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CLEVELAND — Last Wednesday at the Pilgrim Church in Tremont, environmental activist Lois Gibbs spoke with neighbors of the Cleveland area Kokosing and Shelly asphalt plants. She inspired them to work towards solutions to pollution problems from the plants. Neighbors of both the Kokosing and Shelly plants began the meeting by sharing the problems they deal with living next to the asphalt plants.
Lois passionately related her experience from Love Canal, New York, where, in 1978, she discovered her family was living on a toxic waste dump. She began going door-to-door in her community and found that 50% of the children living at Love Canal had birth defects. Lois became a leader in organizing the neighborhood and together the neighbors pushed local, state, and federal politicians to relocate their families and begin a cleanup of the area. Lois and her neighbors were successful: they got 833 families relocated and the cleanup of the toxic site at Love Canal started. Lois Gibbs is now the Executive Director of the Center for Health and Environmental Justice, a Washington D.C. area group she formed in 1980 to help other communities across the country facing struggles similar to hers at Love Canal.
At the meeting last week Gibbs told the neighbors they had rights to breathe clean air and to live in a pleasant neighborhood. The lesson she passed on was the way to make change happen is to act. Neighbors left voicing their commitment to getting even more involved in the work to get Kokosing and Shelly Asphalt to clean up their plants. Forty people attended the event including neighbors of Shelly and Kokosing Asphalt plants, Ohio Citizen Action canvassers, and other community members.
— John Kester, intern, Ohio Citizen Action
 CLEVELAND — Shelly Asphalt’s plant on West Third Street in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland is the company’s biggest polluter in all of Ohio, according to its reports to the Ohio EPA. The asphalt plant is on the west side of the valley formed by the Cuyahoga River, in the area known as the Flats. It sits just below the Tremont neighborhood.
The plant put out 222,569 pounds of pollution in 2009, which is 75,246 pounds more than the company’s second biggest polluting asphalt plant in Lima, Ohio. Shelly Asphalt emits soot, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead. These pollutants can cause bronchitis, asthma, heart attacks, and other health problems.
— Erin Campbell, intern, Ohio Citizen Action
 OLMSTED FALLS — “I’m writing this letter for my family, and for family who have yet to be born. Your daily operations pollute the air, water, and overall environment, and make it difficult for us all to enjoy what nature has provided us. Many individuals suffer from asthma, and other breathing diseases, which I believe are a direct result of companies that stretch the limits of pollutant regulations.
In addition to humans, we also have to think about the lives of animals. Not just the wildlife, but the insects and their daily reproductive cycle, which allows plants to grow and produce oxygen for us to breath.
Please take the time to look at yourself, and the company that you work for and ask yourself, ‘what will the world look like in 10, 20, 30 years, if we do not do something about it today?’ The more individuals that think about the future today will allow the future on this planet to occur. If we fail to act, the planet will surely deteriorate, and expire sooner than we want.”
— the Himler family, letter to Steve Alex, Shelly Asphalt
 UNIVERSITY HTS — “I am writing to ask for your cooperation and partnership with the communities that are neighbors to Shelly Asphalt’s plants to find ways to significantly reduce the pollution that your facilities presently emit into their surroundings. I am sure you know that the pollutants you send into the environment not only jeopardize the health of your community members, but contribute to the decline and decay of northern Ohio’s natural health as a whole. Our watersheds are being negatively impacted by the soot that emanates from your plant, and the air that we all breathe is deteriorating in quality, in part, due to your plants’ practices.
In light of the major breech of responsibility we are witnessing through the BP oil leak in the Gulf, I hope that you take the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of other corporations who have neglected their duties as parts of greater regional and global communities. Please persist in championing a healthy and responsible joint venture with the citizens of the neighborhoods that surround you. I encourage you to make your facilities as safe as they can be for the families and children who must live within their proximities each and every day.”
— Rebecca Keating, University Heights, June 2 letter to Steve Alex, Shelly Asphalt
 Helen Vasalinda in front of Shelly Materials TREMONT — “My name is Helen Vasalinda and I have lived in the Tremont area for 40 years (33 of which have been on University Road). Twenty-some years ago, without anyone’s knowledge, Osterland put an asphalt plant in front of my house. No notice, no warning about the health hazards, smell, and noise, dust or truck traffic.
I continuously called the EPA, and as far as I know the EPA finally made the plant make improvements. Since then Osterland has sold the plant to a foreign buyer (Shelly), who has no consideration for the people of Tremont. The conditions are getting very bad again. We need the help of the people of Tremont, also the city of Cleveland.”
— Helen Vasalinda, Shelly Asphalt neighbor
 Dwayne Keeney CLEVELAND — “I’ve been a resident of Tremont and a neighbor to the Shelly plant for nearly nine years. And yes, the plant was in Tremont before I was. I understand that when you move into a neighborhood you are obligated to deal with any existing shortcomings. But the plant down the hill has not lived up to its obligations as part of the neighborhood. The smells get worse, the noise is nearly constant and even the vibrations seem more frequent and noticable.
I believe it’s possible for asphalt plants to operate in proximity to residential neighborhoods and to do so as good neighbors. I believe that’s all my neighbors and I are hoping for. Scrubbers can reduce Shelly’s contribution to the dirty air. Strobes can eliminate the back-up beepers on heavy equipment. Warnings to drivers of clients’ trucks that slamming of tailgates and speeding down residential streets will not be tolerated can go a long way toward establishing a healthy relationship between residents and the local asphalt plant.
While I appreciate the helping attitude that’s been displayed during earlier discussions with management of the plant, what I long to see is action. In the past, cries of protest have been sounded. Previous agreements have been delivered. Promises have been made. Action however has been brief or non-existent.
Shelly can do better. Tremont deserves better.”
— Dwayne Keeney, Shelly Asphalt neighbor
Dwayne Keeney
Shelly Asphalt has 41 asphalt plants in Ohio. The location of each asphalt plant is marked on this map by using the plant number. The Shelly plant that Ohio Citizen Action is doing a good neighbor campaign on is marked with a red arrow.
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