In an effort to aid communities overburdened by pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a total of $1.9 million in environmental justice grants to be shared between between 76 nonprofit organizations and local governments nationwide.

The grants, which are part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s initiative to expand the conversation on environmental justice, will be used to design programs that educate neighborhoods on how to address environmental challenges and improve health and the environment at a local level, particularly in minority, low-income or indigenous communities.

“Providing training to develop a skilled green workforce will help communities become more resilient in the face of economic and environmental changes and help build healthy and sustainable communities,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

Applicants were encouraged to address the disproportionate effects of climate change on underprivileged communities by considering initiatives that would focus on climate equity, energy efficiency, renewable energy, local green economy and creating green jobs.

Some of the grants will go toward providing training for local residents on recycling, avoiding heat stroke, improving air quality, reducing carbon emissions and green jobs training. For example, one grantee, Groundwork Somerville in Somerville, Massachusetts, will conduct a 20-week campaign encouraging residents to replace incandescent light bulbs with more energy efficient florescent light bulbs.

Recently, the EPA also awarded the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department $145,176 to monitor drinking water. The money will help the agency police underground injection wells in the state.

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Somerville Journal

More than 50 adults and several children showed up for the walking tour of the proposed Community Path Extension on Saturday, Sept. 25.

Joining the tour were state Rep. Denise Provost and Somerville school board members Paul Bockelman and Mark Niedergang. Community Path organizers explained to the dozens joining them that the path may not become a reality if it does not get built as part of the Green Line Project, since the two projects need to share infrastructure and the heavy machinery that comes with it.

This 2.5-mile gritty urban adventure was led Joel Bennett, Alan Moore and Lynn Weissman, who are founding members of the Friends of the Community Path. The Friends group is working to ensure that the Community Path extension gets designed and built to run along four of the seven new stations of the Green Line extension, from the path’s current end at Cedar Street in Somerville to Lechmere/North Point in Cambridge. If built, the Community Path extension will run near six Somerville public schools and two public libraries, creating safe, clean and quiet routes to school and to the Green Line. The Community Path is the missing link that can connect the 13-mile Minuteman Trail all the way from Bedford to the 17 miles of Charles River paths through Boston, Watertown and Waltham.

With the likely delay of the Green Line extension beyond the legal 2014 deadline, MassDOT will be required to propose an “interim offset project” to be in place Dec. 31, 2014, that will provide air quality benefits equal to those that would have been achieved were the Green Line Extension completed on time. The Friends and other transportation and environmental groups are urging MassDOT to complete the Community Path as an interim offset project, including full funding for design, construction and completion of the Community Path in Somerville to Lechmere/NorthPoint in Cambridge.

For more information about the Friends of the Community Path, visit http://pathfriends.org/scp.

Copyright 2010 Somerville Journal. Some rights reserved

On Chelsea Creek, city should pursue jobs amid conservation

October 4, 2010

WHEN THE City of Boston chooses between protecting open space and promoting economic development, one gauge should be whether the property has unique features that make it especially suitable for job creation. On that score, the Boston Redevelopment Authority should proceed with its plan to locate green-energy industries on the former Hess oil-tank property in East Boston, one of the city’s few sizable portside sites with direct access to deep water. The alternative is to convert the 7-acre site on Chelsea Creek into a wetland and migratory bird habitat.

That plan, backed by the Chelsea Creek Action Group and other conservation organizations, envisions a freshwater pond and wetland near the Condor Street end of the property and a salt marsh on the creek side. It is an appealing proposal, if only to balance the environmental justice scale that has been tipped so unfairly against East Boston and Chelsea neighbors of the salt piles, oil tanks, and other polluting facilities on the creek.

But those neighborhoods — and the area as a whole — could use some economic justice as well, in the form of decent-paying industrial jobs. That is the goal of the BRA. By law, any industry using the site would have to be “water-dependent,’’ but that could include a range of renewable energy firms, including the builders of wind turbine blades that are so large they have to be transported by barge.

The site is so degraded that either proposal would require extensive and costly preparation work. The Chelsea Creek group is applying for funds from a $6.1 million pollution settlement paid by ExxonMobil after its Everett terminal spilled more than 15,000 gallons of fuel into the Mystic and Island End rivers. The group’s plan envisions a boardwalk leading to a salt marsh overlook.

The BRA also would give residents access to the water’s edge along a portion of the site via a wide pathway. Meanwhile, a couple hundred yards to the east, the city has already created a small waterfront park, the Condor Street Urban Wild, with meadow grass and salt-marsh vegetation. Its high point offers a view from the Mystic River bridge to the new Chelsea Street drawbridge under construction. Slowly but surely, the community is winning back Chelsea Creek from industries that have polluted both air and water. The BRA’s plan for the Hess site is a compromise that combines access to the creek with a potential future home for green manufacturing jobs.

Experience one of Boston’s premier events, the Charles Regatta, while helping your community!
The Carrot Project has been invited to serve breakfast sandwiches in exchange for the proceeds to help expand our Microloan Fund for New England Farmers.

Volunteers are needed from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm. on October 22nd, 23rd, and 24th to help with various operations of the booth, including T-shirt sales, Food Sales, and a raffle.  Shifts will be approximately 3 hours in length, depending on volunteer availability.

Sponsoring companies are: Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs and Barowsky’s Organic Bakery

Details:
The Big Organic Breakfast Bar will be located in the high traffic Food Court of the Rowing & Fitness Expo. We will serve juice, breakfast sandwiches, yogurt and coffee. 100% of the ingredients will be certified organic.
Two chefs will be responsible for food preparation and food service operations.

If interested, please contact rdave@thecarrotproject.org by October 7th.

About the Carrot Project

By working with farmers to realize their dreams, The Carrot Project is helping rebuild a food and agriculture system that creates opportunities for smaller farmers, provides healthful, locally produced food for citizens, and is good for the environment, as well as local and regional economies.

We create, test, and operate financing programs that support profitable, sustainable farm businesses that are unable to find financing. We do this by: 1) partnering and leveraging the assets of community-based lenders, socially responsible investors, farm support organizations, and farmers; 2) learning and leading by example; and 3) sharing our work and experiences with others.

Check out our sister organization in Springfield, MA on TV.

Environmental learning day

Updated: Wednesday, 22 Sep 2010, 3:16 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 17 Sep 2010, 3:18 PM EDT

• Nate Luscombe

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (Mass Appeal) – Getting students outside can be harder than it might seem, with the allure of video games and movies. But one local organization is not only getting kids outside, but teaching them about the environment at the same time.

Groundwork Springfield is part of a national network of Groundwork USA and their mission is to bring about the sustained regeneration of our environment and to teach local stewardship of our parks and our green spaces to our young people and all other members of the Springfield community.

Patricia Moss, Project Manager from Groundwork Springfield is with us, along with Setta McCabe and Anand Gilberta Rivera, who are both members of the steering committee and all are here to tell us more about Groundwork Springfield.

They have weekly meetings with our young people at the Springfield Central Library, every Thursday at 3:00. They hold community forums, workshops and information at different locations that are connected with their partners such as Springfield Technical Community College. They also work with Springfield Parks and the Recreation Department and meet at their locations as well.

I think it’s important because when our youth goes to the park and if the park is dirty — and I know because I’ve been there. The kids immediately ask me, why is the park so dirty? Or why is the grass not green? And this and that. And why are we playing here? So, that’s why I hooked up with Groundwork, not only through the parks department, but as a volunteer. I want to make sure that the parks that we do go play in are nice and clean and the grass is green, etc.

There is a program called The More Kids In The Woods program and its purpose is to give children an opportunity to go out and explore our natural environment and learn about our natural habitats and species of plants and animals that are there in order for them to take that information to their peers.

The More Kids In The Woods grant was an alliance grant with Groundwork Lawrence and Groundwork Somerville. We’ll be hosting Lawrence and Somerville to teach our kids about the history of Somerville and the species of plants and animals there and the opportunity to have some fun in the outdoors.

The workshops that we provide for our young people helps to build their self-esteem, teaches them public speaking and also teaches them to own their neighborhoods, their community and be responsible for their environment.

Reshaping Somerville: The fight against childhood obesity

September 24, 2010

Seventeen percent of American kids are obese. Not a little chubby, but actually obese. Doctors define obesity in children as being in the 95th percentile or above the recommended Body Mass Index rate for their age.

Beyond the physical problems, there’s a strain on the health care system. Childhood obesity costs $3 billion a year. And many American cities are also unhealthy by design: The infrastructure we’ve built keeps us in our cars longer and discourages us from walking or biking.

But that is starting to change in places like Somerville, Massachusetts, where an innovative anti-obesity program is making real progress. In cooperation with our colleagues at Blueprint America, medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay traveled to Somerville, just outside Boston, to see how the program works.