Groups say pollution violates human rights
Aug. 13, 2011 Written by James Bruggers

Environmental Justice Fair Chickasaw Park, Louisville Saturday, Aug. 13 COURIER-JOURNAL PHOTO: Michele Roberts, of the Advocates for Environmental Human Rights in Washington, DC, addressed the group at Chickasaw Park. COURIER-JOURNAL PHOTO: Eboni Cochran, of Rubbertown Emergency Action in Louisville, a co-sponsor of the event, also spoke. COURIER-JOURNAL PHOTO: Attica Scott, of KY Jobs for Justice, was a third speaker at Chickasaw Park.

Saying they are still being exposed to unhealthy emissions from western Louisville businesses, environmental advocates on Saturday announced they were taking their case to an international human rights panel. At an environmental justice fair at Chickasaw Park, Michele Roberts, a policy coordinator for the group Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, said her group will file a legal brief with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the Organization of American States. The commission, she said, could potentially bring pressure on local, state and federal regulators to do more to protect western Louisville residents from toxic chemicals. It will argue that residents are being denied basic human rights such as health and "the privacy of one's home." "The chemicals are taking over their homes," she said of plant emissions. "It's another avenue," said Eboni Cochran, a board member of Rubbertown Emergency Action, a co-sponsor of Saturday's fair, which draw about 70 people to an afternoon workshop. "We can no longer just focus on the city. They are slow to move." Lauren Anderson, director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, which enforces the Clean Air Act and local air-quality regulations in Louisville, did not return telephone messages left on her cell phoneat her home on Saturday. She and other city officials have previously said the city has responded to the environmental health concerns of people who live near the Rubbertown complex of chemical plants. An air-monitoring study in 2003 revealed unhealthy levels of 18 chemicals, and the city responded with its Strategic Toxic Air Reduction program in 2005. Continued air monitoring has shown a decline in the emissions of chemicals regulated under the STAR program. Cochran said any reductions are good, but pollution and odors from the plants continue to get into surrounding neighborhoods, and plants continue to have spills and other incidents. Cochran said organizers, which included the Carl Braden Memorial Center, sought to attract residents from across the city. Bob Bush of Germantown said he came because of "the unfairness of locating the industries close to the people. He said the event offered bridge-building opportunities between some of the city's African-American residents with some of the city's white residents, and he called that "a good step." The fair also included information and action on the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has concluded is ineffective in controlling an estimated 80,000 chemicals in commerce. Some participants wrote letters to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urging his support for a reform bill called the Safe Chemical Act. "So many people really don't know how many toxins there are," said Keith Brooks, a board member of the Carl Braden Memorial Center, which also was a sponsor of the fair. Reporter James Bruggers can be reached at (502) 582-4645.

.