We are the state's largest environmental organization, with 100,000 dues-paying members.
We have devoted most of our resources over the past five years to running -- and winning -- “good neighbor campaigns,†which use the power of community organizing to cause major polluters to prevent pollution at their facilities. The campaigns have succeeded in winning changes far beyond what federal or state regulations would require. more on good neighbor campaigns
How do our members keep winning good-neighbor campaigns?
Mittal Steel, Cleveland Works
The steel mill in the Flats section of Cleveland has had eight different owners over the past 90 years. The International Steel Group (ISG) was a new company formed to purchase the mill from the bankrupt LTV Steel Company in 2002. The Greater Cleveland community rallied behind ISG's efforts and provided them with the resources to help reopen the Cleveland Works, preserving 1200 jobs at the sprawling 1200-acre complex. ISG became a successful and profitable company and was purchased by Mittal Steel for $4.5 billion dollars in April 2005.
Mittal Steel was formed through the merger of two companies; LNM Holdings and Ispat International, both owned by London-based billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who is now the third richest man in the world. Mittal Steel is the largest steelmaker in the world. Laskshmi Mittal owns 88% of the company.
The Cleveland Works is the single largest polluter of the air and water in Cuyahoga County, according to reports submitted to the Ohio EPA. It released 76 million pounds of air pollution in 2003 (Source: ISG 2003 Title V fee emissions report).The plant sits on the Cuyahoga River, and discharges 100,000 pounds of pollution into the river (Source: Ohio EPA Toxics Release Inventory, 2001). New data submitted to the Ohio EPA show that the asthma and cancer-causing pollution has risen over 30% from 2003 to 2004. Because the plant is so close to Lake Erie, both its air and water pollution can endanger the lake. Since the steel mill reopened, pollution problems in nearby neighborhoods have included metal flakes and soot covering people's cars and homes, nauseating odors including strong sulfur smells, loud noises, and visible orange and yellow clouds coming from the stacks.
Many of the chemicals and soot coming from the plant can cause long term health problems, including asthma, lung cancer, and developmental damage.
Jun 3: Documentary release - Mittal Steel: Clean up for real
Mittal announces "Good Neighbor Matters Voice Message Line"
CLEVELAND -- "At a meeting of the Tremont Leaders on March 20th, Mittal Cleveland Works Plant Manager Terry Fedor announced a new phone number that residents can call if they observe pollution problems coming from the steel mill. The number, which the plant calls the "Good Neighbor Matters Voice Message Line," is 216-429-7300 .Fedor encouraged the line to be used between 8 AM and 5 PM and promised that people who call the number will get a personal phone call back," Sandy Buchanan, Ohio Citizen Action.
Coal companies have already destroyed 470 Appalachian mountains . . . and they are just getting started.
Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining where mountains are literally blown up -- devastating communities throughout Appalachia, polluting drinking water and destroying rivers.* The coal company first strips all the trees, plants and topsoil from the mountain and dumps it down the mountainside into a stream. * Then the company detonates millions of pounds of explosives to remove the top 500 - 800 feet of the mountain, again dumping the debris down the mountainside. * Next the coal is washed, creating coal sludge containing coal dust, clay and toxic chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, and chromium. The contaminated West Virginia streams and rivers empty into the Ohio River, from which millions of Ohioans get their drinking water. * Real reclamation is not possible. Most sites receive little more than a spraying of exotic grass seed. It will take hundreds or thousands of years to re-grow a forest on the headless mined mountain.
Who's paying for this atrocity? We are.
Coal companies sell this coal to electric utilities, including FirstEnergy, AEP, Dayton Power & Light, and Cincinnati Gas & Electric/Duke Energy. Even AMP-Ohio is apparently planning to use mountaintop removal coal for their proposed new coal plant in Meigs County. The Ohio utilities burn it to make the electricity you are using right now. When we pay our electric bill, we are paying for the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains.
Pin this badge on your site.
Click here to to find out eight things YOU can do to stop mountaintop removal coal mining
Aug 30: Victory!
MARIETTA -- Eramet Marietta Incorporated plant manager Frank Bjorklund has announced an ambitious five-year plan to invest $150 million to upgrade its facility and significantly reduce airborne manganese and odors. The announcement followed months of talks involving Eramet Marietta managers, Neighbors for Clean Air, Ohio Citizen Action and the French Embassy, and came 28 months after we launched our "good neighbor campaign." Eramet has also committed to maintaining a working relationship with members of the community who are most affected by how it does business. Eramet's announcement was made this Saturday, the same morning of the Washington County Labor Day Parade. Neighbors for Clean Air, who last year were barred from marching in the parade because their message "- - Eramet: Let's clear the air - -" was deemed too controversial, celebrated the news by marching with signs acknowledging this major development. "Wow!" said Neighbors for Clean Air spokesperson Caroline Beidler, "We are so glad to see this day." In a full-page ad in the Marietta Times, Eramet revealed its plans to install a state-of-the-art furnace as part of a "comprehensive transformation" toward "drastic reductions in airborne manganese and odors". We look forward to the coming months when we will work with Eramet's decision makers, including plant manager Frank Bjorklund, to implement the details of this exciting new phase of cooperation and accomplishment. Thank you to all of you who wrote more than 57,000 letters and petitions to Eramet and to their second largest shareholder, the French government. Thanks also to everyone who contributed money to the cause, attended public meetings and events and contributed moral support. This is a victory for all of the members of Ohio Citizen Action and for the families of the Marietta area who have worked so hard to convince Eramet to become a good neighbor. Cheers! Melissa English, Southern Ohio Program Director, Ohio Citizen Action. more
We are one of the 100 Best Nonprofits to Work for.
Click here to find out more.
For breaking news check out our website , it's updated daily!