Grassroots environmentalism carries on in
Calhoun County: CAP is just one of many organizations keeping area safe for
residents
Star Staff Writer
"We had a lot of questions, but not enough answers," said Roberts, a novice activist who organized the Sweet Valley-Cobbtown Environmental Justice Task Force. After receiving some organizing assistance from an Atlanta environmental justice group, Roberts led protests and community meetings with scientists and lawyers. "We made Monsanto start paying attention to the needs of the community," she said. Nearly a decade later, grassroots environmentalism continues to thrive in Anniston and Calhoun County. The area’s environmental issues, including PCB contamination and chemical weapons incineration, spurred much of the movement, but other groups have targeted dilapidated housing and unemployment as well. At least four other groups have formed since Roberts established her group, including Community Against Pollution, or CAP, which broadened the efforts of Roberts’ group and gained national attention. Former activists with CAP started other organizations, including the Brownfield Institute, an effort to train Anniston residents to compete for jobs to clean up their community, and United Americans Against Pollution, which is organizing plaintiffs who have not taken part in previous PCBs litigation. Even before the PCBs issue garnered attention, groups formed to protest the Army’s plans to build a chemical weapons incinerator in the area. Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration was formed in 1992. Two years later, others incorporated into the non-profit organization, Serving Alabama’s Future Environment. Most recently, a group of Hobson City residents began meeting in response to a preliminary study by a Tuskegee University researcher that found dangerous levels of mercury, arsenic and selenium in soil and groundwater samples. "This is going to be a long fight," said Kathy Jackson during a recent meeting held at a Hobson City church. "We have to determine who polluted us. We have got to fight together and pull together. If we don’t pull together, we’re fighting a losing battle." Jackson, who once worked with Community Against Pollution, established the non-profit organization Bobby Lee Woods Counseling Community Services in 2001 to target drug and alcohol addiction. Now Jackson, along with two Birmingham attorneys, is investigating the extent of Hobson City’s contamination and its possible effects on residents and the pollution’s sources. The Environmental Protection Agency also is conducting environmental soil tests to assess the situation, said Dawn Harris-Young, a spokeswoman for the agency in Atlanta. Hobson City has applied to the EPA for a Brownfield Cleanup and Redevelopment grant to address the contamination. Although Alabama isn’t historically known for environmental activism, numerous communities have turned to grassroots organizing when they felt ignored, said Jim Price, an Alabama native and an official at The Sierra Club. "There are a lot of voices that say, ‘Don’t get involved. Shut up and we’ll take care of things,’" Price said. "It’s a paternalistic culture. "It’s sad when groups have to form to make more noise because they’re not given a place at the table of powerful decision-making interests." The narrow focus and determination of Anniston’s groups helped boost their effectiveness. Some leaders of Anniston groups caught the attention of state and national policy makers, said Pete Conroy, director of Jacksonville State University’s Environmental Policy and Information Center. Less than two years after founding CAP, David Baker testified about Anniston’s contamination before the U.S. Senate. Former Gov. Don Siegelman appointed Cassandra Roberts’ husband, Jerry Roberts, to his environmental commission because of his work with Sweet Valley-Cobbtown. "Any new group that finds a presence in a Senate committee room has found its way to effectiveness," Conroy said. Baker, an Anniston native who spent 25 years organizing labor unions throughout the northeast, returned to Anniston and heard about the health problems and widespread contamination. He decided to get involved. In 1998, CAP sent a letter to EPA’s administrative director in Washington detailing the community’s health problems and urging the agency to take action. A year later, EPA investigators tested Anniston residents and soil and found residents had the highest levels of PCBs in their bloodstreams than anywhere else in the country. Eventually, CAP received EPA grants that financed the group’s efforts to educate the community about contamination, the dangers of PCBs and how to avoid further exposure. A sign on CAP’s office porch illustrates ways to avoid contact with PCB-contaminated dirt, instructing residents to mop and dust their homes frequently and wipe or remove their shoes before entering their houses. Getting organized gave residents a single voice that won respect and attention, said Shirley Baker, who is married to David Baker and is chief operating officer of CAP. "Before, people thought West Anniston was a bunch of bad apples just hollering," she said. CAP continues to monitor the cleanup and remediation process. Recently, the group has become concerned that a community clinic, which is required under the terms of a federal PCBs lawsuit settlement last year, may not be located in West Anniston. Members of CAP canvassed neighborhoods this week, collecting signatures in support of locating the clinic in West Anniston. Although CAP has caught the attention of the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and PBS, the organization still operates out of a small house in west Anniston. On the day the settlement was announced, the office’s phones were off because the organization hadn’t paid that month’s phone bill. But the group has gained a type of intangible compensation: community trust. "We communicated with and educated the community," David Baker said. "We gave them the confidence to come to us." Since CAP’s inception, more than 16,000 people have come through its doors, seeking answers not only to their concerns over contamination, but also for help with food stamps or paying power or gas bills, David Baker said. Suzanne Marshall, a former JSU history professor and a founder of Serving Alabama’s Future Environment, has published a book about grassroots environmentalism in the southeast. Anniston’s older groups have outlasted the average life of grassroots movements elsewhere, which usually go three to four years. She attributed their longevity to several key individuals who have remained dedicated to their causes. "It’s pretty amazing," Marshall said. "It’s hard with a full-time job and kids." David Christian, a board member of Serving Alabama’s Future Environment, said it’s difficult juggling business, family and activism. But holding the Army accountable for its destruction of chemical weapons is a top priority for him. "It’s an additional activity you don’t really ask for, but feel like you need to do," Christian said. Although the organization has not achieved its ultimate local goal of convincing the Army to use alternative destruction methods, it has seen other successes. Alternative means of destruction have been chosen for four other chemical weapons stockpile sites, he said. The group raised awareness and understanding about the destruction of chemical weapons locally and prompted the Army to respond to community concerns, he said. Members of grassroots groups should be recognized for their civic activism rather than identified as troublemakers, Jim Price said. "These groups helping their friends and neighbors to become active is an asset for the community, not a problem," he said. "It’s a problem only if the community is not listening." |
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About Charlotte Tubbs
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Auburn graduate Charlotte McIntosh Tubbs is a native of Madison. She covers Oxford, Hobson City, Clay County and Randolph County. |
| Phone: Fax: E-mail: |
256-235-3548 256-241-1991 ctubbs@annistonstar.com |