Media
January 6, 2014Chemical Disasters in California? President Obama’s Executive Order on Chemical Security “Listening Sessions”
Contact: Stephenie Hendricks, (415) 258-9151, shendricks@comingcleaninc.org
January 8, 2014 Listening Session held in Sacramento, CA
(In-Person and Teleconference)
Registration: 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Session: 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: The Zigguart Building, Auditorium, Room 1-301, 707 3rd Street, West Sacramento, CA 95605
In-Person Registration Link: http://www.govevents.com/word-redir.php?id=11507
Teleconference Registration Link: http://www.govevents.com/word-redir.php?id=11508
January 9, 2014 Evening Listening Session held in Los Angeles, CA
(In-Person and Teleconference)
Registration: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Session: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Mount St. Mary’s College, Doheny Campus, Donohue Center, 10 Chester Place, Los Angeles, CA 90049
In-Person Registration Link: http://www.govevents.com/word-redir.php?id=11582
Teleconference Registration Link: http://www.govevents.com/word-redir.php?id=11596
January 10, 2014 Listening Session held in Los Angeles, CA
(In-Person and Teleconference)
Registration: 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Session: 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Location: University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), James West Alumni Center (JWAC), 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
In-Person Registration Link: http://www.govevents.com/word-redir.php?id=11509
Teleconference Registration Link: http://www.govevents.com/word-redir.php?id=11510
(Sacramento, CA) In the wake of the chemical disaster that killed 14 in West, Texas, President Obama issued an executive order on August 1st, 2013, requiring the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Labor to coordinate their activities to propose new policies that will significantly enhance the safety and security of thousands of chemical facilities across the U.S.
“Listening Sessions" with communities and workers most harmed by chemical facilities are being conducted nationwide. Since the West, Texas catastrophe, , and for decades before, there have been a multitude of plant explosions and train derailments. This week, a North Dakota train derailment of flammable oil forced 2500 people to evacuate their homes. Just before Christmas, an explosion near Mossville, Louisiana sickened motorists driving by the plant, sending them to the hospital. Last year in Richmond, Ca., a Chevron plant explosion sent 15,000 people to the hospital. In 1974, an “Alphabet Bomber” leveled several Los Angeles city blocks with a chemical explosion caused by a homemade bomb detonated at a chemical facility in the city.
Residents impacted by the Chevron fires and explosions in Richmond will be attending the Sacramento session. Community members living close to chemical storage facilities and chemical transportation corridors in Southern California will be attending the Los Angeles sessions.
This is an important issue of failed federal policy to protect the public and workers from chemical catastrophe.
More listening sessions for President Obama’s Executive Order 13650
February 17, 2014: Baton Rouge, LA
November 13, 2013: Washington, DC
Available for Comment
Christina Medina; Center for Environmental Health; (510) 655-3900 ext. 309, christina@ceh.org. For media assistance for Sacramento session contact Christina Medina.
Martha Dina Arguello; Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles; (310) 261-0073, arguello@psrla.org. For media assistance for Los Angeles session contact Martha Dina Argüello.
Michele Roberts; Co-Coordinator, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform; (202) 704-7593, mroberts@comingcleaninc.org. Michele can discuss the disproportionate impacts from toxic chemicals on communities of color.
Richard Moore; Los Jardines Institute; Co-Chair, Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform; (505) 301-0276, ljinewmexico@gmail.com. Richard can talk about environmental justice issues and organizing in the Southwest, and TSCA reform. Habla Espanol.