An environmental tragedy is unfolding 50 miles south of Sacramento. There’s time to act

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An environmental tragedy is unfolding 50 miles south of Sacramento. There’s time to act

An environmental justice tragedy is unfolding in South Stockton and its historically underserved communities of ******, 50 miles south of Sacramento along the San Joaquin River. This story has all the classic features: corporate greenwashing, sham community engagement and a dubious industry poised to make a lot of cold hard cash. But what’s unique about the situation? There is still time to act.

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is a community-based organization focused on bringing equitable solutions to South Stockton. To me, the story of Little Manila Rising in the Central Valley is one of empowering the community to advocate by understanding our own history and its connection to the root causes of current environmental injustices. Stockton, named the most

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in 2020, has a history marked by

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.

Opinion

To this day, South Stocktonians’ livelihoods are shaped by the

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manifested in the built environment. The truck routes leading to the city’s Industrial Annexation and Port of Stockton contribute to chronic pollution exposure in neighborhoods with some of the highest rates of asthma, cardiovascular ********, low birth weight and ******** in the state.

Now, a new controversial plan, headed by Golden State Natural Resources, in partnership with the British biofuels giant Drax, seeks to turn wood from

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to be sold in Asia. Industrial-scale transportation and shipping operations would run solely through the Port of Stockton, in our already overburdened community of South Stockton.

This means a historical state and

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is at risk of becoming an environmental sacrifice zone.

The project would start with the construction of two industrial plants in Tuolumne and Lassen Counties, which would produce one million tons of compressed wood pellets a year. One million metric tons of wood pellets would be transported to the Port of Stockton a year. The massive scale of the operation would require

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and increase the port’s shipping traffic by 23% with an additional 25-30 oceangoing vessels, which also cause

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.

Pollution from industrial transportation is a common problem for environmental justice communities around the country. Like communities of ****** in

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,

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,

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and other

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, residents face increased risk of

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and

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.

Exporting the pellets, however, still requires approval from the Port of Stockton.

In March, Golden State Natural Resource’s first formal

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to sell the plan to Stockton community members backfired when an

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. Inauspiciously, the

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originally drew up plans to route shipments through the Port of Richmond on the San Francisco Bay, but the Richmond community rejected the project in 2023.

In hopes of avoiding another rejection, Golden State Natural Resources is counting on a marginalized community’s voice to go unheard. We are not going to let that happen.

The involvement of the company Drax, Golden State Natural Resource’s partner in the project, also raises red flags. Drax has been accused of

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for locating wood pellet plants in majority-****** communities with high ******** rates. In 2022, it paid $3.2 million to settle with the state of Louisiana. And, in 2019, Drax was also

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for pollution violations in Mississippi.

Earlier this year, Drax

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when it built a biomass facility without a permit. And, in February, BBC reported that Drax burnt

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in ********* old-growth forests.

Other community and environmental groups have strongly disputed Golden State Natural Resource’s claims about the project’s purported benefits. Cleverly, the corporation has linked its project to two issues with wide public support: wildfire mitigation and economic growth. Unfortunately, these claims are at odds with reality.

“(Golden State Natural Resources) claims that the proposed project will create rural jobs, lessen wildfire risk and even improve air pollution levels. It would be great if any of that were true, but it’s just a sales pitch,” Matt Holmes, project director for the Northern San Joaquin Valley-based environmental justice group Valley Improvement Projects,

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. “This project would create more pollution, increase ***** risk and provide only low-paying jobs with dangerous working conditions.”

If the Port of Stockton buys into this scheme, our already overburdened community will be devastated by a significant increase in noise, industrial traffic and toxic air pollution. That is why we are rising up to ******.

We have the right to clean air and not to be treated as a

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. Golden State Natural Resource’s plan of environmental injustice has no place in California. We must not let another marginalized community’s voice go unheard again.

Gloria Estefani Alonso Cruz is the environmental justice advocacy coordinator at Little Manila Rising, an organization that serves the South Stockton community to develop equitable solutions to the effects of historical marginalization, institutionalized racism and harmful public policy.

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#environmental #tragedy #unfolding #miles #south #Sacramento #time #act

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