Partnerships for Environmental Justice: Fish Contamination in the Delta

A workshop featuring:
LaDonna Williams, People for Children’s Health and Environmental Justice
Laura Leonelli, Southeast Asian Assistance Center
Fraser Shilling, UC Davis, Environmental Science and Policy and lead author of the California Watershed Assessment Manual

Facilitator:
Jonathan London, UC Davis, Human and Community Development

Tuesday, May 8, 2007  |  4 - 6 pm

242 Asmundson Hall
University of California, Davis

LaDonna Williams—a community activist and mother of six living near a Pacific, Gas and Electric Company superfund site—thought contaminated soil was the biggest problem her community faced. Then she found out about the fish. Since her family regularly ate large amounts of fish from the waters near her Richmond home, she wonders if it was fish contamination that caused her father’s death. She will never know for sure. Fraser Shilling, a researcher at UC Davis, approached Laura Leonelli to find translators for an important message to Southeast Asians providing Delta fish to their pregnant wives and children. Most of them had never heard of “mercury,” nor did they know or even believe it was harmful. While CALFED—a government led group of 30 water organizations—studied the issues, communities who depend on local fish for food were unaware and uninvolved in the activities that presumed to act in their best interest. This panel discussion describes how community members, government agencies and universities engaged with policymakers in Delta communities in an attempt to bring all the stakeholders to the table to reduce the risks of eating local fish.

Video of the event (1 hr, 32 minutes):
Play in QuickTime (MOV), Play in QuickTime (MPEG-4), Play in Windows Media Player, Play in Real Player