Green Corps Organizer Pat Millham, center, speaks with volunteers about the dangers of mercury pollution.

While most media and public attention has focused on coal-burning power plants as an industrial source of mercury pollution, most people remain unaware that the chlorine industry makes a major—and completely preventable—contribution to the mercury crisis. Nine mercury-based chlorine facilities in the United States use an unnecessary and outdated technology, releasing more mercury pollution than an average power plant.

Oceana enlisted the help of Green Corps organizers to launch the Seafood Contamination Campaign, a grassroots effort designed to protect public health and reduce releases of mercury from chlorine plants. In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia, Green Corps organizers are educating local communities about seafood contamination and building grassroots pressure to convince the CEOs of local chlorine plants to stop using dangerous mercury technology. To build visibility for the issue, Green Corps organizers are calling on local grocery stores to post government-issued mercury warnings wherever fish are sold. In addition, Green Corps organizers are conducting outreach to parent groups about the particular dangers mercury pollution poses to developing children.

In Atlanta, Green Corps organizer Pat Millham is working with community organizations, such as the Georgia League of Women Voters, to generate postcards and phone calls to Olin Corporation’s CEO. Olin operates a chlorine plant that releases mercury.

“Here in Atlanta, it is exciting to see community members coming together. We are asking Olin Corporation to protect the health and well-being of local families by upgrading its plant technology and stopping the use of dangerous mercury,” said Pat, who is a member of the Green Corps class of 2006.

As graduates of Green Corps’ training program, our network of alumni is winning victories and building a stronger environmental movement. In November, Green Corps Class of 2003 member Anna Wagner helped stop developers from building on protected land in California.

In Livermore, California, a city of 75,000 residents located 45 miles east of San Francisco, Green Corps alumna Anna Wagner provided organizing expertise to Friends of Livermore, a local group working to defeat a proposed sprawl initiative. Groups like Friends of Livermore come together to stop unwanted development, but need organizing expertise to succeed.

The residents needed to defeat a ballot measure that would have allowed Pardee Homes to put more than 2,000 homes on 450 acres of protected land in Livermore. The project would also have clogged traffic on one of the Bay Area’s most congested freeways.

As a conservation organizer with the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, Anna trained community members how to turn out voters on Election Day.

Pardee Homes spent $3.25 million trying to sway public opinion, but the community group triumphed in the end. The sprawl measure failed by an overwhelming 72 percent, setting an important precedent for developers who try to use the ballot initiative process to defy the decisions of a community.

All of us at Green Corps would like to thank you for your support, which has enabled us to create concrete change on such a wide range of issues. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress and success.

Sincerely,

Naomi Roth
Executive Director