Youth community activists size up a toxic threat

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Nov 16, 2006 | by Suzanne Bohan

First, a loud explosion. Then, a sinister sizzling sound, followed by flashing lights and a siren's wail.

A camcorder shakily pans over a fire engine, and a fuzzy voice- over captures police orders to secure the area.

The 15-minute video, titled "The Explosive Truth," was produced by Youth United For Community Action, or YUCA, a group of East Palo Alto-based community activists. The DVD purports to reveal the extent of the danger Romic Environmental Technologies poses to the community after the release of 4,000 gallons of chemicals on June 5.

In it, youth activists repeat the unsubstantiated linkage between Romic and diseases in East Palo Alto, and describe the June release as an "explosion." In fact, a pressure valve released in a tank, preventing an explosion. The plant is also described as a "hazardous waste site" -- a site severely contaminated with pollutants -- when it's actually a recycling facility, a seemingly subtle but key distinction.

The video is the latest salvo in almost a decade of battles by YUCA against Romic. The youth group wants to drive the facility from town, which it hopes to do by persuading the state, now deciding Romic's fate, to deny renewal of the plant's operating permit.

While Romic has been a bane to many residents, particularly in light of its past record, environmental officials say it has dramatically decreased its emissions in recent years.

But many in East Palo Alto might not be aware of that, too keyed in on the aggressive tactics of a young group focused on the facility's day-to-day hazard, which according to environmental officials, is not the problem. It has some wondering whether the group is weakening its fight against the company.

YUCA's nemesis

YUCA is headquartered inside an old adobe-style home near its nemesis, Romic Environmental Technologies. Youth gather in a group in one area, strategizing a campaign against Romic. Other teens and young adults peck away at computers in a cluttered office.

Annie Loya, 22, who leads YUCA's militant campaign against the hazardous waste recycling facility, grew up a few blocks from the plant. She fights the battle with a steely determination and a gift for analogy cultivated from years of publicly speaking out against the company.

Larissa Flores, 13, the daughter of YUCA's executive director, Oscar Flores, was introduced as a primary Romic organizer and a spokeswoman.

"She's one of our veterans," said Loya, half-jokingly, explaining that Larissa Flores joined the campaign at age 6.

YUCA is not a typical ragtag collection of kid activists. The organization receives about

$500,000 in funding annually from close to 20 organizations -- including sizable contributions from the Kellogg, Packard and Surdna foundations, according to YUCA documents. The California Wellness Foundation this year awarded YUCA a three-year, $275,000 grant, and the California Endowment contributed $50,000.

YUCA joins a revival of youth-led political campaigns, and is one of some 50 youth activist groups nationwide. Many have operating budgets in the millions, which they use to tackle such issues as racism, environmental health and economic injustice.

YUCA is particularly hell-bent on tackling an issue they believe affects all of East Palo Alto: environmental racism. For decades, they say, East Palo Alto has suffered disproportionately, living with poor air quality and hosting dangerous industrial facilities such as Romic.

Loya and other activists pepper their impassioned arguments against Romic by citing links between the facility's emissions and the city's high asthma and cancer rates, among other ailments.

To bolster its arguments, the group cites in its campaign literature 7-year-old data from the Environmental Scorecard, an independent pollution monitoring service.

Not the same old Romic

Numerous environmental scientists interviewed for this story say the evidence just doesn't bear out that Romic's day-to-day operation poses a health threat. Kenneth Lim, an engineering supervisor with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, noted that pollution from vehicles traveling on University Avenue -- one of the main thoroughfares in East Palo Alto -- poses a far greater health risk to the community than Romic.

Most dry cleaners in San Mateo County emit much more cancer- causing perchloroethylene than Romic, according to the air district's 2002 Toxic Air Contaminants Annual Report. And operations by the City of Menlo Park significantly outstrip Romic in emitting air pollutants of concern to human health.

Even the Environmental Scorecard, which uses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, notes that between 1999 and 2002 (the last year for which figures are available from the Scorecard) Romic decreased by 98 percent its emissions linked to cancer and by 80 percent those which may cause reproductive harm.

"What we've seen is a complete transformation in the management policies at Romic," said Bill Pease, Ph.D., an Oakland environmental scientist who created the Environmental Scorecard.