PEORIA -- The environmental group that defeated the expansion proposal of a hazardous waste landfill on the west edge of Peoria has a new target: the Peoria area's toxic air.
Responding to a recent investigative report by USA Today about toxic air near schools (see Dec. 9 post below), the group, Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste, is organizing against the poor air quality and has released this letter:
Dear Representatives and Senators,
I would like to ask you to please attend the Mossville Elementary School's PTA meeting on January 12, 2009. The meeting is at the school itself (in the library I believe) at 7pm. This is a Monday, fyi.
I invite you because I will be there with Tracy Meints Fox, as representatives of Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste, to present to the PTA/school officials, the recent USA Today feature story The Smokestack Effect. Here is a link to the report:
http://content.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/index
Please do take a look at the map of schools around the nation where, according to EPA models, the air quality is very likely poor and possibly hazardous/toxic/carcinogenic. Mossville Elementary is in the 6th percentile, only 5 ranks behind the 12 Peoria area schools in the 1st percentile, 12 schools that very likely have air quality/pollution levels the same as if not worse than that of the Addyston, OH school that was recently shut down because of high levels of toxins present in the air/environment at the school. (featured in the main story) The report is very informative, and you can click on or mouse over factory names and chemical terms to get further information and data.
I have emailed with Lori Shirley, PTA president, and she is aware that Tracy and I will be there to begin the discussion of this distressing report. We have known for some time that air pollution levels in the Peoria area were high, but did not know conclusively that they are among the worst in the nation. Peoria Families, with this first public meeting, would like to get the action started towards cleaning up air pollution, if not other forms of pollution, in our very dirty county.
I ask that you please read the report - though we will have handouts available at the meeting as well. This is a very serious matter, particularly for all our children. We hope to begin to address what funding may be available for air quality testing/monitoring at schools around the county, to begin to protect our precious children (I have two myself, kindergarten and 2nd grade at Mossville) from toxins and carcinogens pumped daily into the air we breathe, by local industry.
Thank you very much, and I do hope to see you on January 12th.
Cara Rosson
Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste
The Peoria area, with heavy industry including several coal-fired power plants, looks very bad on the USA Today map. But don't take the newspaper's word for it. Just look at your window sills to see the fallout from the dirty air. Clean them, then watch as the soot quickly builds up.
This group is not to be trifled with, as it carries its causes door-to-door then to the ballot box.
-- Elaine Hopkins
UPDATE -- Jan. 7, 2009: If you want to read a story on toxic air in Peoria, it can be accessed through the Peoria Public Library's website which archives Journal Star stories. Find Study: Peoria County's air unclean - Rate of toxins higher in poorest areas
Peoria Journal Star, The (IL) - Friday, December 16, 2005.
Meanwhile here's a list of the schools in the most toxic areas, according to the USA Today story, thanks to a friend who researched this:
"Four Peoria schools are among the top 200 worst schools: Blaine-Sumner,
Valeska-Hinton, Kingman, and Peoria Alternative. Blaine-Sumner is ranked
as the worst, with only 102 schools across the nation ranked higher(ie. worse)."
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