CHE INSTITUTE:
CHE Activistas - Bucket Brigade

The CHE Activistas are involved in a Bucket Brigade project, a project supported by the Center for Occupational & Environmental Health at Hunter College. The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at Hunter College performed the first study of Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) sites in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg (G/W) neighborhood in 1987, and found that the G/W community district had the highest concentration of TRI sites of all community districts in NYC. Ten years later in 1997, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Right-to-Know annual report revealed that not much had changed. The DEP report showed that the community district still ranked first out of all 59 community districts in NYC for amounts of toxic substances generated, stored and released. The Brigade is testing the air wherever they feel pollution levels are high in the Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities in Brooklyn, NY. The main objectives of the Brigade are to identify local polluters by measuring the quantities of Air Toxics, catch polluters in the act rather than waiting for the government to sanction loose environment controls on the private sector, and bust polluters for their contributions to high asthma and cancer rates in the community.

• To find Hazards in your community by zip code or county name, try Scorecard.
• To find out which polluters in your community have been inspected or fined by the Environmental Protection Agency visit the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) web site.
• To learn more about the facilities that pollute the air, water and land in your community, visit the EPA’s ENVIROFACTS web site.