[Lwvcnmtopics] REMINDER FOR TOMORROW: LWVCNM Monthly Meeting Thursday May 9 Noon - 1pm – Environmental Justice

[Linda Miller]

(Note: The JUNE meeting will be on a different day and time than usual. Check your Voter or our website for details.)

TOPIC:  ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN BERNALILLO COUNTY
SPEAKERS:  DR. JOHNNYE LEWIS and MARLA PAINTER
Please join us tomorrow in person at 6739 Academy Rd. NE or via Zoom (invitation follows description) for our monthly Lunch & Learn Brown Bag educational meeting Thursday, May 9th, 2024, Noon - 1pm. Social gathering follows the program for in-person attendees.
An essential element of Environmental Justice (EJ) is fair treatment, meaning that “no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies,” according to the NM Environment Department.

In Fall 2023, local news media reported on a controversy involving the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board (AQCB), the Mountain View community, and polluting industries. The Mountain View Coalition and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center requested a new air quality regulation to deal with Health, Environment and Equity Impacts. The regulation would have required the Environmental Health Department to consider health and quality of life impacts when issuing air pollution permits. Opposition was voiced by local businesses, the Air Force, Sandia National Labs, and UNM. The Albuquerque City Council sided with the opponents of the regulation while the Mayor and Bernalillo County Commission supported the Board’s responsibility to evaluate the proposal. The Board passed a much-reduced process in response to cumulative exposures through mandating the use of Best Available Technologies under specific conditions. The final rule included a clause that allowed the Environmental Health Department 1 year to develop maps that geographically define “overburdened communities” in the region for use by applicants for air quality permits.

The goals of our educational meeting are to educate our members about the EJ concept and the criteria used to determine whether it exists in a particular area. We will hear about the history of efforts to draw attention to pollution in the Mountain View neighborhood. Two speakers, introduced below, will enlighten us about the issues from scientific and community activist perspectives.

·       Dr. Johnnye Lewis founded the Community Environmental Health Program at the University of New Mexico in 1996 and served as its director until her retirement in 2022. She has worked extensively on EJ issues, e.g., with Native American communities to study multigenerational risks from exposure to waste from abandoned uranium mines on and near tribal lands. She was appointed to several terms on the AQCB to represent Bernalillo County. Dr. Lewis has a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Manitoba in Canada and did postdoctoral work in toxicology at the Department of Energy Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute. She continues as co-director of the CEHP and Professor Emerita at UNM.  She has recently been invited by the National Academy of Sciences to serve on a panel reviewing The Science and Future of Cumulative Impacts Assessment.

·       Marla Painter is the president of Mountain View Community Action (MVCA), a Bernalillo County neighborhood association and member of the Mountain View Coalition. She is a lifelong educator and community activist, working primarily in low-income, underserved communities of color. She lived in northern Nevada for 24 years, serving as the Environmental Education Director, and later as Executive Director, at the Foresta Institute for Ocean and Mountain Studies. She has resided in Mountain View for over 25 years. She graduated from UC Riverside with a multi-disciplinary degree in Environmental Social Sciences and has two teaching credentials.


LWVCNM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Environmental Justice in Bernalillo County
Time: May 9, 2024 12:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89325805726?pwd=aVFYcE1jcW5NMFRQVFd2SUNENTlLQT09

Meeting ID: 893 2580 5726
Passcode: 652717

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