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West Harlem Environmental Action (DRAFT)

WE ACT for Environmental Justice (formerly known as West Harlem Environmental Action) is a non-profit environmental justice organization in the United States. It was founded in 1988 in Harlem, New York City by three (need source/info).

focusing on sustainability, climate justice, public health, pollution, and other urban quality of life issues. The organization was founded in 1988 to mobilize community opposition to the city's operation of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant and the planned construction of an MTA's bus depot. The basis of the opposition was an increase in respiratory illness among the residents of Harlem and other adverse health effects. In 1991, a multinational group, including WE ACT, attended The First People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. At the event, The Principles of Environmental Justice were created and agreed upon, and still stand as a guiding set of principles for the Environmental Justice Movement today. WE ACT is the lead organizer of the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change, and has provided effective leadership in the development of New York City and northeast region environmental justice alliances to network, collaborate and impact environmental policy-making. WE ACT achieves its mission by accomplishing a clear set of goals linked to major issues impacting health and environmental justice. WE ACT strives to improve and provide; Climate justice, clean air, healthy homes, and sustainable and equitable land use.

Currently, WE ACT is one of several groups engaged in negotiations for a Community Benefits Agreement with Columbia University as part of the school's Manhattanville expansion plan. It is also renovating an abandoned brownstone for conversion into the WE ACT Environmental Justice Center, which will house office and program space as well as serve as a demonstration of various green building technologies.

Mission

WE ACT’s mission is "to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices."

WE ACT envisions a community that has:

• informed and engaged residents who participate fully in decision-making on key issues that impact their health and community.
• strong and equal environmental protections.
• increased environmental health through community-based participatory research and evidence-based campaigns.

History and organization

Formation

"We ACT was one of the first environmental organizations in New York State to be run by people of color, and the first environmental justice organization in New York City. WE ACT for Environmental Justice was founded and incorporated in 1988 as the result of local community struggles around environmental threats and resulting health disparities created by institutionalized racism and the lack of social and political capital. WE ACT was founded in March 1988 by Vernice Miller-Travis, Peggy Shepard and Chuck Sutton to address the poor management of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant and the targeting of Northern Manhattan for a sixth MTA bus depot (with only one other one on the island of Manhattan) at a site across from an intermediate school and a large housing development – a densely populated and heavily trafficked area". WE ACT evolved into an environmental justice organization committed to empowering the community to become a vocal, informed and proactive force that determines and implements its vision of what its environment can and should be.

Founders

Peggy Shephard, Vernice Miller, Chuck Sutton

Past campaigns

Dirty Diesel (1988)

One of the initial acts of WE ACT took place after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) notion to build a sixth diesel bus depot in Northern Manhattan, a predominantly African American and Latino section of the city. In November 2000, members of WE ACT and the local community filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation claiming that bus depots were disproportionately placed in minority communities and the cause of elevated health risks for individuals living in Northern Manhattan.

Outcome: The Department of Transportation fount that the MTA violated Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and failed to meet the federal environmental impact analysis involving the construction, rehabilitation, and operation of bus depots and other facilities. This campaign led to the MTA's modification of bus depots and investment in clean-fuel buses, as well as increased public awareness pertaining to the dangers of fuel fumes and poor air quality.

North River Sewage Treatment Plant (1992)

New York City planners originally intended to locate the North River Sewage Treatment Plant along the Hudson River on 72nd Street, a primarily white and affluent community, but the site was rejected due to community resistance and technical issues. West Harlem, a predominantly minority and low-income neighborhood, became the new site for the plant which completed construction in 1985. When the plant began its operations, community members voiced concerns of overbearing odors emanating from the plant effecting an area of almost two miles. In acknowledgment of these reports, a 28-acre state park known as the Riverbank State Park was built on top of the sewage plant in 1993. However, fumes and odors continued to seep out of the plant affect local neighborhoods.

Outcome:  Due to lawsuits from community organizations, resistance from West Harlem residents, and pressure from WE ACT, city officials addressed the issue in 1991 and located the design flaw that was causing the air pollution. The plant underwent $53 million in improvements to eradicate the issue.

Current Endeavors

Food Justice

"For WE ACT the area above 125th Street in New York has gained the distinction in recent years of being one of America’s urban “food deserts.” The lack of healthy food in uptown Manhattan increases rates of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and other life threatening and life-altering diseases. These conditions also work to trap families in cycles of poverty; higher medical bills combined with less insurance coverage to equal mountains of debt. WE ACT's Food Justice Working Group seeks to make healthy food more readily available to these undeserved neighborhoods". The working group is educating and encouraging churches to engage in local initiatives such as: "Community Sponsored Agriculture projects (CSAs), local food co-ops, community gardens, roof-top gardens, adopt-a-local-emergency-food-provider, food stamp outreach, advocate for improvement in food and hunger policies, support supermarket creation on 125th Street". 

Notes

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8. ^ Jump up to:^a b WEACT.org. "faith leaders for environmental justice". www.weact.nyc. Retrieved 2017-03-29.