Rogers Road
Encyclopedia
Rogers Road is a community located in Orange County, North Carolina
. It has been suggested that and believed by many local citizens to be an area with a long history of battling environmental injustice.
.
(EPA) in December 1970, the American people were becoming concerned with inflation, racial tensions, conservation
, and pollution. This new-found national interest in preserving the environment “called into question the common practice of burning household waste and disposing of waste into…waterways.” All of these national concerns were equally existent in Orange County. The issue of race was prominent in Orange High School
where many black students were accused of “carrying weapons, insulting white female students, and passing out literature” at school. The school emblem was changed from the “black panther” and ’ ‘Dixie’ ‘
was no longer allowed to be played at the school’s football games due to its racial associations.
. The mayor at the time was a man named Howard Lee
. Howard Lee was elected in 1969 and was the first African-American to be elected as mayor in a southern, mostly white area since reconstruction. In 1970, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) discussed a solution to the growing waste problem as the county’s existing landfill
s were nearing capacity more and more each day. The search for a piece of land on which to locate the new landfill began in 1971. Various sites were considered and the initial decision had been to locate the landfill in Chestnut Ridge, but at some point between June 8 and June 29, 1972, the site was dropped and changed to a site on Eubanks Road (then State Road 1727) where it still remains. Despite his plans and promises to “prevent zoning decisions from being influenced by considerations of wealth, race, or political influence”, Lee was under the pressures of time, progress, and space, making it difficult to ensure such equality.
There was a great deal of protest before the landfill was built on the Eubanks Road site by both individual citizens and community groups. One such group was the New Hope Improvement Association, an organization led by John L. Kline that consisted of roughly 500 members living in the area surrounding the proposed site. Lawyer B.B. Olive from Durham
aided the group in their struggle, and although the team failed to prevent the construction of the landfill, Olive is remembered as one of the biggest advocates against the landfill.
The County Commissioners were at a loss after losing Chestnut Ridge as an option and now facing opposition and protest from the residents living near the site on Eubanks Road. After a denial of the rezoning
of the site from “residential” to “rural industrial”, the New Hope Improvement Association was excited and tried to boost the force against the landfill’s creation on Eubanks Road by filing a legal complaint against the county, Right before this legal battle was to be fought, Mayor Howard Lee
visited the community and said: “We want to put a landfill out here. To do it, we’re going to pave your road. When the landfill is full, we’re going to turn it into a recreation center for you.” Having convinced the families that this may be beneficial, Lee singlehandedly weakened his opposition and eventually, despite the community being one that was “strongly opposed to having a landfill near them”, the unlined landfill was built on 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of land on Eubanks Road in 1972.
Having already temporarily expanded the existing landfill and ignored the people’s requests for amenities, the local town governments proceeded to go behind the backs of the citizens in the Rogers Road community and give the county both control of the landfill and 60 more acres of land for the siting of a solid waste transfer station. The families in this area had already been dealing with increased truck traffic, landfill odor, deteriorating water quality, and unwanted visits from buzzards, rats, and stray dogs searching for food in the county’s trash for many years, and feel that it is unfair to bear it any longer. The commissioners in Orange County
have responded to the uproar from the Rogers Road residents and promised to reconsider the site, but they have yet to promise to completely wipe the Eubanks Road site off the list of possibilities. Many people in the area worry about their ancestral property. The planned facility is expected to cost $4.7 million.
that leached into the ground of the surrounding area. Tests conducted in the early months of 2010 showed that only two of the eleven wells
in the Rogers Road area are supplying the area’s residents with water “within the EPA recommended limits”.
Water lines were eventually laid in the area but did not reach all the way down Rogers Road, and for many families, the hook-up fees that ran up costs of about $2,000 were out of the price range for many citizens in the area. The sewer hook-up fees were even more expensive, reaching about $3,000 per household. Despite the program set up by the county to give assistance to homeowners unable to afford these costs, many either could not afford the water bills that followed or did not fall low enough on the income bracket to be considered in need.
In February 2010, Orange County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution that is expected to plan a way to provide safe and clean water options for households located within 3000 feet (914.4 m) of the landfill. If the plan comes to fruition, possible solutions include fixing and replacing existing wells or give the residents access to the county’s public water supply by extending the lines. The residents seem hopeful that the government will choose to extend the water supply rather than simply repair the wells.
Contaminants have been found in tests done on some of the wells in the area around the Orange County Regional Landfill. Vinyl Chloride
, tetrachloroethylene
,dichloroethene, and benzene
are all chemicals that could cause health problems in high doses. The concentration of vinyl chloride was found to be 16 mg/l when the regulations state the acceptable range to be 0.002 mg/l-0.015 mg/l. Dichlorethene also exceeds the standards, found at a concentration of 232 mg/l when the accepted level falls at 70 mg/l. Additionally, the benzene was discovered to exist at a level of 7 mg/l when it should not be any greater than 1 mg/l. The health effects of these chemicals are said to be dangerous if long-term exposure occurs. Lack of data to prove that the chemicals have affected the health is what maintains the rift between the beliefs of the citizens and those of the local government.
A huge problem with the legislation is that Rogers Road has only some parts within city limits but other parts are transition areas between Carrboro
and Chapel Hill
known as “extraterritorial planning jurisdiction.” This has allowed for a great deal of neglect as no one wants to take responsibility for the area that is not within the drawn city lines.
In December 2006, the town of Chapel Hill
began developing the Rogers Road Small Area Plan. This plan is designed to provide a “more detailed look at the impacts of providing public services in the area, especially the extension of sanitary sewer, and the impacts of developing an affordable housing site.” It also serves as an outlet to analyze “desirable land uses and revision to the land use plan water and sewer extension plan, roadway network, bicycle and pedestrian facilities plan, transit service plan, zoning ordinance and map amendment.” This plan affects the Greene Tract, an area containing Chapel Hill
, Carrboro
, and other parts of Orange County
. Many residents fear the loss of ancestral property in relation to this plan as well.
Related government action has started to be taken to aid communities like the Rogers-Eubanks Community. In September 2007, Senator Hillary Clinton
introduced a bill titled the Environmental Justice Renewal Act. Despite the efforts to aid poverty-struck areas, some advocates, like African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA)
president Norris McDonald, feel that bills like the EJRA are insufficient and just strategic political moves to gain votes.
The idea that this was an instance of racial discrimination really started to flourish in the first decade of the 21st century. In Oct 2007, Reverend Robert Campbell, “one of the town's leading activists for environmental justice in the Rogers Road community” filed a complaint with the EPA in reference to the Rogers-Eubanks Community claiming that county officials had “violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
” and the regulations set by the EPA that prohibited discrimination. The mention of the lengthy history of such behavior, groundwater contamination, and the lack of sewer and water lines were also discussed.
Reverend Campbell’s complaint that he filed “with the Department of Justice about the siting of the transfer station” is not agreed upon by local government officials. The county’s commissioner Barry Jacobs said that the decision was in no way a matter of racial or socioeconomic discrimination and that he is “thinking about” considering other sites. Having gained a great deal of national attention, the Rogers-Eubanks community coalition ensure that it became an issue in the 2007 elections, hoping that incoming politicians will see it as an issue needing repair.
Reverend Robert Campbell was invited to the “Obama Administration
’s green energy table” and went in hopes of gaining a commitment for federal stimulus money to improve the water and air quality of his neighborhood. He traveled to the White House and spoke to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the issues facing the Rogers-Eubanks Community. Hoping to influence policy change, discuss a national campaign for reducing, reusing, and recycling, and the suggest the expansion of testing and forming infrastructure, Rev. Campbell had great hopes for the meeting after the great response to the grant he had submitted to the EPA. The Reverend feels that if money were available, the issues of air, sewage, and water could be dealt with properly.
to locate a new waste transfer center in their community. The second is to restore just health and safety in the areas surrounding the Orange County Landfill. The third part of their mission is to make heard the concerns of local residents, and to provide them with healthy and safe water.
The group was brought together through grass roots efforts, yet in the two and a half years since it was founded, many other organizations have taken an interest to the cause. Some of these include the Chapel Hill/Carrboro branch of the NAACP, the Women’s league of Peace and Freedom and the students and faculty of the University of North Carolina
. Like almost any other environmental justice movement, the involvement of outside groups is likely to continue to be a huge aid in the fight for the Rogers-Eubanks Community against Orange County and its new waste transfer station.
In the September 24, 2007 issue of the Daily Tar Heel, a resident of the Rogers-Eubanks community was quoted saying, “Most of us feel we're not being heard,” and that they, “just aren't getting a strong feel that what we're saying is going to make a difference.” However that Thursday, more than 40 residents and members of CEER attended the Assembly of Government meeting, where it is usually policy to not let representatives speak. However at this meeting, Neloa Jones was given the floor and allowed to make a speech about the promises that had been broken for the past thirthy-five years. During her heartfelt speech, Jones was quoted saying, “I don't know if people understand what it's like to live beside a landfill for 35 years." This statement brings a lot into perspective, reminding outsiders that the garbage is not just an inconvenience; it is a huge detriment to the quality of life of members of the Rogers Road community.
"I guess all that noise we've been making, somebody listened," said the Rev. Robert Campbell on Saturday November 14, in reference to his invitation to the White House
. He had a chance to discuss the environmental and physical health of his community with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Reverend was invited because he is one of the co-founders / co-chairs of CEER, is a prominent figure in the environmental justice movement and is president of the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association. He says the main issue with his community is lack of funding, and his goal is to get more funding so more positive steps can be taken to clean up the Rogers-Eubanks community.
However despite the recent change to these positive events, the water quality of the poor neighborhoods in the Rogers Road community is as bad as ever. According to a recent water and ground test, 9 of the 11 wells servicing the community are contaminated and do not meet EPA standards. For over thirty-five years the citizens have been fighting the filth put into their community, and it appears that their struggle is not over yet.
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
. It has been suggested that and believed by many local citizens to be an area with a long history of battling environmental injustice.
History
Since the mid-19th century, the Rogers-Eubanks Community has been home to many African-American families. A great deal of the black-owned family farmland in this area has been passed down throughout the generations. Rogers Road was originally a wagon-track in the late 19th century, and Eubanks Road contained a small school founded by a former slave. The school provided an education for the neighborhood's black children in a time when they had no such opportunities. In current times, the Rogers-Eubanks Community has maintained its rich culture despite being the host to mainly low-income households. The social bonds among the families that formed their roots over 100 years ago have been crucial to the ability of the residents to battle the county and achieve environmental equalityEnvironmental justice
Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...
.
Orange County’s growing problem
From 1939 to 1979, many new families moved into this historically small neighborhood, buying houses and land and establishing themselves in the area surrounding Rogers Road. Just like most of Orange County at the time, the Rogers-Eubanks Community was moving away from being a small group of tightly-knit families and moving toward rapid expansion. Aside from changing the nature of the community, there was one other problem that the county was not well-prepared to solve: garbage. More people equals more garbage, but in the 1970s, the political scene was active and a lot of change was beginning to happen. Along with the formation of the United States Environmental Protection AgencyUnited States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) in December 1970, the American people were becoming concerned with inflation, racial tensions, conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
, and pollution. This new-found national interest in preserving the environment “called into question the common practice of burning household waste and disposing of waste into…waterways.” All of these national concerns were equally existent in Orange County. The issue of race was prominent in Orange High School
Orange High School (North Carolina)
Orange High School is a high school in the northern area of Orange County, North Carolina.- Students and Faculty :Founded in 1963, Orange County High School educates 1009 students from the area around Hillsborough, NC....
where many black students were accused of “carrying weapons, insulting white female students, and passing out literature” at school. The school emblem was changed from the “black panther” and ’ ‘Dixie’ ‘
Dixie (song)
Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular. Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point...
was no longer allowed to be played at the school’s football games due to its racial associations.
The promises of Howard Lee and Orange County, 1970
The racially charged area was still in need of a place to put its rapidly-growing volume of refuseWaste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
. The mayor at the time was a man named Howard Lee
Howard Nathaniel Lee
Howard Nathaniel Lee is an American politician from the U.S. state of North Carolina.After earning a bachelor's degree from Fort Valley State College and a Master's in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he accepted a position at Duke University in 1966.On May 6,...
. Howard Lee was elected in 1969 and was the first African-American to be elected as mayor in a southern, mostly white area since reconstruction. In 1970, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) discussed a solution to the growing waste problem as the county’s existing landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
s were nearing capacity more and more each day. The search for a piece of land on which to locate the new landfill began in 1971. Various sites were considered and the initial decision had been to locate the landfill in Chestnut Ridge, but at some point between June 8 and June 29, 1972, the site was dropped and changed to a site on Eubanks Road (then State Road 1727) where it still remains. Despite his plans and promises to “prevent zoning decisions from being influenced by considerations of wealth, race, or political influence”, Lee was under the pressures of time, progress, and space, making it difficult to ensure such equality.
There was a great deal of protest before the landfill was built on the Eubanks Road site by both individual citizens and community groups. One such group was the New Hope Improvement Association, an organization led by John L. Kline that consisted of roughly 500 members living in the area surrounding the proposed site. Lawyer B.B. Olive from Durham
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
aided the group in their struggle, and although the team failed to prevent the construction of the landfill, Olive is remembered as one of the biggest advocates against the landfill.
The County Commissioners were at a loss after losing Chestnut Ridge as an option and now facing opposition and protest from the residents living near the site on Eubanks Road. After a denial of the rezoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
of the site from “residential” to “rural industrial”, the New Hope Improvement Association was excited and tried to boost the force against the landfill’s creation on Eubanks Road by filing a legal complaint against the county, Right before this legal battle was to be fought, Mayor Howard Lee
Howard Nathaniel Lee
Howard Nathaniel Lee is an American politician from the U.S. state of North Carolina.After earning a bachelor's degree from Fort Valley State College and a Master's in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he accepted a position at Duke University in 1966.On May 6,...
visited the community and said: “We want to put a landfill out here. To do it, we’re going to pave your road. When the landfill is full, we’re going to turn it into a recreation center for you.” Having convinced the families that this may be beneficial, Lee singlehandedly weakened his opposition and eventually, despite the community being one that was “strongly opposed to having a landfill near them”, the unlined landfill was built on 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of land on Eubanks Road in 1972.
Widening the divide
In late 1980s, the county announced that there would be an expansion of the landfill rather than the promised shutdown and recreational facilities. David Caldwell, Judy Nunn Snipes, and B.B. Olive led a new activist group in the 90s in response to the proposed actions and demanded a shutdown of the landfill and compensation for having hosted the facility for the promised number of years. The county had known almost a decade earlier in the late 70s that the need to expand would be an issue in future years. Once the citizens were informed, there was internal debate among citizens and officials within the county. Many arguments of the injustice were made, and the residents of the Rogers Road coalition believed that the areas creating the waste were not the ones hosting the facilities for that waste, a fact that they hoped would change.What now?
Many of the black residents felt as though they had been completely neglected by the government and betrayed and fooled by their mayor, the person who was supposed to be their advocate, not their enemy. One of the main reasons the dump hadn’t been located in Chestnut Ridge was to avoid creating dangers for the children who attended a nearby year-round camp, yet so many families in the Rogers-Eubanks community feel that their neighborhood is family-oriented aside from the landfill and that their children’s health is being negatively affected. Upon hearing that the government was planning on placing a new facility in the same area, the citizens were outraged. In March 2006, the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Board officially recommended the Eubanks Road site as the location of the new solid waste transfer station.Having already temporarily expanded the existing landfill and ignored the people’s requests for amenities, the local town governments proceeded to go behind the backs of the citizens in the Rogers Road community and give the county both control of the landfill and 60 more acres of land for the siting of a solid waste transfer station. The families in this area had already been dealing with increased truck traffic, landfill odor, deteriorating water quality, and unwanted visits from buzzards, rats, and stray dogs searching for food in the county’s trash for many years, and feel that it is unfair to bear it any longer. The commissioners in Orange County
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
have responded to the uproar from the Rogers Road residents and promised to reconsider the site, but they have yet to promise to completely wipe the Eubanks Road site off the list of possibilities. Many people in the area worry about their ancestral property. The planned facility is expected to cost $4.7 million.
Water shortage
The landfill, although modern for the time, was not constructed in a way that kept the area safe from the toxins and wasteToxic waste
Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It spreads quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste”, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment.Toxic waste...
that leached into the ground of the surrounding area. Tests conducted in the early months of 2010 showed that only two of the eleven wells
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
in the Rogers Road area are supplying the area’s residents with water “within the EPA recommended limits”.
Water lines were eventually laid in the area but did not reach all the way down Rogers Road, and for many families, the hook-up fees that ran up costs of about $2,000 were out of the price range for many citizens in the area. The sewer hook-up fees were even more expensive, reaching about $3,000 per household. Despite the program set up by the county to give assistance to homeowners unable to afford these costs, many either could not afford the water bills that followed or did not fall low enough on the income bracket to be considered in need.
In February 2010, Orange County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution that is expected to plan a way to provide safe and clean water options for households located within 3000 feet (914.4 m) of the landfill. If the plan comes to fruition, possible solutions include fixing and replacing existing wells or give the residents access to the county’s public water supply by extending the lines. The residents seem hopeful that the government will choose to extend the water supply rather than simply repair the wells.
Possible health hazards
People in the neighborhood have questioned the safety of the water since shortly after the landfill was first built in the 70s. Many noticed their loved ones coming down with cancer among other sicknesses and a change of the color of the water in which their families drank, cooked with, and bathed in. The government denied any allegations from the start that it was a result of the landfill and as a result felt no obligation to give them the amenities which they lacked.Contaminants have been found in tests done on some of the wells in the area around the Orange County Regional Landfill. Vinyl Chloride
Vinyl chloride
Vinyl chloride is the organochloride with the formula H2C:CHCl. It is also called vinyl chloride monomer, VCM or chloroethene. This colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride . At ambient pressure and temperature, vinyl chloride...
, tetrachloroethylene
Tetrachloroethylene
Tetrachloroethylene, also known under its systematic name tetrachloroethene and many other names, is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2. It is a colourless liquid widely used for dry cleaning of fabrics, hence it is sometimes called "dry-cleaning fluid." It has a sweet odor detectable by...
,dichloroethene, and benzene
Benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....
are all chemicals that could cause health problems in high doses. The concentration of vinyl chloride was found to be 16 mg/l when the regulations state the acceptable range to be 0.002 mg/l-0.015 mg/l. Dichlorethene also exceeds the standards, found at a concentration of 232 mg/l when the accepted level falls at 70 mg/l. Additionally, the benzene was discovered to exist at a level of 7 mg/l when it should not be any greater than 1 mg/l. The health effects of these chemicals are said to be dangerous if long-term exposure occurs. Lack of data to prove that the chemicals have affected the health is what maintains the rift between the beliefs of the citizens and those of the local government.
Government involvement
The government has been trying to make amends in recent years, but many residents of the area see these changes as superficial attempts at “patching” the problem and not really fixing the source of all of the issues that the area faces.A huge problem with the legislation is that Rogers Road has only some parts within city limits but other parts are transition areas between Carrboro
Carrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro is a town in Orange County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 19,582 at the 2010 census. The town, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical area, was named after North Carolina industrialist Julian Shakespeare Carr.Located near Chapel Hill and...
and Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
known as “extraterritorial planning jurisdiction.” This has allowed for a great deal of neglect as no one wants to take responsibility for the area that is not within the drawn city lines.
In December 2006, the town of Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
began developing the Rogers Road Small Area Plan. This plan is designed to provide a “more detailed look at the impacts of providing public services in the area, especially the extension of sanitary sewer, and the impacts of developing an affordable housing site.” It also serves as an outlet to analyze “desirable land uses and revision to the land use plan water and sewer extension plan, roadway network, bicycle and pedestrian facilities plan, transit service plan, zoning ordinance and map amendment.” This plan affects the Greene Tract, an area containing Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
, Carrboro
Carrboro, North Carolina
Carrboro is a town in Orange County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 19,582 at the 2010 census. The town, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan statistical area, was named after North Carolina industrialist Julian Shakespeare Carr.Located near Chapel Hill and...
, and other parts of Orange County
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
. Many residents fear the loss of ancestral property in relation to this plan as well.
Related government action has started to be taken to aid communities like the Rogers-Eubanks Community. In September 2007, Senator Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
introduced a bill titled the Environmental Justice Renewal Act. Despite the efforts to aid poverty-struck areas, some advocates, like African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA)
African American Environmentalist Association
The Center for Environment, Commerce and Energy is a private, public interest group focusing on environmental issues. Its stated aims include protecting the environment, enhancing human, animal and plant ecologies, promoting the efficient use of natural resources and increasing participation in...
president Norris McDonald, feel that bills like the EJRA are insufficient and just strategic political moves to gain votes.
The idea that this was an instance of racial discrimination really started to flourish in the first decade of the 21st century. In Oct 2007, Reverend Robert Campbell, “one of the town's leading activists for environmental justice in the Rogers Road community” filed a complaint with the EPA in reference to the Rogers-Eubanks Community claiming that county officials had “violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
” and the regulations set by the EPA that prohibited discrimination. The mention of the lengthy history of such behavior, groundwater contamination, and the lack of sewer and water lines were also discussed.
Reverend Campbell’s complaint that he filed “with the Department of Justice about the siting of the transfer station” is not agreed upon by local government officials. The county’s commissioner Barry Jacobs said that the decision was in no way a matter of racial or socioeconomic discrimination and that he is “thinking about” considering other sites. Having gained a great deal of national attention, the Rogers-Eubanks community coalition ensure that it became an issue in the 2007 elections, hoping that incoming politicians will see it as an issue needing repair.
Reverend Robert Campbell was invited to the “Obama Administration
Presidency of Barack Obama
The Presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20, 2009 when he became the 44th President of the United States. Obama was a United States Senator from Illinois at the time of his victory over Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election...
’s green energy table” and went in hopes of gaining a commitment for federal stimulus money to improve the water and air quality of his neighborhood. He traveled to the White House and spoke to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the issues facing the Rogers-Eubanks Community. Hoping to influence policy change, discuss a national campaign for reducing, reusing, and recycling, and the suggest the expansion of testing and forming infrastructure, Rev. Campbell had great hopes for the meeting after the great response to the grant he had submitted to the EPA. The Reverend feels that if money were available, the issues of air, sewage, and water could be dealt with properly.
Rogers-Eubanks “Coalition to End Environmental Racism” (CEER)
Founded in 2007, the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism, often abbreviated as CEER, has a three part mission. The first part is to undo the recent decision of Orange CountyOrange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
to locate a new waste transfer center in their community. The second is to restore just health and safety in the areas surrounding the Orange County Landfill. The third part of their mission is to make heard the concerns of local residents, and to provide them with healthy and safe water.
The group was brought together through grass roots efforts, yet in the two and a half years since it was founded, many other organizations have taken an interest to the cause. Some of these include the Chapel Hill/Carrboro branch of the NAACP, the Women’s league of Peace and Freedom and the students and faculty of the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
. Like almost any other environmental justice movement, the involvement of outside groups is likely to continue to be a huge aid in the fight for the Rogers-Eubanks Community against Orange County and its new waste transfer station.
Ineffective to influential?
On September 20, 2007, this mission was very clearly laid out in a memorandum from the Solid Waste Director to the County manager over a span of approximately fourteen months. After five meetings, the Rogers-Eubanks community had twenty-six points on their “Wish List for Enhancement”. These points are quite varied but not the least bit unreasonable, such as finding an alternate site for the Waste Transfer Station, provide municipal water for those who did not get it the first time, reduce the odor surrounding us, and ‘’stop’’ dividing Rover-Eubanks as a community.In the September 24, 2007 issue of the Daily Tar Heel, a resident of the Rogers-Eubanks community was quoted saying, “Most of us feel we're not being heard,” and that they, “just aren't getting a strong feel that what we're saying is going to make a difference.” However that Thursday, more than 40 residents and members of CEER attended the Assembly of Government meeting, where it is usually policy to not let representatives speak. However at this meeting, Neloa Jones was given the floor and allowed to make a speech about the promises that had been broken for the past thirthy-five years. During her heartfelt speech, Jones was quoted saying, “I don't know if people understand what it's like to live beside a landfill for 35 years." This statement brings a lot into perspective, reminding outsiders that the garbage is not just an inconvenience; it is a huge detriment to the quality of life of members of the Rogers Road community.
"I guess all that noise we've been making, somebody listened," said the Rev. Robert Campbell on Saturday November 14, in reference to his invitation to the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. He had a chance to discuss the environmental and physical health of his community with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Reverend was invited because he is one of the co-founders / co-chairs of CEER, is a prominent figure in the environmental justice movement and is president of the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association. He says the main issue with his community is lack of funding, and his goal is to get more funding so more positive steps can be taken to clean up the Rogers-Eubanks community.
However despite the recent change to these positive events, the water quality of the poor neighborhoods in the Rogers Road community is as bad as ever. According to a recent water and ground test, 9 of the 11 wells servicing the community are contaminated and do not meet EPA standards. For over thirty-five years the citizens have been fighting the filth put into their community, and it appears that their struggle is not over yet.
Coalition officers & committee chairs
- Neloa Jones – Co-Chair
- Rev. Robert Campbell – Co-Chair
- Jack Sanders – Strategic Planning Committee Chair
- Stan Cheren – Communications Chair
- Barbara Hopkins – Secretary