Uncategorized

Featured Entries

New Hill Community Association formally contests Western Wake Partners' wastewater plant

By Rebekah L. Cowell The New Hill Community Association (NHCA) and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a Petition for Contested Case Hearing today in an attempt to stop the Western Wake Partners from building a $327 million wastewater treatment plant in the historic and primarily African-American town. The petition asks that a neutral third-party review the partner's actions, and make a final ruling. The petition contests the issuance of a clean water permit for the facility by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality. It also contends the site “has larger human and environmental justice impacts than other, more suitable alternatives, including land previously condemned by Progress Energy in the same general vicinity. Noise, odor, traffic, and light spill from the sewage treatment plant will impact the New Hill Historic District, including the predominantly African-American First Baptist Church and cemetery. Western Wake Partners reverse-engineered Site 14 by prematurely committing nearly $10 million to the site before considering its human and environmental impacts. This commitment of resources prevented an unbiased consideration of better, alternative sites in the same general vicinity.” The plant, which was scheduled to begin construction this year, will not be built in Apex or Cary or any of the partners' towns. It will loom across the street from the New Hill First Baptist Church and playground, and a half-mile from the First Baptist Church of New Hill. The plant will sit within 1,000 feet of 23 homes. But who lives in those homes is as important: 87 percent of those approximately 230 residents immediately affected by the sewage treatment plant are African-American, on fixed incomes, elderly or retired. Rev. James E. Clanton of the First Baptist Church New Hill says it is unfortunate that the community has had to resort to litigation to have its voice heard. “We have been willing to host the partners’ sewage treatment plant so long as it was not in the middle of our community, but the partners won’t meet us halfway.” Litigation will be expensive, and thus far the community has been able to pay those costs from a $10,000 grant from the Impact Fund, a Berkeley, Calif.-based nonprofit organization that financially assists community groups in the areas of civil rights, environmental justice, and poverty law. A barbeque fundraiser held by the First Baptist Church of New Hill also raised $4,648.

Hazleton, PA Anti-Immigrant Law Is Unconstitutional, Federal Appeals Court Rules

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today issued a sweeping decision striking down as unconstitutional the city of Hazleton’s law that would punish landlords and employers who are accused of renting to or hiring anyone the city classifies as an “illegal alien.” The case, Lozano v. Hazleton, has been closely watched across the country because the Hazleton ordinance has served as a model for similar laws nationwide and was challenged by civil rights groups in a lengthy trial. The suit has been underway for more than four years in the federal district and circuit courts. Today’s unanimous appeals court decision is the latest legal victory against discriminatory state and local laws that target immigrants and invite racial profiling against Latinos and others who appear “foreign.” Many cities like Fremont, Nebraska and Summerville, South Carolina have voluntarily tabled or blocked these laws under legal pressure and local opposition. “This is a major defeat for the misguided, divisive and expensive anti-immigrant strategy that Hazleton has tried to export to the rest of the country,” said Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The Constitution does not allow states and cities to interfere with federal immigration laws or to adopt measures that discriminate against Latino and immigrant communities.” Hazleton adopted its first anti-immigrant ordinance in August 2006. A civil rights coalition including the ACLU, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the Community Justice Project and the law firm Cozen O’Connor immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of Hazleton residents, landlords and business owners. Today’s ruling upholds a July 2007 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania concluding that the Hazleton ordinances were preempted by federal law governing immigration. “Hazleton’s discriminatory law decimated a town that used to be bustling with life and commerce,” said Vic Walczak, Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and a lead attorney in the case. “Divisive laws like these destroy communities and distract from the very real problems that local governments are facing across the country. Immigration reform needs to come from the federal level. Local ordinances like these have a toxic effect on the community, injecting suspicion and discriminatory attitudes where they didn’t previously exist.” During the trial, Hazleton officials claimed that undocumented immigrants were responsible for bankrupting the city, driving up healthcare costs and increasing local crime. In fact, the evidence at trial showed that from 2000-2005, Latino immigrants actually helped to transform a huge city budget deficit into a surplus, that the private hospital system made a $4 million profit and that the crime rate actually fell. “The Latino plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit knew this law was intended to drive them out of Hazleton,” said Cesar Perales, President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF. “The court clearly recognized this danger.” Friend-of-the-court briefs opposing the Hazleton law were filed by numerous civil rights, religious, labor and business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the labor union coalition Change to Win, the American Jewish Committee, Capuchin Franciscan Friars, Lutheran Children and Family Services, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Legal Momentum, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the Anti-Defamation League and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Related issues involving state authority to enact laws addressing immigrant employment are pending before the Supreme Court in the case, Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria, brought by the ACLU and other groups challenging an Arizona statute. Attorneys on the case include Jadwat, Lucas Guttentag, Jennifer Chang Newell and Lee Gelernt of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; Walczak and Mary Catherine Roper from the ACLU of Pennsylvania; Shamaine Daniels of the Community Justice Project; Foster Maer, Ghita Schwarz and Jackson Chin of LatinoJustice PRLDEF; and Thomas G. Wilkinson and Ilan Rosenberg of Cozen O’Connor. The ruling is online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/lozano-v-hazleton-opinion A video with interviews with ACLU attorneys and clients is online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8vr66MYZn8 More information on the case, Lozano v. Hazleton, is online at: www.aclu.org/hazleton More information on the case, Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria, is online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/chamber-commerce-v-candelaria

Potential Wake wastewater plant faces new challenges

_______________________ By Ted Richardson and Jordan Cooke - Staff writer CARY -- The Southern Coalition for Social Justice today filed a petition that challenges the placement of a regional wastewater treatment plant in New Hill, an unincorporated community in western Wake County. The petition, filed at the state Office of Administrative Hearings on behalf the New Hill Community Association, charges that the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a water quality certificate to the Western Wake Partners based on insufficient information on potential environmental impacts on the community. The Western Wake Partners is a consortium of four western Wake towns — Cary, Apex, Morrisville and Holly Springs — that are planning the $327 million plant to meet a state mandate that required three of the towns to return treated wastewater to the Cape Fear River Basin. The project also would help the towns deal with growth for the next 20 years. The Southern Coalition is asking state court administrators for a hearing to contest DENR's certification of the plant in an effort to block construction. "We have been willing to host the Partners' sewage treatment plant so long as it was not in the middle of our community, but the Partners won't meet us halfway," the Rev. James E. Clanton, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Hill and a leader in the community association, said in a statement. "It is unfortunate we have to resort to litigation to have our voices heard." Mary Penny Thompson, general counsel for DENR, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The New Hill site received final environmental approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month. But the Corps' blessing, followed by the state environmental permit, stoked more opposition in the New Hill community. In its petition, the coalition and community association claim that building the regional plant in New Hill would significantly impact low-income and African-American residents. The petition claims that the treatment facility also would have negative environmental impacts, including exposing residents to sewage sludge, noxious odors, increased noise and light pollution. Mayor Keith Weatherly of Apex, chairman of the Western Wake Partners Policy Advisory Committee, on Thursday said New Hill residents have had ample opportunity to voice their concerns. He praised the Army Corps for its findings. "The Corps had a three-year exhaustive study on all the issues that were relevant," he said. "The concerns of the good people of New Hill were taken into account during the public comment sessions, and I think the Corps made the right decision." The mayor referred additional questions about the lawsuit to the town's attorneys.

New Hill Petition for Contested Case Hearing

From Read SCSJ’s Petition for Contested Case Hearing, filed in the NC Office of Administrative Hearings, to challenge the Western Wake Partners’ proposed placement of…

SCSJ and Luisa Estrada Defend her Human Right to Fair Housing

Luisa Estrada thought she had purchased a home for family. But after making a large down payment on a house in Alamance County it became clear that the realtor had taken advantage of her. The contract she signed contained confusing language indicating she was in fact only renting the property in question. Ms. Estrada partnered with SCSJ staff attorney Chris Brook to successfully negotiate a resolution wherein the realtor agreed to let Ms. Estrada out of her “purchase” contract in addition to refunding her full down payment and many of the expenses she incurred while improving the property. After months of frustration, Ms. Estrada now speaks with relief: "Through SCSJ's support, I was able to prevail against a realtor who had deceived me." One small blow against unfair and deceptive housing practices!

Dumping on New Hill

From Cover story on how an enormous wastewater treatment plant wound up near a small town’s historic district. Cover story on how an enormous wastewater…

SCSJ "Free Within Ourselves" Photo Exhibit

____________________ SCSJ is hosting a photo exhibition fundraiser to document, promote, and honor the fight in the Southern United States for political, economic and social equality. KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Photographer Jose Galvez, the first Mexican-American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. For over 40 years, Mr. Galvez has used black and white film to create a powerful and unparalleled historical record of the Latino experience in America. He will be speaking about and presenting photos from his book, Shine Boy, a photographic memoir. ON DISPLAY: Photographs from the finalists of SCSJ's photo contest. The prints will be up for auction throughout the event as a fundraiser for SCSJ. WINNERS: You will be able to vote on YOUR favorite photograph from 6 to 7. The photo with the hightest votes will win the $250 People's Choice award. In addition, Mr. Galvez will select one photo for the $250 Best of Show award. REFRESHMENTS: Beer from Fullsteam Brewery and wine. Light snacks. ADMISSION: $8 for adults; $5 for youth and students. Cash or check at the door. PARKING: Free parking on the street or in the Parking Deck on the corner of Corcoran St. and Ramseur St. The extrance is located on Corcoran St., between Ramseur St. and Main St. Thank you to our community partners: TROSA, Fullsteam Brewery, CCI Photographics, Bull City Forward, Iglesia Emanuel (Durham, NC) See you at the event! Bull City Forward, 101 Main St., Downtown Durham

New Hills Vows to Fight Plant

New Hill vows to fight plant Residents say there are better sites By Paul A. Specht, Staff Writer Ruby Mann has lived in New Hill since she was born 73 years ago. She remembers playing in the creek and breathing in the clean air in the field behind her house on Garris Road. It was a good way to cool off after the days she spent picking tobacco for the farmer just up the street. But the field --and perhaps the fresh air --may soon give way to a wastewater treatment plant. "I don't like it, but there isn't anything I can do about it," she said. New Hill residents vowed to fight the plant, which won a key approval last week. The $327 million plant would serve Cary, Apex, Morrisville and Holly Springs. The towns have been planning the facility since 2004. The project was intended to help the towns comply with a state environmental mandate, directed at Cary, Apex and Morrisville, to return water to the Cape Fear River basin and to keep pace with the towns' rapidly-growing populations. On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental approval for the site. The 85-page document endorses the site as the one that will have the smallest negative environmental impact, despite being near wetlands. It was considered a big victory for the towns. On Monday, New Hill leaders rejected the decision and vowed to fight against it. "There are better places with less human impact to put this plant," the Rev. James Clanton, pastor of the First Baptist Church New Hill, said in a prepared statement. "We ask the Western Wake Partners to reconsider dumping on poor communities of color and find a better solution." In the statement, Clanton and representatives from the New Hill Community Group and Southern Coalition for Social Justice claimed that there are more suitable places to built the plant. They complained that noise, odor, traffic and light from the project will negatively impact the New Hill Historic District. They said the decision never fully considered alternatives to the Cape Fear River discharge point. The decision "disregards the procedural, environmental, and racial issues raised in public comments," Chris, Brook, a lawyer at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said in the statement. Brook, in an interview last week, indicated that a lawsuit could be forthcoming. He and Paul Barth, president of the New Hill Community Association, declined to discuss the legal strategy. Barth said his group may also appeal "environmental justice issues" through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Until the concrete is poured, we're not going to quit," Barth said. The towns now will seek several state permits for the project covering aspects such as transportation, air quality and construction. If approved quickly, the plant could be built by the end of 2013. "It's unfortunate that there's been some ill will, but I think the appropriate decision has been made in this case," Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly said. "The Army Corps of Engineers has left no stone unturned to investigate the concerns of the residents down there. ... Everybody obviously could not be satisfied with the outcome, but I think everybody should at least be satisfied with the process." Ruby Mann and her husband Willie, 69, have lived in their Garris Road house for 45 years. The fight reminds them of when the Shearon Harris nuclear plant was built down the road. "We knew it was going to happen," Willie Mann said. "But there isn't anybody who's happy about it." The Manns say they don't have money to move. "We have to smell it, breathe it, and have no fresh air," he said. aspecht@nando.com or 919-460-2600 © Copyright 2010, The News & Observer Publishing Company A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company

Controversial sewage plant receives green light

Controversial sewage plant receives green light by Shawn Daley After years of waiting, the Western Wake Partners finally received the green light to build a controversial regional sewage plant in the middle of New Hill. While plans for such a facility have been considered by state and local governments for more than eight years, the actual fight by New Hill to keep the sewage plant out of their community has lasted 62 months. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced its final decision last week by ruling that the towns of Cary, Apex, Holly Springs and Morrisville could build in New Hill despite the objections of its residents. Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly praised the decision as an important victory in the town’s long-term economic development. “We certainly believe the Corps made the correct decision,” said Weatherly. “Obviously, we need this additional sewage capacity to have future economic development in Apex. People will, hopefully, now have confidence to invest in our town once the economy turns around. We look forward to moving ahead (with the project) for the good of Apex.” The news of the decision was met with a bit less enthusiasm in New Hill. “We’re disappointed but it wasn’t unexpected,” said New Hill Community Association President Paul Barth. “That’s why we haven’t been sitting around doing nothing. We’ve been planning for this eventuality.” Not wanting to tip his hand with any specifics, Barth said the fight against the sewage plant is still not over. “There are still a couple of things we are looking into,” said Barth. “Our lawyer is reviewing different angles for a lawsuit. That is certainly still an option.” New Hill residents had argued that the sewage plant would have a negative effect on their community, especially on the many African-American residents who live near the chosen site. “There are better places with less human impact to put this plant. We ask the Western Wake Partners to reconsider dumping on poor communities of color and find a better solution,” said Reverend James Clanton, pastor of the First Baptist Church New Hill, in a written statement. But U.S. Army Corps District Commander Col. Jefferson Byscavage said the Western Wake Partners had taken enough steps in their planning to mitigate the worst adverse effects. He wrote that a 200-foot buffer around a state-of-the-art facility equipped with the latest technology would mitigate any problems with noise, light, odor or spills. “When all elements of the project are considered, no significant and adverse impacts are likely to fall on the affected (environmental justice) population,” wrote Byscavage in an 85-page report. “On balance, the total public interest would be best served by the issuance of a Department of the Army permit (for the chosen site). “I find that the proposed project is not contrary to the public interest, and that there are no practicable alternatives that meet the Project Partners’ purpose and need that have less environmental … impacts.” Weatherly said he was pleased the Corps had agreed with the Western Wake Partners about the chosen site. “I can’t say we would do anything different,” said Weatherly. “Now, I was surprised by the level of opposition in New Hill. But this is going to be a state-of-the-art facility that should mitigate their concerns.” Barth said the community was left to fend for itself by the Wake County Commissioners. “We never got any support from them and they are our only representatives,” said Barth. “They totally abandoned us. We supplied them with facts and figures years ago.” As for the upcoming months, Barth vows his group will fight on. “They know the site they chose was wrong,” said Barth. “The numbers don’t lie. They chose a site that has the greatest amount of impact (on residents). They know it in their hearts but they will never admit it. “We don’t plan on stopping until the concrete is poured. We are going to delay it as long as we can and hurt them where it counts the most – their wallets. The project is already behind schedule and the cost has risen considerably. We’ve already hurt them and we’re happy about that.” Apex Public Works and Utilities Director Tim Donnelly said the project is “a little over two years” behind schedule. He added that construction could begin by the end of the year and the plant could open as early as late 2013. “But that is if everything goes absolutely perfect,” said Donnelly. “We still have a lot of work to get done.” Apex’s share in the $350,000,000 plant is currently $85,000,000 but that number could rise for a variety of reasons. Some of those expenses have already been paid for by the towns.

SCSJ Hosts Week-long Redistricting Training and Education Program

Written by Anthony Maglione What does it mean to not have a meaningful opportunity to elect candidates of your choice? And what does that have to do with redistricting, the redrawing of election districts in our communities based on census numbers? Many of us – especially low-wealth communities of color – already know what it means because the local candidates we vote for never get elected. A long history of unjust redistricting intended to split and dilute our voting strength is one of the main culprits, but we can prevent that history from repeating. Last week, SCSJ convened a week-long Expert Preparation and Community Education Program as part of the Community Census & Redistricting Institute. Held in Durham, NC, the program trained folks traditionally involved with redistricting – social scientists, map-makers and lawyers – and joined them with representatives from community organizations. Over 100 participants throughout the country came together to discuss the importance of empowering grassroots low-wealth communities of color to promote fair representation during the 2011 redistricting round. We left with an understanding that redistricting is about equity and fairness, not simply about the shape of an electoral district. The process of redrawing districts does not happen without people, and the people who are directly affected – those living within the communities where districts are drawn – must be involved in the process. Check out the Community Census & Redistricting Institute’s webpage for updates as we continue to build the site as a clearinghouse of information for folks looking to get involved with redistricting their own communities.