Monday, March 9, 2015

Lois Gibbs (of Love Canal renown) Speaks on Fracking & Injection Well Concerns March 13 at Youngstown, Ohio, Townhall

UPDATE:  
PHOTO ALBUM (all photos here): https://www.flickr.com/photos/frackfreeamerica/sets/72157651035772180/
Frackfree Mahoning Valley                         News Release
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For Immediate Release:  March 5, 2015
Contact:  phone:  234-201-0402

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Nationally renowned leader who led the Love Canal, New York community out of harm’s way, author, and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Lois Gibbs, is coming to Youngstown, Ohio to share her story and address citizens’ concerns about man-made earthquakes, fracking waste injection wells, and drinking water:
A Townhall-style meeting featuring Lois Gibbs will be held on Friday, March 13, 2015, at 7 PM to 9 PM, at the The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, located at 1105 Elm St., Youngstown, Ohio. (Elm & Illinois.) 

Youngstown, Ohio, March 5, 2015 –  Nationally renowned leader, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, environmental justice advocate, author, and speaker, Lois Gibbs, is coming to Youngstown, Ohio.  Lois Gibbs will be the keynote speaker at a Frackfree Mahoning Valley townhall-style meeting where citizen concerns related to man-made earthquakes, fracking waste injection wells, and drinking water will be the topic of lively discussion.
  
    Lois Gibbs is founder and Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ), a national nonprofit who “mentors a movement, empowering people to build healthy communities, and preventing harm to human health caused by exposure to environmental threats.”  www.chej.org
(Quote is from the CHEJ mission statement:  http://chej.org/about/mission/      

       Teresa Mills, longtime environmental justice advocate and colleague of Lois Gibbs, will also be in attendance at the townhall.  Teresa Mills is the Ohio organizer for the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice and consultant for the Buckeye Forest Council.

      Lois Gibbs led a heroic, historic, and successful effort to protect her family and community from toxic waste pollution at Love Canal, near Niagara Falls, New York, in 1978 to 1980. Lois Gibbs is an author, winner of the 1990 Goldman Environmental Prize, environmental justice advocate, and the subject of a movie about her life titled, “Lois Gibbs: The Love Canal Story.“  She has done local and national media interviews or appearances including with Oprah Winfrey and The Today Show. She has been called “The Mother of Superfund,” a federal program to clean up toxic waste.

      In the years 1978 to the early 1980s, Lois Gibbs’ efforts as leader of the Love Canal community, led to the evacuation of residents who did not know that their neighborhood and elementary school had been built upon or near a toxic industrial chemical waste dump.  Under Gibbs’ leadership, the Love Canal crisis got the attention of President Jimmy Carter and other national and local officials.  Through great effort, Gibbs was able to obtain evacuations for 833 Love Canal families affected by leaking toxic chemicals in their neighborhood. 
 
      The story of Love Canal is an icon for what can happen when extensive industrial pollution and neglect invade a residential community, unbeknownst to the people. It also shows what can happen when public officials fail to protect the public health, safety, and public interest.

      The March 13, 2015 townhall program is titled, “A Dialogue with Lois Gibbs: Fracking Waste, Drinking Water, and Man-made Earthquakes: Where will the waste go and what can communities do about it?” 

       The public townhall-style meeting will take place on Friday, March 13, 2015 at 7 PM to 9 PM at The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, located at 1105 Elm St., Youngstown, Ohio. (Elm & Illinois.)  It is free and open to the public.

       All media and the public are invited to attend this very important meeting.

       At the townhall, citizens can share their ideas for solutions on how communities can protect themselves, their water supplies, and their rights, especially in relation to induced seismic activity, the increasing number of injection wells and millions of gallons and tons of fracking waste being brought into Ohio.

     “We are extremely pleased that Lois Gibbs and Teresa Mills are coming to Youngstown to share their knowledge and experience in environmental justice issues. This is a significant event for Youngstown and surrounding communities, especially since Weathersfield, Niles, Brookfield, Vienna, and other areas in Ohio are facing injection well issues.   We hope citizens take advantage of this unique opportunity to voice their concerns and to get information. Learning the history of Love Canal from Lois Gibbs herself will help us stop repeating the mistakes of the past and enable us to find positive solutions for current local issues,” said Susie Beiersdorfer of Frackfree Mahoning Valley.

Lois Gibbs biographical information at “About Lois”:   http://chej.org/about/our-story/about-lois/

Website for Center for Health, Environment and Justice:   www.chej.org

“From homemaker to hell-raiser in Love Canal,” by Ronnie Greene, The Center for Public Integrity, April 16, 2013, updated May 19, 2014,  article at:

       See a March 2, 2015 Frackfree Mahoning Valley news release about ODNR’s denial of an injection permit for a Mahoning County injection well:


“Study says Weathersfield earthquake and injection well are linked   Expert: Seismic events dwindled after ODNR ordered shutdown,” by Ed Runyan, Vindicator, February 17, 2015:


       For media inquiries or for more information, e-mail:
Also see:


Frackfree America National Coalition
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FLIERS TO PRINT
and EVENT where one may add to "Invite" list:


Event page on Facebook - please add to the "Invite/Attendees" list:

https://www.facebook.com/events/579453548824926/




FLIER Lois Gibbs townhall Youngstown March13, 2015 WORD doc file
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FLIER Lois Gibbs Youngstown March 13 PDF file
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Lois Gibbs March 13 sheet of small cards FRONT
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Lois Gibbs March 13 sheet of small cards BACK
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Lois Gibbs: The Love Canal Story.
Young residents in Love Canal joined the protest. (Center for Health and Environmental Justice)

Lois Gibbs: The Love Canal Story.
In 1978 when EPA officials visited the community,
Lois Gibbs led the activists that refused to
let the officials leave until the federal government
promised to relocate the families.
Lois Gibbs: The Love Canal Story.
Lois Gibbs and daughter Melissa, 1979


Lois Gibbs researching toxic contamination - as housewife and concerned mother
Lois Gibbs, 1978, trying to obtain information about why her two small children are so sick. Didn't know about Love Canal.
Above photos via http://www.afiercegreenfire.com A Fierce Green Fire

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