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The Bridge: A Black Hole for Accountability

Missing data about deaths in BIA custody raises serious alarm — and emphasizes the many ways our federal government is still failing to protect tribal nations.

“When it comes to the way the federal government interacts with Indigenous communities, accountability is like a black hole,” Maren said. “This instance is not an anomaly.”

CCV now has a 5-member Board of Directors (including founder, Jose Luis Velez,  and a large staff. See details. Includes many community health workers, and a few air monitoring technicians.

CCV originated from the grassroots  in 1987 and is now a 501 (c)(3) organization. It was founded and continues to support disadvantaged communities in Imperial County, with a strong emphasis on civic participation.  A key principle, which guides all CCV projects is that “ “Informed People Build Healthy Communities.” 

CCV’s most well known program is the IVAN community air network.  

CCV originated from the grassroots  in 1987 and is now a 501 (c)(3) organization. It was founded and continues to support disadvantaged communities in Imperial County, with a strong emphasis on civic participation.  A key principle, which guides all CCV projects is that “ “Informed People Build Healthy Communities.” 

CCV now has a 5-member Board of Directors (including founder, Jose Luis Velez,  and a large staff. See details. Includes many community health workers, and a few air monitoring technicians.

CCV’s most well known program is the IVAN community air network.  

Recently, CCV participated in the Workers’ Rights Outreach Program (“a statewide initiative that brings community-based organizations together with state agencies to promote COVID-19 workplace protections and vaccinations). 

Community interviews have found that many household have members that are gardeners. Research has shown that garndening labor is especially socially vulnerable and hard to protect through organizing.  See: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M5_McMmsbcb_s2Qn17XtnFQ3HBeC2hcfYSBYrqmDB-0/edit?usp=sharing . Also see Sal Zarate's work: https://www.zotero.org/groups/130725/disastersts/collections/ICRQQ8PM

MPNA-GREEN's Community Research Board is conducting community interviews and learned that there are professional gardeners in many households, which likely comes with significant exposre to pesticides, likely brining them home to their families. See, for example, this recent study: https://www.ehn.org/glyphosate-childrens-health-2659484037.html, and there is always worries about endocrine disrupting chemicals in ag work. 

Assessing the PM2.5 impact of biomass combustion in megacity Dhaka, Bangladesh - PubMed (nih.gov)

This article is about crop burning in Dhaka, Bangladesh and attempts to figure out if there is more or less harmful PM2.5 particulate air pollution caused by either fossil fuels or biomass, and during which season is one or the other higher in the air pollution it produces. During monsoon season, fossil fuels lead in the most PM2.5 releases at 44.3%. When it is not monsoon season and is the winter season, the percentages are way higher for PM2.5 air particulate releases at 41.4% for the remainder of the year. Across the globe, there are now people stepping up to uncover the true and real environmental and health impacts this harmful particulate byproduct causes in different parts of the world and with differring weather conditions than what we see in North Carolina. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351209404_PM25_Emissions_from_…;

This study is set in South/Southeast Asia and uncovering that, when trying to count the percentages of PM2.5 put off during biomass, the true amount of emissions were being gravely undercalculated. Specifically rice straw burning becuase the amount burned varied so much because of different harvest and burning practices that it just wasn't taken into consideration. What this study does is go bottom up using these strategies: "subnational spatial database of rice-harvested area, region-specific fuel-loading factors, region, and burning-practice-specific emission and combustion factors, including literature-derived estimates of straw and stubble burned"(Lasko et al. 2021, 1). 

The most common air pollutants are called criteria pollutants and are regulated by the Clean Air Act and the EPA. These pollutants are: particles, ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfer dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead. The EPA have sections under the CAA that help regulate factories and air pollution in the environment. For example section 108 requires the EPA to identify the pollutants that are criteria pollutants, listed above, and determine if where they are coming from and if they "endander public health or welfare". Under section 109 the EPA had to set standards across the board for air pulltion in regard to human health and to the environemtn sperately (Christopher D. Ahlers 2016, 51-52).  There are many more sections that go into detail about what the CAA can do and what the EPA members are required to do as well.