Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301170147
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ACTIVISTS GIVE VIEWS ON ISSUES
Environmental activists from throughout Western Virginia held a summit in Roanoke on Saturday to discuss common concerns and share strategies.Most of the 50 or so participants were not professional organizers, but ordinary citizens motivated by specific environmental threats to their communities.
Their concerns ranged from a fuel plant that would recycle chemicals in Floyd County to a high-voltage power line that would cut through the mountains of Craig County. From a truck depot that stored hazardous waste in Martinsville to a cement plant that would burn toxic waste in Botetourt County.
Chris Barlow, who helped found the Blue Ridge Environmental Network, called the daylong workshop a significant step in the evolution of Virginia's environmental movement.
What once was isolated groups fighting lonely battles is becoming a formal network of activists sharing information and inspiration, Barlow said.
"This would not have happened two years ago," he said.
The organizers - Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste and Total Action Against Poverty - also hoped the workshop would open a dialogue between environmentalists and low-income neighborhoods.
"Ideally, we'll empower the community with awareness," said Martin Jeffrey, TAP's director of community development and outreach.
Cynthia Smith, a CCHW worker from Atlanta, said that corporations often resort to "environmental racism" when it comes to building unwanted industries such as toxic dumps and waste incinerators.
Smith said that corporations believe that poor, minority communities will offer little resistence. In 1987, Smith led a successful fight against plans for an incinerator in Hancock County, Ga.
"Pollution doesn't know segregation - it kills everybody," she said.