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Frequently Asked Questions

 

Welcome to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ). Here, we address common inquiries about our mission, initiatives, and the ways we empower communities to combat environmental health threats. Whether you’re curious about how to get involved, seeking more information about environmental justice, or looking for resources to protect your community, this page provides answers to help you better understand our work and how you can take action for a healthier, more sustainable future.

Question:

We need guidance in raising funds for our lawsuit against the rezoning of the Prince William Digital Gateway in Gainesville, VA, which is planned for 37 data centers abutting my senior community of over 3,000 residents. Could someone help me prevent what we believe to be the world’s largest environmental travesty?

Answer:

CHEJ does not work with attorneys at all. What we do is help people organize to fight local issues like what you describe in your email. One way we do this is by preparing guidebooks based on the experiences of grassroots community groups. Below is a link to our guidebook called How to Deal with a Proposed Facility. Many people have described this guidebook as a cookbook because it lays out step-by-step how to stop any proposed project. There are lots of good ideas in this guidebook that should help you in your efforts.

How to Deal With a Proposed Facility – The Center for Health, Environment & Justice (chej.org)

At CHEJ, we have found that the key to dealing with any local environmental problem is always the same: engaging your neighbors in an organized effort to move the government (and/or sometimes the company) to give you what you want. It’s clearly not an easy process, but you can be successful if you involve others, and are strategic and persistent.

The most successful groups follow this 4-step process:

  1. Form a group whose primary purpose is to address the contamination/problems in your community
  2. Clearly define your goals and objectives (using an open democratic process)
  3. Identify who can give you what you want
  4. Develop strategies that target the person (s) who has the power to give you what you want

This process is described in more detail in our Organizing Handbook which is available for free on our website at the link below. We also have a general leadership/organizing guidebook which is noted in the link below as well. CHEJ can help with each of these steps.

Question:

Attorney Charlie Tebbutts recommended that I contact you regarding a protracted and unresolved volatile organic compound (VOC) and mercury contamination issue that literally is one acre away from where I live. The town is called Weatherly, located in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, which lies between Allentown and Wilkes-Barre. At issue is an unlined 16-acre site that once housed manufacturing facility. Contamination in the form of a plume is offsite. A nearby municipal well, in which contaminants are trickling into the water supply, ought to be permanently closed. Federal Mogul acquired it from their purchase of Champion in 1998. The local government later purchased the site from them in 2007, in which the borough manager had full knowledge. In 2020, the leadership constructed a building on that contaminated site.

Since October 2012, my residence has been in Weatherly. Neither the realtor nor the local government informed me of the contamination. I heard rumors of the site from residents and former factory employees. Not until I lost my pet to liver cancer in August 2016, did I start searching for answers. My research began in 2017 and ended in 2019. That included file reviews at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP). The PA DEP kept quiet about the facility and kept the residents and EPA in the dark. ACT 2, as the remediation is known in Pennsylvania, was hastily rushed so that Federal Mogul would divest their ownership of the site. By 2019, I sent EPA a book of my findings and discovery. I forced them to come into town, but they did so unannounced and with the intention of finding as little as possible and in the name of looking for exposure pathways, instead of a full-fledged cleanup. I received their test report through a third party and though the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). EPA walked away. The local government exhibits the same attitude while the residents suffer.

Answer

I did review your email and it sounds like you are facing the kind of problem that many people who have contacted us are facing. The best we can do is share with you what we have found works.

We have found that the key to dealing with a local environmental problem such as what you describe in your email is to engage your neighbors in an organized effort to address the situation. It’s not an easy process, but you can be successful if you involve others, and are strategic and persistent. The best way to do this is by organizing your neighbors into a single voice that sends a clear message of what you want. 

The most successful groups follow this 4-step process:

  1. Form a group whose primary purpose is to address the contamination/problems in your community
  2. Clearly define your goals and objectives (using an open democratic process)
  3. Identify who can give you what you want
  4. Develop strategies that target the person (s) who has the power to give you what you want

This process is described in more detail in our Organizing Handbook which is available for free on our website at the link below. We also have a general leadership/organizing guidebook which is noted in the link below as well. CHEJ can help with each of these steps.