What is The environmental Tool Kit
A Guide for the Public Citizen involvement to address changes towards community environmental impact before, during and after. Take Action and Champion for sustainable development for A Task Force.

How your Community can help fight back Pollution

Below is a list of examples of potential outcomes for Good Neighbor Campaigns to consider:

Good Neighbor Campaigns — This type of campaign is designed to change the behavior of current operating facility. It is done by communities that want polluters to clean up its act and maintain a long-term dialogue with neighborhood leaders, and to work towards a win-win situation with the company.  While working directly with stakeholder we like to see companies cut out the bureaucracy and encourage polluters to use less pollution levels. This is a particularly valuable campaign strategy for communities that do not want a local polluting facility to close. Evidence from monitoring can help build an understanding problem areas and of how problems can be prevented in the future.

Buyout or Relocation Campaigns — This type of campaign is for communities that are located to closely to polluting facility or communities becoming severely ill from industrial pollution. An agreement is made between the community and the facility in which the facility pays to relocate all community members to a safer area. Although breaking up communities by moving them away is not the most desirable outcome, sometimes it is necessary to protect you and your neighbors. When this is necessary, the polluter should pay to relocate all the families that are in danger.

Closing the facility — Sometimes a facility poses such a great danger to the neighboring community that the best option is to shut it down. On occasion, when a community campaign is working to get an industry to clean up by investing in new equipment and better operations, the management will decide on its own to close rather than to clean up.

Best way to stop pollution— You and your neighborhood try to prevent it before it starts. Doing your homework and finding out that a facility is about to locate to your own neighborhood, city by researching permits for expansions on current facilities, can help you prevent pollution before it starts. Getting ahead of the problem before it starts and goes a long way.

Legal Action and Lawsuits — Class Action, toxic tort, and other legal tools have gained high profiles in the press and Hollywood, but they have a slim margin of success. Legal action can be an effective measure for community groups that have the proper guidance and leadership, and access to a law firm. When a claim has been filed, it still remains essential for community groups to organize and to continue with all monitoring and recording functions.

Creating and/or enforcing air quality standards — Groups in areas that already have good air quality standards and regulations can often get government agencies to do their job by bringing attention to pollution problems by taking samples. An effective media and community campaign with samples can shame government agency regulators into doing their job of enforcing already existing laws. Groups in countries that do not have air quality standards and requirements for air monitoring can get their governments to take action by using their monitoring campaigns.

 

Air Pollution State, County and City
ACTION STEPS: Air quality complaints by homeowners or businesses owners should E-mail your concerns to Human Health Services or Human Health Department of the county, State EPA Region 6 and TCEQ: Air Quilty Control.

Provide water quality testing
ACTION STEPS: As water quality complaints are received, from homeowners or businesses owners. Create a water quality testing program and check the EPA website for recommended water testing kits.

Organize Community Environmental Letter Writing
ACTION STEPS: As each person participate in letter writings for change for environmental.
Writing to Violators factories and companies, EPA, and Elected officials: President, Congress, Senators, State Representatives, Mayor, Commissioners, City Council, and At-large Council

Organize Community Environmental Media Group
ACTION STEPS: Environmental campaign media supports:

Tv stations, Radio stations, Newspaper, Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, NextDoor, Tic-Tock , Constant Contact, Phone Banking

Environmental Awareness Coalition
Create a coalition or join a coalition in your state, county or city.
ACTION STEPS: Create a community-based environmental awareness coalition to advocate for policies and programs that improve the health and safety of the environment you live in.

Organize Community Environmental Tour
ACTION STEPS: Organize and host tours to strengthen awareness of environmental hazards and environmental injustices, and advocate for strong environmental policies.

Increase environmental hazard preparedness
ACTION STEPS: Create an “Environmental Awareness for areas detailing how to shelter in place and use the reporting system. Provide a system to notify residents in real-time in case of hazardous releases or other environmental emergency.

ACTION STEPS: Establish a County task force comprised of Emergency Services, agencies, create guidelines and a plan for emergency. Please include all Departments working together: Mayor, Commissioners, City Council, Fire Department, Water Department, Water Mud Districts, HHD/HHS and TCEQ.

Human Health Services: Air Quality inspector, Air Control inspector, Waist Water inspector and Land inspector; which the lab can do testing.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: Air, Water and Land Quality State can do testing, provide monitoring and inspections.

Create Emergency Advisory Alerts Warning: Air, Fog, Wind, Fire, Smoke, Flood, High Water and Shelter in Place.
Example: Alert Houston. Sign up for Alert’s Receive emergency alerts via email, text message or phone call. Select address (es) and areas of areas of interest, such as severe weather, major traffic disruptions, missing persons, special events, recovery updates, and emergency incidents. Receive such as; Air Alert critical for Asthma.

City: Create a Help Number-Like Houston 311…. case number. to report all concerns and issues and you must receive a case number: Example for sewage leak on the street or broken water pipes on easement…. 1134688 then the city will forward to the right department.

 

U.S. CLIMATE RESILIENCE TOOLKIT