Kelly AFB EJ Complaints Files

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMPLAINTS FILED AT KELLY AFB

According to the San Antonio Express-News (May 5, 1999), two
organizations representing the Latino neighbors of Kelly Air Force Base,
in San Antonio, Texas, have file civil rights complaints with the
Defense Department, U.S. EPA, and the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. The Committee for Environmental Justice Action and the
Southwest Public Workers' Union charge, in the complaints, that area
"residents are being denied substantive input" into cleanup and reuse
decisions at the base. They want the federal government to suspend all
support for the local reuse authority and the state regulatory agency
"until the discriminatory conduct of these entities is adequately
addressed."

The president of the Environmental Justice Committee said, "We feel that
the actions of these agencies have a disproportionately negative effect
on residents living near Kelly AFB, 96 percent of which are Latino." The
Express-News reports further, "The groups want the Air Force to clean up
Kelly pollution within six years instead of the projected 30 years and
to actively clean a plume of poisoned groundwater that lies under
thousands of homes up to three miles from the base.... So far the Air
Force has implemented plans to clean up on-base pollution and stop the
off-base migration but has revealed no plans for off-base cleanup."

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Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
(PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE PHASING OUT
MY OLD E-MAIL ADDRESS: lsiegel@igc.org)
http://www.cpeo.org