{"id":1516,"date":"2024-04-03T12:24:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/?p=1516"},"modified":"2024-04-03T12:25:33","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:25:33","slug":"chester-pa-a-city-already-facing-environmental-justice-impacts-is-now-being-targeted-for-a-dangerous-liquified-natural-gas-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/education\/chester-pa-a-city-already-facing-environmental-justice-impacts-is-now-being-targeted-for-a-dangerous-liquified-natural-gas-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania city already facing EJ impacts, is now being targeted for a dangerous liquified natural gas facility"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“As a resident of Chester, PA, a city between Philadelphia and Delaware which is 72% Black, Mayfield has witnessed her vibrant community face the brunt of environmental injustices resulting from polluting facilities for decades. Now, Chester faces the threat of a toxic LNG export terminal.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Chester, the only city in the county and the oldest city in the state, was once an industrial powerhouse and is currently undergoing revitalization after years of economic decline. Home to the Philadelphia Union soccer team, Widener University and its innovative robotics engineering program, a new K-12 school of the arts, Harrah\u2019s Casino, and strong community organizations, the city is working to provide opportunities and growth while also navigating the short-sighted and prejudicial infrastructure issues that drive disproportionate environmental burdens. While many of these new aspects are providing benefits, there is also cause for concern. For instance, the Subaru Stadium, home of the Philadelphia Union, touts itself as a zero-landfill facility but the stadium actually sends its garbage to the very damaging facility that forced the foundation of CRCQL in the first place: the Covanta Incinerator. Likewise, Widener University refuses to recognize Chester as an environmental justice community and the Kimberly Clark\/Scott Paper company is a major polluter in Chester.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While Chester undergoes this proposed revitalization, such as the Chester Cultural Corridor, new hotels and restaurants, and public transportation development, it is crucial that any development plans go through community review and environmental justice considerations. The addition of an LNG terminal in a city already filled with the health and environmental hazards of compounding development would destroy the riverfront and pollute the land. <\/strong>Mayfield and her organization continue to take action, to prioritize the lives of Chester community members over corporate profit.<\/p>\n

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Because of Chester’s waterfront location on the Delaware River opening it up to shale gas, Penn America Energy proposes to build a new $6.4 billion liquified natural gas export terminal in the area. LNG is attractive to the gas industry because its liquified state allows for transport across long distances and the gas’ export throughout the world. However, these plants are huge polluters, emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gases in cooling and storage processes, pose safety risks from combustion, flares, and leakage, and lock our energy system into decades of prolonged fossil fuel use.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Many other LNG projects are proposed away from population centers in more sparely populated rural areas, but the Chester site is located in the center of a densely populated community which already faces high levels of environmental burdens and pollution. The project was rejected by Philadelphians and sent to the doorstep of Chester residents. Energy infrastructure like this once again asks Black and Brown communities to sacrifice their health and safety for the profits of others.<\/em><\/strong>“<\/p>\n

Read more from WeAct for Environmental Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“As a resident of Chester, PA, a city between Philadelphia and Delaware which is 72% Black, Mayfield has witnessed her vibrant community face the brunt of environmental injustices resulting from polluting facilities for decades. Now, Chester faces the threat of a toxic LNG export terminal. Chester, the only city in the county and the oldest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1865,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1865"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/environmental-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}