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Merced County Merced County SLOW DISASTER CASE STUDY ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE FALL 2020 GROUP NO. 6 AUTHORS Luca Brody, Danial Ali, Bradford Kong, Anthony Palanca, Mia Marino, Alexander Chappell, Morgan Raynal, Sydnie Shelah, Harold Tran, Jagger Brooks, Jai Maldonado, Quan Nguyen CITE AS Ali, Danial; Brody, Luca; Brooks, Jagger; Chappell, Alexander; Kong, Bradford; Maldonado, Jai; Marino, Mia; Nguyen, Quan; Palanca, Anthony; Raynal, Morgan; Shelah, Sydnie; Tran, Harold. 2020. Slow Disaster Case Study: Community. Environmental Injustice, Disaster STS Research Network. ​ ABOUT This case study report was developed by students at the University of California Irvine for the undergraduate class, “Environmental Injustice,” taught by Kim Fortun, Tim Schütz, Kaitlyn Rabach, Prerna Srigyan and Maggie Woodruff for the Department of Anthropology, Fall 2020. The University of California Irvine is on the ancestral homelands of the Tongya and Acjachemen nations. COVER PHOTO This cover image depicts the air pollution that Merced county faces. The image comes from fresnobee.com. 2 PERMISSION TO PUBLISH @ https://disaster-sts-network.org ​ Do you consent to having your name listed as an author on the published case study? Name Publish? (Y or N) 1.Luca Brody Y 2. Danial Ali Y 3. Bradford Kong Y 4. Anthony Palanca Y 5. Mia Marino Y 6.Alexander Chappell Y 7. Jai Maldonado Y 8. Sydnie Shelah Y 9. Harold Tran Y 10. Edgar Ruvalcaba Godoy Y 11. Morgan Raynal Y 12. Quan Nguyen Y 3 13. Jagger Brooks Y 4 BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT PHOTO Luca Brody: First year Undeclared student at UC Irvine. Hometown: Palo Alto, CA Jai Maldonado is currently an undeclared first year at UC Irvine. Hometown: Hollister, CA Danial Ali: Second Year undeclared student at UC Irvine looking to get into Business. Hometown: Eastvale, Ca Mia Marino is currently a first year undergraduate student, working towards a BFA in Dance and Performance at the University of California Irvine. 5 Harold Tran: Second Year recently transferred from Biological Sciences to Undeclared at UC Irvine. Hometown: La Mirada, CA Bradford Kong: Third Year math major at UC Irvine. Hometown: Torrance, CA Jagger Brooks is currently a second year mechanical engineering student, whose hometown is San Diego, California Edgar Ruvalcaba Godoy: Second Year Biological Science Major Hometown: Santa Monica, CA 6 Quan Nguyen: Second Year Mechanical Engineering Major Hometown: Anaheim, CA Sydnie Shelah: Second Year Anthropology Major Hometown: Flint, Mi Anthony Palanca: Second Year Biological Science Major Hometown: La Puente, CA 7 Morgan Raynal: Third Year, changing to International Studies Major Hometown: San Francisco, CA Alexander Chappell: First Year Environmental Engineering major Hometown: Vacaville, CA 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 10 1. COMMUNITY ASSETS & SETTING 13 2. FAST DISASTER & OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS 21 3. COMPOUND VULNERABILITIES 31 4. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS 37 5. STAKEHOLDER ACTIONS 39 6. ROLE OF MEDIA AND BIG ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 42 7.RECOMMENDED LOCAL ACTIONS 45 8. RECOMMENDED EXTRA-LOCAL ACTIONS 47 9. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 49 10. INJUSTICE ANALYSIS 54 BIBLIOGRAPHY 57 FIGURES 63 9 INTRODUCTION This case study report focuses on routine, everyday air and water pollution in Merced County We describe routine pollution as “slow disaster” because the impacts are drawn out and cumulative, causing harm slowly, increasing rates of asthma, cancer and heart disease. In many ways, slow pollution disasters are more difficult to deal with than fast, explosive disasters because people don’t pay attention to them or even think they are normal – especially in communities of color. Often, communities have to organize and fight to get their concerns about pollution heard and addressed by government officials. Often, particular people play important leadership roles. Sometimes, these people are residents impacted by a polluting facility. Sometimes, leading figures in fights for environmental justice are professionals – physicians who work in the community or engineers who work inside the polluting facilities. This case study describes many different stakeholders in routine pollution and the actions they have taken -- and not taken -- to improve environmental conditions. The report addresses a series of ten questions (Fig. 2) that draw out local details in a manner that encourages comparison with other places. The research has been done quickly (within the constraints of a quarter-long undergraduate class) so is limited to and points to the need for further research and community engagement. The goal is to help build both a body of research on environmental injustice and a network of researchers ready to help conceptualize and implement next-generation environmental protections. 10 ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE CASE STUDY FRAMEWORK 1. What is the setting of this case? What are its assets? 2. What environmental health threats (from explosions, everyday pollution, climate change, etc ) are there in this setting? 3. What intersecting factors -- social, cultural, political, technological, ecological -- contribute to environmental health vulnerability and injustice in this setting? 4. Who are stakeholders, what are their characteristics, and what are their perceptions of the problems? 5. What have different stakeholder groups done (or not done) in response to the problems in this case? 6. How have environmental problems in this setting been reported by media, environmental groups, companies and government agencies? 7. What local actions would reduce environmental vulnerability and injustice in this setting? 8. What extra-local actions (at state, national or international levels) would reduce environmental vulnerability and injustice in this setting and similar settings? 9. What kinds of data and research would be useful in efforts to characterize and address environmental threats in this setting and similar settings? 10. What, in your view, is ethically wrong or unjust in this case? FIGURE 1: This is the analytic framework that guided research for this case study. ​ 11 FIGURE 2:Kern County is an inland county in Southern California known for intensive ​ oil and gas operations. There is also considerable pollution from agricultural operations, making Bakersfield -- the county seat and largest city in Kern County -- one of the most polluted places in the United States. (Screenshots by Kim Fortun, October 17.2020) https://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/states/california/california-county-map.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_County,_California FIGURE 3: Orange County is located on Tongva and Acjachemen native lands. Neither ​ 12 tribe is federally recognized or well acknowledged in Orange County. In 2016, the University of California Irvine launched an effort to build collaborative relationships with Tongva and Acjacheman tribe members (Siddiqi 2016). The Sacred Plains Institute for Indigenous People (SPI) is an Indigenous-led, advocacy organization located in Los Angeles, also on Tongva lands. SPI has an indigeneous youth environmental justice program (SPI 2020) (Screenshots by Kim Fortun, October 17.2020). https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/tongva/ http://www.sacredplacesinstitute.org/events.html 1.COMMUNITY ASSETS & SETTING Who Is Fighting, and What Are They Fighting For? Author Name: Anthony Palanca ​ ​ This case study explores the potential of slow disaster in the county of Merced, California, a primarily agricultural region, with various agricultural corporations, from wineries and massive fruit farms to shipping warehouses for national supermarkets, forming a large fraction of the region’s top employers (Central California, 2018). The majority of the county’s population is, according to the US Census Bureau, of Latino or Hispanic descent, 13 at 61% of the roughly 277,680 total residents of the region (US Census Bureau, 2019). Of the over 277,000 residents of Merced County, about 1 in 5 live in poverty, which is roughly double the rate for the state of California as a whole (US Census Bureau, 2019). This can easily be attributed to the reduced median annual household income of the county, which is $20,000 less than the median of the state (US Census Bureau, 2018). With Merced’s demographics aside, chief amongst the culprits of a slow disaster in the county are its long standing history of exceptionally poor air quality and, in more local instances within the county’s individual cities, the contamination of groundwater drinking sources, which are being infused with a veritable cocktail of toxic chemicals. The permeation of the agricultural industry within the county’s economy is likely a factor contributing to the region’s highly polluted air, and it is without question, directly responsible for the contamination of several of its cities’ wells with pesticides. The effects of such pollutants are heavily addressed and reported on by the wide array of Merced county’s community assets, ranging from large and small scale environmental agencies, to local news outlets and Universities. The Merced county branch of the Sierra Club, one of the nationwide environmental organizations that operate within the county, have led a lawsuit against the governing body of Merced to address some of the outlying causes of the county’s poor air quality. In the 2014 case the Sierra Club v. Merced County Association of Governments, the Sierra Club challenged the governing body’s, “. refusal to comply with the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the State of California”, with their victory in the case allowing them to ensure that
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