Remembering An Envirnmental Justice Heroine
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| Dana Alston |
Dana Alston received a Bannerman Fellowship in 1992 in recognition of her leadership in the development of the environmental justice movement. The Bannerman Fellowship Program was founded in 1987 on the belief that the most effective approach to achieving progressive social change is by organizing low-income people at the grassroots level. In 2002, the Fellowship Program was renamed the Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program in honor of Dana Alston. Dana died on August 7, 1999 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
Dana was a native of New York and lived in Washington, D.C. She was in San Francisco for treatment of kidney disease and consequences of a stroke when she died. Her beloved son, Khalil Alston-Cobb, resides in Washington, D.C.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, Office of Environmental Justice hosted the Regional Environmental Conference on August 16-17, 2012. The conference was held at the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center in Atlanta, GA. The conference goals are: 
In addition to evaluatingstormwater retention, the DC Department of the Environment (DDOE) considered how the program might create orexacerbate stormwater pollution hotspots. For the purposes of this analysis,DDOE considered stormwater pollution hotspots to be parts of waterbodies withdisproportionate stormwater pollution impacts, either in terms of erosivevolumes or the pollutants in that volume. Several important points supportDDOE’s conclusion that stormwater retention credits (SRC) trading is not likely to have a net negative impact,and may have a net positive impact, in terms of hotspots. First, off-siteretention will result in the installation of more BMPs retaining stormwaterfrom developed areas that currently have little or no retention. In addition toproviding more overall retention, as discussed above, the volume retained bythese BMPs will be more heavily composed of first-flush volume. First-flushvolume is the volume that washes off a site during the beginning of arainstorm, and it tends to have higher concentrations of pollutants than thevolume washing off at later points in the storm. 
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has made Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism and Working for Environmental Justice one of EPA's top priorities. In support of this priority, EPA invites environmental justice advocates to participate on the next Environmental Justice Community Outreach Call, which will take place on Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 5 p.m. ET. 
The Pioneer Fleets of the Green Fleets of the Bluegrass Program were announced December 7 at the KCFC Winter Meeting. Each are working to improve the environmental performance of their vehicle fleets by reducing petroleum fuel use:
For the third year in a row, UPS has earned the top score in the consumer shipping sector on the annual “Climate Counts” scorecard. UPS also shared the 11th highest score across all industries alongside Sony, Nokia and AB Electrolux among 144 ranked companies.
Can you share what models you’re beginning with? 
Clean Energy will be building a public LNG/CNG refueling site in Walton, Ky. (Flying J's) as part of America’s Natural Gas Highway. They expect to complete the project this summer. The station will feature the latest state-of-the-art technology for natural gas vehicle fueling. They will initially deploy LNG at the station to service big rig heavy-duty trucks. They may add CNG to the station at any time when needed by the market.
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) will host a public teleconference meeting on Friday, September 21, 2012, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary topic of discussion will be an update from the NEJAC's Indigenous Peoples Work Group. This NEJAC public teleconference meeting is open to the public. There will be a public comment period from 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Members of the public are encouraged to provide comments relevant to the topic of the meeting. Specifically, comments should respond to how best to:
On Saturday, September 15, 2012 the citizens of Warren County, North Carolina will commemorate and celebrate their legacy as the birthplace of the environment justice movement. Thirty years ago, the state of North Carolina dumped 40,000 cubic yards of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated soil in the Afton Community of Warren County. It was thought that the mostly black, rural, and low wealth residents would not fight back. Well they did, and they were joined by people from all over the country as they marched on Raleigh, laid in front of dump trucks, and brought national attention to environmental injustice everywhere. Their actions started a movement that has spread around the world.
