C-FERST

California: West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (A Former EPA CARE Project)

The summary and links below provide a description and documentation of a West Oakland, California project that received a Level II cooperative agreement from EPA’s former Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) project in 2006. These case studies serve as historic references, and conditions since the project was funded may have changed.

The resources developed for this project provide communities with information about ways that other communities have addressed environmental issues. Communities can use these project results to reduce environmental impacts, understand risks and become stewards of their own environment.


Summary

West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project 
Oakland, California
EPA Region 9

The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (EIP) is the recipient of a Level II CARE cooperative agreement.  The West  Oakland Toxic Reduction Collaborative (WOTRC) is co-chaired by WOEIP and EPA Region 9, governed by a formal Partnering Agreement and supported by neutral facilitation.  Eight work groups address issues including indoor air quality, clean construction, brownfields, diesel truck incentives, land use, Health Impact Assessments, alternative fuels, and Port-related reductions. Each workgroup is co-chaired by a community representative, and the work of all the workgroups is coordinated by way of a Steering Committee.  The community's capacity and success in applying the collaborative model has resulted in the transformation of several other environmental forums in the Bay Area to a facilitated and community co-chaired format mirroring that of the WOTRC.  West Oakland is a community of 25,000 people located immediately adjacent to the Port of Oakland, through which the fourth highest volume in the U.S. of  international container traffic flows.  As West Oakland faces escalating pressures from redevelopment - triggered in large part by the community's success in eliminating toxic sources, and from international goods movement - projected to triple by 2020, a broad multi-faceted multi-media approach has proven necessary and is well underway.

Prospective CARE Partners:  Port of Oakland, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, West Oakland Commerce Association, AB Trucking, International Longshore Workers Union, Teamsters, U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, City of  Oakland, Alamada County Public Health, California EPA, California Air Resources Board, California Department of Toxics Substances Control, West Oakland Asthma Coalition, Regional Water Quality Control  Board, state and local elected officials, U.S. Postal Service, NRDC, University of  San Francisco, Alliance for West Oakland Development, Bluewater Network, East Bay  Community Law Center, Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund.


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