WE WERE AWARE they at the Conoco Conquista uranium mill tailings site were doing a little extra dumping after they had closed down the uranium milling operation. And when they tried to transfer the license to people who had worked there before...well, we thought, “If you are not going to use it yourself, you should shut it down.”

      We read about the proposed license transferral in the Texas Register, and we only had a short time before going to the hearing. What we managed to do was get a continuance on the hearing to have more time to know the factors involved. We wondered how a license to dump could be transferred when it was expired. Yes, they were operating on a timely renewal status, but we think finally Conoco got so much bad publicity over this, that they decided not to attempt to go through with it. They would have had to go through the whole process of relicensing.

    We did obtain help from the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Attorney General’s office on this. And 

     PRACTICING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE for me is part of an overall strategy, with many parts to it. One is, and it is one of the early stages, is to actually place yourself in the position of being arrested. It is a very strong way to bring initial attention to an issue that needs to be brought into focus publicly. It’s a way of dramatically showing that this deserves attention, and illustrates the fact that these people feel so strongly about this, that this is such a bad deal, they are willing to go to jail for it by standing up in the strongest way they know. And this needs to be coupled with other kinds of political action of creating a larger mass movement that can actually work politically, and start changing the system.

     We have a secondary purpose, and that is to make it so that other people can be involved in civil disobedience without having to put themselves at as much risk as what we did. We certainly have not paid a huge price, but we have put ourselves at a lot more risk than most people can really handle by facing six months in jail.

     Our goal is to educate the people of the county that this is that big of a deal, folks. These are people being arrested for praying in front of a weapons facility.

     We can all get used to this is idea. And if you want to cart us off the road, or give us a ticket, or want to throw us in jail overnight, that’s ok, but it seems pretty weird to tell people you are going to put them in jail for six months, which was the very strong message the prosecutors were giving initially. We are a very non-violent group; we are intentionally non-violent, and there’s no way we will be anything but non-violent.

     The arrest stance does not necessarily need to take place at the beginning, it can be at any time in the process; it can be used several times in the process. Most of the time people do it in the beginning so that it can get that initial attention that an issue needs so that the people that will be interested in the issue will come to it. Like in the civil rights days; they needed to start off with boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins and such, so that down through time, after the mass movement was created, they were able to push through the Civil Rights Act in Congress. And those actions needed to happen. Unfortunately, these actions still need to happen.

     THE PEOPLE ACROSS THE (RIO GRANDE) RIVER were just so elated that we were successful in keeping the (low level radioactive waste) site from Ft. Hancock. I think this situation just broadened and strengthened the bonds we had and have now. Those in El Porvenir were a large part of the victory because it showed that even though the river is a border, it really isn’t. In essence there are no borders in a situation of this nature.

      Grassroots groups traditionally come and go, and are usually very issue oriented. And besides the word, grassroots, we (EPISO of the Industrial Areas Foundation) like the word “institutionalized” because grassroots connotes a certain kind of image, and I think it’s important for everyone to understand that it wasn’t just a grassroots effort, it was something coming 

from within the system as church-based, and family unit-based. One of the most important things we learned is that regular people who are part of these systems already can just go ahead and focus and tune in on these issues through their institutions. And what better institutions for justice than the church and the family?

       Once you have a self-interest in a situation, it becomes a prioritized issue for you and your family. Whereas, if someone else comes in and does the work for you, the appreciation is not there. Your involvement builds self-esteem and empowerment. Empowerment is so necessary because you develop a sense that nobody is going to walk over you and that you can succeed.

     WHAT DOES IT TAKE to do this work? A whole lot of stick-to-itness. As discouraging as it gets, try not to let it get you down. Keep at it. Strength; that comes from family and friends. Unfortunately, in a deal like this, you find out who your friends are, and who aren’t. But, you do find new friends and new strengths.

      I did a whole lot of soul searching to determine if what I felt and what we were doing was right, and that provided me with a lot of strength. You find strength where you didn’t know you had it, both in yourself, and in your friends and family. It’s just pure dedication. If you think you are right, you have to keep going, and there were times it was pretty darn hard. I would think, “I just give up!” Then a week would go by, and I’d calm down a little bit and say, “I can’t let them get away with this; I just can’t.”

      My first reaction to the idea of siting a low level dump here was, “I don’t like this at all.” I was naive and easily snowed, and I sat back and thought, “Let’s see what happens before I get all upset about it.” And lo and behold, suddenly I realized sittin’ back and waiting for what was to happen was just cuttin’ my own throat, because the Authority’s way of doing business specifically was to go as fast forward as they could. They did not make things real open and aware to us until it was too late for us to do something about it. They kept saying we would have these public hearings, and we would have input, and I kind of believed them. Then it dawned on me that by the time they came around to having the public input, it was getting to be a moot issue because the wheels would have turned so far.

      What first of all happened, they hadn’t even picked the site. They had it narrowed down to three or four places and that’s what keep me hanging back for so long. It took them so long to ”officially” pick a site, and I was waiting for them to officially pick one, and I thought they would be honest and on 

the up and up, and then we’ll talk about it. Well, as it turned out, they were kind of snowing us; they had picked our site unofficially, quietly, for a long, long time, and knew they were going with that site, and the others were covers, I guess you would say. And that’s what put me off. If I had known from the very beginning that they had ultimately picked our site, I would have jumped in with both feet.

      Educating myself occurred slowly and painfully. Lots and lots of letters were written, and lots of phone calls were made. We went to Austin and met with anybody we could think of that could have a bearing on this, or give us advice. Talk about an education! We started kind of in the middle with our local legislators and worked up and down from there. We met with the Governor’s office, Lt. Governor’s staff, Attorney General, Bureau of Radiation Control, Texas Water Commission, Sierra Club.

      The interesting thing is, I was kinda concerned that it would be real hard to get in and see people. Some we got in with EPISO’s help, but a lot of them, I just did myself over the phone. I called and said, “I’m Mary Alcorn, and I’m coming to Austin, and I’d like to meet with you.” Most of them, almost without exception, were more than willing to meet. You kind of think of them as real inaccessible, and there are a few that are, but one way or the other, through staff or whatever, if you really keep after them, it is not that hard to meet with them. Followup is also very important so they know you are seriously concerned.

     Most of what happened in our case was good fortune and luck from the people who stayed with it. A lot of strings were being pulled from enough directions. Diversity is important too. Garner support from as many groups as you can because the more they hear from more different groups, the more impact it has. What is it they say that there’s safety in numbers?

     I’M JUST SO DOWN AND OUT, you have no idea how frustrated and washed out I feel with all of this. My lawsuit against TECO is about the contamination of off site underground water, and for the refusal of a bank loan for my farm operations, and the devaluation of my property now. I have a letter proving that my loan was refused because of the location of a toxic waste dump next to my property.

     What keeps me going is to protect  my  interest,  and  that

what they are doing is deadly wrong. It’s as wrong as if I was to go out there and run over somebody on the highway and kill ‘em, or if I would take my shotgun and be a sniper. I love the environment, and I see it being destroyed literally every day of my life being right here. Just the fact that they are in here, they are destroying the environment. Nobody can argue with me that it was better than it was before they were here in this particular area.

      THE FIRST THING YOU NEED is a group that is not divided.  Select a president. Put your trust in him or her, and don’t try to grab the glory. Every organization has one or two people that wants to hog the mike, I guess is what you would say. So, keep the group together and do not let inside conflicts detract you from the project as a whole. Also, do not get discouraged, because it is common practice that these people are gonna try to buy your local government, and worm their way in before you can really do anything, and you don’t have any money. You just have to stick with it. It’s all gotta be done on a shoestring, as you well know.

     • • •

     FIRST OF ALL, what you must do is take a good look at the situation and see if it’s something that’s going to be harmful to your area. If you decide it is, get opinions from people who know about the conditions of the land and the water, and what the effect of the proposed operation would be on them. We got a geologist to look at the faults around here. We did a lot of investigating. We hired a good lawyer.

     You can find out a lot of things by going to the county courthouse, and looking at records to see if there’s any adverse liens against the people proposing the facility. See what their business reputation is, and what experience they have. So many times you can talk directly with people, although I never talked directly to these folks. We just started having meetings here in the subdivision to discuss the situation; trying to get a sense of how the people felt about it. When we decided to organize, we got the information on how to start a non-profit organization. You don’t have to get a non-profit charter, but I think it is to your advantage. Then you apply to the federal government for non-profit status, and then all the donations you get are tax deductible for the people who give them. I think this helps.

     Raising money is the hard part. We held fund raising dances, auctions, accepted contributions, and sponsored a booth at the Harvest Festival selling hot chocolate and baked goods. Our membership cost $5 per person and $10 per family. We kept it low because we didn’t want anybody who wanted to be members to be excluded.

      At some point in time, and I think the time is now, we must start looking into the future. We don’t want to put the industries out of business. We desperately need the industries, but we do want them to clean up their act. We want a safer environment for the workers. We want a safer place for our homes and for our future generations. And remember this, industry may contribute the big campaign bucks, but the people elect the officials, and it’s time that we send out the signals about what we expect of them. We must have laws to protect us. We must have elected officials who will stand up and be counted, and we must have industries that will reduce, recycle, and neutralize waste, and properly dispose of the small amount that is left. These things we insist on, and these things we must have.

      I KNOW THAT THERE'S SOME OF YOU in this room who will profit monetarily from this injection well, and that’s what makes this country go round...the capitalistic system. But I would encourage everybody not to let a short term gain create a long term loss. Brazoria County is going to continue to fight this well, and I hope we bring it to a successful conclusion. Nothing is certain, but that you have to fight this well.

     • • •

     YOU DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO. We went into this with our eyes open. All you are doin’ is protectin’ your land, and there’s very few precious things that’s left. It’s not gold or silver, but you eat off the fat of the land. That’s your livin’. And I don’t care if it’s an inch; it’s yours.

    THERE'S NOTHING THAT MAKES YOU more charged than seeing people empower themselves. I tell them, “The power is y’all’s, guys. Take it. Don’t give it away.” I think one of the things, too, is that with Ann’s (Richards) election, these agency people started seeing the power of the people. And I think there’s a lot of power in people. I see some things that have changed in the Health Department just since staff started getting active like pulling citizens into hearings. Our system is built for public participation. It’s the balance of the scales.

  And some of my most satisfying work? Beatin’ Waste Management, bustin’ Dal Tile, and staying on the Texas Health Department (TDH) enough about suspected groundwater contamination at the South Dallas County site. We requested split test samples from both the TDH and them, and they went for it. These were the first split samples done in Texas, and now it is the norm. Keepin’ the Red Barnes dump out, too. That was a 1,000 acre dump that was to come in this area. Because we are establishing a reputation...that’s the whole idea...they realized our power and backed off. You’ve got to get a reputation about not tolerating being dumped on.

      But with Laidlaw, our community is too split. We have two different groups in this city. It became a war of the groups. That’s the divide and conquer routine, and that’s what the companies want because that’s what’s effective. But from Laidlaw, what it did was open our eyes and made it so we could go into other communities with our knowledge. Like Save Our Community over there in Ferris that kept Waste Management from expanding their dump. We helped them set up and organize.

    You wanna know what keeps me goin’? God does. God gives me the energy and the drive, and when people say they are so tired, I just seem to reach down in my pocket and there’s more strength. And the more I am into it, I wonder why God puts the people together that He puts together. You know, sometimes things happen that are not scientifically explainable...You educate your community and tell them what’s happening, and then let them make educated choices. We are definitely stewards of the land.

     THE LINK WE FOUND in forming Environment 2000 that we have not had in the past is the ability to incorporate organized labor in with the environmental groups. We had so much in common, and so much of the same goals, that we needed some vehicle to interact and network. The membership of organized labor usually does not tend to perceive itself as ones who would join the existing environmental groups.

      Environmental groups have tended to come together to fight something, and then they disband. So a lot of times they carry negative names, as well as negative connotations. People have felt they have been at odds with everybody...with parts of the community, as well as whoever they were fighting against. That’s not always the case, but it’s the perceived idea that you go in with. The people we want to bring in are those that have not traditionally been in environmental groups, as well as members of the minority communities.

      For awhile there were no effective environmental groups here, because people, for the longest time thought, “That’s money you smell.” Yes, money for the doctors and the undertakers, but it does not have to be that way. People were conditioned here that if you wanted the job, you had to take the pollution with it. And it is no more that way. People want to do something. They think they can do recycling, but never before have they thought they could do something that could change their air or their water; it was something they had no control over. Environment 2000 was organized to educate the community on their rights.

      A lot of the environmental groups would have no consideration as far as the jobs of the plant workers. If a plant is a polluter, why, their goal would be to just shut it down. Our goal would be to clean it up. We both have the objective of having a cleaner environment, but our methods would be different. Through this group we would like to get our message to the environmental groups that we have a concern for jobs. I think we can make a lot of gains by working within the structure and forming the alliance between the environmentalists and the labor groups.

      I attended a meeting with local residents and there was such a sense of frustration to do something about the situation here, and there was no vehicle in this town to do it. People who live and work here know that they are having problems, and there was nowhere to go to address that. With Environment 2000, we can show them that we can do positive things, and we can do it on a local level.

      And that’s how we want to keep it, is local. That way there is not the perception that outsiders are coming in, which the media often uses against them. Being associated with a national group carries the outsider name, and that can be a problem when you are talking to the press, industry, business leaders, or community people.

      The first thing I said in organizing this group is that I do not want to be against anything. I want to do something entirely different. If we have something we want to see changed, we will present an alternative to it. If there is a viable alternative, we ought to push to have it, but we have to be educated enough to know to look for it.

      People basically resist change. We want the new, but we want to remain the same; that’s the dichotomy in people. People resist change unless they see there can be a difference. We have long term goals, and we are focusing on short term goals, too, and when people see the positiveness in that it can be done, the momentum builds.

       SO MANY PEOPLE don’t think that one person can make a difference, and really it has to start someplace, so let it start with me. There was a Sunday school lesson on TV one morning, and I was sitting there reminiscing and contemplating a lot of things, and this message came. I thought, “Lord, send me. I’ll go. I’ll try.”

      At first I became a member of FUSE (Friends United for a Safe Environment), and now I’ve gone all the way to national with being on the National Toxics Campaign Board. Four or five years ago I never thought my life would be affected in such a way. Ever since losing my mother, I became more involved. I became more determined to make a difference because I said I owe this to her. Now I’m in this for life. There’s no way I’ll get out. It’s the only thing I know. It’s an ongoing thing; an ongoing education everyday.

We had a wonderful, wonderful summit in Washington, D.C. last October (The United Church of Christ’s Peoples’ Summit). It was multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-everything. The march up to Capitol Hill...beautiful, very spiritual. The Lord met us there. He took us all away. This work has to be with you spiritually because if you are in it for the glory, there is no need in even thinking about it. There’s a lot of late hours, a lot of sacrifices to be made. But you are going to be part of a tradition. It’s an ongoing, ongoing thing. And that’s where you get your feeling from.

      You start with one thing, and find small accomplishments and satisfaction doing it, and before you know it, you are so wrapped up in it, it becomes a part of you.

    It’s like a second skin really. You go through so many hardships and you can identify and be empathetic with so many people, that when you thought you were out there alone and powerless, it gives you a certain identity. I think that’s the only way I can say it.

      And then it makes you stronger with yourself. You come from being an “hysterical housewife” one day to being a person that says, “No, we are going to make a difference.” And you stop becoming an “I” person, then you become a “we” person, and it changes your whole life. It’s a marriage of sorts. It really is. You are reborn. That’s the way I feel.

      This a part of my life that destroyed the part that I thought was good. I found out that I wouldn’t be able to put my life together in a whole way that I would like, but I’m not going to give up. Then you find others who have just as bad off or even worse than you. And these types of environmental and human health problems are happening everywhere; all over. It’s a universal thing; a global thing. And you say, “Oh, this wouldn’t happen to us in the United States. We are U.S. citizens. This is America.” But this is where it’s happening all the time. We just aren’t aware of it.

       You know, people are votes, and if we are ever going to remain doing things in the American way, within the system we have in place, we must vote. And if you can’t talk to them and make a difference, you can vote them out; one or the other. And put someone in who knows at least how you are feeling. If you don’t then you won’t have a world anymore because we are destroying it from within. It’s ignorance and neglect. Well, it’s a lot of things.