Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier & Avocado Heights

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South El Monte, CA
Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier & Avocado Heights

We are a volunteer environmental justice organization working to protect health and our community in Los Angeles County.

We are volunteers committed to defending the environment and quality of life in our community. We develop innovative programs to raise awareness and keep our neighbors safe from environmental harms. We insist that our corporate neighbors be environmentally responsible and expect that our community be made aware of projects that affect our well being. Our goal is to have our residents, corporate ne

ighbors, government representatives and public agencies share our commitment to the protection of the environment and health of our community.

09/08/2026

Come to learn more about how our communities can adapt to the climate crisis with resilience and safe renewable energy. We look forward to seeing you!
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08/10/2026

Welcome back to school! We look forward to seeing you again at Andrews! We're ready to continue our work together to protect our communities and strengthen our democracy. We can do this!

06/29/2026

Our recent interview with Carlos De Loera of Los Angeles Times :

“It’s a combination of intentional neglect and deliberately deciding to put these kinds of industrial facilities in neighborhoods that are already burdened with too many of these kinds of facilities,” Rebecca Overmyer-Velazquez, coordinator for the Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier and Avocado Heights, told The Times.

“Warehouses like the one that [was] burning in Boyle Heights seem innocuous because nothing seems to be coming out of them, but the problem with [them] is the truck traffic and so it adds to what we understand is the cumulative impacts of pollution,” she said.

…

Overmyer-Velazquez said that mixed messaging and obfuscation often go hand in hand with the proliferation of industrial-linked environmental disasters.

“I can speak from experience of trying to alert neighbors about the Quemetco [battery recycling plant], now called Ecobat facility, for many, many years,” she said. “So many times people are surprised to know that they live right next door to a place that’s so toxic.”

In 2016, air quality officials told Ecobat to cut its arsenic emissions after an assessment found they posed an increased cancer risk to 12,000 people. The company invested tens of millions of dollars to reduce its exhaust in the mid-2000s, but air district records showed it still violated emissions standards for benzene, a carcinogen, and once for releasing too much arsenic.

On Boyle Heights and environmental racism

06/22/2026

Boyle Heights is already living through a chemical fire that’s burning with no easy way to put out. Ecobat’s history of fire, toxic releases, and permit violations makes this permit a disaster waiting to happen. We deserve clean air, safety, and accountability — not more harm for our communities. Support CAC and Earthjustice. BES has an opportunity to set a precedent. Submit your comment.

06/19/2026

Please submit your emailed public comments by today. Click on the link in our profile. Thank you!

06/16/2026

We look forward to seeing you virtually!

To join the video meeting, click on the link on our story.

Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +1 575-383-4126 and enter this PIN: 564 662 677 #

06/15/2026

We need your help!

05/19/2026

Across the country, our rights to a clean and healthy environment are being eroded and ignored. An educated public is an empowered public! Come learn about your rights and how to protect them in California. We look forward to seeing you there!

05/15/2026

Thank you and Dan Ross for the coverage of cumulative impacts in California, our ej work and partnership with , and our community-led ground truthing project.

“But environmental justice groups said the department’s latest proposal is too weak to make a meaningful difference in their communities.

Among them is the Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier and Avocado Heights, a community group that has long fought operations at the nearby Ecobat lead-acid battery recycling plant. Despite a long history of infractions, including hazardous waste storage violations detailed in a consent order with the state last year, Ecobat’s facility in the City of Industry had been operating on a permit that expired in 2015 until the Department of Toxic Substances Control approved its renewal last year.

State environmental agencies had already identified the area around the plant as one of the worst polluted communities in California. Last year, the community group spent more than six months trying to determine just how bad its exposure to pollution was. Its self-described “ground-truthing” study found about 75% more pollution sources, including some near daycare centers and other sensitive locations, than would be identified under the department’s proposed approach, which would evaluate a much narrower range of facilities.

“How can you even possibly allow and commit a facility to continue under these conditions?” said Daniel Talamantes, a member of the Clean Air Coalition who worked on the study.

Angela Johnson Meszaros, senior attorney with the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, said that the state’s proposed plan fails to answer a fundamental question: How much pollution is too much?”

“DTSC had a decision to make,” Johnson Meszaros said. “And they decided to read their authority in a way that has them standing with industry instead of standing with communities.”

04/20/2026

Regional Planning will give a presentation on the County's sustainable energy ordinance that includes battery energy storage systems and an update on the data centers motion that passed last week WITHOUT a clear path towards a moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas. We need a moratorium! Let's keep up the pressure!

Address

South El Monte, CA
90601, 91714, 91715, 91716, 91732, 91744, 91745, 91746, 91748, 91789

Telephone

562-665-5669

Website

https://instabio.cc/3032617PSuWJu

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