Two weeks ago, Hurricane Harvey slammed the entire metropolitan area of Houston, but its catastrophic floods primarily affected poor areas in the eastern part of the city. In a Latino neighborhood there, water reached the roofs of many homes.

Concerned that California’s environmental authorities are dragging their feet on cleaning up dangerous lead contamination in seven cities in predominantly Latino East Los Angeles, local leaders convened an unprecedented mobilization.

Nearly a year after California Governor Jerry Brown authorized spending for a large-scale cleanup effort in six largely Latino cities east of Los Angeles that were contaminated by tons of lead dust, people in the affected area are complaining of delays and discrimination in the handling of the crisis.

(Español) Se trata de un desastre ambiental que ha sido considerado “peor que Flint”, la ciudad contaminada de Michigan. Porque en el este de Los Ángeles vive un gran número de residentes que resultan envenenados cotidianamente con el plomo del suelo desde hace ya varias generaciones.

The first hearing of a California Assembly committee in a zone that for decades was polluted with lead, arsenic and other dangerous toxic products by the battery recycling company, Exide, represented a small ray of hope. The neighborhood families, who are mostly Latino, strongly criticized state authorities for the slow moving operations of monitoring and clean-up.