MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release: April 26, 2012

Committee For A Better Arvin, Sal Partida 661-854-7000

Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, Gustavo Aguirre 661-667-0136

Global Community Monitor, Jessica Hendricks 707-980-3816

Arvin Bucket Brigade Strikes Again:

New Air Monitoring Data Confirms Chemical Cocktail from Troubled Facility

A mix of potentially harmful chemicals found off site of Community Recycling and Resource Recovery heeds community concerns

Arvin, CA -- Another air sample taken by the Arvin Bucket Brigade shows a unique mix of chemicals in the air near Community Recycling and Resource Recovery.  The sample results continue to raise community concerns over the potential health threats associated with an elevated chemical presence. Unlike the first sample taken in the Arvin area, eight of the chemicals detected were volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), including a known carcinogen- acrylonitrile, at a level that can pose serious health impacts if associated with chronic exposure.

“We’re not going to let Community Recycling continue poisoning our air like this” claimed Sal Partida.  “We’ve been putting a lot of pressure on Community Recycling to clean up, so they wait until late Friday night, when they think we’re not watching, to spew out toxic chemicals into our air.”

According to Mark Chernaik, Ph.D., an independent environmental health expert retained to review the sample results, the results revealed ten chemicals present in the air, including one known carcinogen- acrylonitrile, at a level that can pose serious health impacts if associated with chronic exposure.   The elevated levels of two sulfur compounds (dimethyl disulfide and carbon disulfide) might be associated with the microbial degradation of sewage and sewage sludge, which have elevated sulfur levels, at the Community Recycling facility.

Jessica Hendricks from Global Community Monitor said “The presence of a high level of a known carcinogen, acrylonitrile, in the air downwind of Community Recycling is a serious concern.  This chemical is used in the manufacture of plastics and raises some important questions as to what types of materials the facility is accepting.”

At 10PM, Friday night, March 30, 2012, community residents were patrolling the Arvin area when they were overtaken by a strong, pungent chemical odor emitting from Community Recycling.  Members of the Arvin Bucket Brigade, a citizen air monitoring project, were able to capture an air sample to test what is in the air that they are breathing.  Nausea, headaches and burning of the nose were all reported by residents during the sampling.  Samplers could see workers at Community Recycling moving compost piles within the facility and documented strong rotten egg and acrid odors.

“We are concerned about what is really going on at Community Recycling and believe that the responsible agencies are not doing their job to protect the health and safety of workers or residents,” said Gustavo Aguirre from the Center for Race, Poverty and The Environment.

The first sample taken last December by the group detected significant levels of Hydrogen Sulfide, the same chemical linked to the death of two workers at the facility.   Since the deaths of two young workers at Community Recycling, The Committee for A Better Arvin and The Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment have been putting constant pressure on the County Judge to implement the revocation of Community Recycling’s operating permit, something that has been held up in court appeals for months. Members of these groups have been trained by GCM to use the Bucket Brigade to prove that the recycling facility is overburdening the community with toxic pollution.

The independent air testing program, known as the “Bucket Brigade,” empowers pollution-affected residents to take scientifically credible samples using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved methods and laboratories.  The Committee for a Better Arvin has been spearheading the Bucket Brigade efforts in hopes of shutting down the toxic recycling center, a clear victory in the fight for clean air, healthy communities and Environmental Justice.  For more information see: http://gcmonitor.org/section.php?id=259

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