The
Anthony Grasssroots Prize
The two winners of the 2008 Anthony Grassroots Prize are Vecinos Unidos, and Irma Arroyo of El Quinto Sol De America. Both Vecinos Unidos and Quinto Sol will receive a $1,000 award from the Rose Foundation, which administers the Anthony Prize.
Vecinos Unidos
Vecinos Unidos was founded by residents of the Tulare County farming towns Cutler, Orosi and East Orosi to advocate for the basic human right of safe drinking water. Vecinos Unidos began by securing commitments from the Orosi Public Utility District to provide translation services for the primarily Spanish-speaking community to allow them – for the first time – to participate in decisions fundamentally affecting their health. Vecinos Unidos then began helping East Orosi residents press the East Orosi Community Service District (EOCSD) to respond to repeated notices of nitrate violations in the community’s drinking water. In response, the EOCSD, which had not met in over a year, agreed to re-establish monthly meetings to hear community concerns about safe water; Vecinos Unidos then worked with the EOCSD to identify and apply for funding sources to access a new source of drinking water. Recognizing that many farmworker communities faced similar problems of drinking water contaminated by pesticides and agricultural runoff, members of Unidos Vecinos helped to found La Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua (AGUA), a regional grassroots coalition seeking systemic solutions to drinking water contamination problems. AGUA has been active throughout Tulare County in advocating for safe water, and has filed a lawsuit against the Regional Water Board seeking regulations that would require the valley’s 1,600 dairies to line the bottoms of wastewater treatment ponds and improve groundwater monitoring.
El Quinto Sol De America
Irma Arroyo founded Quinto Sol to work with local farmworker communities in Tulare County to express their voice through the universal language of art. Whether working with children to paint murals showing how pollution impacts their lives, or helping families install drift catchers to monitor airborne pesticides, Ms. Arroyo has been tireless in helping local communities speak out for environmental justice. Through her leadership on the Coordinating Council of AGUA, she has also helped mobilize community members to testify before the Regional Water Board to urge action to protect local drinking water supplies from severe health threats.
The Anthony Grassroots Prize was endowed by Juliette Anthony, a lifelong environmental activist who has received wide recognition for her work in protecting the Santa Monica Mountains, banning the toxic gasoline additive MTBE, promoting solar power, and publicizing the negative environmental impacts of ethanol. “Vecinos Unidos and Quinto Sol are both outstanding examples of what can be achieved by organizing at the local level,” Ms. Anthony, the chair of the prize jury said. “Both groups have set a model for many disenfranchised communities to follow in how to seize the initiative and force powerful interests to respond positively to local environmental health concerns.”
For
more information on the prizes:
MEADE
PRIZE
ANTHONY
PRIZE
