Editor: We are writing to thank The Sentinel for hosting an important dialogue at their office to discuss the controversy raging over the proposed expansion of the giant Chemical Waste Management hazardous waste landfill in Kettleman City and the county's Local Assessment Committee.

As the analysis written by The Sentinel on Dec. 4 correctly points out, the county "...did not follow the intent of the law. There are no Latinos represented on the Board and the only local resident of Kettleman City is an outspoken advocate for Chem Waste, who also has directly benefited from the company."

The Sentinel editors point out that the consultants hired by the county have ties to Chem Waste, and raise concerns that residents have not been properly informed about county meetings on this issue. We applaud The Sentinel for understanding this bias that taints an important public process reviewing the proposed dump expansion.

We appreciate The Sentinel editors for acknowledging the positive role we play in providing a "great counter-balance to those who are just looking to make a buck" and for representing the voices of community members concerned about the dump issue.

However, we do take issue with the statement that we allegedly "sat back" and supposedly failed to challenge the county on this process from the beginning. In fact, we have done everything humanly possible to support Kettleman City, Avenal and Hanford residents who have waged a tireless effort to stop the expansion of the Chem Waste dump.

Unlike Chem Waste, Kings County and their high paid consultants, we work with small non-profit public interest groups with meager budgets in very low-income communities. Yet we have for years helped residents challenge the proposed expansion of all three parts of the Chem Waste dump, the hazardous waste landfill, the toxic PCB landfill, and the garbage dump. This is no easy task and we are proud of our decades of work to educate, empower and support the residents of Kings County in this David vs Goliath fight. As you heard in the meeting, CRPE staff, at the behest of Kettleman residents, applied to be on the LAC in 2005; we were never informed why that staff member was not chosen, and had we been informed we would have put forward a different individual.

Kettleman City and Avenal residents already are exposed to too many pollution sources including the hazardous waste, PCBs and garbage dumped at Chem Waste, the largest hazardous waste landfill in the west. They are also exposed to the carcinogenic diesel pollution from the tens of thousands of trucks taking waste to the site. Unfortunately, these environmental impacts are not the only ones Kettleman residents bear: They are exposed to pesticides, additional diesel pollution from Highway 5 and Highway 41 and overall poor air quality.

Adding insult to this injury, the county has systematically excluded the Spanish-speaking and Latino residents from their rigged decision-making process regarding the dump. It is time that the county started protecting the health and democratic rights of its residents, instead of trying to help Chem Waste make millions of dollars at the expense of residents.

Bradley Angel

Greenaction

Luke Cole

Center on Race, Poverty

and the Environment

(Dec. 9, 2008)