What began as a few people talking in a church-based dialogue has grown into a widening campaign for environmental justice in Indiana. The last two Saturdays of this month, the Martindale-Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative (EJC) will mark Earth Day with two mini-environmental conferences to help residents learn about ongoing toxic hazards in the community.

Martindale-Brightwood is a neighborhood in central Indianapolis with about 10,000 residents, most of them African American. As reported last year on our website, Scott United Methodist Church became a center of environmental justice activism when its minister, the Rev. Ray Wilkins, learned through an environmental analysis that a nearby business had improperly disposed of trichloroethylene, a toxic chemical that had possibly seeped into subsurface water flowing beneath the church property. The issue was discussed in a study circle, and participants went on to form the environmental group.

Now - as the "Voice to Action" conferences are held April 19 and April 26 - the EJC is working with a growing list of partners to raise awareness of the continuing toxic threats in their neighborhood. For example, the Indiana Black Expo and Marion County Health Department will be at the conference to test children for lead poisoning in a neighborhood where contaminated toys from China may be the least of parents' worries.

Conference volunteers will videotape oral history interviews from current and former residents of the neighborhood. Many will have stories of health problems traced to decades of underground chemical dumping, and of children playing amid this toxic waste. Others may have recollections of a spectacular 1970 fire at the local National Lead plant that spread smoke, film, and smelt debris into local yards.

Full Story: http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/Article.744.aspx

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