Latino Environmental Groups. Part 1

late on a recent afternoon an ice cream truck through a neighborhood of small homes and europeans have chased away the smog from much of southern california but in the city of commerce the air still has this sickly sweet smell and metallic taste of pollution celia bet than four years into the union pacific rail yard right now he's serious that and cooler heads east yard communities for environmental justice that's the kind of locomotive that will save idling behind homes right in our neighborhood and the only thing that separates that locomotive from these homes is a brick wall sylvia betancourt is a ucla graduate she grew up here and she still lives a block from this rail yard she suffers from occasional bouts of asthma as i was growing up i always had this sense that there was something absolutely wrong way of living near industry by i couldn't quite articulated what the problem was and as i was growing up i was seeing a lot of people being

diagnosed with cancer he passed away i was i felt like there had to be some said something more than just a coincidence that the inquiry is concerned about more than just this rail yard officially called the intermodal facility there are also the diesel spewing trucks that make tens of thousands of trips a day of the seventh ten freeway from the ports many of them pull into this yard and the nearby burlington northern santa fe facility the truck stop off cargo containers for transfer to england trains researchers say diesel pollution is the state's worst toxic air pollutant responsible for seventy percent of the cancer risk that can be attributed to pollution much of the burden falls a neighborhood such as patent wars it makes me feel marginalized because i think there is a recognition that there is a cost there's an indirect costs being paid by these communities that are on the fence line and so i feel angry some of that employers nabors found is

charred communities for environmental justice five years ago to try and clean up the area the group has fought the expansion of the seven ten freeway push for rules that limit the time locomotives can idle in the neighborhood and advocated for cleaner ports and trucks in wilmington the coalition for a safe environment is active on greening the ports for more than a decade communities for a better environment has taken civic leaders on so called toy exit two hours of industrial sites in southeast la raja rivero says latino is infused in new york chicago and other cities are also realize they've been disproportionately saddled with pollution and robbed of environmental benefits such as parks the emerging you know environmental movement really healthy human rights movement in the natural progression from my community point for a wide variety of fuel right in every arena we consider the environment really to be the next civil rights issue and battle of this decade there is president of the national hispanic

environmental council he says los angeles is at the center of that battle a wealth of latino informant an accomplishment in california been tremendous in a peek into the country in commerce sylvia betancourt terms from the union pacific to watch trucks choking she says many of the houses along the road were here before the rail yards on the freeway or something to recall that part of the rail yard was once the japanese garden very much aware that they would find this kind of problem and part of that as you would find this kind of problem in beverly hills because that community would sample and so i think the community members in neighborhoods like ours are saying we're not going to stand for it either latino community groups are just rally against environmental problems they're demanding

environmental benefits and that's shaping the green movement in california we'll look at that and our story continues tomorrow in commerce ilsa set sail at nine point three kpcc