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Thursday, 28 August 2008 13:26 |
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Wal-Mart first announced plans for a Merced distribution center in August 2005, when it predicted the facility would open "in 2008." Much has changed since then, including an ongoing recession, rising fuel prices and concern over global climate change, all of which have had a major impact on Wal-Mart's supply chain. It's becoming increasingly expensive to manufacture goods in China and Southeast Asia and ship them across the globe to U.S. stores. As author Naomi Klein recently said in the New York Times: "If we think about the Wal-Mart model, it is incredibly fuel-intensive at every stage, and at every one of those stages we are now seeing an inflation of the costs for boats, trucks, cars...That is necessarily leading to a rethinking of this emissions-intensive model, whether the increased interest in growing foods locally, producing locally or shopping locally, and I think that's great." To maintain its profits during the economic downtown, Wal-Mart has been consolidating its distribution network. At the end of July, Wal-Mart pulled out of an 800,000 square foot distribution center near the Port of Savannah, GA, citing the need to "streamline efficiencies" in its operations. |
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Monday, 11 August 2008 17:31 |
For decades, City Planners and City Council used prevailing NW-SE Valley wind patterns as a reason to dump industrial development in Southeast Merced. They reasoned that soot generated by industry would blow over adjacent farmlands, damaging crops but mostly avoiding direct contact with people.
Unfortunately for people who now live in Southeast Merced, that story is not entirely true, according to wind roses data generated by San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District staff using CIMIS. Wind roses show the direction and speed wind travels at a certain location.
A look at the 2003-2007 12-month average wind rose indeed shows a prevailing wind from Northwest to Southeast. The July-only wind rose average from 2003-2007 shows an even stronger Northwest-Southeast wind current. However, during winter months -- when an inversion layer traps particulate on the Valley floor -- the wind current reverses direction and blows Southwest-Northeast, blowing locally-generated pollution into Southeast Merced neighborhoods.
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 14:12 |
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Yesterday, the Barstow City Council approved plans for a new Wal-Mart distribution center dedicated solely to food distribution.The warehouse, located approximately 45 minutes from Wal-Mart's Apple Valley distribution center, will contain over 520,000 square feet in refrigerated storage. According to the project's Environmental Impact Report, diesel trucks using the warehouse will generate a shocking amount of toxic air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. From the air quality chapter in the Barstow EIR: - In total, every year the distribution center's diesel trucks will generate over 550 tons of Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), including over 350 tons of NOx dumped into the Mojave Desert Air Basin. NOx forms ground-level ozone and fine particulate, which trigger asthma attacks and cause heart, lung and brain damage and premature death.
- The Barstow distribution center's diesel trucks will generate 556 tons of particulate every year, including 310 tons per year into the Mojave Desert Air Basin. The California Air Resources Board recently found that exposure to particulate (soot) causes nearly 3,000 Valley residents to die prematurely every year.
Concentrating that much pollution in the San Joaquin Valley and Southeast Merced amounts to a potential death sentence for our children and elders.
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Monday, 28 July 2008 13:45 |
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On July 26, the Merced Sun-Star urged City Council to let Wal-Mart "spew pollutants into our already dirty air" and build a distribution center in Merced. This is our response, as submitted to the Sun-Star. --- Desperation and hopelessness can lead us down some strange paths, as shown in the Sun-Star’s July 26 endorsement of the proposed Wal-Mart distribution center.
We are all well aware of the crises facing Merced residents as we hover near the top of national foreclosure, unemployment and air pollution rankings. Last November, an opponent of the Wal-Mart distribution center – a mother, seven months’ pregnant – died from a severe asthma attack.
These seem like massive problems, out of our control.
We have another crisis in Merced, one we can control: a crisis in democracy. Too often, Merced residents most affected by development are shut out of meaningful participation in the City’s decision-making process. We feel hopeless and alone, as though projects are a ‘done deal’ before we know how they impact us.
The Stop Wal-Mart Action Team works to empower Merced residents to speak out about this massive project’s impact on our lives. The health and quality of life of our children, and our children’s children in South and Southeast Merced, must not be sacrificed for the ephemeral promise of jobs and the guaranteed benefit to Wal-Mart’s profits.
We ask the Sun-Star staff and all Merced residents two simple questions:
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Tuesday, 15 July 2008 13:11 |
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All week long, the Stop Wal-Mart Action Team had a table at the Merced County Fair. Check out our new t-shirts!  |
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