Latest news with #BoardofEnvironmentalSafety
San Francisco Chronicle
23-04-2025
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
California is about to make it easier to dump toxic waste in your neighborhood. Here's what to do about it
In Richmond, where I live, we know what happens when hazardous waste is treated as an afterthought. Our shoreline is tainted with the legacy of more than a century of heavy industry — shuttered chemical plants, old oil tanks and hazardous waste sites that still bleed toxins into the soil and San Francisco Bay. California's Department of Toxic Substances Control is updating the state's Hazardous Waste Management Plan, a document that's supposed to chart a safer, smarter future for dealing with our most dangerous industrial byproducts. But buried deep in the current version of the update is a proposal to allow more contaminated soil and toxic materials to be dumped in regular municipal landfills — sites never designed to safely contain hazardous waste. In the department's own words, it would like to 'identify and evaluate protective alternative management standards for soil identified as hazardous … to be disposed of in authorized non-hazardous waste landfills.' The bureaucratic language masks the dangerous implications: This policy shift could allow contaminated soil to land in everyday landfills near homes, schools and playgrounds, exposing Bay Area residents to heightened health and environmental risks. Richmond residents already breathe some of the dirtiest air in the state. Many of our children struggle with asthma, and our elders are burdened with pollution-related heart and respiratory disease and cancer. And for decades, Richmond activists have fought for stronger environmental protections — not just for ourselves, but for frontline communities across California. So, when the state quietly proposes to weaken rules that govern how and where toxic waste is dumped, we recognize it's not just a bureaucratic policy change — it's a threat. A threat to the health of our neighborhoods. A threat to the progress we've made. And a signal that California may be choosing pollution expansion over pollution reduction. Under this plan, the list of landfills eligible to receive toxic soil will grow, and many of them are in the Bay Area. Sites in San Jose, Vacaville, Half Moon Bay, Pittsburg and Petaluma. These are not theoretical locations. These are real communities with schools and homes and playgrounds, now being eyed as future dumping grounds for California's toxic leftovers. The Department of Toxic Substances Control says the plan will reduce long-distance trucking and lower emissions. But that's a false tradeoff. Instead of dealing with toxic waste at the source, this plan just spreads it farther and faster. This is not a pollution control strategy — it's a pollution expansion strategy. It's cheaper. It's easier. And it puts the risks right back on communities ill-equipped to deal with them. What's especially unacceptable is that this policy is moving forward with barely a whisper of public engagement. So far, there's only been one public hearing with the department's oversight body, the state Board of Environmental Safety — in Fresno, during the day, when most community members need to be at work. Despite these constraints, more than 40 speakers voiced opposition, including environmental justice advocates, public health experts, and impacted residents. Not a single person or industry group spoke in favor. And yet, the plan is now headed to the Bay Area unchanged. There will be a second public hearing on Thursday at the department's offices in Berkeley. It's the only opportunity for Bay Area residents to speak out. After a hearing in Los Angeles on May 15, the state Board of Environmental Safety will cast its final vote on July 15-16 at a meeting in Sacramento. The five-member Board of Environmental Safety, made up of appointees from the Legislature and the governor, was created in 2021 legislation to provide greater oversight and accountability to the Department of Toxic Substances Control, after years of criticism that the agency was nonresponsive to public input and lacked transparency in decision-making. The same law gave the board oversight authority over what gets included in the department's Hazardous Waste Management Plan. The hearings and July vote will be the most significant tests yet of the new board's ability to restore public confidence in the agency. After that, this policy becomes part of California's roadmap for hazardous waste — one that could remain in place for years. We still have time to change course. So far, members of the oversight board have raised important questions: Why weren't environmental justice groups consulted? Why hasn't the department conducted site-specific environmental and health impact studies? Why not invest in contaminant removal and source reduction, instead of lowering the bar for disposal? Those are the right questions. But now the board needs to hear from the public — especially from those of us who would bear the brunt of these changes. Richmond isn't alone in this fight. Communities all over the Bay Area are connected by this proposal. If the Department of Toxic Substances Control moves forward, it won't be just one city that feels the consequences, it will be dozens. And the people who feel it most will be the same ones who've been left out of the conversation for too long. Help us tell the board: We're not going to accept a plan that rolls back protections and treats our communities as dumping grounds. California should be leading the nation in environmental stewardship. This new hazardous waste plan risks sending us in the wrong direction. We deserve a plan that prioritizes health, safety and justice — not one that makes it easier to spread pollution to already overburdened communities. Janet Johnson is coordinator of the Richmond Shoreline Alliance, a project of San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, working to protect the Bay Area's shoreline and Richmond residents from environmental harm.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Join in to tell state officials Fresno must not be a dumping ground for waste
Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley are already home to some of the worst air pollution in the nation — yet state officials are quietly advancing a plan that could make it even worse. On March 20, the state Board of Environmental Safety will meet in Fresno to evaluate a proposal from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control that would allow more hazardous waste to be dumped in landfills across California, including here in the Valley. This means more exposure to toxic chemicals, more truck traffic bringing hazardous materials through our communities, and more risks to our health, water and air. The most disturbing part is that DTSC has not conducted any meaningful environmental review or public health studies to assess the consequences of this plan. The agency also failed to properly inform or engage the communities that will be most impacted. Opinion This is unacceptable. On Tuesday, dozens of residents, farm workers, environmental advocates and community leaders will rally at Fresno City Hall before joining the Environmental Safety hearing. We are coming together to demand one simple thing: stop this reckless plan before it's too late. For decades, the Central Valley has been treated like California's pollution dumping ground — a sacrificial zone where low-income, rural, and farm worker communities are forced to live with the environmental consequences of industrial pollution, oil and gas operations, and unchecked pesticide use. Many of these communities, including those in Fresno County, already suffer from sky-high asthma rates, extreme exposure to diesel pollution, and widespread groundwater contamination. We know what happens when regulatory agencies fail to protect us — our health, our children and our future are put at risk. Now, DTSC wants to expand hazardous waste dumping in landfills that weren't originally designed for it without fully evaluating how this will impact local air and water quality. This is not a pollution control strategy; it's pollution expansion. Under California law, DTSC is required to conduct thorough environmental impact assessments, consult with impacted communities, and ensure full transparency before making major hazardous waste policy changes. But instead of following these basic legal protections, DTSC is rushing forward with this plan without providing a full environmental impact report that evaluates site-specific risks, a public health assessment on how this could increase respiratory illnesses and groundwater contamination, or a real community engagement process that includes accessible materials in Spanish and Indigenous languages and meetings in all impacted regions. This is a textbook case of environmental injustice. Sadly, Fresno is no stranger to this treatment, and we have fought back before. Through the Central California Environmental Justice Network, we join with farm workers, community leaders and public health experts to reduce pollution, protect drinking water and demand stronger safeguards for vulnerable communities. We are at a defining moment for Fresno's leaders, policymakers and residents. If we don't stop this plan now, more hazardous waste could be dumped in our communities for years to come — without proper oversight or accountability. That's why we are calling on the Board of Environmental Safety to reject this hazardous waste expansion plan until proper studies are completed. DTSC must conduct a full environmental review and hold meaningful public hearings in all affected communities. Local and state leaders must stand with Central Valley residents and demand transparency, environmental protections, and real public engagement. Fresno residents are coming together to fight back. On March 20 at 10:15 a.m. we will rally at Fresno City Hall before heading inside to the BES hearing at 11 a.m. We call on other Valley residents sick of the status quo to join us. The Valley deserves clean air, safe water, and a government that listens to the people — not just polluters. It's time for DTSC to listen. Nayamin Martinez, MPH, is the executive director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. She has spent her career advocating for clean air, water, and public health protections in the Central Valley.
