In August of 2007, after a twenty-year decade of continuous pressure on government agencies and decision-makers, YUCA youth and community members shut down Romic, a negligent hazardous waste facility in our community. This historic victory came after twenty years of consistent grassroots education, outreach, and community organizing that resulted in pressure on agencies to cite Romic for workplace, health and safety violations, adopt sweeping state and local environmental justice principles, and strengthen local environmental justice protections for the City of East Palo Alto. The negative effects on the community were evident given that Romic's pollution was a contributing factor to East Palo Alto residents having the highest asthma and cancer rates in San Mateo County, as noted in YUCA’s 2004 health survey. The survey gave us disturbing results, revealing that 1 in 32 people who live in our community suffer from cancer. African American women suffer from the highest rates. While the San Mateo County average for African American women who have cancer is .34%, in East Palo Alto, it’s 5.4%. That means 1 in 18 African American women in our community suffer from cancer. In addition, among youth ages 13 – 21, we found that 1 in 4 in this age group suffers from asthma. Now the community can breathe and live better because of this victory! After 43 years of pollution, contamination, and health and safety violations, Romic is closing down.

In the next few years, efforts by federal, state, and local government officials around the Romic facility and land will turn to remediation, clean-up, and redetermining land use. Years of government neglect and runaway corporate actions left the land underneath Romic extremely contaminated with toxic substances including arsenic, chromium, pesticides, herbicides, and chlorinated solvents. At the same time, the City of East Palo Alto’s planning policies – especially in the Ravenswood Business District area where Romic is located – fashioned itself

around Romic and is a result of years of racist and classist policies that shaped our city to be Silicon Valley’s toxic dumping ground. Already, the clean-up process implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is experimental, which only reinforces the idea that communities of color are where trial and error first occurs, and lacks in community oversight. The closure process being implemented by the Department of Toxic Substances Control worries community residents as decontamination procedures begin the takedown of Romic. Both processes are being closely monitored by YUCA youth. Most worrisome is the land use direction of the city. Romic vacating 14 acres of what used to be heavy industrial land use presents an opportunity for the City, developers who are eyeing the land for profit, and a community that is waiting to determine for ourselves what is best for our future. With the lens that our health and environment must be top priority in determining any future land uses for the area, YUCA youth are strategically positioned to mobilize community residents to help share the vision of our city now – and do so conscientiously and intentionally. For years, YUCA youth have fought for accountability on the part of local and state decision-makers for the health and environment of our community. In particular, youth have made significant gains to hold Romic accountable to environmental and health concerns of the community. They have educated over 2,000 community members on Romic’s effects on the environment and our health, pushed agencies to cite Romic for two toxic fires, forced the partial shutdown of Romic for mishandling chemicals that resulted in a shelter in place, pushed the local Air District to adopt environmental justice principles, won air monitors for East Palo Alto, won a ballot measure to tax Romic 10% of their gross receipts, won support from the local East Palo Alto City Council, state and federal politicians to take a stand on environmental justice, and won a Conditional Use Permit ordinance that prevents any expansion of hazardous waste facilities. Building off the historic shutdown of Romic, the ultimate goal of the Environmental Justice Campaign is to create and support policies around land use and development that are based
on environmental justice and health principles that truly benefit our community’s most
vulnerable populations. YUCA youth are currently one of the lead organizers with the

Ravenswood Business District Coalition whose goal is to facilitate a community
process for residents to envision, transform, and build East Palo Alto into
the community that meets the needs of our families, youth, and elders,
particularly in the Ravenswood Business District area. YUCA youth are holding
community workshops, focus groups, conducting surveys, educating residents
about land use policies, compiling reports on the existing conditions of the
community, and in the next few months, will convene community meetings to
develop a vision for the area. To join our work, you can come to our Tuesday
campaign meetings at the YUCA office from 4-6 and/or check out our calendar
for upcoming events.