on the voluntary compliance of millions of individuals to make these regulations work. Our coalition is the only force organizing at the grass roots around air pollution."

The WATCHDOG wants corporations which have profited from pollution to pay to restore the air. It wants the communities affected by such economic decisions to have a say in making them. The project grew out of the effort to keep General Motors from closing its plant in Van Nuys, California. According to Chris Mathis of the WATCHDOG, his experience as an auto worker led him to see the need to revitalize the labor movement with a broader social agenda that spoke to his full identity as a black person, a worker, and a community resident. Mann and Mathis were led to focus on air pollution by the realization that as auto workers, they were involved in the release of toxics and other destructive chemicals. The WATCHDOG sees dealing with the issue as a civic responsibility and as a steppingstone to the empowerment of workers and communities of color. According to Lisa Duran,

Coordinator of Education Services, they "put forward a new organizational model, based on conscious, well-trained organizers who will mobilize people into a multi-racial membership organization" around a long-range view. Duran emphasizes they're organizing people around broad social concerns, not just a desire to keep toxics out of their own backyard. "People move off a sense of justice as well," she says. The group is taking on the sense of powerlessness which can grip oppressed communities. "We emphasize to people that we can make a difference," says Kikanza Ramsey, Coordinator of Youth Outreach.

Mathis concurs. "We don't have to tell communities of color, or women, how they're discriminated against. They're well aware of that. We're trying to change people's sense of what they're capable of, that people can participate in the decisions of production. By developing the abilities of working people and communities of color to understand politics and science in all their complexity, we're expanding their sense of possibility."

reducing commuter traffic.

DETROIT

SUMMER

by Grace Lee Boggs

Mo

ost Americans picture Detroit today as a wasteland. Once a thriving metropolis, it now resembles the capital of a Third World nation. In some sections near downtown, not a single house still stands.

Over the last years, hundreds of thousands of factory jobs have been exported to Third World countries, where labor is cheaper. So young people who might otherwise have been working and making enough money to raise families have been reduced to hustling for a living. As a result, the numbers of teenage pregnancies and single-parent households have soared. Also, since the invention of crack in 1985, thousands of young people have become part of the "drug economy," bringing a tremendous increase in violence.

But out of the depths of a city in crisis, a new spirit of struggle and solidarity is stirring at the grass roots. The turning point was in 1986-87. In 1986, 43 children were killed and 365 children shot in street violence. As a result, wherever people got together informally in the black community, the discussion eventually got around to the question, "What is happening to our young people?"

Out of this discussion came the formation in January 1987 of SAVE OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS (SOSAD) by Clementine Barfield, whose 16-year-old son had been killed in the summer of 1986. With the goal of creating a movement to do for our period what the civil rights movement did for the 1950s and 1960s, SOSAD organizes memorial services, marches, rallies, and cease-fire vigils. It also organizes conflict resolution

(Boggs is active in grass-roots neighborhood efforts in Detroit.)

workshops and urban farm training programs for young people. Because SOSAD mothers refuse to be defeated by adversity, because they refused to see themselves only as victims of racism, because they have been organizing programs for positive change for young people, they have helped to empower other grass-roots Detroiters.

Soon other activities to reclaim our city began to emerge. In the fall of 1988, a citywide network of neighborhood organizations calling itself WE-PROS, or WE THE PEOPLE RECLAIM OUR STREETS, began carrying on weekly, anti-crack marches to break the cycle of fear in our communities. Consisting mostly of older Detroiters determined not to allow their homes and neighborhoods to be destroyed by crack dealers, WE-PROS marchers beat drums and chant slogans like "UP WITH HOPE, DOWN WITH DOPE!" and "HEY DOPE DEALERS, YOU BETTER RUN AND HIDE; PEOPLE ARE UNITING ON THE OTHER SIDE."

To reaffirm the resilience of human beings in the midst of devastation, SOSAD, WE-PROS, and the DETROIT GREENS plant trees at sites where young people have been slain. On

Earth Day 1990, they sponsored a mass planting on Belle Isle in honor of all children who had been killed in the last decade.

Meanwhile, all over the city grass-roots organizations and individuals have been "rehabbing" abandoned homes. In the process, they have been helping to beautify neighborhoods, revive the work ethic, restore the city's tax base, and give hope to our young people. One of the most moving example of this housing rehabilitation is the Lawton Street Project between Muirland and Puritan on the Northwest side, where 19 houses were recently renovated through the combined efforts of residents, the city, and business. On November 16, DETROITERS UNITING organized a Peoples' Festival at the Majestic Theatre to celebrate the new spirit of people "putting our hearts, minds, hands, and imaginations than 40 community organizations participated, and more than 500 people attended this joy-filled, hope-filled event. In election years, DETROITERS UNITING also organizes town meetings where the people speak, and the candidates are invited to listen.

Now a broad-based coalition of Detroiters is organizing DETROIT SUMMER '92, a project to bring young people from all over the country to work with Detroit youth on community-based projects, such as rebuilding homes, planting urban gardens, and building community parks. Through workshops and cultural events, participants will have the opportunity to learn from and contribute to the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of Detroit. Here's what the call for participants says:

In the spirit of Mississippi Voter
Registration Project of 1964,
DETROIT SUMMER '92 will
draw national attention to
"recivilizing" our cities as the
number one priority of our
period. It will encourage young
people at the local and national
level to take responsibilities for
our communities, our cities, and
our country. It will create a
fellowship between generations
and make clear that the
devastation of American cities is
not "their" problem but "ours." It
will let the world know that
together we can overcome.

Steps at EPA

IN THE
REGIONS:

Issues of environmental equity, like
other fairness issues, suggest that
government can and sometimes does
exacerbate situations where certain
groups of people are left with a lower
quality of life than the mainstream. As
government institutions review their
policies as to whether their effects may
be discriminatory, it is important to
remember that basic issues of fairness
come down to how people treat or
forget to treat other human beings.
Confronting and responding to
environmental equity concerns there
lies a challenge for EPA's 10 regional
offices and the state and local officials
that EPA regional personnel work
with: All have key roles to play in
ensuring that communities subject to
multiple environmental stresses
receive fair treatment. The challenge
involves being responsive to citizens
expressing concerns about
environmental hazards in their
communities, and it involves taking
action to enforce environmental
regulations in communities where
underprivileged citizens may not know
how or where to express their

concerns. The challenge involves being open to a wide range of approaches, including community outreach and education, in cases where environmental problems can't be neatly solved with traditional regulatory tools.

Nearly every EPA region, working in concert with state and local

environmental officials, has special initiatives underway that focus on minority and/or low-income communities and are intended to promote environmental equity in some way. Following are snapshots of three of these EPA Regional projects.

-Deb Martin, Chief Regional and State Planning Branch

Innovative
Housing in
Atlanta

Low-cost houses are difficult enough

to find in American cities; low-cost homes that are also energy-efficient virtually do not exist. EPA's Atlanta office is helping to fund a nonprofit developer who will build houses that are both; they will be built in minority neighborhoods.

Southface Housing Development Corporation has designed a cottage home for families whose income

ranges from $8,500 to $18,000 a year. Ownership will run $270 to $320 a month, including principal, interest, insurance, and taxes.

Projected energy use is 325 to 425 kilowatt hours per month, for an additional $30. This compares to $60 to $100 per month for standard low-cost housing units.

The cottage home is small-about 580 square feet; however, it can be expanded to 900 square feet. It has a vertical profile, simple trim, and a generous porch, all of which give it a traditional appearance.

The porch enters on an open first floor (20 feet by 20 feet) with a living room, eat-in kitchen, and a full bath. Space is set aside for a coat closet, linen closet, and a laundry. The first floor is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

A staircase leads from the living room to a second floor sleeping loft. This loft extends over the kitchen and dining area but allows the living room. to rise 16 feet to the ridge. Care will be

taken in siting the houses to provide this space a southern orientation, so that it will be airy and sun-filled, giving the house effective daytime-lighting and improving its passive solar performance.

A second bedroom can be added by extending the loft into a complete second floor, or additional bedrooms can be attached to the rear of the house.

The aspect that makes the cottage home especially distinctive and affordable is its energy efficiency. Energy efficiency often drops out of the scheme in most affordable housing programs. The concern for initial costs that brings this about is understandable, but the result is often decreased affordability.

The energy strategy for the cottage home includes the following measures:

Full ceiling, wall, floor, and slab insulation

The Airtight Drywall Approach and other measures to reduce air leaks and moisture problems

• Efficient heating and cooling equipment with well sealed and regulated duct work

• Double-pane metal windows with a thermal break

• Insulated entry doors

⚫ Ceiling fans for improved ventilation

Energy-efficient lighting: compact fluorescent lights inside and for porches; high pressure sodium lights. for yard lighting

Energy-efficient water heating.

• Water conservation features including low-flow fixtures and low-volume toilets

• Passive solar design and window shading measures

The first cottage home has been completed, and eight more are planned this year. The Southface cottage home project will not only provide affordable housing to low-income families while, at the same time,

conserving energy, it will reduce to a minimum the environmental effects usually associated with low-cost housing development. Savings on carbon dioxide emissions should average 10,000 to 15,000 pounds per year. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. emissions will also be at reduced levels. Smaller lot size will promote mass transit, reduce automobile travel, and help stem urban sprawl.

Steps at EPA

IN THE REGIONS:

Lead Cleanup in the Midwest

Lead poisoning of children is

considered by many to be a national epidemic. EPA estimates that 15 percent of the children in the United States have elevated blood lead levels-i.e., levels above 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood (10 μg/dl). The U.S. Public Health Service has said that poor, minority children in inner cities, who are already disadvantaged by inadequate nutrition and other factors, are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning. (See story on lead page 42.)

As part of an Agency-wide effort to rank environmental problems according to their effects on human. health and the environment, EPA's Chicago office conducted a

comparative risk study of the region and selected lead exposure as one of its priority concerns. The resultant Project LEAP (Lead Education and Abatement Program) is designed to prevent and abate lead exposure in six states-Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and Indiana.

Project LEAP has four components: data analysis and targeting, pollution prevention, education and intervention activities, and abatement. The targeted population is children under seven. years and women of child-bearing age (as surrogates for the fetus). Sixty Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) representing 83 cities-are included. The project will take three years to complete.

The first component of Project LEAP (data analysis and targeting) has

recently been completed. Computer

modeling was used to estimate the percentage and number of children in each city who are expected to have elevated blood lead levels based on a combination of real and estimated contamination levels in air, drinking water, food, soil, and household dust. The computer model primarily used for this work is called the Lead Uptake Biokinetic Model. Geographic Information Systems technology was also used to analyze demographic data. The table lists and ranks those 10 cities in the six-state region estimated to have the highest numbers of children under age seven with elevated blood lead levels. In addition to the percentage and number of children in each city anticipated to have excess lead in the bloodstream, the table shows how many of these children are estimated to be either African American or Hispanic.

As the table shows, Chicago is estimated to have the greatest number of children with blood lead levels over 10 μg/dl: 40,370, considerably more than half being either African American or Hispanic. In Chicago, projected lead exposures come primarily from contaminated soil and dust; lead levels measured in Chicago's drinking water and ambient air are low.

By far the greatest estimated percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels is the estimated 85 percent projected for the small city of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Wisconsin was found to differ from the other states in the region in that several communities, including Eau Claire, had high measured levels of lead in drinking water. Thus, in Eau Claire, lead in drinking water occurred in conjunction with high estimated soil and dust concentrations associated with older housing, resulting in a very high percentage estimate of children with blood lead levels of concern. Eau Claire is something of an anomaly in that so few of the children estimated to be at risk are minorities.

In the 83 cities under study, the total population of children under age seven was 1,429,000 in 1988. EPA's analysis indicates that 12 percent of these children, or 166,000, could have blood lead levels of concern. This includes 56,000 African American and 12,000 Hispanic children.

In addition to community education and intervention initiatives to reduce risks to children from lead exposure, EPA's Chicago office will be proceeding with pollution prevention and lead abatement activities under Project LEAP.