Community Development Institute
MOTOROLA
"White" Paper
October 1993
Extract
September 12, 2022
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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A YEAR INSIDE THE MOTOROLA MESS
SINNERS AND VICTIMS WARRIORS AND REGULATORS
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Letter to the City of Phoenix
Community and Economic Development Department
December 1, 2021
Good morning Courtney,
- Please advise as to how we may facilitate access for the Centzonmilpan Community Gardening Program at the lots under Aviation Department control at 1305-1307 Buckeye.
- 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 the protocols for having the Sixth Sun Stone Monument at Barrios Unidos Park recognized as such in the mapping of 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.
President Joe Biden Issues Five New Initiatives at the White House Tribal Nations Summit
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
Toxic groundwater lies beneath Phoenix, and a cleanup has been delayed for years
YouTube:
Barrio Garfield Mural Project
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