Love Canal activist to speak today

By BILL RODGERS
Tribune Chronicle
LEAVITTSBURG -- Regional environmental groups will gather in the Johnson Community Center today to hear the woman dubbed Love Canal’s toxic avenger.

Starting at 9 a.m., the groups gathered by the Regional Environmental Alliance for Community Health (REACH) will hear from Lois Gibbs.

Gibbs is famous for the Love Canal, N.Y., struggle of 1978 in which she fought to relocate families whose homes were built overtop of a toxic waste dump near Niagara Falls, N.Y.

REACH has pushed for stricter restrictions for dumping hazardous construction and demolition debris in area landfills. Gibbs said she sees strength in citizens’ groups such as these.

“Love Canal demonstrated that the real world was full of regular people who can make a huge difference. There are two sources of power: money and the people with their votes,” she said.

Almost 30 years later, Gibbs is a full-time activist near Washington, D.C., for environmental law enforcement. Leavittsburg is her last stop as she tours Ohio with The Center for Health, Environment and Justice. She’s conducting brainstorming forums to formulate an environmental justice policy to pass along to state lawmakers.
Gibbs said the policy could require that citizens be notified if a company plans to seek a permit from the environmental protection agency or it could require tougher penalties on companies who violate environmental laws.

Today, the about 70 people attending the meeting will suggest ways Ohio could change to help the little people, REACH spokesmen said.
Rick Hernandez, REACH’s communication director, said his organization was worried about construction debris dumped in rural areas of the county whose residents use well water.

“There’s pulverized asbestos, carcinogens. The waste is cubed up and you don’t know what’s in there,” he said.

Gibbs recently visited communities near Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. She said people in these communities have been worried about pollutants from landfills, large corporate farms and “smokestack industries” such as the coal industry.

She said with Gov. Ted Strickland and Attorney General Marc Dann in office, Ohio might have the right sort of political climate to adopt a stricter environmental policy.

Gibbs thinks the country as a whole is getting more progressive that way, saying in 1978 that you used to be considered a hippie if you dared to recycle.

“It’s been hard, but we’re winning across the country. People are now thinking green,” she said.

Brodgers@tribune-chronicle.com