ORR-Wide EJ Group Formed

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Posted for Al Brooks:

NEWS RELEASE September 10, 1999, The Oak Ridger

ORR-Wide EJ Group Formed

On Tuesday September 7, the founding committee of Oak Ridge
Environmental
Justice Committee announced OREJC's formation as an inclusive regional
organization to consider matters of environmental justice. 

The committee defines environmental justice as the lawful, fair and
moral
components of a community's surroundings including those aspects of the
social and cultural conditions that bear on the surroundings of the
community.

Under this broad definition, ORJEC plans:

1. To objectively focus the attention of the greater Oak Ridge community
on the environmental justice and related problems that exist in the
neighborhoods near the Oak Ridge Reservation.
2. To provide an inclusive, multi-ethnic forum for the discussion of
citizens' concerns in an open and constructive manner; to direct those
concerns to the appropriate agencies, and to respond to citizens'
concerns.
3. To provide a process including organizational networks by which the
considerable talent and expertise in Oak Ridge can be brought to bear on
the environmental justice problems of the community.
4. To provide community outreach and information to the citizens of the
community through an environmental education program.
5. To provide informed input to the Department of Energy, the State of
Tennessee, the City of Oak Ridge, and other agencies or governing bodies
on issues of environmental justice and related problems especially in
the area of public health.
6. To provide a community-wide interface to the Tennessee Department of
Environment and Conservation's Environmental Justice Steering Committee
on issues related to the new TDEC Environmental Justice Strategic Plan.

OREJC will hold its first full meeting at 9:00 AM on Tuesday September
21 at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conversation, 761
Emory Valley Road to consider draft bylaws and project agenda prepared
by the founding committee. The founding committee invites all interested
citizens of Oak Ridge and surrounding counties to attend the meeting and
join in the effort. More information and membership forms can be
obtained from A. A. Brooks, 100 Wiltshire Drive, Oak Ridge, TN 37830;
Phone 482 1559, E-mail brooks@icx.net or Web Page
http://user.icx.net/~brooks/orejc.html.

-- 

"The only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men 
to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Alfred A. Brooks, Jr.                    Phone: 423-482-1559 +
+ 100 Wiltshire Drive                        FAX: 423 482 1559 +
+ Oak Ridge, TN 37830-4505                          Call first +
+ Web Pages: http://user.icx.net/~brooks/                      + 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 South Illinois Avenue, Suite 208
Oak Ridge, Tennessee  37830
Phone (423) 483-1333; Fax (423) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net
VISIT OUR UPDATED WEB SITE:  http://www.local-oversight.org
==================================================