Community In-power and Development Association Inc. 409-498-1088 CIDA Inc. b 2006 Report Activity attended 1. Green Chemistry meeting: Location - Washington DC, Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2006 2. Bucket brigade air monitoring training: Location – Ocala Florida, Feb 16 – 19, 2006 3. Environmental Lecture: Location – Paduca KY, Feb 24 – 26, 2006 4. Working with Bay Town EJ Group: Location - Bay Town TX through out 2006 5. Hurricane relief project: Location Port Arthur TX and New Orleans LA all of 2006 6. Cerex air monitor training/work: Location - Cleveland Ohio March 20 – 24, 2006 7. Meeting with plant Manager: Location – Motiva / Shell Port Arthur TX plant 8. Press conference to contest Shell expansion: Location – St John P.A. TX March 29th 2006 9. EJ Goldman Award: Location San Francisco April 24 – 26, 2006 10. Shell oil share holders meeting: Location – Amsterdam Netherlands May 11-18th 2006 11. Community meeting/cancer victims: Location St. John May 27 2006 12. Washington DC Meeting with congressman Ted Poe: June 25 – 26 2006 13. Meeting with Jim Blackburn/ Motiva/Shell issue: Location Houston TX July 3rd 2006 14. Protest, Shell oil refinery expansion: Location Port Arthur plant side gate July 26 2006 15. Meeting with TCEQ and Shell oil: Location St. John August 7th 2006 16. Shell Permit contested case hearing: Location Port Arthur Public library August 8th 2006 17. Press conference: Location - Bay town TX concerning Exxon spills August 22nd 2006 18. Meeting with Shell oil attorney’s: Location Austin TX August 24th 2006 19. Meeting with the Community: Location St. Paul Church August 28th 2006 20. Reported excessive flaring at Valero Refinery: Port Arthur TX Sept 13th 2006 21. National toxic tour: Across the US south to Washington DC. September 24th - Oct 1, 2006 22. Meeting, asthmatic residents in Housing complex: Location Port Arthur TX Oct 8th 2006 23. EJ Conference NBBC: Location San Francisco CA Oct 19th -22nd 2006 24. Gave Deposition: Location Houston TX Oct 26th 2006 25. Traveled to Austin TX to meet with Shell oil Attorneys: Oct 27th 2006 26. Signed an agreement with Shell Oil: Location St John Nov 6th 2006 27. Press conference CIDA Inc. / Shell oil agreement: Location St John Nov 9th 2006 28. Meeting and tour of P.A. TX with Shell oil: Nov 15th 2006 29. Meeting with NIEHS folks: Location Galveston TX Dec 3rd 2006 30. Community meeting Port Arthur TX discuss agreement: Dec 14th 2006 Busy Year 06 2006 was a very busy year for the CIDA we started the year off with the continuous help we’ve been providing to Hurricane victims of Sept 2005 many people in our area was and still are in need of assistance with getting their roof repaired or replaced due to hurricane Damage CIDA answered the call with the help and money that was need to assist some of those in need, founders like you all made it possible for CIDA Inc. to help those in need. See following pages.
World War II veteran could not get assistance with repairs to his roof and did not have enough insurance to cover all of his damages after hurricane Rita so CIDA Inc. had his roof repaired. Top picture the plastic cover from FEMA all most a year later and leaking Second picture is of a happy Mr. “Archie Levine” home owner with breathing problems and lives on the fence line of Shell / Motiva oil refining company he takes breathing treatment daily. Third Picture is of finished roof job by CIDA inc. The Community In-power and Development Association is proud to be able to be of service to this once proud and vital community, because we believe with a little assistance and collaboration with key people in the community we can clean up our community and do more for our elderly and our disadvantage community as a whole. all folks need is leadership and a plan for tomorrow but we must have leaders that care about the people and not the bottom line item. It’s time we get back to basics and put people first every thing else will follow. Hilton Kelley CEO / Founder CIDA Inc. 409-498-1088 Thanks to your donation this was made possible in the Gulf cost region. July 22 2006 Port Arthur Texas Lenda Simpson House before roof replacement FEMA work July 06
Roof repairs after Hurricane Rita CIDA Inc supported work: June 06
Hilton Kelley CEO of CIDA Inc. is greeted and thanked by the home owner Lenda Simpson Community In-power and Development Association Inc. Community environmental education resource center picture of roof before repairs after Hurricane Rita Ripped off the sheeting of the roof.
(CIDA Inc.) Port Arthur Texas
Community Environmental Education Resource Center after new roof now the work can begin on the inside again. roof size 4500 sqft : August 16, 2006  Residents call for Archia Courts sale
Published July 21, 2006 An environmental attorney and several residents of the Archia Courts public housing complex on Thursday lobbied the Baytown Housing Authority board to move quickly to sell the complex to Exxon Mobil.
In January, the development, situated across Airhart Drive from the company’s Baytown Refinery, was enveloped in a sticky mist containing process gas oil, which vented from one of the refinery’s nearby tanks.
Residents woke the next morning to find a sticky film covering their homes and cars, and the company staged a massive cleanup of the neighborhood. Company officials said the substance contained trace amounts of benzene, a known carcinogen, but the levels were not harmful.
After the spill, company officials voiced their continued interest in buying the 1940s-era neighborhood consisting of 29 duplexes to the board of the Baytown Housing Authority, which owns it, as part of the company’s “greenbelt” program.
Since then, the BHA’s former executive director, Bill Eiland, has resigned and Baytown Mayor Stephen DonCarlos named three new members to the board.
At Thursday’s meeting, Houston environmental attorney Jim Blackburn spoke to the newly constituted board on behalf of several residents calling themselves the Archia Courts Victims of Pollution.
Blackburn reminded thm that Exxon Mobil first expressed interest in buying the neighborhood in 2001, and made an offer of $2.1 million two years later.
“There is some urgency about getting this done,” said Blackburn, adding that the January spill was illustrative of that need.
“It’s in everyone’s interest that the Archia Courts be closed,” he said.
Blackburn said he understood BHA has to work through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and that several issues, including the relocation of the residents, must be resolved.
But, he said, “It’s not acceptable that it would take a couple of years to make that happen.”
Heather Prescott, a 4-year resident of the complex, said the majority of the residents want to leave as soon as possible.
“We want to be relocated because of our health. We breathe that air 24 hours a day, and it is killing us,” she said.
She presented a petition signed by representatives of 32 of the complex’s 58 units.
“We are living in fear. We are afraid that it’s going to spill on us again,” she said.
Hilton Kelley, an environmental community activist from Port Arthur who was contacted by residents after the spill, said he had take air samples three weeks later that showed high levels of sulfur oxide and butadiene.
“No one should be living in these conditions,” he said.
Board members told the visitors they were well aware of their concern, and would make the sale of Archia Courts a priority. But they added the BHA’s new board is dealing with a range of issues stemming from an inspector general’s audit on the authority’s financial situation, including deadlines for action from Houston HUD officials.
“We have been as frustrated with the delay as all of you have been,” said board president Lawrence Wallace, the only holdover member of the previous board.
Blackburn said he didn’t want to be “adversarial,” and offered to provide whatever assistance he could to further the process.
But when he asked for a firm timeframe in which the residents could be moved, board member Mark Tiller said it was premature to speculate, given the complex issues the board is grappling with. But, he stressed, the residents’ health concerns are “not falling on deaf ears at all.”
Blackburn asked that the board and BHA interim executive director Jason Walton communicate more responsively with him and the residents. Walton said he would, and gave Blackburn his cell phone number.
Wallace, again saying the new board has “a full plate,” assured Blackburn and the residents that the sale would take a high priority.
“We’re very concerned about the welfare of the people of Archia Courts,” he said. 
Contact: Riptide Communications, 212-260-5000 Local ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP ChallengeS Giant Motiva/Shell Expansion as Environmental Injustice to Low Income, AFRICAN AMERICAN CommunitY Port Arthur, Texas, August 9, 2006 – Yesterday, local environmental justice organization, Community In-power and Development Association Inc. (CIDA) and its leading activist Hilton Kelley, were granted status as party in a legal challenge to the giant Motiva/Shell expansion in the area. Lawyers for Motiva, a part of Shell Oil, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) are the other parties for the hearing which will take place December 11. The $3.5 billion proposal from Motiva must receive a permit from TCEQ before any construction can start. But a number of local and national groups will challenge the gas giant, with CIDA, a small, nearly all volunteer, African American grassroots community organization. CIDA’s founder and spokesperson Hilton Kelley, who lives about one mile from Motiva has health concerns about the refinery said, “Port Arthur residents on the west side are tired of being dumped on and left out of the benefits of these billion dollar projects.” Port Arthur is located in the heart of “Gasoline Alley,” home to four international oil refineries, and some of the dirtiest air in the nation, and has been a frequent site for Civil Rights and Environmental Justice complaints regarding refinery and chemical plant pollution and regulatory failures by the state and federal EPA. CIDA’s legal challenge asserts that the proposed expansion, which would make the facility the largest refinery in the nation, is an environmental injustice to the largely African-American community on the fence-line. Kelley and other activists have also asserted that Motiva is guilty of using a double standard, having issued sophisticated warning systems at their other facilities, and relocating an entire neighborhood in Louisiana, while neglecting to take similar actions with the poor, politically-powerless, African-American community in Port Arthur. Motiva plans to increase sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions by over 6 times with the expansion. These contaminants are known to cause harm to the respiratory system and premature death. On September 24, 2006, Port Arthur, Texas will be the starting point of the Environmental Justice for All Tour in the southern region. This tour seeks to highlight the devastating impact of toxic contamination on people of color and in poor communities across the United States. As a national spokesperson for the tour, Kelley will join activists, health researchers, environmental scientists, and public policy experts to tour communities in the South where people are suffering serious health effects associated with toxic pollution. On stops along the tour, Kelley and other activists will provide solution-driven efforts to draw attention to the broken US environmental protection system that defends old polluting industries instead of requiring innovative and safer technologies to establish safeguards for protecting human health from industrial toxins and hazards. Simultaneous caravans will tour communities in the Northeast and on the West Coast. For more information on the tour, please visit http://ej4all.org. 
Monitor reading “Cerex hound” Archia Court apt complex Baytown TX March -15-2006 time 10:43pm until 01:46 am a total of 151 readings taken. The flare was lit on and off all night and this has been going on for at lease 5 days the flare release gases with out being lit then it lights, the flare goes out again after a few minutes releases more gases then it lights again this happens all through the Day and Night a loud roaring sound is emitted from the huge flare as the flame blows if there isn’t a flame a very loud deafening hiss is blasting. This kind of activity in such an unstable facility is maddening to say the lease. 
 These pictures were taken March 16, 2006 By Hilton Kelley Third Meeting with “Bay Town group” March -7-2006 Time: 1800 hours until 2000 hours Exxon Oil spill January 22 2006 In attendance 1. Heather Prescott 2. Delta Speights 3. Judy Mixon 4. Markisha Wooley 5. Thomas Butler 6. Bryan Dieudonne 7. Queen Simon 8. Lydia Marie Kelley 9. Hilton Kelley 10. Darnell Scott 11. Roxanne Russell More residents wanted to attend but could not and some did not speak very good English translation will be brought to the next meeting. Topic of discussion : Name for the group, to be decided, medical problems and resources for the group to be able to communicate via internet and cell phone, many of the residents in the Archia Court subsidized Housing complex is in desperate need of medical attention due to air related / Contaminated water illnesses they believe, the kids take breathing treatment and suffer with the typical skin rashes that are found in air and water polluted communities, some of the rash cases are very severe 80 percent of the body is covered, there is a serious need for a health study in this community. Mr. Darnell Scott is one of the sickest he suffers with high blood pressure, liver disease, asthma you name it, he also has a very low weight for his height. It is believed by the local residents that the Complex management is working with industry to keep this incident as quiet as possible until people just forget about it, there has been no further mention of the help they’re suppose to get from Exxon in the way of relocation or an exam because of their exposure to their product, this community needs and wants to know what is in their bodies and why they are so ill all the time. The lawyers have been circling the community waiting for some one to come down with cancer before they move in, they have given the community some forms to fill out and send in, some have been ask to go to the lawyers Doctor for treatment, is this a good thing they ask, I told them that there is more at stake than just a law suit for money and that their illnesses could out last the little money they may or may not get, this is why I recommended to them holding off from signing until I can get them further council from our end and I thought of Kelly Haragan formally with the EIP, Nathalie Walker and Monique Harden who have all been a wonderful Environmental champion for the people in Port Arthur TX and other communities around the Nation, any other recommendation? We have our next meeting on the 17th and I must have an answer for them whether they should sign with these attorneys or not, I think not there should be a list of demands put together starting with the reduction of these toxic chemicals, update equipment on plant grounds, relocation, escrow account for future illnesses etc. Air samples should also be taken to help build the case further so that it is not dismissed due to lack of evidents, most of the attorney’s in these parts will only try and settle for a few hundred dollars for people in this situation and they walk away with the big check leaving the resident in the same predicament as before only now they have five hundred extra dollars which will be gone as soon as they buy their next prescription of medicine for their air related illnesses. The name of the Law firm in question is D. Miller & Associates, PLLC Location 1121 Katy Freeway, Suite 540 Houston TX 77079 Phone # 713-779-34-76 fax 713-467-0306 The form that was given to the residents is an “Attorney Employment Agreement”. These folks really want and need to be apart of our net work. Next meeting on the 17th of March 2006. Recommendations, comments suggestions welcomed. Hilton Kelley CEO/Founder (CIDA Inc.) Community In-power and Development Association Inc. A “united voice in the community by the community”. CC: Mobile Community Organizer. On the move to make your community a better place to live. 409-498-1088 cell Shell Share holders meeting In the Netherlands, Hague 2006 
 At the Share holder meeting our objective was to inform the investors of How the Shell oil company which they are investing in is destroying lives And communities and how they are not being good neighbors toward the Communities they do business in or the environment and we ask them to pull their money out of this company for their wrong doing around the world. Major victories for CIDA Inc. 2006 Deal could help Motiva, neighbors coexist By: CHRISTINE RAPPLEYE, The Enterprise 11/10/2006 Updated 11/09/2006 11:53:19 PM CST  Email to a friend Post a Comment Printer-friendly
PORT ARTHUR - Port Arthur's West Side used to be a thriving community teeming with people and businesses.
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Used to be.
Now, dilapidated homes, some still with blue roofs, empty businesses and other closed-up buildings dot the area, casualties of Hurricane Rita, neglect and abandonment.
Some blame the neighboring refineries and chemical plants for driving people away from the community. Others would like to move, but can't afford it.
Now, money from one of the industrial neighbors is headed to the area to help bring it back to life.
Over the next five years, more than $3.5 million from Motiva Enterprises will go to a soon-to-be-created Port Arthur Communities Fund. The fund will help with the economic and social revitalization of the area, according to the settlement announced Thursday by Motiva and the Community In-Power and Development Association.
The association's officials had opposed a state air permit Motiva needed for a $3 billion to $4 billion expansion doubling the plant's production. Months of negotiations produced the deal in which the locals withdrew their opposition - one of the industry's last roadblocks to a state permit - in return for Motiva's financial contributions to the community.
"The whole focus is on the community and refinery living together," said Jim Blackburn of the Houston law firm Blackburn Carter, which has represented the association pro bono.
Additional money from Motiva will pay for a variety of health and air quality projects.
Among them are Gulf Coast Health Center transportation and community outreach needs; portable air monitors for the association; a monitoring station in the 1600 block of Terminal Road; 20 hazard warning radios for churches, hospitals and other public buildings; and odor detection equipment.
An annual environmental report will be done from 2008 to 2012, according to the 14-page settlement, and two forums about the refinery's community environmental coordinator's program will be scheduled"This will help all of Port Arthur have clean air," said Hilton Kelley, the association's founder.
One month after construction starts, $500,000 will be put into the Port Arthur Communities Fund. Motiva will donate an additional $1.5 million to the fund within nine months of the initial contribution.
A seven-member steering committee, to include representatives from Motiva and the association, will oversee expenditures for necessary revitalization studies and plans.
Over the next five years, Motiva will donate up to $300,000 to match other contributions that may come in.
Sue Parsley, community affairs director for Motiva, said the fund is something local refinery officials have been trying to establish since Rita hit more than a year ago.
This will help with "revitalization of West Side and to help with health care," Parsley said by phone.
Parsley added that Motiva has been involved in other revitalization efforts.
rappleye@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0727 Updated 11/09/2006 11:53:19 PM CST ©The Beaumont Enterprise 2006 CIDA Inc. 5th Victory of 2006 Valero Refinery “Caught “
In September of 2006 Valero Oil refinery was flaring for more than 8 hours burning off oil and Gas the odors were very noxious one of CIDA’s members put in a call to the State regulatory agency and a investigator was sent out and consequently to the complaint the Valero refinery here in the city of Port Arthur will be issued a notice of violation and fined, the procedure will take place in 2007. 
 For this upset Valero will be served a violation noticeAn investigator from TCEQ called me with the good new inDec - 2006 Hello All Pictures taken at Time 9:30 PM Date September 6, 2006 This flare has been burning since 9:00 AM this morning September 6, 2006 This is a Valero refinery Facility in Port Arthur Texas formally Premcor Refinery. After receiving a call about the flare I went out to investigate and this is what I saw so I called TCEQ our state regulatory agency and I was told that some one would come out tomorrow September -7-2006 of course by then the plum would have passed and the strong mustard odor from this particulate matter. This plum came right over the Port Arthur west side community this is nothing new to us. I have presented data, Pictures, graphics and air samples and we still get what you see, toxic clouds over head which eventually fall on top of us. What must we do? TCEQ will fine them and take the funds and we are left with a pat on the back and industry tells them (TCEQ) where the fine money should be spent. It never comes to the impacted community.
Flooding the GrassrootsGulf Green Groups Assess the Damage—and Make Some Modest Gains 
Hilton Kelley works with the Bucket Brigade on air monitoring in New Orleans’ devastated Lower Ninth Ward. | © Hilton Kelley/CIDA |
by Melinda Tuhus
Gulf Coast residents, already faced with some of the nation’s toughest environmental challenges, didn’t really need Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to emphasize their vulnerability. Environmental groups in the region are short on paid staff but long on a sense of history, outrage and commitment to their communities. The hurricanes devastated these communities and exacerbated the alarming environmental threats. But the natural, political and social upheavals have also engendered hope for positive changes in their wake. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, for example, dropped from three full-time staff and 40 canvassers to two staff and no canvassers. “The canvassing, which was a great aspect of our program, is now obliterated,” explains founder and program director Anne Rolfes, “because the homes the canvassers used to knock on are obliterated.” The organization, which works mostly in St. Bernard Parish, bordering New Orleans, is named for the containers residents use to take air samples to test for toxic releases from the many industrial plants in the area.
Last fall, three national environmental organizations tried to poll 255 local environmental groups in the Gulf Coast region; they were able to collect data on just 64, three-quarters of which are all-volunteer operations and all of which reported a loss of personnel, equipment, office space and constituencies due to the hurricanes. In their report, “We Want to Be at the Table: Helping Environmental Groups Rebuild After Katrina,” the Environmental Support Center, the River Network and the Institute for Conservation Leadership wrote, “Allies around the country…need to understand the depth of shock, displacement and day-to-day problems grassroots organizations in the Gulf have to address.” The report proposed streamlining mechanisms to speed funding and technical assistance to grassroots groups in the region. These small groups are confronting even bigger toxic messes than before, such as the million gallons of oil that spread through St. Bernard Parish when Katrina ripped a storage tank owned by Murphy Oil off its foundation; or the flaring of oil and gas already in the pipelines of refineries in Port Arthur, Texas, when the facilities had to shut down as Hurricane Rita approached. “The flares were sending black smoke into the air and increasing pollution in our city, which is nicknamed ‘the Armpit of Texas,’ because it stinks,” says Hilton Kelley, founder and CEO of Community In-Power and Development Association. But there are also some positive developments during the months of recovery. One is the spotlight the hurricanes shone on the Gulf Coast, exposing the reality of Port Arthur and other under-served communities. “We have a lot of toxics in the air because of all the chemical plants and refineries,” says Kelley. “People have skin irritations and respiratory problems, and they don’t have medical care. Now we learned there are thousands of people in the Gulf region living in substandard conditions, and this should not be.” Derrick Evans is a leader of Turkey Creek Community Initiatives, an African -American community settled by freed slaves after the Civil War. “I would say we have the eyes of the nation on us, which has always been historically useful in trying to change things in Mississippi,” he says. Turkey Creek was annexed to Gulfport, Mississippi in 1993. Because of rampant development triggered by the legalization of gambling two decades ago, the community finds itself sandwiched between two highways and the Biloxi-Gulfport International Airport. Evans says most of the 2,000 feet of wetlands that protected his community from storm surges have been destroyed. His group is fighting to save the rest, as well as the trees that are being sacrificed to feed the development boom. In “We Want to Be at the Table,” many of those interviewed said the official government response at all levels to the disasters has been disappointing, but not surprising. “We were in a terrible stew before this,” Rolfes says. “We’ve been the national sacrifice zone for petrochemical production for a long time.” Evans adds, “It’s become a volunteer-driven and donor-driven recovery.” Reverend Lois DeJean chairs the Gert Town Revival Initiative in New Orleans. The neighborhood was contaminated by a massive pesticide spill in the 1980s, and soil samples taken by the Natural Resources Defense Council after Katrina flooded the area indicate that contaminants have traveled from the site toward nearby homes, although the Environmental Protection Agency says its testing indicates that chemicals present in the soil “are not expected to pose long-term health risks for residents returning to their homes.” DeJean is optimistic about the future. “Nobody paid attention to Gert Town before the hurricane,” she says. “Now we have people calling us and asking if they can work with us. And we do have some input into how we want our communities to look not just for today, but long range. We want our community revitalized, and I think the chances of that are good. For example, we want the cement plant in the area closed and we want to build a technology center there.” The other bright spot is that foundations have expedited their funding process. After the hurricanes, the Environmental Grantmakers Association—a consortium of 250 foundations, big and small—set up the Gulf Coast Ecological Health and Community Renewal Fund. In late May, the fund awarded its first grants, totaling $200,000, and ranging from $5,000 to $37,000, which are a boon for groups that survive on very little money. Community In-Power and Development Association received $15,000 for ongoing research, air monitoring and community education to address pollution from the area’s oil refineries. Anne Rolfes of the Bucket Brigade says foundations have been generous. “It was a rare event before Katrina that a funder would call and say we have money we want to give you, without us having pursued them,” she says. “We’ve had some experiences like that, and the foundation world is to be credited because they have certainly made a difficult time better by granting us money and giving us at least some degree of financial security.” And Rolfes thinks Katrina has shifted the ground not just literally but politically too. “In Saint Bernard Parish, for years there’s been this untenable situation in which people actually share a fence with a refinery. Before Katrina it would have been unthinkable to talk about putting in a buffer zone between the residential area and the industrial area because people just accepted that situation. Now individuals and even the local government recognize that a buffer would be a good policy. And I think we’re going to get one.”
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Port Arthur TX. Leaders, sold out to industry Port Arthur’s African American Resident systematically pushed out of their Community To get Petrochemical Facilities off the “pollution hook” and to provide cheap land to industry. More weeding in Port Arthur than seeding “Weed and seed project a lie” Residents charge Relocate residents now. Press release event When: Wednesday March 29, 2006 Where: 801 Grannis AVE Port Arthur TX 77640 Time: 10:00 am Why : Weed and Seed project a sca Community In-power and Development Association Inc. (CIDA Inc.) b Hilton Kelley: 409-498-1088 
Press conference time 10:40 am 
UV Hound test show high level of sulfur dioxide for more that three hours 330 to 340 ppb. Port Arthur residents Baytown residents have a beef to pick with their neighbor 05:36 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 By Dan Lauck / 11 News When you live across the street from one of the largest refineries in the world days when the dark skies open up and wash the chemicals and tiny particles of soot from the air are good days. So no one complained about the thunder or the downpour Tuesday morning when the residents of a low-income housing project gathered to began a public protest of their plight. 
KHOU - TV Baytown residents claim the refinery in their neighborhood is causing them health problems “The people of Archia courts have been living with the constant threats of explosions and various toxic releases coming from the Exxon-Mobil refinery,” said Hilton Kelly with In-Power Development Assn. And the Baytown Housing Authority, they said, has done nothing to help them. “We can’t just up and move. We’re in a trap and we need to get out of here,” said Debra Ann Profit. Veronica Tate’s morning pills sat on the table, next to her breakfast. The rest of her medicine was in the box. Medicine for asthma and skin diseases mostly. “These are the things that I’ve started developing,” said Tate. The housing development was built in the 40s. Back then, living directly across the street from a refinery was regarded not so much as a health hazard, but as a convenience. Even three years ago Archia courts was not a priority. Exxon offered to buy the property and the ex-housing director let it pass. Now, it’s Jason Walton’s problem. “I know the residents are eager to move. We’re eager for them to move. Eager to close the whole thing out. I wouldn’t want to live there. I wouldn’t.” Who would? Media Advisory Community In-power and Development Association Inc. – CIDA Inc. National Refinery Reform Campaign July 21, 2006 Contact: Hilton Kelley, CIDA: 409-498-1088; Denny Larson, National Refinery Reform Campaign: 415-845-4705. Local & National Groups Challenge Giant Motiva Expansion as Environmental Injustice to Low Income CommunityShell Asked to Sign “Good Neighbor Agreement ” to Reduce Pollution Impacts and Support Community Education and Health Center (Port Arthur, TX) Local Environmental Justice organization, Community In-power and Development Association (CIDA) will announce a legal challenge to the giant Motiva expansion and highlight the ” environmental injustice” of the project to largely African-American community living on the fenceline. CIDA is supported in their challenge by a team of national and regional leaders and experts and a growing number of angry refinery neighbors in the west side neighborhoods near Motiva’s refinery. If approved, the Motiva expansion would make t he facility the largest refinery in the nation. WHO: Community In-power and Development Association Inc. (CIDA Inc.) and local Motiva neighbors WHAT: Press conference to announce legal challenge to the giant Motiva expansion and highlight the ” environmental injustice” of the project to largely African-American community living on the fenceline. CIDA has stated that Motiva should be prepared to sign a binding agreement, known as a Good Neighbor Agreement, that would ensure community empowerment, health, education resources and justice for the historically neglected west side of Port Arthur. Among the areas such an agreement would guarantee inclusion: 1. An option to or for residents to relocate through a fair buy out program 2. A real and verifiable decrease in emissions and fewer upsets and flare offs 3. A real time monitoring system on the fenceline that reports instantly to the web 4. An Integrated warning network - sirens, reverse 911, TV and radio announcements 5. A community controlled environmental education and health center run by CIDA 6. An evacuation plan for homeland security issues (natural and terrorist disasters) 7. An independent program to monitor compliance and refinery performance long term. WHERE: Houston AVE and 18TH street WHEN: July 26, 2006 TIME 11:00 AM WHY: Port Arthur has been a frequent site for Civil Rights and Environmental Justice complaints regarding refinery and chemical plant pollution and regulatory failures by the state and federal EPA. The Port Arthur area is a non-attainment status for air pollution and no new sources are supposed to be allowed | 
