|
|
People working together for social, economic and environmental justice in Tennessee
|
Newsroom Archives
To view Current Press Releases click here
|
|
For release September 18, 2002
|
|
Contacts:
|
Robert Henry
|
Murray Hudson
|
SOCM office
|
|
|
(731) 836-7480
|
(731) 836-9057
|
(865) 426-9455
|
SOCM observes 30th anniversary by kicking off aerial spraying campaign
SOCM, a Tennessee citizens grassroots organizing group, celebrated its 30th anniversary September 18 by kicking off a statewide campaign to address the health problems caused by aerial spraying of chemical herbicides and pesticides.
Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) is known widely for its efforts at regulating the strip mining of coal and the growth of timber cutting in east and middle Tennessee.
SOCM recently began working with residents in five northwestern Tennessee counties where long-term spraying of Malathion and other cotton crop defoliants is suspected of causing widespread health problems.
During a press conference at Dyersburg State Community College SOCM members announced that they will continue efforts to convince the State Department of Agriculture to address the problems through emergency rulemaking, but are planning a legislative campaign in January if the state continues to drag its feet.
"We will be approaching legislative sponsors with a bill that does not place unreasonable limits on farmers", noted Murray Hudson, resident of the Lauderdale County community of Halls and chairman of SOCM's aerial spraying committee.
"We are basically asking that residents be given notice when and where spraying is going to occur and that buffer zones be established to protect hospital patients, schoolchildren and other sensitive elements within the population."
Hudson added that SOCM wants to sit down with area farmers and the Tennessee Farm Bureau to work out regulations that will protect residents' health without placing undue hardships on those who make a living off the land.
"We think some middle ground can be agreed upon. Don't forget that farm families have to breathe the air laced with chemicals like everyone else in these communities", Hudson pointed out.
Complaints about the health risks from aerial spraying aren't limited to west Tennessee's agricultural region.
In 1999 SOCM began receiving complaints from residents in the Sequatchie Valley near Chattanooga and other parts of the Cumberland Plateau, who were experiencing ill effects from the spraying of herbicides and fertilizer on commercial pine forests.
SOCM established an aerial spraying hotline to determine the extent of the problem and received calls from nearly 150 people across the state over the next two years.
Subsequent research into state law and regulations revealed that Tennessee falls short of providing the level of protection given to citizens of many other states.
Nearby Alabama and eastern neighbor North Carolina both have restrictions on spraying and established buffer zones, while many states require prior notification before spraying. Tennessee has no such regulations.
SOCM members will be pushing for legislative approval of the Tennessee Aerial Spraying Protection Act (TASPA). The act would establish licensing requirements to protect against terrorism, permits issued by local Dept. of Agriculture offices, prior notification to residents, posting of fields to be sprayed and the establishment of buffer zones around schools, hospitals and other "protected" locations.
SOCM is an organization of nearly 1,800 families from across the state, most living in rural communities and small towns.
The organization first rose to prominence in the 1970s by battling Tennessee's coal industry over fair taxation and the regulation of strip mining.
More recently, SOCM won a major victory in persuading the federal Office of Surface Mining to permanently declare off-limits to mining the 61,000-acre watershed of Tennessee's largest and most popular state park, Fall Creek Falls.
Coal severance taxes enacted through the group's efforts have brought over $37 million for education and road upkeep into Tennessee's revenue-strapped coal counties. Active SOCM chapters in over a dozen counties work on local problems ranging from storm drain runoff to better schools.
Recently the organization has expanded from its Appalachian roots to begin organizing among African-American communities in middle Tennessee, while suspected health problems attached to aerial spraying affect African American and white communities alike.
"SOCM is really about people organizing to make democracy work for them.
We have learned that we can find our voice through working together and teaching ourselves the skills necessary to have a say in the future of our communities", said SOCM president Barbara Levi, a Hamilton County school teacher.
As part of its 30th anniversary celebration this year, SOCM is launching major campaigns in all three grand divisions of the state. In addition to the aerial spraying campaign, SOCM members on September 27 in Murfreesboro will kick off a renewed effort to gain passage of laws to regulate excessive timber harvesting, which has become a major problem on the Cumberland Plateau of east Tennessee and the Highland Rim of middle Tennessee.
Pulpwood production has ties to the health risks of aerial spraying as well, with numerous east and middle Tennessee residents who live near pine plantations complaining of respiratory and other problems that they suspect are connected to the spraying of herbicides and fertilizers on nearby tree farms.
In October in east Tennessee, SOCM will announce its participation and leadership in a national campaign to convince Congress to extend the fee paid by coal companies to reclaim old mine sites disturbed before federal laws were in effect.
SOCM also hopes to persuade Congress to increase the share of reclamation funds given to Tennessee and other states that lack their own regulatory programs.
|
|
|
