End Of The Line

Courtesy of Tar Sands Blockade

Activists outside Valero Refinery near Manchester in Houston, and the "end of the line" for the tar sands pipeline, demanding Valero divest.

Continuing the tar sands story blogged earlier, further actions taken in a Manchester, Houston neighborhood with a newly released youtube below documenting community support and concerns.  Manchester is close to the end-of-the-line for the TransCanada pipeline, and where a 90% Latino community lives in the toxic "shadow" of a Valero refinery.  Occupy.com reports Valero a major investor in the pipeline.   

Earth First! Newswire says

Manchester’s relationship with the Valero refinery is a textbook case of environmental racism. Residents there have suffered through decades of premature deaths, cancers, asthma and other diseases attributable to the refinery emissions. With little financial support for lawsuits and without the political agency necessary to legislatively reign-in criminal polluters like Valero, the community suffers while Valero posts record profits.

As to the actions, about a week ago, Diane Wilson, a 4th generation Gulf Coast shrimper and 20 year industrial pollution activist, chained herself by the neck to a truck outside the refinery, and to express solidarity with the Tar Sands Blockade.  Ms. Wilson was joined in this protest by the newly designated San Antonio Bay Waterkeeper, Bob Lindsey Jr., also chaining himself by the neck to a truck, and also hailing from a family of Gulf Coast shrimpers -- among his relatives, 5 generations.  Mr. Lindsey grew up in Calhoun County, where Texans have the highest cancer rate in the state;  his sister had cancer 5 times, and his father and nephew died of rare disorders, all traceable to chemical facilities the family lived and worked near.  Life-long friends, Ms. Wilson is a founding member of Code Pink and active with the Texas Jail Project. Both civil disobedience proponents were arrested, jailed, and have since been released, with both currently on hunger strikes started in jail while decrying the pipeline.  "All my life," said Ms. Wilson, "the Gulf Coast has been an environmental sacrifice zone, and enough is enough."

Photos here at the Tar Sands Blockade website.