THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010227
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Poor and minority communities must play a greater role in policies that affect them, an Environmental Protection Agency official said at an international environmental conference Thursday.
``We need to empower communities to be their own keepers of the environment,'' said Clarice E. Gaylord, director of the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice. ``The goal is to make these communities active keepers, stewards, guardians.''
Gaylord spoke at the K.E. White Graduate Center to open the three-day ``World Environmental Conference,'' cosponsored by the EPA and Elizabeth City State University.
Goals for the second annual conference include raising awareness of environmental issues, increasing minority student involvement, boosting minority businesses in environmental fields, promoting coordination among historically black colleges and other agencies, and improving technology transfer and exchange with developing countries.
Conference participants include students and faculty from several universities across the country and an international delegation including representatives from six African nations.
Developing countries and poor communities often bear the brunt of the world's environmental problems, Gaylord said, as they are commonly the receiving ground for pollution and dumps.
``It is minority and low income communities worldwide . . . who are receiving what is perceived now as unequal protection,'' Gaylord told about 150 people, more than half of them students from Elizabeth City Middle School.
Gaylord's EPA division, formed in 1992, is collecting information on health effects in neighborhoods near waste dumps and toxic sites. Her office is also developing educational materials to help residents of these communities learn their rights and responsibilities on environmental issues.
``We're trying to involve the community at the national level,'' Gaylord said. ``But at the local level, there should be opportunities for community advisory groups to get involved.''
The conference schedule includes workshops and roundtables in areas such as environmental education, the global environmental network, environmentally conscious manufacturing techniques and environmental cooperation among historically black colleges and African countries.
Scheduled participants include Thursday dinner speaker Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., former executive director of the NAACP and an organizer of the Million Man March, and Friday morning speaker Robert D. Bullard, author of ``Dumping in Dixie.''
Conference organizers brought a diversity of participants into the dialogue, said James A. McLean, director of ECSU's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
``We planned the conference to have people from as many countries as we could meet with historically black colleges,'' McLean said, adding that organizers also wanted to include domestic issues and young people.
``We've tried to invite persons who would give us that mix,'' he said. by CNB