Perez's Defeat Medical Waste Facility

"The unmeasured menace of the enemy."

That is a line from a speech Winston Churchill gave to his alma mater, Harrow School in England.

Whats a vato loco from the barrio doing quoting Churchill?

Well a doctor friend of mine shared it with me and it relates to the two year battle that was waged down here in the Mission Valley to stop a proposed medical waste facility that has been trying to locate in our community.

I know a lot of you reading this might not grasp why its such a big deal - and you should be grateful for that. Because you probably live in a neighborhood where that kind of thing would never happen.

But for those of us who live in working-class Latino neighborhoods, environmental racism is a real thing.

I know a lot of you hate how much I bash the westside but lets be real for a minute - no one ever tries putting this kind of thing on your side of town. Its the Valley that ends up having to deal with facilities like this.

Commissioner Vince Perez and City Rep Claudia Ordaz Perez, along with other leaders in the Mission Valley spent the last couple of years fighting this, including the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, and Trustee Lucero of YISD who hosted the community meeting that was organized by State Representative Cesar Blanco at Del Valle High School. 

Eventually the entire state delegation signed on into opposition of the proposed facility and YISD was the first entity after the county of El Paso to officially oppose the site.

After so much collective anxiety and a lot of hard work, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ultimately ruled against the facility's approval because of falsehoods and inaccuracies in the application pointed out by Commissioner Perez and City Rep Claudio Ordaz Perez. 

As State Rep Cesar Blanco very eloquently stated, "This is how democracy works."

And we forget that sometimes. We forget it because in the era of crazy that we live in, we forget that a group of community members voices can be amplified by their leaders to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. 

But make no mistake about it, Commisioner Perez's and City Rep Ordaz Perez carried the ball on this important issue. Ultimately the application to open in the Mission Valley was denied because of errors in the application - which quite frankly is a really sad commentary on the fact that but for those errors, this facility might be open today. 

A facility that is just 80 feet from the nearest residential property and as Commissioner Perez pointed out - the distance from home plate to first base is 90 feet. 

None of the Duranguito activist were there. None of the Chicano activist community was there - other than myself. Where were all the so-called "people's reps"?

No Norma Chavez's. No Eddie or Iliana Holguins - even though they live in the one mile radius...none of those people could be bothered to show up and defend the community. 

Eric Stoltz, remember that guy? From the very beginning he was all about trying to use the issue to further his political career. Once Rep Ordaz Perez wiped him out at the polling places, he disappeared. He never voiced opposition to the facility and never even filed a motion to overturn. He just couldn't be bothered to because he was "too busy".

No Chente Quintanilla, no Miguel Teran's, no Gandara's, no current or former members of congress, no Marty Reyes, Chuy Reyes, Sylvestre Reyes, no El Paso County Democratic Party, no Tejano Democrats...none of them. 

Just local residents, their County Commissioner, their City Rep, and their State Rep. But all the people who claim to "defend the barrio" and "protect our culture" and say they are "down for brown" or all about "la raza"...where the hell where you when raza...in the barrio...needed you?

Desaparacidos. 

Maybe if there was a Trost building there or a trail belonging to some white lady's lost dog would've made people in other parts of town care. Segungo Barrio might be the Heart of El Paso...but the SOUL of El Paso is the Valley.

So many of you talk about environmental racism when it comes to pollution and schools you want to keep open, but a lot of you slacktivists apparently don't care about your SOUL when it comes to REAL environmental racism.

If I sound a little annoyed, its because I am. Had this thing happened in any other part of town- and when you learn the details and see how shady the applicant was it will really bother you - the outrage would've been immense. There would've been marches and rallies. There would've been protests and demonstrations and speeches.

But there wasn't - and the people of the community and a small handful of elected leaders fought the fight alone.

Nearly every step of the way the applicant lied about the facility - and ultimately that is what did the application in, the fact that his application was full of lies. It took a few really smart people to figure out what the actual facts were and devise a plan to defeat the application in a process that is inherently set up to favor the applicants and not the community. 

For two years it seemed like very dark days for those of us in the affected area. But going back to the Churchill speech, when the days seemed the most stern, this quote from the same Churchill speech really resonated - 

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never. In nothing, great or small, large or petty, never give in...never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

So score one for the little guy/gal. Its about time we won one.

And I don't want to end this post without pointing out that I think there are people that actually wanted this effort to fight the facility to fail. I think there are some people who wanted the facility to get approval so that they could use it as a chance to score political points and point blame at the very leaders who were the ones that spent all the time and effort to protect the community. 

Those people aren't leaders - they are part of the problem. 

And let me finish by saying that engaged community members are what drive important change like this. This is the first time a medical waste facility application like this was defeated in Texas. I can't underscore that enough. No one has ever been able to stop one from getting approval.

So all of you that persevered, stayed involved, and kept at it - you took power into your own hands as a community and played a big part in stopping the Mission Valley from becoming a regional dumping ground for medical waste. 

And so I will end with one last quote from Churchill's speech - "We have only to persevere to conquer."