#SWEANews | #SWEA | #SouthWardEA | #SouthWardEnvironmentalAlliance | |
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Message from
Our Founder & Executive Director
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Happy New Year South Ward Family!
Welcome January 2023!
As we begin the new year, on behalf of the SWEA team, we thank all of our volunteers, supporters and residents engaging in the fight for Environmental Justice. We value your input and willingness to take a seat at our table to ensure a healthy, vibrant and thriving South Ward.
As we celebrate and honor Dr. Martin Luther King we must remember that Dr. King was in Memphis to support the sanitation workers who were on strike to protest unsafe conditions and low wages, this is the connection of our civil rights and environmental justice. As humans we deserve rights to clean air and good jobs. In 1972 PEP President Wayne Spence stated, “The greater our collective voice, the more people in power will hear us and the greater impact we can have.” This is still relevant and powerful 51 years later.
Let’s continue the fight for social, economic and environmental justice in the Mighty South Ward.
Power to the People!
Kim Gaddy, Executive Director
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Remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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South Ward Environmental Alliance hosted our first 1st Annual Environmental Summit in February of 2022. The conference theme “One Ward, Fighting for Environmental Justice” is a critical topic for the South Ward community due to the proliferation of warehouses, increased truck traffic, flooding and unsafe drinking water in our homes and schools. The workshops addressed the environmental injustices that impact our quality of life and uplift the importance that everyone regardless of race, neighborhood or financial status deserves access to a healthy community to live in. We are grateful for the support of our South Ward community and appreciated all guests that were able to participate.
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April and August of 2022 SWEA hosted a one hour training session and a two day truck count + air monitoring event. Residents joined us at 8am, 12pm, and 4pm on April 20th and 21st as well as August 24th and 25th to track the amount of medium duty and heavy duty trucks in five areas of the South Ward. In total we counted over 5000 trucks in April and in August we counted over 7,000 trucks. Air pollution was simultaneously tracked during the truck counts, specifically Particulate Matter 1, 2.5, and 10. Particulate matter describes solid particles suspended in air; this includes dust, smoke, and other organic and inorganic particles. These pollutants are unhealthy at high levels. We want to thank those who came out for taking the time to help us get a better understanding of the type of air and traffic our communities are enduring due to environmental racism.
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South Ward Environmental Alliance embarked on a 7-day trip to Long Beach, California for an environmental justice youth convention in July of 2022. Staff members met with Angelo Logan, former director of MFN and co-founder of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ).Logan provided an overview of his work within the environmental justice movement by reflecting on childhood experiences of witnessing the mistreatment of minorities in overburdened communities. SWEA also had the opportunity to meet with Taylor Thomas, co-executive director of EYCEJ for a tour of ports, parks, and community spaces overburdened by pollution. SWEA staff are glad to have met Logan and Thomas of EYCEJ and hope to continue collaborating around policy changes needed to liberate us all. Power to the people!
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This past December, Clinton Hill Community Action hosted their 1st Annual Neighborhood Holiday Party and Awards Celebration. The event was full of holiday spirit, fun and good vibes all around. It was a beautiful way to close out a wonderful year. Many individuals as well as organizations received awards from the CHCA team, including South Ward Environmental Alliance. SWEA was the recipient of the Community Partner of the Year Award. We are so appreciative of the partnership we have with Clinton Hill Community Action and look forward to the continuation of cultivating our community to be healthy and vibrant together.
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- South Ward Environmental Alliance, Youth Summit on Saturday, February 25th, 2023. The agenda will include a Tour of the Newark Watershed, the role of Youth in the Amazon fight for Good Jobs & Clean Air and an Environmental Justice Green Alliance Leadership Academy training session. All participants will receive a stipend for their engagement.
- South Ward Environmental Alliance, 2nd Annual Environmental Summit! Save the date Saturday, April 22nd, 2023, 10-2pm. More details to come. With the help of our community partners and residents, we look forward to having another successful Summit.
- South Ward Environmental Alliance, April 2023 Earth Week Activities, Truck Count Activity and Purple Air Monitoring presentation. We count trucks and track particulate matter to gather data on the impact of air pollution in our South Ward Community. In addition, we collect air data utilizing a Hyper Local Air monitoring model. More information will be out soon, we hope you can join us!
- Sustainable Jersey City created a Heat Watch and Air Quality Campaign and partnered with CAPA Strategies, South Ward Environmental Alliance, Groundwork Elizabeth, and Rutgers CEED/EOHSI to analyze heat and humidity conditions, and to measure air quality conditions in Newark, Jersey City, and Elizabeth.Volunteers collected temperature and air quality data along predetermined routes in July 2021. In 2023, we are working on extracting the data from the geodatabases, mapping the data and presenting the findings to our community.
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Moving Forward Network Updates:
MFN is holding a planning and strategy meeting with our members
- To continue to pressure EPA on addressing zero emissions in freight
- Hear from members on their local plans and strategies and where MFN can support, and
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Share some early 2023 Zero Emission in Freight Campaign strategies already in the works for MFN.
Also, we wanted to send an update on the EPA Heavy Duty Truck Rule, which many of our members testified and supported written comments on last year. Shortly before the holidays, EPA announced its final Heavy Duty Truck Rule; this is the first emission standard on trucks for more than 20 years. MFN’s press release in response to the announcement regarding the rule can be found HERE.
The final Heavy Duty Truck Rule released at the end of last year, falls short of our demands. While we have shared our initial response with our members, we are working on a more detailed analysis. Overall, MFN feels there was a missed opportunity for a rule that took 20 years of grassroots leadership and advocacy to finalize. Specifically, MFN notes that the following were not included in the final rule.
- Require all-new truck sales are zero-emission beginning in 2035
- Set the strongest emissions standards that require pollution reductions for EJ communities
- Retire all combustion trucks by 2045.
Sign on petition launched 12/8 to members and 12/9 to supporters
Communications toolkit -Member Toolkit | EPA Zero Emission in Freight Year in Review: Progress or Pollution
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Let Your Voice Be Heard!
Send us a message regarding environmental concerns impacting your quality of life that you may be experiencing in the South Ward.
Email Asada Rashidi asada@southwardea.com.
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