"Residents in Pomona’s industrial zone have dealt with pollution from waste facilities, warehouses, and other polluting industries for decades."
"POMONA — In 1999, Pomona resident Joe Hinojos knocked on doors in southeastern Pomona, organizing neighbors against a wood products facility that dirtied the air and left sawdust in backyards.
For years, residents of Pomona’s industrial zone pushed back against the growing number of waste facilities near residences in a mostly Latino neighborhood. These efforts came to a head with the city council’s 2012 approval of a controversial waste transfer station.
The decision launched a wave of activism in Pomona. Two environmental justice groups, Clean and Green Pomona and United Voices of Pomona for Environmental Justice (co-founded by Hinojos’s daughter Linda), launched in 2012. Two years later, the groups successfully advocated for a ban on new waste and recycling facilities.
But the underlying zoning that allows industrial uses near homes remained, and online shopping upped the demand for warehouses and air-polluting diesel trucks. The same groups that fought waste facilities a decade ago are now fighting another pollution source in the same neighborhood."
Erin Rode reports for the Los Angeles Public Press February 21, 2024.
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