At seven years old, my mom moved us to Richmond, California for a job. She worked on the line at a Chevron refinery on the edge of town. As a single mom, she worked double shifts to put a roof over our head, and eventually, to buy that roof. We lived less than three miles away from her job at the plant. Throughout my childhood, there were numerous “non-hazardous sulfuric acid” leaks. Sometimes, there’d be an announcement to “stay in place”, to shut every window and avoid going outside. These could be for a few hours, or a few days.
The area surrounding the plant had the highest rates of childhood asthma in the county and region. When we went to our city hall and testified that we wanted more oversight of the plant, we got nowhere. Where was the EPA? Where were our elected officials? The part of town where the Chevron plant was located was a poor, working class community in the 70s and 80s. We didn’t have the political will to push back or to demand transparency or accountability. Our concerns were neither heard nor valued equally with the petrochemical giant.
Not any more. The data centers popping up all over this country have real costs for the communities they’re sited in. They affect our water, the costs of our utilities, and they are killing good-paying jobs and replacing them with AI – all at our expense.
If we stand together, our voices will be too loud to ignore. Let’s go to city hall, let’s go to every budget, appropriations, community development, and health and safety meeting they have – and let’s make it impossible to ignore our safety and the safety of our children and grandchildren.
Not in Anyone's Backyard 