminated groundwater and soil. Residents’ homes in the Kelly area have never been tested for TCE vapors, but evidence of dangerous vapor concentrations from other sites with lower levels of contamination than Kelly suggests the real possibility that families here are breathing contaminated air as TCE volatilizes from the shallow aquifer, which in some areas is only 3 feet below the surface. Guidance from EPA is particularly critical because in the absence of standards for vapor intrusion, the Air Force will continue to ignore this important route of exposure.

Please let me know what the Senator’s position and actions will be in regards to this bill.

Sincerely,

Union supporters demand living wage

Posted: 08/04/2007 09:55 PM CDT

Express-News

Nearly 60 union supporters marched from the East Side to downtown under a blazing midday sun Saturday to protest what they called poverty wages that school districts pay to cafeteria workers, bus drivers, teacher aides, education assistants and other school support staff.

"We're demanding a living wage," said Southwest Workers Union organizer Che Lopez. A living wage would be $13.75 an hour for a family of three and is based on federal poverty guidelines, he said.

The issue touches about 120,000 school workers throughout the city, said union organizer Tanya Garduño. Salaries for most of the workers are at or near the minimum wage, currently $5.85 an hour, she said.

Many of the marchers wore yellow T-shirts with the slogan "School Zone — Caution — Poverty Wages" written in English and Spanish.

At noon they stopped at the Bill Miller's Bar-B-Q at East Durango, across from the Alamodome where the Dallas Cowboys were practicing.

The union claims the restaurant chain pays workers on the South Side $6.50 an hour while North Side workers get $9 an hour for the same work.

The difference in wages is another example of how the county is divided between rich and poor, said Robert Alvarado of the Brown Berets, who was marching in sympathy with the protesters.