Love Canal Activist Speaks to FrackFree March 13
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Lois Gibbs, who led the effort to protect her family and community from toxic waste pollution at Love Canal, near Niagara Falls, N.Y., will be the keynote speaker March 13 at a Frackfree Mahoning Valley town hall-style meeting.
The program, “A Dialogue with Lois Gibbs: Fracking Waste, Drinking Water, and Man-made Earthquakes: Where will the waste go and what can communities do about it?”, will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, 1105 Elm St. Gibbs is a 2003 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, environmental justice advocate and author.
The event is free and open to the public. Citizens are invited to share their ideas for solutions on how communities can protect themselves, their water supplies and their rights, especially in relation to induced seismic activity, the increasing number of injection wells and millions of gallons and tons of fracking waste being brought into Ohio.
Gibbs, the founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, has been called “the Mother of Superfund,” a federal program to clean up toxic waste. Joining her at the March 13 event will be Teresa Mills, the Ohio organizer for the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice and consultant for the Buckeye Forest Council.
“We are extremely pleased that Lois Gibbs and Teresa Mills are coming to Youngstown to share their knowledge and experience in environmental justice issues. This is a significant event for Youngstown and surrounding communities, especially since Weathersfield, Niles, Brookfield, Vienna and other areas in Ohio are facing injection well issues,” said Susie Beiersdorfer of Frackfree Mahoning Valley.
“We hope citizens take advantage of this unique opportunity to voice their concerns and to get information. Learning the history of Love Canal from Lois Gibbs herself will help us stop repeating the mistakes of the past and enable us to find positive solutions for current local issues.”
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
