Tri-Valley CAREs organized a community event on Thursday, February 26, at Livermore Gardens, an apartment community located at 5720 East Avenue in Livermore, less than a block from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The 1970’s era complex backs up to Arroyo Seco, a wild section of land with a perennial creek where kids from the complex often play, and where, in the early 90’s the EPA found plutonium in soil samples. Additionally, a contaminated groundwater plume emanating from the Lab stretched down the arroyo requiring the Lab to dig a pipeline and wells to pump up the contaminated water and send it back to the Lab for treatment.
The complex is home to directly impacted residents who have the right to know the truth and have access to clear and up-to-date information about the environmental status of the area where they are living. Significant complex residents are monolingual Spanish speakers or are more comfortable speaking Spanish, and they deserve to have materials that are in their language. Tri-Valley CAREs organized this open neighborhood community meeting to provide this kind of information.
Additionally, the meeting was meant to inspire conversation where residents could learn more about the laboratory, local environmental concerns, and the importance of environmental cleanup efforts in the Tri-Valley. We also provided food and drinks that the community could enjoy during the meeting.
The informational presentation was led by Anoushka Raj, the Environmental Program Manager at Tri-Valley CAREs. Anoushka brings extensive education and experience in environmental justice and community organizing, and her work focuses on expanding community participation in the cleanup of federal Superfund sites. This includes both the main site of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and its Site 300 high-explosives testing range near Tracy.
Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussion with Marylia Kelley, who previously served as Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs (now Senior Advisor) and who lived in the complex for more than 20 years.
Anoushka and Marylia explained to the public why full cleanup and transparency are essential when dealing with contamination from past activities at the Lab. As for ongoing Lab activities, protecting community health remains a central priority, and public awareness is an important part of that process.
Conversations also centered around what comes next in advocacy and community work in the community. For example, strategies for including community perspectives in cleanup standards at the Lab, improving access to documents and meetings in both English and Spanish, providing clear notice about upcoming decisions that affect the community, organizing both in-person and online meetings, offering accessible Superfund site tours, and advocating for solutions that ensure contamination is cleaned up rather than left in place. Residents signed on to a letter calling on Livermore Lab to fully clean up its toxic contamination.
Leading up to the meeting, the Tri-Valley CAREs team also participated in community walks at Livermore Gardens. Over the span of two weeks, Tri-Valley CAREs members and staff canvassed in both English and Spanish, knocking on all 96 apartments. These outreach efforts helped connect with local residents, share information about the organization’s work, and invite people to join the conversation in an open, safe and welcoming environment.
Tri-Valley CAREs believes that open community events like this play an important role in bringing Livermore neighbors together and strengthening local engagement around environmental impacts of the Lab. We work to give transparency about what the Lawrence National Laboratory does, what environmental contamination means, and why cleanup efforts matter for the health and safety of surrounding communities.
Tri-Valley CAREs definitely will again organize events like the Livermore Gardens gathering in the near future. We also introduce to the public the ways to stay involved with Tri-Valley CAREs activities and follow our updates. One of the best ways to stay informed is by joining the Tri-Valley CAREs email mailing list and participating in our monthly community Zoom meetings. Our next meeting will take place on March 19 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., and we welcome anyone interested in learning more and being part of the environmental issues conversation. You can always check our Calendar to see all Tri-Valley CAREs events.
*This Community Meeting was organized with Funding from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.