Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
P.O. Box 33124, Riverside, CA 92519
(909) 360-8451

November 13, 2002

WE WON!

Riverside County Planning Commissioners
voted UNANIMOUSLY to deny the warehouse
project!

With comments such as...

...all five Commissioners voted to deny the Newcastle warehouse project and not certify the EIR.

The Commissioners took a great deal of time to research the issue, they listened to our concerns and arguments and even held the workshop to more fully understand the air quality issues. We commend them for their diligence on this issue.

The Commission had previously said that how they vote on this warehouse can predict how they will vote on all the other warehouse projects. THIS WAS A MAJOR VICTORY FOR OUR COMMUNITY AND ALL COMMUNITIES NEAR DIESEL SOURCES.

It was because of the persistent, organized, united effort of Mira Loma residents that this victory was possible. As one Commissioner said, "When a community steps forward, is united and puts on such a concerted effort, we need to look at the issue closely. " Mira Loma has demonstrated its true sense of community and pride in its area, by fighting to preserve it. CONGRATULATIONS!

CCAEJ extends our deepest appreciation to all the Mira Loma residents who have worked so hard on this battle for more than 3 years!

While there may be an appeal from the developer to the Board of Supervisors, the momentum is clearly on our side. It will be very hard for the Board to justify overturning a UNANIMOUS vote by the Commissioners.

A special thanks to all that attended the hearings. We know how hard it is to take off work and devote that kind of time. Your willingness to pitch in, research, and eloquently express you thoughts and opinions make you true Community Heroes.

We also wish to thank those that traveled from outside the community to lend their support.

Todd Campbell, Coalition for Clean Air, Julie Masters, NRDC, Janet Gunter and residents that live near the LA ports; Gene Frick from Lake Elsinore, Terry Wold, Catherine Barrett-Fischer, fighting the March Globalport; Rick Worthington, Prof. from Pomona College. Greg Bowers from Jurupa Unified School District that spoke up for the children's health.

We also thank the researchers at USC - Dr. John Peters for his great presentation; Andrea Hricko, Jim Gauderman, Ed Avol, and colleagues for their continuing rigorous research into the affects of air pollution on health. Dr. John Froines and colleagues at the UCLA Particle Center and Supersite for their groundbreaking research work on particulate pollution and willingness to help us understand the science. Their efforts are bringing to light the health impacts of pollution and helping to inform better public policies.

To AQMD, for their investigations and studies on air quality and their continued efforts to make our air safer to breathe. Mike Nazemi, presented the findings of the Mira Loma Specific Air Study clearily showing the increased cancer risk due to diesel emissions. Great work!

We deeply appreciate the support CCAEJ has received from The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, and The Rose Foundation, through grants to fund our Healthy Communities Campaign. Without their support, we could not have continued our efforts.

This was a joint effort from a lot of people. CONGRATULATIONS, WE WILL TRULY BE ABLE TO BREATH A LITTLE EASIER.

---

August 1, 2002

STUDIES SUPPORT COMMUNITY'S CONCERNS ABOUT AIR QUALITY

You may be confused after reading the Press Enterprise article reporting on the CE-CERT and AQMD studies presented last night. The problem is that the reporters didn't do a good job at explaining the studies. The two studies don't contradict each other--they look at two totally different things.

The difference between them is that the CE-CERT study looks at volume of particulates and the AQMD looks at toxicity (impacts on health). The AQMD study by far, is the more important of the two. Let's face it--if air pollution didn't have health impacts, we wouldn't be worrying about it.

Mira Loma currently has some of the highest levels of PM (particulate matter). Most (VOLUME) of that pollution (60%) comes from LA and Orange County and is composed of dust, agriculture sources (ammonia from the dairies) and traffic (8%); diesel is about 12% of the total. If you look at the TOXICITY (what damages us) 80% of the cancer risk comes from that 12%.

CE-CERT confirmed what we already knew. The majority of the overall PM pollution comes from LA and Orange County. CE-CERT found that 60% of the VOLUME of PM (particulate material) of our CURRENT air pollution problem is blown in from LA and Orange County. We've known that from other studies and have made the point that since we already have a major air pollution problem, why contribute to it by adding the most deadly PM--diesel.

A few details were questionable, such as where the monitors were placed. For example, they removed the testing equipment from OUTSIDE at the Jurupa Valley High School, making it impossible to compare their findings with existing information from all the other studies. Since AQMD data shows that the High School is the hot spot due to its location next to Etiwanda (a major truck route) and Hadley's next door, one has to wonder why they didn't measure outdoors as they promised. They said it was due to "security issues".

They also said that the levels are equal around the community, which is difficult to understand since every other study shows the levels next to major streets and highways have the highest levels and that those levels drop off dramatically after about 500 meters (1500 feet). CE-CERT says they are equal everywhere. Apparently the placement of the testing equipment was beyond 1500 feet of these source areas.

Another puzzling area was that CE-CERT found only a 47% transfer from of pollutants from outside to inside. In reviewing literature given to us by Dr. Froines from the Southern California Particle Center and Supersite, it showed that the ultrafine particles (diesel particles less than 2.5 microns in size) get indoors from outdoors at 98.99 to 99.99% levels. CE-CERT didn't look at these smaller particles. These are important because, at that very small level, they not only get deep into the lungs, they penetrate the tissue at the cellular level creating extreme damage.

AQMD: AQMD's Mira Loma Specific Air Management Plan looked at the RISK or health posed by the various components of our air pollution (dust, agriculture, etc). After all, we wouldn't be worrying about air pollution if it didn't affect health, so this is the important part. By far, diesel is the most dangerous of all the PM because it is highly toxic and cancer-causing (40 different known cancer causing agents are in diesel). Dust irritates--diesel kills!

Their baseline for cancer risk is their previous study (MATES II, done in 1997) showed that 80% of cancer risk in our area comes from diesel. The cancer risk for Mira Loma from diesel is 1265 cancer cases per 1 million people. (EPA considers an acceptable cancer risk as 1 in a million.)

AQMD then, physically, went to each and every warehouse and noted the number of trucks going in and out, the type of operation they had (24-hour or 8 hour deliveries) and mapped their location. They then went to the County's Planning Department and were given the open land that could be developed into warehouses in the future. They divided the area into 12 grids and calculated the risk in each grid. They also calculated the risk based on in three ways: just warehouses and their location; traffic routes; and then with a build-out (all the land available is developed into warehouses).

The closer one gets to trucks (at warehouses, next to streets, or parked in our neighborhoods) the higher your cancer risk. Here are their findings:

• Increased emissions of diesel PM due to warehouse operations in Mira Loma cause increased cancer risks.
  
• The magnitude of the risk increase depends on idling time, and specific truck routes.
  
• Mira Loma has high cancer risks to start with (1265 maximum, 905 average); approximately 80% due to diesel emissions.
  
• The average 12-grid increased risk ranged from 11 to 29.
  
• Diesel emissions from truck routes in and from warehouses/distribution centers can have a greater impact on residential and high school exposure.
  
• The maximum per-grid risk increase was 68 (increased cancer cases).
  
• The Jurupa Valley High School area experiences the largest risk increases, up to 90.
  

They also found that the risk could be reduced down from 90 to 54 if we assume the trucks will be cleaner in the future. But if we have build out of all the warehouses proposed, we lose that reduction – the risk levels jump back up to 90.

So the two studies show us that:

• We currently have a major PM pollution problem, one that is a combination of pollution from LA and Orange County and the agricultural areas. 60% of the volume of pollution comes from LA and Orange County.
  
• The PM pollution is made up of dust, soot, ammonia from dairies, and diesel - with diesel being a small portion (12%).
  
• The greatest risk to health comes from diesel (80% of the cancer risk). (Dust irritates, diesel kills).
  
• Mira Loma cancer risk is 1265/million. From the levels we're exposed to, we would expect 1265 people to die from cancer for every million people exposed (compare that to what EPA considers an "acceptable" risk at 1-in-a-million).
  
• Due to its proximity to Etiwanda, Hadley's trucking and other sources, Jurupa Valley High School has the largest risk increases (up to 90).
  

Keep in mind this is only for cancer risk, it doesn't take into account the studies directly linking heart disease, respiratory disease, birth defects, etc. with PM in general and diesel in particular.

The conclusion is clear, we already have an enormous PM pollution problem (CE-CERT), adding more warehouses makes the situation worse and in particular, creates a severe health threat to our community (AQMD).

A vote for warehouses is a vote against the health of our kids and the community.

If you have any questions about the studies or more information give us a call. Penny Newman (909) 360-8451