The POC has learned much about sewage treatment, water quality and environmental justice. By researching, organizing, negotiating, advocating and even enduring arrest, our group has gained both credibility and notoriety. The Partnership’s struggle for environmental justice uncovered institutional, environmental racism.
This racism derives from a concentration of power and thrives on disempowerment and fear. In Syracuse regarding the CSO abatement projects, the “old boys” network of engineering firms and political heavyweights wield undue power. Although the Partnership could not stop the evictions or the building of the Midland sewage plant, we got design concessions: a smaller aboveground footprint, more CSO storage, a less stigmatizing location, and state-of-the-art odor control. Additionally through this struggle, the POC improved the profile of Onondaga Creek, from sewer to potential civic “jewel.”
The POC and its allies helped launch a full review of the county’s remaining CSO abatement proposals. The POC’s struggle at Midland may well lead to other neighborhoods getting a fairer shake. We will continue to hold our government accountable to its responsibility to protect communities from racism and environmental injustice.
Racism happens because we let it. The POC knows that only with public oversight, dogged persistence and committed resistance will equity become the enforced law of the land.