| Comment | My name is Kao Ye Thao and I support the position of the Sacramento
Environmental Justice Coalition that AB617 in South Sacramento was
a major disappointment due to following issues:
1. Lack of transparency and commitment to the law. AB617 is
intended to address non-mobile pollutions sources. The local AB617
committee and Sacramento AQMD deliberately avoided major areas of
concern to local BIPOC and low-income communities by creating
boundaries and geographic restrictions to exclude high impacted
areas (See Map).
2. $23 Million has been with AB617 spent and it has had no impact
on the most polluted neighborhoods intentionally excluded from the
process.
3. We ask that CARB establish higher standards for local Air
Quality Management Districts to have a robust, inclusive and broad
based process to implement AB617 according to the law.
4. The number of committee representatives on AB617 cannot be
arbitrarily restrictive. The Sac-EJC.org is the largest EJ
organization in Sacramento and after several attempts to join,
BIPOC EJ leaders were not selected to be on the board.
5. There has to be an accounting of how the funds are used with
strong evidence that marginalized communities in EJ zones directly
benefit significantly through transformative health outcomes and
cleaner industry practices. Health Program Evaluators must be
included in the process.
Thank you!
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