Neighborhood watch: a Texas twosome takes on polluters, and wins - Profile/People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources

Sierra, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Marilyn Berlin Snell

"That caught my attention. I'd never realized those chemicals were coming out of the Tank Farm in the first place," Herrera says, using the locals' name for the facility. She called Almanza.

"I said, 'Sylvia, what are you doing reading public notices, and right around Christmas?'" says Almanza with a smile. "'Can't we take a break for the holidays?'"

Herrera wouldn't be put off. She told Almanza they needed to organize quickly; the deadline for public comment was January 15. Herrera developed a health questionnaire and went door to door with Almanza and other PODER volunteers. "It was a check-off list, a way to introduce ourselves, and a way to find out what was happening in the community," says Herrera. "We'd meet people and they'd say, 'God, I thought it was just my kids that were having nosebleeds. I didn't realize that everybody in this neighborhood has children that get them.'" The media caught the story and made it headline news. CNN visited, as did CBS. Over the course of the yearlong fight, which ended with the companies' agreeing to move the fuel-storage tanks to an unpopulated area, the Austin American-Statesman ran more than 300 stories on the Tank Farm debate.

One of the young volunteers on the campaign was Raul Alvarez, who joined PODER in 1992, shortly after he moved to Austin to begin graduate school in urban planning. In 2000, he ran for and won a spot on Austin's city council, and credits PODER for his grassroots political education (he was recently reelected to a second term). "With the Tank Farm, PODER was taking on megacorporations like Exxon, Texaco, and Chevron," Alvarez says. "These are companies that usually get their way, but we organized, involved the community, and closed them down."

After the Tank Farm victory, which won PODER a Special Service Award from the Sierra Club in 1993, a massive recycling plant owned by Browning Ferris Industries (BFI) got caught in PODER's community sweep. Rodents, noise, loose trash, and traffic had plagued BFI and its neighbors since the plant's opening, but residents could get no relief. PODER worked with the neighborhood and was able to convince the city government to downzone the land from industrial to office. Eventually, the city bought the property from BFI, and the company moved its operations.

"Once we provided information, people took action to protect their communities," says Herrera of the Tank Farm and BFI fights. "We always tell people, 'Your voice is your vote.' People have a right to speak on issues that affect them, whether or not they have proper documents or have been in prison; it doesn't matter."

Councilor Alvarez is proud of PODER's victories but worries that success may put the group at odds with some of its environmental allies. "Now that these industries have moved out and we've gotten rid of the threat of further industrial growth with the East Austin Neighborhood Plan, this area is beginning to look more attractive. It's also close to downtown and the land is comparatively cheap. Gentrification is a very big challenge."