Kimberly Wasserman Nieto, a Chicana mother of three, led a 15-year battle with her organization to shut down two coal plants in her Chicago community and won. For her work, she, along with five other recipients have been honored with the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, now in its 24th year.
Called the “Pulitzer Prize” of the environmental movement, the prize recognizes environmental heroes from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions who are working against all odds to protect the environment and their communities. Each recipient wins a cash prize of $150,000—the largest award for grassroots environmental action.
It was the last thing Kimberly Wasserman Nieto expected. “It’s amazing to win this award. I’m honored and humbled to know that a girl from the southwest side of Chicago doing this work could ever get to this space,” she told El Tecolote.
Those who know her are probably less surprised. Wasserman Nieto is a fighter. She learned at a young age what it takes to organize.
“I grew up in a family that had organizers in it and my parents planted the justice seed in me to fight for what was right. My organizing began in grammar school. Both my parents were organizers and took us to all kinds of events and rallies as a little kid. You fight for what you believe in. I hope my children have picked up that same seed to really question and not stay quiet.
“Immigration rights, environmental rights, workers rights, I went to Washington, DC countless times as a child, walked countless picket lines. I remember my dad doing hunger strikes. It’s been a part of our lives and the reality is that it was effective and sometimes it wasn’t, but people picked themselves up and dusted themselves off and that message really embodied itself in my thinking.”
The message was part of her soul and kept her going when she was a mom, going door-to-door, as part of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEO), talking with neighbors about two of oldest, dirtiest coal-fired power plants around: Crawford and Fisk, (owned by Midwest Generation) and both located in Chicago’s West Side. Crawford was near her southwest Chicago barrio called “Little Village,” and Fisk in nearby Pilsen district—also a Latino neighborhood of mostly Puerto Ricans.
Her own home was located less than a mile from the Crawford plant and she felt the effects of the pollution all around her growing up but probably most keenly when she had to rush her then 3-month-old infant to the hospital because he couldn’t breathe. He was having an asthma attack. It was then she learned his asthma was triggered by environmental pollution.
“It drove myself and the organization to understand why this was happening. It took us four years. We were collecting anecdotal data and in 2002 the Harvard School of Public Health study was released. It was amazing and upsetting to see that data and put real numbers behind what was happening behind our communities… but also a tool to channel that anger and frustration into something positive.”
The smokestacks in Little Village released huge clouds of toxic emissions and the kids would call them “cloud factories.” Like other low-income communities across the nation dealing with environmental racism, the residents suffered from high rates of asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses. The smell of sulfur oxides-which smells like rotting eggs would linger over the neighborhood.
The Harvard study linked more than 40 premature deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks each year to the toxic clouds from the two plants. Of course, children were the most vulnerable to the pollution.
“I think the heart of the environmental justice movement and the placement of these industries is not by accident in communities of color,” she said. “Local government and industry see an opportunity to exploit community and land. Unfortunately, under the guise of jobs and development and prosperity, people place these things in our community when the impact outweighs the positives of these [things].”
Little Village says Wasserman Nieto, is a community made up of “primarily Mexican and Mexican Americans. 75,000 people live in our neighborhood in a very condensed 5-mile radius. It is the second largest concentration of Mexicans in the Midwest outside of East Los Angeles.”
The residents suffered from the effects of the pollution for generations. The coal dust from the plants settled in the homes and on school grounds. Nebulizers and oxygen tanks were not an uncommon sight. Parents kept their children inside and would not allow them to play outside. They were worried about asthma attacks from the bad air.
During their neighborhood canvassing organizers explained and convinced parents why their children were having health problems. Some of the parents who were undocumented and afraid to speak up, did so, understanding that they had a right to live free of toxic pollution.
“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from and who you know or don’t know. It’s about having a passion to make a difference and providing a safe space to live. You don’t have to have anything special, just that passion and willingness,” she told El Tecolote.
She added, “Our communities are disenfranchised, if not language, by economic barriers. It’s our job to empower people to question: ‘is government working for me or against me? As a community member, government works for me and how do I get my voice heard?’ ”
She made sure to keep local stories and voices heard and worked with other local community-based organizations to form alliances with faith, health, labor and environmental groups. By helping build this widespread coalition, local policymakers could not ignore their concerns.
With little money they launched a vocal, loud and relentless campaign from pickets to packing public meetings, organizing “Toxic Tours” of industrial sites and even staged a “Coal Olympics” timed around the City’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. They were relentless.
The effort gained momentum in 2011 when the Chicago Clean Power Coalition was created and when new players were elected into City Council including a new mayor Rahm Emanuel
Finally, the Clean Power Ordinance was approved meaning that the coal plants would have to upgrade pollution controls and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rather than do that, Midwest announced it would shut down the two plants and in fact closed ahead of schedule in Fall of 2012.
According to news accounts, the agreement prohibits any fossil fuel industry from operating on the property, and entitles residents to meet the potential new owners, who will be required to present their plans for the site to the community.
“When I got that phone call I cried. I really never imagined what that feeling would be like. It caught me off guard. It was an overwhelming sense of pride and gratefulness and it’s hard to describe. It was one of the most amazing feeling to hear that message and digest the fact that we won. It was 15 years in the making. Of course, one of the most amazing feelings — aside from the birth of my children,” said Wasserman Nieto, smiling. That 3-year-old child that helped propel her work forward is now 15. Her 8-year-old has asthma as well. Her youngest child, 4, does not have it.
She points to culture as having a huge impact on reaching the community.
“The reality is that the Mexican American culture played a huge role in this campaign. Everything from the murals, the artwork on postage, the messaging like Day of the Dead, Day of the Niño, the culture and our reality is what drove the messaging and story. I am proud of my community and culture I come from. Finding ways to pay homage to that and educate our young people that this fight is not a first fight for many of our elders.”
She added, “We’re connecting the intergeneration gap in our communities between our elders and young people. A lot of our folks in both rural and cities in Mexico have been part of struggles in their homeland from farmer rights to the industrialization of the cities. It’s part of our history… and how we learn about our history to help us find our way through to the present.”