East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice

After the south coast air quality management district (scaqmd) abandoned a rail indirect source rule (isr) in summer 2023, community members from East los angeles to long beach, along with our partners from the inland empire, showed up in person and virtually to voice our opposition. The alternative would mean a memorandum of understanding, a handshake agreement that would not result in equal enforceability as an isr. In november 2023, scaqmd announced they would make the switch back and continue on the path of pursuing an isr. Rail community were successful in pushing and vocalizing the need for an enforceable regulation for the health of their residents.in 2023, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice's (eycej) three-year research project with usc and occidental college released final soil sampling results of exide impacted homes that have been cleaned up by the state and homes beyond the current cleanup area that may be impacted by exide. Data showed over 75% of "cleaned" homes we sampled still have elevated levels of lead, and over 93% of homes we sampled beyond the current cleanup boundary have elevated levels of lead. Along with our research making the cover of the la times, our gtlo community meeting brought together over 100 community members to generate ideas for public agency accountability and community action. Our continued advocacy led to exposing issues with the current cleanup contractors and inadequate department of toxic substance control (dtsc) oversight that moved the state to rescind the bid for the next cleanup contract, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and initiate a process engaging us on re-planning the specs of the future cleanup contract to ensure community oversight, worker safety, and the cleanup our Communities deserve. This resulted in the removal of nec and sf&s contractors, an agreement to contract an independent 3rd party monitor, retrain cleanup workers and train new community cleanup workers, and create stricter oversight of the local hire commitments.eycej members alongside partners, were able to push for and successfully pass rent control and stronger just cause protections for maywood tenants! And eycej was able to support cudahy tenants to elevate their strong voices to also pass rent control! Community also worked on and completed a sleepy lagoon mural project in the city of maywood in collaboration with eastside of the river.