[0:03]Stand in line. Stand in line. Somebody get back in the line. Get her out of here. We live here. We're tired of the trash. So you need to go back where you were, and just tell them we wouldn't let you in. It's not your fault. That's what I'm telling you. You just caught up in the middle, but you ain't getting in there today.
[0:47]I don't know what's coming from that plant, but it's the stench that you've never smelled before. I mean, it is, it is horrible. We have a high rate of cancer here. We have a high rate of leukemia here. We have high rates of a lot of things that we don't have answers to. Trash finds its way from Maryland. Trash finds its way from Virginia. Trash finds its way from Jersey to Chester. When the plants come here, they're bringing us jobs. You're bringing us jobs, but at the same time, you're killing us. Killing us. Like I said, long as they making that money, long as they making their money, they don't care. All they're going to do is be successful in driving away people like me who have the ability to stay here, to pay the taxes, to buy the homes, they're going to drive us to hell out of here. And those of us that they don't drive off, they're going to kill them slowly. If they put another plant in Chester, we will tear it down.
[1:47]They said to us that they weren't going to bring any more this type of industry into Chester, and now they're sneaking it in. You still have other companies coming in. A lot of them are from out of the country, overseas. Names that are disguised, trying to move in and get permits. There are proposals for what would be the world's largest tire incinerator and other waste to fuel schemes that are targeting the city. Because we're black, we're poor, low economics, low jobs, they think this is the ideal place to come and and dump their trash and waste. This has actually become known as one of the nation's worst cases of environmental racism, and we're trying to figure out ways to get the community reorganized. Like we had in the mid 90s, to be a powerful force for change and make sure that those things got stopped.
[2:56]There was a time in Chester where a person could quit a job, walk down the street and get another job that same day.
[3:05]That's that was the industrial boom down here. It was a town where you saw people getting up in the mornings going to work. You saw people working in three shifts, and it was just a real moving town. All of a sudden, things begin to change. Industry world began to change, began to move out. A lot of things in the city were done wrong politically, and businesses and industry were basically sold off or sold out. And now we we live in a city where industry is not booming, where jobs are scarce, where we're encouraging everything and anything to come into the community to provide jobs for the citizenry.
[4:04]I said you need to understand that we're not going to move and if you keep going for, you're going to run over somebody because we're not moving.
[4:15]I'd like to extend an official apology to the community for this type of action. Because he jumped in the truck and he drove the truck and and I understand he almost hit somebody. There will be a a more official statement coming from our corporation as soon as possible. The purpose of this facility is to process or burn the county's trash. We are capable of processing 2,688 tons of trash per day. That's a lot of trash.
[4:49]This is the office of Chester residents concerned for quality living. We're grassroots organization that has been fighting environmental injustice in our city. Because it's going to take that kind of personal effort for people to become knowledgeable about this problem. You know, but they think that it's only an isolated thing. It only affects a certain portion of Chester, which is a lie. It affects all of us. So we're dealing with a lot of different issues. We're dealing with some environmental problems. We also have to deal with the governmental aspect of it because that's what got us some of these environmental problems.
[5:42]I have all kinds of health problems within the church community. And you know what? I've been going to these kind of meetings for 30 years. And I've seen all the games. I know how they're played, and I know that the players aren't here. Just let me say and then I'll turn to Miss Call you to respond. This problem is not going to be solved if you rely on other people to solve it. Now, I'm saying things that I could not say when I was the administrator of the EPA. If Mr. McCady could do it, I'm sure he would. He can't. If Miss Cal you would do it, I'm sure she would. She can't. There are sources and powers higher than both of them. What we have found out is that, and it has taken us three and a half years to determine, what is the force, who is the force? Who is the faction that has been uh behind these companies coming to our little tiny city in Chester. We don't want it. Hell, no. We don't want it. It is that basic. It's that basic.
[6:51]We have a a a terrible problem in Chester. We would like to speak to the people who are bringing the waste facilities to our city. We we want to get them stopped. This this is a legal matter. It should be done, it's not it's a moral matter. Well, maybe It it's something that you wouldn't want done to your worth. Moral matter that may have to be dealt with legally. But in any event. Well, you know how to be dealt? It's being dealt with our blood. You're wasting your time. Well, it's okay. You're wasting your time. We got it to waste.
[7:22]I think there was a lack of of foresight to build a facility of this size so close to uh residents. It doesn't make people feel comfortable to to know that the fourth largest um resource recovery facility in the nation is right in their backyard. And something that still will still need to be dealt with.
[8:09]It was just important that we continue to fight this battle. And that is why I am just so involved and so excited that we're back on the battlefield again.
[8:36]It it ain't a it is not a person out there that can shake him that could tell me that my life is insignificant.
