Penny Newman: What has inspired me, and what makes the work
we're doing a joy is, I get to meet the very best people who, despite all of the obstacles
of not having money -- they can't hire an attorney. They have to do everything after
they've worked two or three jobs. You know, they bring their kids to the meetings, you
know, so we have a whole thing for the kids as well. Because they know this is the right
thing to do, and if they don't stand up for not only their families but their neighbors,
they're going to be walked over. This is in self-defense. They really are battling for
their lives.
Right now we're working on goods movement. It's the movement of goods and products from
the ports -- for us, from the ports of L.A. and Long Beach -- and they get trucked and
railed inland to major warehouses. That diesel pollution, you know, for each of those warehouses,
there's thousands of trucks that converge, and the diesel pollution is really high in
our communities, so Mira Loma area and Riverside County and the west side of San Bernardino.
This is a neighborhood where people make less than $10,000 a year. They have no medical
insurance. They have no money for medical care. They don't even go to the emergency
rooms. These families, their health care comes from over-the-counter drugs and home remedies.
In a health study we did at the closest elementary school, we found that the children there,
there's a 47 percent asthma rate -- 47 percent. We have a little girl, she started coming
to our meetings when she was 2 years old with her grandmother. And, like most little kids,
she had a little backpack, you know, Dora the Explorer, on wheels. And she's come in
-- I assumed she had, you know, books and stuffed animals and toys in there to keep
her occupied. And she opens up her backpack one evening, and there is a compressor with
her nebulizer to deliver her asthma medicine -- a 2-year-old girl who is connected to a
machine in order to just take a breath. That is not the America I want to live. That is
not how any child anywhere should have to live.
And so our communities are fighting back. And one of the things that we keep emphasizing
with people is, don't expect government to come in and solve the problem for you. You
know, the government is a process, and you either know how to use that process and the
systems and its tools or you don't. So we've been trying to find ways to make it easier.
So we've been able to put -- we got a grant, a $1 million grant to put high-performance
air filtration units on the schools, five schools in that area. That will reduce the
diesel particulate pollution by 90 percent, over 90 percent. Does that solve the problem?
No. But while we're trying to push and make the railroads clean up their act and reduce
their emissions, at least we can reduce the exposures that the families are having.
And so, you know, we put these in there. While the kids are at school, which is a good portion
of the day, they at least have a reprieve from that heavy pollution that they're suffering
from. And, more importantly, they're going to put in a restricted truck route so that
the trucks can't go past these homes. There's 850 trucks and hour pass less than 20 feet
from the backyards of these homes. And so, by putting in that restricted truck route,
they have to go around in the industrial area and away from the homes. They're also doing
a lot of other -- there's a vegetative barrier that helps to absorb some of the ultra-fines
and a number of things. Very comprehensive settlement.
So the families are seeing that if they come together, if they outline their plan of action,
of not only what they're concerned about, but what the solutions are, and they organize
together, they can win. And so, for the first time, people in Mira Loma are seeing they
have some power here. And the people on the west side who have been forgotten forever
are now seeing, "Hey, we can do this. So what's our next target? What's the next thing we
need to address?"