Downwinders at Risk
Meet our New Board Members
We’re very excited to have five brand new board members and a staff scientist join us since the beginning of summer to help us launch our Downwinders 3.0 program work. Each has their own set of special skills and experiences that make us stronger. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of them as they become the faces of our campaigns and projects….
Eka Asase Yaa is a science instructor, mother, urban farmer, author, educational consultant and naturalist. She’s a Dallas native and her love for science & environmental stewardship blossomed 13 years ago during college. After graduating with a BA in Environmental Studies, she began a teaching career as an Outdoor Education Instructor. Eka conducted environmental research as a Botanist intern for the US Forest Service in MiWok, California and a Whale Researcher Intern in Maui, Hawaii. She’s taught Science for DISD, charter and private schools. As an advocate for Texas native plants, She’s obtained a Native Landscape Design Certificate from the Native Plant Society of Texas. In 2014 she started her business, Sankofa Science Solutions which provides opportunities of laboratory and in the field learning that activates within each child the ability to be innovative and creative in the fields of STEM, utilizing Cultural Science that is relevant to the 21st Century Learner.
Evelyn Mayo just graduated from Barnard College with a major in Environmental Science, and is now working on environmental justice concerns in the DFW area with Legal Aid of NW Texas’s new Community Revitalization Program. Besides doing environmental work, Evelyn loves to paint, hang out with her sister (Fran Mayo, 2017 College of Constructive Hell-Raising graduate), her dog Chunk, and cook. Although she’s relatively new to the Dallas area, she has family in Oklahoma and Austin so is not totally new to the region.
John Rath is a familiar figure to North Texas environmentalists. He’s a former Greater Dallas Sierra Club Chair and member of the Club’s Executive Committee, and he headed-up Keep Grapevine Beautiful. He has two great kids, Charlie and Sarah, and is still an avid hiker. John was way ahead of the curve in terms of his commuter habits. For two decades, he rode a bike 21 miles from Grapevine to Plano and back again. John has been a stalwart ally of Downwinders in Grapevine, herding its council to approval of its own Green Cement ordinance during the fight over hazardous waste burning in the Midlothian cement plants.
Shannon Gribble is currently a second year GIS student at Brookhaven College. She came to 
Downwinders through pure chance. In early June, while attending an unrelated happy hour, Shannon drifted away from her group of friends after hearing some scientific words being thrown around. The group she ran into was Downwinders at Risk at one of our Science and Socializing events. Without hesitation she instantly volunteered her skills and abilities to the group. The rest as they say, is history! Outside of school, Shannon spent thirteen years in Girl Scouts, enjoys traveling, collecting rocks, and doing her best to ride public transit or bike where she needs to go. Her goals are to help limit her carbon footprint and create a lasting “green” impact. She is also a champion tic-tac-toe player.
Maybe all you need to know about Amanda Poland is that she just made her first attempt to swim the English Channel a couple of weeks ago. She didn’t make it all the way across this time…but she’s already planning a second try. That energy is on display Monday thru Friday as a High School science teacher and swim coach at Plano West, where she’s also lobbying for a new air quality sensor as part of our regional monitoring network. Amanda was one of 15 graduates from the 2017 College of Constructive Hell-Raising, where she exhibited an uncanny talent to articulate principles of community organizing despite what she says is her relative newness to activism. She’s got four dogs, a cat, and a beta fish that doubles as a class pet. She’s “totes excited” to be on the board.
You already know how lucky we are to have engineer and UNT doctoral student Kari Northeim running our Wise County Ozone Project. Business degree. Engineering Degree. Soon-to-be Atmospheric Sciences degree. She’s married to an Emergency Room doc and has two great kids. What you might not guess from that description is that when she was 19 years old, she survived a single-engine plane crash that she says changed her life and “showed me that perseverance in times of trial is paramount to success.” Kari will be using our two new ozone monitors to make publishable science and history as part of the most ambitious citizen science project in North Texas.
There’s Exactly One Full Time Clean Air Group in DFW. Please Help Us Keep It In Business.
Now that another ozone season is beginning, it’s time to remind you that Downwinders is still the only group exclusively devoted to the issue of cleaner air in Dallas-Fort Worth – an area that hasn’t been in compliance with the Clean Air Act since 1991.
Hard to believe on both counts, but it’s true.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Barnett Shale gas patch, the Midlothian cement plants, or the East Texas coal plants, we take on whoever and whatever is polluting DFW air.
Downwinders is the only group in DFW with a staff devoted to working on clean air issues full time. We provide the eyes and ears at daytime meetings and hearings volunteers can’t attend. We provide citizens with arms and legs to help do research and network among allies.
Downwinders does all this without the help of a home office in Austin or Washington or New York. We’re completely local, with a board composed of concerned DFW residents just like yourself. Your donations get spent on field work in North Texas.
We’re smaller than our state and national peers but our track record proves we can have a big impact. In fact, with your help, we’ve become known for being one of the most effective environmental groups in the state, no matter the size.
The operative words being “with your help.”
Without the steady stream of contributions from citizen supporters like yourself every year, we wouldn’t be able to keep staff in the field. We wouldn’t be able to dispute the state’s bogus claims of no harm from smog, or hold the EPA accountable.
We wouldn’t be able to host our annual Root and Branch Revue for grassroots activists, or run fruitful experiments like the College for Constructive Hell-Raising.
We know things are looking grim now. But imagine how much worse it could be without a Downwinders at Risk looking out on behalf of your lungs.
Thanks for your consideration.
The First Step to Opposing a new Disposal Well on the Shores of Lake Arlington is Just a Click Away
Today, we officially announced our hiring of Anthony Gonzales as a second Downwinders staffer. One of the reasons we need additional personnel is to help fight off the kinds of new challenges that a Trump presidency will encourage. Exhibit A: The Bluestone Natural Resources Corporation permit to open a disposal well for their fracking wastes on the shores of Lake Arlington, the major source of drinking water for the city of approximately 350,000 people.
Since the passage of the notorious HB 40 in 2015 by the State legislature that substituted state control over local zoning in regulating oil and gas operations within city limits, no Texas municipality or gas industry operator has challenged the uneasy status quo that was in place when the law was signed…until now.
In 2012, after rounds of concern about earthquakes and industrial contamination Fort Worth banned the siting of disposal wells within their city limits – a bold move for a municipality that openly embraced the fracking boom.
But when HB40 was passed by the State Legislature in 2015, local regulations like Cowtown’s disposal well ban had to have been in place for five years to be commercially acceptable. Bluestone applied for its permit less than six months before that five year period was up.
Last year Bluestone bought out Quicksilver and all of its Barnett Shale wells. Instead of continuing to use existing wells outside the city limits, Bluestone wants the convenience of dumping in town. Its permit requests permission to inject up to 1,250,000 gallons of fracking waste PER DAY into the well. Here’s a Channel 11 report on the controversy.
Both the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington have filed formal protests to the permit request. We need EVERY local, state, and federal elected official representing the area to do the same.
Meanwhile, you can join the chorus of opponents by simply sending an email down to Austin.
Use our Featured Citizen Action Click N’ Send System to let Austin Know You Oppose This Permit
A simple letter like the one below is ready to go once your contact information is plugged in….All you have to do is click
….or send your own comments opposing the well
to the Texas Railroad Commission at this address:
Juanita.jimenez@rrc.state.tx.us
Here’s a sample letter.
Dear Ms. Jimenez,
I am writing to protest the permitting of Bluestone Natural Resources wastewater disposal well
with Tracking Number 46045 in Newark, East Field for Cravens Lease, Well Number1.
Your Full name
Your complete Address
______________________________________________________
Don’t Delay. Make Sure They Feel the Push Back in Austin.
To keep track of developments about this disposal well permit, please check out the FaceBook page of local environmental group Liveable Arlington.
Meet Anthony Gonzales, the First New Staffer at Downwinders in a Decade. Now Help Us Keep Him.
There's a slew of changes coming as a result of decisions made at the Downwinders' board retreat with Lois Gibbs last month. Among them:
New redesigned website
New updated logo
New presence on social media
New year-round events calendar for supporters
New campaigns and projects
New board members
As a commitment to this make-over, Downwinders is pleased to announce its first new staff hiring in ten years: Anthony Gonzalez is a Mansfield resident and UTA Junior in History. He ran for Mansfield City Council when he was 18…and lost. He's currently enrolled in Downwinders' College of Constructive Hell-Raising and works part-time for the City of Arlington Department of Environmental Services. Anthony has been hired as our very first Program Assistant to help Downwinders' Director Jim Schermbeck in modernizing our data base, assist in communications work, and coordinate new volunteer outreach and events.
This means for the first time since it's founding, Downwinders has two people on staff at the same time to help us fight for your lungs.
With this new growth comes new responsibilities. We have donations to cover Anthony's part-time job until the beginning of summer. We need your help to keep him employed year round from now on.
In its decision to hire Anthony, the all-volunteer Downwnders' board made a down payment on our future. Can you show your good faith and return the favor?
Lois Gibbs is Coming Back to Dallas – to Help Downwinders Plan and Strategize
Imagine Rosa Parks personally leading a strategy and planning session for your local civil rights groups. Or Ralph Nader coming to spend a weekend with your consumer rights groups to help you prioritize your goals.
That's the enviable position Downwinders at Risk's all-volunteer board is in after finding out Lois Gibbs, the mother of the modern American environmental movement, will be their facilitator in a weekend-long retreat this coming weekend…for free.
It seems one of the few perks of becoming a board member for Downwinders is being able to call on America's #1 toxic avenger for help when you need her.
Gibbs and Downwinders go back almost 25 years, by way of our founder, Sue Pope, and our Director, Jim Schermbeck. Gibbs was the featured guest at our very first Root and Branch Revue in 2015. Besides getting her entire community relocated off a toxic waste dump, and building the Superfund clean-up program from scratch to address the contamination at sites like hers, Gibbs also founded the The Center for Health, Environment & Justice, the largest grassroots environmental network in the country. She brings decades of organizing experience and a national perspective to the Downwinders program work in DFW.
From this Friday through Sunday, the entire Downwinders board and staff will be meeting out of town to discuss what it means to be a local clean air watchdog in the Age of Trump. We had lots of good conversations over the course of this year's just-concluded Root and Branch Revue that we'll be following-up on. We'll also review all the recommendations left on our "What If" Wall" that made the rounds of Root and Branch events. We asked everyone who showed-up to write down what they needed to happen. We got a wheelbarrow of ideas, all of which are being considered by our board, including:
"Getting a doctors/nurses groups organized"
"Getting a children's group organized"
"More coordination and communication among groups"
"Using new technology to do environmental testing"
"Getting cities to better address climate change"
"Better connecting food policy to environmental policy"
"Systematically addressing environmental racism/justice"
"Linking local targets to national campaigns"
A Trump Administration means that our hopes for a sane DFW clean air plan are gone. What they get replaced with is up for grabs although we have some promising ideas that we hope Lois can help us sort through. We made great new allies over the past month. We've made some alarming discoveries that deserve more attention. We need to adjust our plans to suit the new times. We'll be reporting back soon with our results. Stay tuned.
Scientists, Officials, and Activists: All in One Day
One- Day University of Change
Tomorrow – Saturday Jan. 28th
Two tracks of workshops going on all day
9:30-5:50
Walk-Ups Welcome
$35 for workshops plus lunch
$20 for students
Bluebonnet Ballroom, UTA Univ. Center
300 West First Street, Arlington
It only happens once a year
Flint Water Protectors!
Local Elected Officials in a Q&A!
Drones!
Lawyers! Scientists! Activists!
SCHEDULE
9:00- 9:30 am Morning Registration
9:45-10:45 am
Classroom #1
The Dos and Don't of Citizen Health Surveys
Leslie Allsop, University of Texas Health Science Center Classroom
Classroom #2
Using Science to Make Violations Stick
Tamera Bounds, Mansfield Gaswell Awareness and Downwinders at Risk, with Ranjana Bhandari of Livable Arlington
11:00 am – 12:00 Noon
Classroom#1
Citizen Monitoring of Drinking Water
Doug Carlton of UTA's C.L.E.A.R.
Classroon #2
State of the Air – An Asthma Forecast
Shammara Norris, Asthma Chasers
LUNCHTIME FORUM
12-1 pm
Catered Lunch
Local elected officials talk about protecting their quality of life goals in the face of state and federal opposition
Dallas County Commissioner Theresa Daniel
Dallas City Council Member Sandy Greyson
Fort Worth City Council Member Ann Zedah
1:15 -2:15 pm
Classroom#1
Fighting Environmental Permits in Texas
Ilan Levin, Attorney, Environmental Integrity Project
Classroom#2
Petition Rights: The Source of Citizen Power to Take Back Their Towns
Linda Curtis, Independent Texans
2:30 – 3:30 pm
Classroom#1
Strategy vs Tactics
Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk
Classroom#2
Door-to-Door Outreach
Corey Troiani, Texas Campaign for the Environment
3:45 – 4:45
Classroom #1
High Tech Tools for Citizens
Dr. David Lary, University of Texas @ Dallas, Doug Carlton, University of Texas @ Arlington, Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk
Classroom #2
How Flint was Exposed
Melissa Mays, Water You Fighting For and Nayyirah Shariff, Flint Rising
5:00 – 5:30
Air Sampling and Monitoring Drone Demonstration (weather permitting)
5:30
Happy Hour Networking
REGISTER HERE NOW
OR WALK-UP ON SATURDAY
(It's a secure Click and Pledge pay portal established just for this event, so the $35 registration is called a "donation." Just click on the $35 button and fill out the credit card info and you're done)
Do You Have an “After-March” Strategy for Change?
Three events this week can help make you a better activist…year round
– A high-level discussion about Civil Disobedience as a tactic for
social change
– A forum with Flint Activists on the front lines of the nation's best known
environmental justice fight
– A full day of skills and information workshops featuring local experts
and elected officials
Don't Miss These One-Of-A- Kind Opportunities
1. Get Inspired by Flint National Heroes Melissa Mays and Nayyirah Shariff.
These are the Lois Gibbs and ErinBrockovichs of our age.
Flint is our Love Canal.
This is their only stop in Texas.
You have TWO opportunities for quality time with them.
Thursday, Jan 26th, from 7 to 9 pm at the beautiful Mountain View Performance Hall, they'll be "Exposing the Poison Water and Toxic Government" that caused the Flint Scandal and then joining local lead activists from West Dallas and Frisco. This evening with them is free and open to the public.
On Saturday, January 28th at UTA as part of our 1-Day University Of Change they'll both be doing a workshop on "How Flint was Exposed." Limited seating to spend up close and personal time with national environmental justice heroes. Register here.
There are still arrests being made in Flint and Michigan because of this scandal. There is still a problem with lead in Dallas. Come hear why the two problems are connected.
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2. See the Public Premier of the Trailer for a New Film on Flint – "Bigger than Water" co-produced by Earth Day Texas
The same team that produced "Racing Extinction" is now turning its attention to the public health crisis in Flint. This is the first public showing of their trailer promoting "Bigger than Water," expected to be in theatrical release soon. It serves as an introduction to the Women from Flint, Thursday at 7 at the Mountain View Performance Hall.
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3. DRONES!
Come see the future of citizen air monitoring. If the weather holds, Cap't Dave Schafer from UTD's drone fleet will be giving a live demo flight right after the "High Tech Tools for Citizens" workshop at Saturday's 1-Day University of Change. In addition, he'll have the better part of his fleet on display during the day for you to look at up close. UTD's drones have been used in many air quality studies, including EDF's recent one in the Barnett Shale gas patch. Downwinders is working in collaboration with UTD to develop our own North Texas CLEAN Air Force drone capacity.
Register herefor the workshops and the drone demo on Saturday, January 28th, beginning at 9:30 am and ending by 5:30 – 6:00 pm.
(It's a secure Click and Pledge pay portal established just for this event, so the $35 registration is called a "donation." Just click on the $35 button, fill out the credit card info and you're done)
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4. ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sixty Years of Local Civil Disobedients on a Single Dallas Stage
Peter Johnson was there on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965.
Mavis Belisle organized what is still the single largest act of Civil Disobedience in Texas history at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant.
Cory Troiani and Ron Seifert have been on the front lines of the movement to stop new fossil fuel pipelines.
LaSadion Anthony is organizing local anti-police brutality protests that challenge the status quo AND traditional approaches to civil disobedience.
All of these remarkable people will be talking about how and when civil disobedience is used effectively – or not – after a screening of "Above All Else" about the East Texas Keystone Pipeline blockade. Be part of the discussion.
At the Angelika Theater @ Mockingbird and Central, Tuesday, January 24th 7 to 9 pm.
ABSOLUTELY FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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5. Face Time with Local Elected Officials Who Actually Care About Quality of Life Goals
As part of our 1-Day University of Change on Saturday January 28th, we're hosting a special lunchtime discussion with local officials who've been outspoken in their defense of clean air and water, sustainability, and sane transportation options.
So far, Dallas County Commissioner Theresa Daniel and Dallas Council member Sandy Greyson have agreed to participate. This is your chance to ask them about local strategies to fight hostile state and federal governments and tell them what you think they should do.
Register for the 1-Day University of Change here. $35 for the whole day – includes lunch. (It's a secure Click and Pledge pay portal established just for this event, so the $35 registration is called a "donation." Just click on the $35 button, fill out the credit card info and you're done)
Be Where Your Feet Are
Dear Downwinders,
Based on position papers, advisors, and now job offers, it's hard to overestimate the harm to the environment that can and will be done by a Trump Administration. Your first response may be to already feel defeated by the enormity of the challenges now facing us.
Don't let those feelings get the best of you.
What happened on Election Day was unexpected, but history is always so.Consider the odds against a black man named Hussein winning the Presidency in 2008. The unpredictable nature of history is what gives us hope. This moment won't last. The future isn't written yet. Even now there are important tipping points waiting for you to make them happen. But you must show-up.
We don't say this as Pollyannas unschooled in the difficulties of working in a hostile political atmosphere. We say it BECAUSE we've worked in the political wilderness of Texas for over twenty years and won some of our biggest victories when awful political circumstances would tell you our chances ranged from slim to none.
Certainly there'll be national fights that have to be fought. Progress will be measured in how much we save as well as how much we advance. But the model of change Downwinders at Risk has followed since its founding, with its emphasis on local action, is more relevant than ever.
We were already committed to building more local movement "infrastructure" before the elections, but those efforts seem doubly important now.
Here are some examples of what we mean:
Our next "Root and Branch Revue" for environmental activists this coming January 24th-28th We're going to be screening a film, sponsoring discussions, and hosting workshops – all with the aim of making you a better activist. This year's featured guests will be the women from Flint, Michigan who exposed that public health scandal by doing their own water testing.
Our work in building the North Texas Air Research Consortium with local universities and municipalities This new high-tech network, co-founded by Downwinders, will provide the public with more and better information about air quality than either the state or federal government is even thinking about. Downwinders' part of this larger effort is our "North Texas CLEAN Air Force" that will use drones and sensors for mobile monitoring to fill data gaps, study specific facilities, or respond to accidents.
Our semester-long "College for Constructive Hell-Raising" Twice-a-month evening class from January to May that will offer intensive training in traditional community organizing techniques as well as an opportunity to hear stories from 50 years of social justice history in DFW. Our goal is to graduate students who will produce positive change across a variety of local issues and causes.
All of these efforts concentrate on building community among the like-minded, not just online, but in person. We need strong networks and good relationships with our peers to survive and thrive, so if you feel impotent to do much about DC or Austin, get out of the house and vote with your feet in your own backyard. This is where you can do the most good.
Here's a last unlikely scenario to consider:
A local group of environmentalists whose volunteer board membership never numbers more than a dozen, and who receive no national or state support, manages to not only survive for two decades, but fields the only full-time staff person devoted to clean air in DFW and becomes the leading protector of regional air quality, winning battles with sheer persistence as much as anything else.
That's the unexpected history that's happened because of support like yours in times like these. Please stick with us, and we promise we'll keep fighting for, and with, you.
You can make your secure online tax deductible contribution here, or send a check to PO Box 763844 Dallas, TX 75376.
Thanks for your continued support. See you in the New Year – and New Era.
Jim Schermbeck, Director
Tamera Bounds, Chair, Downwinders at Risk Education Fund
Our First Success in the Trump Era: The College for Constructive Hell-Raising Reaches Full Capacity 10 Days Early
On Monday, Downwinders sent out acceptance letters to 15 DFW residents who'd applied to become members of our very first College of Constructive Hell-Raising. Since 15 students is all we have room for this initial year, that means we reached full capacity a whole ten days before the deadline for applications on December 1st. And there's even a small waiting list now. There might be some interest in this community organizing stuff after all.
The successful applicants range in age, experience and background. There are college students as well as retirees. There's a PhD candidate in environmental philosophy and the founder of a social justice choir. One has been deeply involved in South Dallas criminal justice issues while another is a High School teacher with no organizing experience at all. One founded a thriving regional business while another has already run for local political office. We have DREAM generation activists, urban ag advocates, prairie protectionists, and International Rescue Committee volunteers. If you want a reason to feel optimistic about the future, this class is a good place to start.
Plans were underway for the College before this election year, but there's no denying those plans seem prescient now. We're going to need better-trained activists and we're going to need better networks.
The College is just one of the ways Downwinders is trying to build more local "capacity" for DFW activists of all kinds. More resources, more opportunities to learn, more ways to sharpen your skills. Another is coming up soon: Our Root and Branch Revue from Janaury 24th thru the 28th is aimed at making you a better activist. This year's featured guests will be the women from Flint, Michigan who blew the whistle on that public health scandal by doing their own water testing and organizing around the result. The message: We all live in Flint now. Root and Branch will again feature a whole Saturday of workshops, as well as a film screening, another edition of "Get Polluted with Bar Politics," and more. Details coming soon.
If you're kicking yourself over not signing-up for the 2017 College semester in time, not to worry. We're going to be doing this again in the spring of 2018. Meanwhile, keep track of the class and the CCHR at the College's own Facebook page.
Announcing Texas’ First School for Organizers
Using local social justice history lessons and expertise, the College for Constructive Hell-Raising aims for students to “think more like organizers”
January 17- May 23rd
(Dallas)–Saying they want to encourage local residents to organize more effectively around the issues that concern them, clean air group Downwinders at Risk announced today it’s establishing a new “school” for doing just that: “The College of Constructive Hell-Raising.“
Meeting two Tuesday evenings a month from January to May next year, the College will expose its students to time-tested community organizing principles and use past DFW social justice campaigns to make points about strategy and tactics. Its curriculum is designed to assist any kind of organizing effort, not just the environmental fights Downwinders is known for winning.
Downwinders Director Jim Schermbeck said this kind of training is usually only offered at out-of-state facilities like the Midwest Academy in Chicago, or the Highlander Institute in Tennessee, and then only to professional staffers in intense one to two-week sessions costing thousands of dollars. Downwinders is charging just $125 and formatting the information into a more citizen-friendly evening continuing-ed type of class.
Supplementing eight out of the ten lesson plans are “guest lecturers” from past social justice campaigns who’ll talk about their own experiences in trying to change things for the better in DFW, including veteran civil rights organizers Peter Johnson and Robert Medrano, original Bois D’arc Patriot John Fullinwider, former State Representative Lon Burnam, West Dallas environmental leader Luis Sepulveda, long-time AIDS Services of Dallas Director Don Maison, Police brutality organizer Changa Masomakali, anti-nuclear organizer Mavis Belisle, and Zac Trahan, former Dallas Program Director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment.
By using this Who’s Who of change-makers, we’re not only giving students useful case studies in organizing, we’re also passing along important local history lessons,” said Schermbeck. “Many of the controversies facing DFW today are rooted in the past struggles our guests will be talking about.”
He said Downwinders hopes graduates of the College will be able to use what they learn to successfully fight for a grassroots agenda in DFW, no matter the particular issue. “We believe the goal of building a more sustainable world is served through the strengthening of all of our allies. Environmentalism doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”
Only 15 students will be accepted in this first semester. More information and applications are available online at the Downwinders at Risk website: www.downwindersatrisk.org