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Invitation to Participate in New England Project to Look at Contamination at Military Sites
Dear ,
The project would take place in the spring, summer, or fall of 2021 and would be modeled after the California project described in the next paragraph
. WILPF US would submit grant proposals to a number of potential foundations to get this project up and going.
Pat Elder and Nancy Price of WILPF US's Earth Democracy Committee received a grant from the Patagonia Foundation to execute a California project in March of 2020. Here's the project description: Focusing on California, WILPF US' project--The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water--will provide the public with information (i.e., educational materials, testimony, internet resources, articles, presentations and forums, Op Eds, newspaper stories, etc.) about the contamination of drinking water on and around military bases due to the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and will collaborate with other environmental, water, health, and peace organizations to mobilize grass-roots, intersectional action advocating for the establishment of the lowest maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for PFAS contamination by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Defense (DoD).
By January 2020, Pat Elder had created the comprehensive militarypoisons.org website for the CA WILPF project that featured a database for California military bases and PFAS contamination, and including his and other articles that has been widely used by the public. Due to Covid-19, we were unable to hold the number of community forums across California that we had hoped. Still, the project had great impact, as well as collaboration among a number of health, peace, and environmental groups. We would like to replicate the project for New England in Spring 2021 for the following states: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. We have started to convene teams for each state to help us set up community forums and programs on PFAS near military sites. And already Pat has begun work on separate websites for bases and contamination in these four states (see militarypoisons.org). We realize that each state will need a slightly different focus for the advocacy and actions that we are hoping will take place.
We know from initial zoom calls with PFAS and peace advocates in each state that we have interest and commitment. We are hoping to get more WILPF members involved in each state.
You don't need to belong to a branch to become a part of one of these state teams. If you are interested, we'd be happy to share with you a state information sheet/plan, a wish list of possible PFAS legislation, and an initial project budget (currently estimated at $75,000 for this four-state project). We hope to begin sending out grant proposals soon in order to start securing the necessary funding.
If you would like us to send you the materials or if you should have questions, don't hesitate to contact Pat or me via email or phone:
Marguerite Adelman at 518-561-3939;
madel51353@aol.com
or
Pat Elder at 301-997-3963;
pat.elder@civilianexposure.org
In peace,
Marguerite Adelman (WILPF US and WILPF Burlington)
Pat Elder (Military Poisons and WILPF US)
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