ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
LAYING THE
GROUNDWORK
A widespread effort to achieve environmental justice in Sacramento is gaining momentum
BY Sena Christian n 2008 , Nailah Pope-Harden had her hands full . Then 20 years old , she was attending Sacramento City College and working as a massage therapist when she learned that a group of investors proposed to inject and store 7.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas underneath about 700 homes , dozens of businesses and a park in her community in southeastern Sacramento .
The community sits atop Florin Gas Field , a natural gas reservoir roughly 3,800 feet below ground that Procter & Gamble and other companies had extracted gas from until depleting its supply in 1987 . To many residents in her Glen Elder neighborhood and other nearby neighborhoods , the investors ’ offer sounded good : Sacramento Natural Gas Storage would pay landowners to lease their underground property rights to store the gas , which the company would then withdraw and sell to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and other big customers .
Hundreds of homeowners quickly agreed . But a draft environmental review found this type of facility posed a risk for fire , explosion and groundwater contamination , and residents , including Pope-Harden , started talking to one another about these threats and persuaded two law firms to take their case pro bono . On July 12 , 2012 , the California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 against the project , with one commis- environmental
justice ( noun )
\ en-vahy-ruhn-muhn-tuhl \ \ juhs-tis \
The basic right of people to live , work , go to school , play , and pray in a safe , healthy , and clean environment .
Definition by the Red , Black and Green Environmental Justice Coalition
38 comstocksmag . com | November 2020