SLS Students in Environmental Law Pro Bono Project Take ‘Toxic Tour’ of Richmond

 

SLS Students in Environmental Law Pro Bono Project Take ‘Toxic Tour’ of Richmond 1
SLS students and Stanford undergraduates gained an understanding of environmental issues during a tour of Richmond, Calif.

On Saturday, April 2, seven students involved in the Stanford Environmental Law Pro Bono Project, along with five other interested students from Stanford, took a four-hour “Toxic Tour” of Richmond, Calif., led by community organizer Andrés Soto of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE).

The tour, sponsored by the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law and the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation (SPILF), gave students the opportunity to learn about Richmond’s many industrial and power sector facilities and deepen their understanding of the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens in the area. Students also gained perspective on the area’s history, demography and politics, and a sense of the community-led political progress being made in Richmond today.

The tour started at the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center, headquarters of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), where Soto described Richmond’s history. The group then visited North Richmond, where Soto discussed current local governmental issues, including the divide in the neighborhood between incorporated city land and unincorporated county territory. The next stop on the tour was Wildcat Creek Trail, where the group had unobstructed views of the Chevron Richmond Refinery, one of the largest refineries in California. Soto described the 2012 Chevron refinery fire and its effects on the nearby community, and discussed the environmental impacts of living downwind of this site.

The group enjoyed lunch on the waterfront at Point Molate before driving through Point Richmond, where more affluent residents live, and Soto discussed the city’s gentrification challenges.

“It was especially valuable for me to see how some of the cases we’ve been working with for our memos to CBE have affected Richmond’s people,” said Michael Komorowski, JD ’18. “I was struck with the really difficult problem of increasing gentrification. As the community achieves some success with its environmental justice movement, it becomes a nicer, but also a more expensive place to live.”

SLS Students in Environmental Law Pro Bono Project Take ‘Toxic Tour’ of Richmond
Andrés Soto (on left) of Communities for a Better Environment describes Richmond’s environmental history to Lauren Tarpey, JD ’17 (center), and Katherine McNutt, JD ’17.

The group then visited Richmond’s seaport neighborhood, home to several present and historical port-related industries. Soto explained the industrial history of the area, from World War II era ship-building to the current oil and coal transportation that occurs in the area.  The tour concluded with an inspiring visit to Richmond’s greenway, where beautiful murals and public recreation areas highlight the community’s efforts to coalesce around its shared resources.

For the students, the tour provided a more nuanced perspective on Richmond’s complicated history. “Richmond has seen much change over the last century, and the tour highlighted the area’s many contrasts: the affluent neighborhoods and the working class ones, RPA and the Chevron political machine, and the solar energy field next to the Chevron refinery, to name a few,” explained Katherine McNutt, JD ’17. “It is interesting to note that, as the city gentrifies, the balance of these contrasts will likely change and create new tensions. There may be more pressure on Chevron, for example, to adopt more environmentally friendly practices, and the working class may be relegated to smaller and smaller areas or pushed out entirely.”

“The Toxic Tour of Richmond really challenged us to look beyond the direct impact of oil refineries and acknowledge its more nuanced, bigger-picture presence within the community and how that impacts local politics, neighborhoods’ racial makeups, and the economic direction of the city,” said Savannah Fletcher, JD ’18. “Andrés’ tour was rich, thanks to his personal knowledge of the area, and he helped reaffirm my belief in people power and the ability of individuals to enact positive change.”

“It was an amazing experience. In law school we often discuss the impacts of law and policy on various communities, but rarely do we actually get to interact with community members and learn firsthand about their experiences,” said John Bonacorsi, JD ’18.

In addition to Fletcher, Komorowski and McNutt, the other students involved in the Environmental Law Pro Bono Project who took the tour were Elizabeth Jones, JD/MS ‘16, Heather Kryczka, JD ’16, Lauren Tarpey, JD/MS ’17, and Michelle Wu, JD/MS ’17. Besides Bonacorsi, SLS students George Warner, JD ’17, and Nikki Leon, JD ’16, attended, along with Stanford University undergraduates Maria Doerr (BS ’17) and John Zhao (BS/BA ’18).

The Pro Bono Project is deeply grateful to the Levin Center and SPILF for their support of this tour.

Lauren Tarpey and Michelle Wu are two of the leaders of the SLS Environmental Law Pro Bono Project. They organized the tour.