TONATIERRA
Community
Development Institute
MOTOROLA
"White"
Paper
October
1993
Extract
September
12, 2022
DOWNLOAD PDF
The Historical Context- Phoenix
The area now known as Maricopa County
encompasses the traditional lands of the various O’otham indigenous nations,
the original inhabitants. Prior to European intrusion, these communities had
developed highly productive desert agricultural techniques. This area forms part of a vast bioregion that
includes the Sonoran Desert, which is known by anthropologists as La Gran Chichimeca, a reference that reflects the indigenous cultural and
historical ties to the Nahuatl civilizations of Central Mexico. The O'odham
Nations of Arizona form part of a language family called Uto-Aztecan which
extends from Montana in the U.S. to El Salvador in Central America. Another indigenous
geographic term for this area in the Azteca or Mexican tradition is Aztlan
or Huehuetlapallan (the Ancient Red Lands). With the arrival of the
Spaniards, many of these communities were displaced and forcefully converted to
Christianity, undermining the original cultures' spiritual respect and
connection to the earth. The area later became known as Arizona and came under
U.S. control under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) after the war between the U.S. and Mexico.
In this harsh desert climate,
irrigated farming has always been a primary means of survival for the local
economy. Commercial agriculture in Arizona relies heavily on Native American or
indigenous Mexican migrant labor, many of whom resettled and populated the
Valley of the Sun over the last 100 years. In 1977, the Maricopa County
Organizing Project (MCOP) was established to assist central Arizona farm
workers in their struggles for just wages, against discrimination, and for an
end to pesticide misuse. In 1993 TONATIERRA
was founded to take the lead in defense of the indigenous rights of Native
peoples in the Phoenix area.
Antigua Residencia de los Aztecas
The last 50 years has seen Phoenix
become a major urban center, placing an increased demand on the area's limited
water supply. Until the early 1980's some of the area's underground aquifers
were used as potable sources of water and others were preserved for times of
drought. To this day many residents in
and round the Phoenix area use private wells as their water source. The concerns expressed in this report revolve
in large part around these issues.
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Environmental Racism
A 1987 study estimated that more than
15 million of the nation's 26 million African Americans and over 8 million of
the nation's 15 million Chicano/Latinos live in communities with one or more
uncontrolled toxic waste sites. The United Church of Christ's 1987 Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, the document which first impacted on the
issue of environmental racism, also concluded that:
"Communities with the
greatest number of commercial hazardous waste facilities had the highest
composition of racial and ethnic residents.”
The study further stated that
"[r]ace proved to be the most significant among variables tested in
association with the location of commercial hazardous waste facilities. "
Similar patterns have been documented
in areas such as the placement of waste incinerators, gasoline tank farms,
landfills, sewage treatment plants, airports, and factories. A recent
Government Accounting Office (GAO) report confirmed these allegations, adding
toxic dumps, prisons, and industrial complexes that emit toxics into the
environment to the list. In fact, in 1984 a consulting firm advised the
California Waste Management Board that it would meet less community resistance
it targeted low-income rather than middle-class neighborhoods for the siting of
such facilities.
Other studies such as the one recently
issued by the National Law Journal demonstrate disparate enforcement patterns
and weak support for communities of color within the federal Environmental
Protection Agency. The National Law Journal investigation in fact documented
the discriminatory practices of the Environmental Protection Agency in its
treatment of ethnic and racial communities. The report concluded that race was the
most significant factor which determined the type and extent of clean-up
efforts chosen by the EPA of Superfund sites. Efforts typically selected in
these communities were toward containment (preventing the spread of the contamination)
rather than clean-up (removing the contamination and its source), as opposed to
the efforts in white communities in which a greater percentage of the time the
efforts were aimed at cleaning up the site. The study also concluded that
polluters in predominantly white neighborhoods were fined much more heavily
across the board for violations.
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CASE STUDY: MOTOROLA'S MOHAVE PLANT
Photo taken September 20, 2022
For some 15 years Motorola also
operated a lead plating, precious metals reclamation, and cyanide and acid
waste treatment plant on Mohave Street in the old Golden Gate Barrio
area of Phoenix. The Golden Gate is no more, having been relocated to make room
for the expansion of the Sky Harbor Airport and commercial development
(a common practice in many cities is to zone neighborhoods of color for
commercial use, and then move the residents out, with or without their
willingness through the doctrine of eminent domain). Although the barrio was
relocated, the Motorola installation was not.
Now operated by Handy and Harmon, Inc. (October 1993), a company that lists 1992 assets of
$290,307,713, the facility still stands at 2113 E. Mohave.
Records obtained from the Phoenix Fire
Department document a fire at the Handy and Harman facility in 1991 which
resulted in the venting of unknown amounts of hazardous materials into the
atmosphere.
A major concern focuses on allegations
that while under Motorola administration, this plant employed a large
percentage of Mexicana/Chicana women of childbearing age who may have been
exposed to high levels of toxic chemicals under very hazardous working
conditions, and that these women may not have been fully or adequately informed
of the dangers of the chemicals to which they were being exposed.
The concern is magnified by a documented pattern of death and disease that
follows the electronics industry workers internationally, especially in the
semiconductor sector, and that some of these illnesses take many years for
symptoms to appear. Because of the high incidence of migrant women suspected to
have been employed at this particular site, it appears that the workers in the
electronics industry may have become the "new farm workers"
subjected to similar working conditions in terms of health hazards, non-union
labor, economic extortion, and discrimination.
In 1993 the 2113 E. Mohave facility
was the subject of a "preliminary assessment" submitted by the
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to the EPA for consideration under
the federal CERCLA Superfund Site regulations. At the time the site was located
within the state equivalent of a Superfund, the East Washington Water
Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF) site, directly above one plume of
contaminated groundwater.
The East Washington WQARF consisted of
approximately 24 square miles, the boundaries being McDowell Road on the north,
48th Street on the East, Lower Buckeye on the South, and 7th Avenue on the
west. It is now known that the plume from the Motorola 52nd Street federal
Superfund site, located directly east of the East Washington WQARF project
area, has merged with the East Washington WQARF.
At least six plumes of groundwater contamination from volatile organic
compounds (VOC's) including TCE, perchloroethylene and 1,1,1-trichlorethane,
1,1-dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride were identified within the E.
Washington WQARF site, which now extends westward to 83rd Avenue, in a plume
approximately 30 miles long and up to five miles wide in some areas.
In May of 1992 ADEQ formally requested
a response from Motorola to a questionnaire regarding hazardous wastes
generated by the 2113 E Mohave plant. The response from Motorola is notable for
the information that is not supplied, particularly for the process of "Degreasing."
It is the degreasing process that has come under the most severe criticism in
all the electronics industry for being the source of the cancer-causing
chemical contamination of groundwater.
Trichloroethylene (TCE), which breaks down into the carcinogen vinyl
chloride, was used for many years as a degreasing agent. Other volatile organic
compounds such as those found polluting the groundwater of the East Washington
site are degreasing agents developed by the chemical industry as substitutes
for TCE.
Of the eleven federal superfund sites
in Arizona, 8 are non-military and of these the 52nd street site in Phoenix and
the North Indian Bend Wash site in Scottsdale identify Motorola the primary
responsible party. The North Indian Bend Wash site was given Superfund status
in 1982.
However, it wasn't until May of 1992
that the ADEQ began an "assessment" of the hazardous waste dangers
that the Chicano Barrio of Golden Gate may have been exposed to. There
are still unanswered questions, such as what the composition and quantity of
hazardous emissions by Motorola were during its 15 years in Golden Gate, or
what the health risks the community there may have been exposed to. Testimony
received from the remaining Nuestro Barrio community suggests that many of the
workers in the Mohave plant were from the area.
Further, a baseline study for a Tucson
Superfund site (Hughes/South Tucson) was a Chicano/Mexicano community in
Phoenix "south and west of the airport. " This study was allegedly
"flawed" because the study group in Phoenix tested out with more
illnesses than the Tucson Superfund population.
In a 1982 letter to the regional
administrator for the EPA regarding the plant on Mohave, a baseline report from
Motorola on the electroplating discharges into the city sewer states:
"Owner/Operator's
Environmental Manager, who executes below, certifies that the pretreatment standards
in 40 cfr part 413 have not been met on a consistent basis."
On October 29,1982 a company called
Met-Tech, Inc. purchased the Mohave plant. Effective with the sale, Wayne R.
Pearson and Barry Johnson changed from the status of employees of Motorola,
Inc., to employees of Met-Tech, Inc. Mr.
Pearson was a Vice president of Motorola prior to the sale, and a
Vice-President of Met-Tech after the sale. Mr. Barry Johnson assumed the
position of Environmental Manager for the site effective with the sale. An
additional concern is whether this corporate shuffle delayed the accountability
of Motorola for ten years at the expense of Phoenix's water supply and a
Chicano barrio that has since been uprooted and scattered to the winds.
The little that can be extracted from
Motorola's response to the May 1992 ADEQ questionnaire reveals that for 15
years Motorola operated what they described as a "lead frame plating,
precious metals reclamation, manufacture of de-ionized water, acid waste
disposal, and cyanide waste" plant on Mohave Street in the Nuestro
Barrio area of Phoenix. This plant
allegedly employed a predominantly Chicana/Mexicana workforce, women of
childbearing age, many of them single mothers in working conditions that have
been described as a "horror story.
"This
plant generated, treated, and stored hazardous materials and waste. The plant apparently had at least three
1000-gallon underground tanks, one of which was used to store an unspecified
acid, one to store an unspecified caustic substance, and the third to hold oil. The plant also had at least four above
ground tanks, none of which contents are clear- a 600-gallon tank, a 500,000
gallon/day tank, a 250,000 gallon/day tank, and a 275-gallon tank. Throughout
its 15-year existence, Motorola reports only two toxic spills at the facility.
One was a mineral spill from a transformer of between 500 and 800 gallons
which, according to Motorola, occurred on March 25, 1981. The second spill
involved 1000 lbs. of sodium hydroxide which apparently occurred on May 11,
1982.”
Some of the known chemicals that were used,
generated, and/or stored at this facility, in unknown quantities, were:
Arsenic, Potassium Cyanide, Nickel Chloride, Copper Cyanide, Nickel Carbonate,
Copper, Nickel, Selenium, Lead, Sulfamic Acid, Nitric Acid, Boric Acid,
Phosphoric Acid, Hydrochloric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide,
Ammonium Hydroxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Soda Ash, Chloroethane "VG"
(active ingredient in 1,1,1- trichloroethane), Sodium Hydrosulfite, Sodium
Hydroxide, Hydrogen Peroxide, Zinc, Sodium Metanitro, and Benzoic Acid. These
chemicals are known to cause serious health effects in humans and have shown to
cause severe adverse health effects in laboratory animals. Lead, Nickel,
Copper, Selenium, and 1,1,1-Trichloroethane, the active ingredient in
Chloroethane "VG" are Developmental Toxicants, chemicals which can
cause an embryo or fetus to die (miscarriages) of to make mistakes as it
develops (birth defects). Selenium, Lead, Nickel, Copper, and
1,1,1-Trichloroethane are Reproductive Toxicants, chemicals which can harm the
ability for men and women to reproduce (have children). Nickel is a known
Carcinogen, a chemical which can cause cancer in humans and/or laboratory
animals. Hydrochloric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, and Nitric Acid are Acute Toxicants,
chemicals which can cause death from even short exposures by breathing,
swallowing, or touching relatively small amounts.
Nickel, Hydrochloric Acid, and
Sulfuric Acid are Chronic Toxicants, chemicals which can cause long term damage
other than cancer, for example, liver or kidney disease. Lead is a known
Neurotoxicant, a chemical which can harm the nervous system by affecting the
brain, or spinal cord, or nerves. Sulfuric Acid, Zinc, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane,
Copper, Nickel, Sodium
Hydroxide, and Selenium are also
Environmental Toxicants, chemicals which can harm wildlife when released to the
water or onto the land. 1,1,1-Trichloroethane is a Persistent Chemical, a
chemical which does not break down easily in the environment and thus becomes a
long-term problem in special environments such as groundwater.
The absence of a particular chemical
from any of the above categories does not necessarily mean that this chemical
does not cause that effect; it could simply mean that it has not been tested or
that these effects have not been reported.
Remediation efforts for Phoenix
groundwater have focused on the so-called pump-and-treat method which has
proven to be completely inadequate in addressing the issue of contaminated
groundwater. These efforts have instead resulted in the discovery of traces of
vinyl chloride as far north as Thomas Road and 42nd Street (approximately 3-5
miles north and west of the 52nd Street facility). The increased criticism and
exposure of these facts has resulted in industry-wide efforts to avoid
environmental protections demanded by informed communities.
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Phoenix New Times
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Letter to the City of Phoenix
Community and Economic Development Department
December 1, 2021
Good morning Courtney,
Following up on our meeting last week,
- Please add the community contacts of Kita Mijares and Lisa Lugo as direct links for the Task Force advisory group to the Land Reuse Strategy (LRS) for the area.
- Please advise on how to communicate to the corresponding departments of the City of Phoenix regarding the ancestral indigenous cultural corridor and trade route which is exemplified in present tense by the community collaboration at Barrios Unidos Park and the annual Miccailhuitl Barrio Run (Dia de los Muertos) which connects the Nahuacalli, Embassy of Indigenous Peoples at 802 N. 7th Street to the Sixth Sun Stone Monument.
- Regarding
the 743 City-owned vacant parcels in the LRS area, how does the
strategy of "accelerated" "market driven" development integrate the
criteria of the Principles of Environemtal Justice.
- In the context of the LRS, how is the City of Phoenix providing leadership in the global climate crisis within the planning and mitigation efforts to address the extremes of weather in the Valley.
- On Sunday December 12 we
will be hosting a set of community cultural activities at Barrios
Unidos Park from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm as part of the ongoing programming
for the site. Please confirm if you may be able to participate and give
an update on the issues here presented.
Thanks for your kind attention.
Tupac Enrique Acosta
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November 15, 2021
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Indigenous Knowledge Statement and Establishment of Interagency Working Group on Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
The Biden-Harris Administration issued a memorandum recognizing Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge as one of the important bodies of knowledge that contributes to the scientific, technical, social, and economic advancements of our nation. With Tribal consultation and input from knowledge holders and practitioners, the Administration will develop a guidance document for federal agencies on how the collection and application of such knowledge can be mutually beneficial to Tribes, Native communities, and federal agencies and can strengthen evidence-based analysis and informed decision-making across the federal government. An Interagency Working Group on Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge will gather input from Tribes and Native communities and prepare the guidance document for planned release in 2022.
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August 20, 2019
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