CIDA Inc. Activities
2005
Community In-power & Development Association Inc.
(CIDA INC.)
Additional Activity Report
April –December 2005
CIDA Inc. Have had a busy year, April of 2005 Hilton Kelley the founding member of the CIDA Inc. traveled to Ohio where he visited four toxic communities, one in Cleveland, one in Toledo, Oregon and Addyston Ohio He was able to assist the local environmental group ( Ohio Citizen Action) in identifying various illegal toxic emissions in the air and they received much press concerning his visit and the results of his air test with the Cerex air monitor, it also got the local fire department to start talking about investing in a air monitor for their community and consequently too our visit to addyston Ohio a elementary school was closed due to the high levels of 1-3 butadiene we pick up with our monitor from a local rubber facility.
April the 15TH the CIDA Inc. group hosted their fourth Air fare event in collaboration with the Earth Day Network Coalition, this effort was coordinated to help make regular citizen aware of the work that is being done to help protect their health and the new technology that is out there for their local Chemical facilities to use to help protect their health as well, at this event many people were educated on what was going on behind the fence line of polluting industries and their rights as a citizen living under such environmental conditions.
CIDA also went to Corpus Christi TX in May 2005 to work with Suzie Canales of the CEJ Citizen for environmental Justice, Suzie has been dealing with a battle between the fence line community and the local refineries, each year refineries like Valero Dump ton’s of toxic chemical in to the environment and the community has to always prove that it is a problem, this year with the aid of Mr. Kelley’s Cerex air monitor Suzie and her environmental group was able to do so and now the facilities are working on emission reduction and Suzie Canales is the winner of the Hispanic Caucus Environmental award.
June of 2005 Mr. Kelley Of the CIDA Inc. and Tashiica Miles of the CIDA Inc. Traveled across the Atlantic to Europe Tashiica Miles went to London to a share holders meeting and Hilton went to the Hague in the Netherlands to a share holder meeting, the plan was to meet with share holders and talk with them concerning how their money was being used by companies that weren’t Environmentally friendly and how those same companies were taking an advantage of people in disadvantaged situations all over the world and that something should be done about it.
We also were instrumental in setting up a meeting with Sir Vander veer Head of the Shell corporation. There has been numerous conference call between various environmental groups from around our nation and the world to discuss ways in which we can work together to bring about change for the better with in refineries that impact the worlds health and the people in it and collectively we are having a major impact.
July -2005
CIDA Inc. had an environmental hand book published, this booklet has information in it that help the community to understand how various chemicals impact their bodies and what they can do to protect themselves it also has emergency numbers to call in the event of a toxic gas release we also included the plant phone numbers.
Through out July we distributed 3000 booklets and held community meeting every month this year.
Aug-2005
We were successful in getting a community meeting with TCEQ concerning a permit that the Premcor / Valero refinery was filing under title V
The community got a chance to express their concerns about the way the plant operates and deals with their community when it comes to environmental issues some neighbors brought evidences of how industry has been releasing chemical into the air. Hilton Kelley went to a Cerex air Monitoring training in Atlanta Georgia and he also worked with a local environmental group in Gains Ville Georgia while there he took some reading with the Cerex Monitor in an impacted community and provided the community with the results for their own use.
Sept – October
CIDA Inc. Has been working diligently with Hurricane Katrina victims that fled from New Orleans to Port Arthur Texas we have helped to provide them with clothing food fuel for their cars information resources and more. Hurricane Rita hit Port Arthur in August- 24 -2005 we found ourselves with more people to assist including ourselves CIDA has been working to help the elderly repair their homes and the displaced to fined jobs and shelter not to mention replace the roof on the CIDA head office. October the 6th Hilton went to Washington DC to defend the clean air act laws, industry once again tried to eliminate some of the more pertinent rules and put words into the mouths of people who live in Refinery polluted communities CIDA Members also attended the BUCKET Brigade conference in October this meeting was held in Cincinnati Ohio.
Nov 18 – 20 2005
CIDA Members Hilton Kelley and Tashiica Miles attended the coalition conference to be debriefed about what is going on in fence line communities and what will be needed to make 2006 more successful when it comes to reducing toxic chemical emissions from big polluters. We attended the strategy sessions on policy and we brain stormed about new ways we could work together and with other environmental groups, we feel it was a very successful and helpful event. At present CIDA continues to raise money and to help Hurricane victims as well as work on pollution issues.
Dec 2005
Hilton visited the Hague once again for a meeting with the Chairman of the Shell corporation Hilton Kelley from CIDA Inc. will also be speaking at the Community Based Public health Caucus / ALPHA meeting in Philadelphia PA. Dec- 14th 2005
To help the organization understand first hand what is going on, on the in low income fenceline communities.
Hilton Kelley
CIDA Inc.
