The Delco Alliance for Environmental Justice is a nonprofit organization in Delaware County, PA, dedicated to serving the environment particularly in the city of Chester. The Delco Alliance site maintains useful information, including health fact sheets, petitions to stop trash from being sent to Chester, and the blog of Desire Grover, a prominent environmental activist in Chester who also illustrates children’s books.
This video addresses environmental justice and environmental racism issues in Chester, Pennsylvania. It contains portions of the 1996 documentary “Laid to Waste” by R. Bahar & G. McCollough, which is used with permission. Educators, librarians and teachers can obtain the complete documentary “Laid to Waste” through its educational distributor at:http://www.berkeleymedia.org
According to the Delco Alliance site, 90% of all toxic chemical and criteria air pollutants released in Delaware County are from Chester area sources. Chester has the highest infant mortality rate in the state, more than double the rate for Delaware County, and the poverty rate Chester is 25%, more than 3 times the rate in Delaware County.
In addition to compiling facts about Chester, the Delco Alliance also hosts toxic tours for anybody interested in the environmental situation. The tours are conducted by residents of Chester, and go through the dump sites, such as the Liberty Gas Plant, the Exelon Coal Plant, the DELCORA sewage sludge incinerator, the Covanta trash incinerator, and of course, the Wade dump site.
The site also contains in-depth description of each of the waste sites. Although not updated since 1999, this report provides a good source for basic information on Chester’s treatment facilities: http://www.ejnet.org/chester/facilities.html
