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BY MARY PRAGER

In print | October 25, 2007

Pollution. Racism. Blatant corruption. This is the story of the city of Chester, which was named by George Magazine as one of America’s most corrupt cities in 1998. Earthlust members are getting involved with the upcoming city council elections in Chester as a means of aiding the implementation of environmental justice. “we say we are working for environmental justice … we are working against unfair and unequal concentration of environmental hazards in specific areas,” Shandra Bernath-Plaisted ’09 said. “Environmental justice is also linked with the idea of environmental racism, that minority communities are overexposed to environmental hazard.”

According to the Energy Justice Network, environmental injustice is a major problem in Chester that has been the target site for many environmentally hazardous facilities. “The Energy Justice Network was started by Mike Ewall, and … tries to … connect communities who are fighting these kinds of facilities with other people who are doing the same work and provide a lot of resources for people … working in communities like this,” Campus and Community Organizer Antonia Daniels said.

Daniels contacted colleges in the area this summer, including Swarthmore, to gain support for two candidates running for the Chester City Council on the Independent Party ballot.

“Regardless of whether this discrimination is intended racism, it is not right … no one wants these facilites in their communites but Chester [has had] more than its fair share,” Bernath-Plaisted said.

On Monday, Oct. 22, Earthlust members had their first meeting with Delores Shelton and Francis Whittington, the two candidates for Chester City Council. During the meeting, Ewall presented information about waste management plants and toxicity in Chester, as well as the overarching political system in Chester that allows environmental racism to persist.

“Race is more correlated with distribution of toxic pollution in Delaware County than income, poverty, childhood poverty, education, job classification or home ownership,” Ewall said. Toxic pollution in Chester is responsible for the “highest percentage of low-weight births” and highest blood-lead levels among children in Pennsylvania, and it originates largely from four waste-management facilities around the residential area of Chester. According to Ewall, it is no coincidence that this pollution is prevalent in an area that is mostly black and poor.

According to data that Ewall has collected over several years, waste management plants in Chester deal with more than the waste produced by Chester residents. Of all the waste that Covanta Trash Incinerator in Chester manages, 34 percent comes from New Jersey and New York; 33 percent is from Philadelphia and 31 percent is from Delaware County. Thus, Chester residents breathe in ash from the trash from these other areas. People at the county level make sure that trash goes to Chester Ewell said.

“People are oblivious to what’s going on,” Ewell said. “If they knew it was an act of racism to throw stuff away, progressive people in this community would object and organize. Certain communities have the clout to fight them off and others don’t.” He emphazied the need for organization and fierce campaigning.

Yet, the case in Chester is not hopeless. “There have been more victories in Chester than in anywhere else I can think of,” Ewell said, referring to the various power plants and facilities shut down by the county in response to community activism.

Ewell is the primary link between Earthlust and the candidates, Delores Shelton and Francis Whittington, who oppose the environmental racism all around them. “You see where we live … what’s happening to us, you see that we’re losing our children and family daily, because of environmental racism,” Shelton said.

Having grown up in Chester, Shelton witnessed its descent from industrial boomtown to destitute neighborhood following the “white flight.” She is particularly interested in alleviating the high unemployment rate and poor school systems, but also recognizes that there isn’t much fight left.

“We need some volunteers who will help us on election day to get elected. We’re here tonight to ask young people, with strong legs and active minds, to come out and work, or I should say volunteer, at the polls for us,” Shelton said at the meeting on Monday. “You also have a stake in this. It’s not just for Chester, it’s for all of us.”

According to Shelton, Chester became a dumping ground for waste management plants. "They would never have put a waste, management plant where there is money, Shelton said.

Originally intending to run on the Democratic ticket, Shelton and Whittington said they were excluded from the ballot due to an error that Shelton suspects was not accidental. For the Nov. 6 election, two others are running under the Independent banner, four Republicans are running under the Republican banner and three Republicans are running as Democratic candidates in addition to one Democrat, Rosetta Carter. The Republican party took Shelton and Whittington to court to get them off the ballot, but the two are staying firm.

“As late as it is today, they’re still fighting to get us off the ballot. Because they know that we’re just about the right thing,” Shelton said.

Earthlust is firmly behind Shelton and Whittington in their bid in running for City Council. “We’re putting together a big list of people who are going to help in the four, five days before Nov. 6 and on the day,” Heber said. “We’ll send people out to help them canvas neighborhoods and just inform people that four out of five candidates are the same on the Republican and Democratic ballot, and inform them about the Independent Party and the environmental issues.”

“Republican rule in Chester hasn’t been good for the environment,” Heber said. “It’s led to great proliferation of environmental racism, and now the Democrats are supporting that same body. The Independent Party is much more grassroots and much more the citizens’ voice.”

Also present at the meeting on Monday was Kae Kalwaic, administrative assistant in the department of educational studies at Swarthmore and co-founder of Citizen Access, a local organization that networks with and supports other progressive groups. “I thought it was good to work on broader issues which involved students and community members,” Kalwaic said.

Earthlust, a group known for its environmentalist activism, is now pushing into the realm of political activism with this initiative in Chester.

“I guess we’re political where politics affects environmental issue because there’s so much money connected to environmental issues, and money tends to be connected to politics,” Bernath-Plaisted said. Getting involved with the community, and eventually working to educate people in Chester about environmental and political issues, is one of Earthlust’s long-term goals, according to Heber. “To me, Earthlust’s priority as soon as this campaign is done should be education because people don’t know what’s going on both in Chester and in all of Delaware County. I think a lot of it is hush-hush and covered up, and [people] don’t know the kind of chemicals that are being released,” Heber said.

“Whether Delores and Francis are elected to office or not, these are still issues that students at Swat and in the neighboring community should be aware of, and should be doing something about. It’s not just about Chester, it’s about everyone, and it affects us all in different ways,” Daniels said.

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