The Jacksonville environmental groups trying to tackle racial disparities

[Adam White]

I stumbled across this in the Guardian today. Nice to see Jacksonville making the (international!) news for positive reasons. Of course, there is nothing positive about the fact that they have to do this work in the first place - but it's great to see a story about people working hard to bring about change.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/jacksonville-florida-climate-environmental-groups-racial-disparities

[marcuscnelson]

It's funny, this week the First Coast seems to be in a lot of media sources for good reasons. This in Jacksonville, the St. Augustine Lighthouse on Vox. I see at the bottom that this article is by WJCT's Adapt publication, which is cool.

Some choice quotes on the challenges at hand:

But even where there's the political will to clean up contamination, bolster infrastructure, or build homes that are resilient to storms, the cost is often seen as prohibitive by leaders and residents alike.

He said Hurricane Irma opened many eyes. Still, it can be difficult to convince residents to move out of the floodplain, as two buyback programs are incentivizing. Proposals to invest in infrastructural improvements will be costly and take time to mobilize both residents and local city leaders around. It's even more difficult without effective communication with the Black community, which Cohen said had historically been an "afterthought" among local leaders.

Allen Moore, a Duval Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor, said the disproportionate effects in poor communities can partially be blamed on poor environmental regulation enforcement and also leaders' unwillingness to address residents' concerns.

"They don't have the political clout or connections to really force the politicians' hands," he said.

[jaxlongtimer]

I stumbled across this in the Guardian today. Nice to see Jacksonville making the (international!) news for positive reasons. Of course, there is nothing positive about the fact that they have to do this work in the first place - but it's great to see a story about people working hard to bring about change.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/jacksonville-florida-climate-environmental-groups-racial-disparities

The most recent example in the news of this issue is the odors from the turpentine, etc. factory by Gateway mall.  It mainly gets in the news when the odors stretch into Riverside and Murray Hill but it's not uncommon to smell them regularly on I-95 in that area.  Not easy explaining to out of towners coming into the City from the airport!    Politicos would never tolerate this in more upscale neighborhoods.

[acme54321]

I stumbled across this in the Guardian today. Nice to see Jacksonville making the (international!) news for positive reasons. Of course, there is nothing positive about the fact that they have to do this work in the first place - but it's great to see a story about people working hard to bring about change.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/jacksonville-florida-climate-environmental-groups-racial-disparities

The most recent example in the news of this issue is the odors from the turpentine, etc. factory by Gateway mall.  It mainly gets in the news when the odors stretch into Riverside and Murray Hill but it's not uncommon to smell them regularly on I-95 in that area.  Not easy explaining to out of towners coming into the City from the airport!    Politicos would never tolerate this in more upscale neighborhoods.

The Avondale/Riverside/Murray Hill stink is believed to be coming from IFF on Lane Ave.  Same thing though.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ That's what I was referring too.

I remember that plant putting out odors when I was a kid long, long ago.  Nothing has changed and I am not sure what they can do to fix it.  The irony is, at least at one time, some of their byproducts were/are used in perfumes.

It's like getting Maxwell House to totally eliminate their occasional coffee smells.  Their advantage is most people seem to like that smell  .

[thelakelander]

If people think the IFF smell is bad, try walking down one of the residential streets that are adjacent to JEA's Buckman sewage plant. I took pictures for an upcoming Color of Law article and presentation. I got a headache after about being out there for 10 minutes. I can't imagine this is healthy for the people this plant was built on top of in the 1960s.






Here's a few pictures of the plant in Norwood...

[Adam White]

I cannot imagine having to live like that. I remember when I was in the sixth grade (1983) and our school (Susie Tolbert) had no air conditioning and sometimes the stench from the pulp mills - or something else, I assumed it was the pulp mills - was overpowering. I'd be sitting in class and literally trying not to vomit. It wasn't always like that, of course. But when it was bad, it could be really, really bad.

[thelakelander]

I remember that stench. It still blankets the Northside neighborhoods at times. I assume the stench at Tolbert was likely the plant shown above.

[Peter Griffin]

The rank chemical odors come from IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances) at 2051 Lane Ave N, and also from Symrise at 601 Crestwood St. They both produce the same types of products, use the same raw material, and blanket their respective areas with similar odors. I've noticed them for years, and personally driven out to survey the area and confirmed both of them as the sources based on wind patterns.

I've submitted numerous complaints to the EPB and contacted Councilwoman DeFoor, but these places have been around for nearly 100 years and neither of them are held accountable despite dozens, if not hundreds of complaints logged every year.

[fieldafm]

Welcome to the Jacksonville in which I grew up in. 

Depending on the day, you would be sucking down the smells from either the Alton paper mill, the Glidco/Renessenz/Symrise chemical plant or the Buckman sewage treatment plant.  Tommy Hazouri will forever be held in high esteem as he established an ordinance for air pollution that had significant teeth, and relied on citizen complaints (as clearly the factories weren't going to complain about themselves).

https://www.metrojacksonville.com/mobile/article/2015-oct-5-reasons-for-jacksonvilles-smell

Unfortunately, changes made to the local ordinance 5 years ago, along with changes made by the Trump administration, have allowed these factories to begin pumping out more of the noxious gasses used in their manufacturing process. 

[Peter Griffin]

I know about the JEPB Rule 5 being nullified, but what Trump admin policies are you talking about?

[Adam White]

I remember that stench. It still blankets the Northside neighborhoods at times. I assume the stench at Tolbert was likely the plant shown above.

That's very likely. I just looked at the map and can see that the school is right between IFF and Symrise. And not too far west of the sewage plant. So it's kind of got odour-producers on three sides.

It was hard enough trying to learn in that environment, but I at least had the opportunity to get bused back to the suburbs at in the afternoon. I cannot imagine having to live in that. And we can only wonder what the long-term health effects are.

[fieldafm]

I know about the JEPB Rule 5 being nullified, but what Trump admin policies are you talking about?

In addition to simply cutting staff, which thereby severely impacts the agency's ability to effectively manage enforcement case loads (a hallmark of the Trump administration in general). The sheer number of enforcement actions have tumbled fallen off a cliff when the Obama and Trump administrations are compared.

From a more meat and potatoes- policy perspective, here are two changes that have had an effect locally:

A reinterpretation of Section 112 related to MACT standards, greatly impacts chemical factories such as Symrise:

https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/reclassification-major-sources-area-sources-under-section-112-clean

In regards to a facility like the Buckman plant, this rule was supposed to be put in place to reduce pollutants from publicy-owned sewage treatment plants... based on the EPA's study of toxic emissions from wastewater and sewage treatment facilities. How we treat sewage, specifically via secondary treatment processes, has changed rapidly over the past two decades. These recommendations were supposed to have curbed air pollutant emissions based on a better understanding of how process changes effected emissions. Trump just simply decided to not enact the newer standards. On the flip side, sewage treatment plants produce methane... and there are about a half dozen major changes to methane rules enacted under the Trump administration (but that's a larger issue that doesn't narrowly zero in on Jacksonville's biggest air polluters)

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-10-26/pdf/2017-23067.pdf


The EPA has serious issues. Some of their rulings can sometimes defy common sense, and there are times when you can easily butt heads with some, stubborn, ideological-driven bureaucrats when dealing with even the simplest of remediation cases. Quite frankly, giving the EPA too much power is not great.  But, stripping it down to the bones is the exact opposite of a solution.  The EPA is a good public servant on the whole. While sometimes they can go over the top (which was particularly true during the Obama administration), a world without the EPA would be catastrophic.

[Peter Griffin]

Thanks for clarifying.

"a world without the EPA would be catastrophic"

Well, we DO have China currently spewing away to such an extreme degree that parts of Russia, South Korea and Japan are blanketed with toxic dust every spring, but at least the EPA helps keep us safer here in the US.

[Adam White]

Thanks for clarifying.

"a world without the EPA would be catastrophic"

Well, we DO have China currently spewing away to such an extreme degree that parts of Russia, South Korea and Japan are blanketed with toxic dust every spring, but at least the EPA helps keep us safer here in the US.

The funny thing about China, though, is that for all of their emissions, they are at least trying to do something about it. They are making efforts to mitigate their emissions and are currently world leader in wind and solar energy. And they're also undertaking a massive reforestation project.