Hello Daily Kos community! I appreciate all the work you do for the left, and I’m excited to start posting here and getting to know you.
I wanted to kick off by sharing stories about the incredible, resilient residents of my Congressional district.
This week, I brought Congress to Michigan’s 13th district for a field hearing on air and water quality. Residents in Wayne County and across my district have felt unseen and doubted for so long—despite experiencing unbearable odors, headaches, and nosebleeds. So we brought Congress to the residents.
Members of the House Oversight Committee & Environment Subcommittee went on a “toxic tour” of the state's most polluted zip code, 48217, and then heard from a panel of community members, experts, and advocates.
The 8,000 people in the 48217 zip code live in the shadow of Michigan’s only oil refinery, auto and steel industry plants, and other major corporate polluters. In total, there are 52 heavy industrial sites within just 3 square miles, putting out dozens of toxic chemicals.
That means children have elevated blood lead levels, infant mortality is twice the rate of the rest of Michigan, and many residents suffer from health problems like asthma and cancer, which lead to lower life expectancy rates.
In the face of this crisis, residents are taking matters into their own hands. The Eden Park Community Project is advocating for residents and fighting for environmental justice—including demanding that the Marathon Oil refinery pay for air quality monitors for the area. Eden Park aims to create much-needed green space and gardens, which would not only bring beauty to the community, but also serve as a buffer to mitigate air pollution.
If you’re able, can you chip in $5, $10, or as much as you can to the Eden Park Community Project’s fight for environmental justice?
At the hearing, this week residents explained how pollution disproportionately affects low-income communities of color, including in Detroit and Flint. They demanded the right to clean air and water, asking for:
Real infrastructure investment for our water and sewage systems and water affordability plans.
Green buffers to offset pollutants (like the Eden Park Community Project).
Cumulative impact analyses, because federal clean air laws just regulate individual companies, rather than accounting for the cumulative effect of polluters concentrated in certain neighborhoods.
Structural legal changes, including some that will be reflected in my upcoming Justice for All bill, which would restore disparate impact claims within the Civil Rights Act, to allow us to fight environmental racism.
Real accountability from corporate polluters that poison the community, illegally exposing us to toxins. One of the biggest is Marathon Oil, which continually poisons the community—including yet another toxic leak just last week—and escapes with modest fines.
A permitting process that gives residents a real say on whether or not an air permit should be issued.
Please donate now to the Eden Park Community Project—an essential environmental justice project in one of our country’s most polluted communities.
The communities in 48217 are majority Black, filled with long-time residents. As I noted in this week’s field hearing, this area is an example of how entire generations grow up in sacrifice zones, where our air and water is polluted by wealthy corporations for profit, and we are expected to accept it.
But we won’t accept it. Residents have been fighting for environmental justice and taking to the streets in protest for decades, because our lives are at stake. As resident and community leader Theresa Landrum said at a protest last week: “We're tired of waiting; we're tired of being afraid.”
Environmental justice activist Emma Lockridge explained in this week’s hearing how dangerous it is to have dozens of heavy industrial sites in such a concentrated area. She sleeps each night wearing a surgical mask, and still wakes up coughing.
The Eden Park Community Project would help rectify this long-term damage. But they need funds in order to buy and develop the plot of uninhabited land for the project. In preparation, community volunteers have been periodically cleaning up the property, once the site of a Detroit public school.
Please donate whatever you can to the Eden Park Community Project’s fight for environmental justice.
One committed community advocate, Vincent Martin, said: “We have been poisoned every day of our lives.” It’s true. I grew up thinking the smell of pollution was normal.
As the House Oversight Committee & Environment Subcommittee Chair Rep. Harley Rouda noted at the hearing: “The people of Detroit and Flint have been living without their basic rights, and they have lost trust in elected officials’ commitment to preserving and protecting those rights."
It’s time to change that. I told a local TV station this week that #13thDistrictStrong is my original squad. I learned from my community to never back down. And I won’t.
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