This week on “The Climate Divide,” how one D.C. neighborhood is striving towards environmental justice
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The season finale of “The Climate Divide” reports on the controversy surrounding a chemical plant in Ivy City that’s been operating without an air quality permit for nearly a century. Then we discuss a D.C. council bill that seeks to change planning and development in neighborhoods like Ivy City that have been historically overburdened by pollution.
National Engineering Products Inc. manufactures high-pressure sealants and has been operating without air permits on a residential street in Ivy City since the 1930s. Residents have long expressed health concerns in relation to the plant and may finally see regulatory action if air quality testing currently underway corroborates the community’s concerns.
This episode features an interview with Sebrena Rhodes, an Ivy City resident and activist who’s been leading a campaign to shut down the plant.
“Every time I go past it, I want to throw up, it just makes me sick to my stomach,” Rhodes says of odors wafting from the plant.
In November, Councilmember Zachary Parker introduced the Environmental Justice Amendment Act, which would, among other things, require the Department of Energy and Environment to use a tool developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify overburdened neighborhoods and create an Environmental Justice Division within the Department.
In today’s season two podcast finale, we also discuss how this bill could hold companies like National Engineering Products accountable.
“When that factory would go up for a permit renewal, they would have to take into account their cumulative impact on the Ivy City community where we know there are other pollutants, we know there are heat island effects and a host of other factors contributing to environmental safety concerns,” Councilmember Parker says.
About “The Climate Divide”
In the second season of “The Climate Divide,” we will explore what communities have been overburdened by hazards like pollution and flooding and how this disparity came to be. During a time when both the national and D.C. governments are emphasizing environmental issues, this podcast will focus on the people most affected by these policies, who’ve voiced their concerns and advocated for greater environmental justice.
“The Climate Divide” is hosted, produced and edited by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe. Claudia Peralta Torres provides additional editing and sound mixing support. Christine MacDonald is the series editor and executive director of Hola Cultura. Members of the Society and Culture team, part of Hola Cultura’s Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning, also contribute to this podcast. “The Climate Divide” is supported by Spotlight DC and the Pulitzer Center.
– Story by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe
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