Indianapolis neighborhood fights toxins

Action grew out of dialogue; growing list of partners involved

by Julie Fanselow

April 21, 2008 | | Indianapolis, Indiana

What began as a few people talking in a church-based dialogue has grown into a widening campaign for environmental justice in Indiana. The last two Saturdays of this month, the Martindale-Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative (EJC) will mark Earth Day with two mini-environmental conferences to help residents learn about ongoing toxic hazards in the community.

Martindale-Brightwood is a neighborhood in central Indianapolis with about 10,000 residents, most of them African American. As reported last year on our website, Scott United Methodist Church became a center of environmental justice activism when its minister, the Rev. Ray Wilkins, learned through an environmental analysis that a nearby business had improperly disposed of trichloroethylene, a toxic chemical that had possibly seeped into subsurface water flowing beneath the church property. The issue was discussed in a study circle, and participants went on to form the environmental group.

Now – as the “Voice to Action” conferences are held April 19 and April 26 – the EJC is working with a growing list of partners to raise awareness of the continuing toxic threats in their neighborhood. For example, the Indiana Black Expo and Marion County Health Department will be at the conference to test children for lead poisoning in a neighborhood where contaminated toys from China may be the least of parents’ worries.

Conference volunteers will videotape oral history interviews from current and former residents of the neighborhood. Many will have stories of health problems traced to decades of underground chemical dumping, and of children playing amid this toxic waste. Others may have recollections of a spectacular 1970 fire at the local National Lead plant that spread smoke, film, and smelt debris into local yards.

Neighborhood activists also partnered with a local organization called Improving Kids’ Environment to apply for a CARE (Community Action for a Renewed Environment) grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The neighborhood could get up to $300,000 to continue remediation efforts for properties affected by toxins. In fact, much remains to be done. The EPA signed National Lead to consent agreement to replace the soil at about 250 properties in the area, but many residents found the work unsatisfactory. The EJC led a correspondence campaign to convince the EPA to relax their remediation timetable and extend warranties for the work.

The collaborative teamed with graduate students from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to do a full lead contamination assessment and illegal dumping study. “They chose this project because it shows how not-for-profits work toward social change,” Greg Lindsey, associate dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, told the Indianapolis Recorder, adding that the students are also making a meaningful contribution toward the clean-up efforts.

Wilkins notes that while the EJC’s early meetings tended to draw activists from beyond the neighborhood, Martindale-Brightwood residents are becoming more involved. More than 80 people have taken part in the collaborative, and between 30 and 40 attend its monthly meetings. The collaborative is currently building new partnerships with the local NAACP and Sierra Club, and future plans call for a possible statewide conference on environmental injustice.

Patrice Duckett, a program assistant with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections program in Indianapolis, has helped the EJC frame and communicate its message. She agrees with Wilkins that neighborhood residents – who earlier were reluctant to speak about environmental injustice – are increasingly willing to engage on the issue. “It’s amazing that this came out of a study circles of people who wanted to know more,” she adds.

For more information: Click here to read a recent story about the Martindale-Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative in the  Indianapolis Recorder newspaper.

Learn more: Growth and Sprawl