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Presentation
Partners for Environmental Justice
Dr. Noman Camp, Co-Chairman of Partners
for Environmental Justice
Betty Welsh-Nemitz, CCMS Environmental
Educator
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| Dr. Norman Camp was born
in East Raleigh in the Martin Street area.
He explored the Walnut Creek area as a
child. He has lived in Southeast Raleigh
for 35 years. He is an educator, environmentalist,
political activist, and advocate. He is
chairman of the South Community Advisory
Council, a member of the Park and Recreation
Advisory Committee and is on the Board
of Brownfield State. He also is a founding
member of the Partnership for Environmental
Justice, the organization sponsoring the
Walnut Creek 2000 project. The partnership
evolved from a committee that Dr. Camp
chaired that included members of his church,
St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, and a sister
church in Fuquay Varina, Trinity Episcopal,
that was shepharded by the same priest,
Frank Gose. |
St. Ambrose Episcopal Church hosted
the presentation
portion of the CCMS wetlands exploration.
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The Walnut Creek wetland is located
in Southeast Raleigh, just a few
blocks south and east of Memorial
Auditorium. People can gaze across
the wetland from the Hanover Square
offices (seen just above the treeline
in this picture). Those that commute
to and from Raleigh using Garner
Road pass through the wetland. |
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Southeast Raleigh is
demographically historically African
American. Currently the Hispanic population
is growing. It is only one of the
historically black communities of
Raleigh: Southeast Raleigh, South
Park, East Raleigh, Method, and Oberlin.
Racial segregation has led to inequities
and a disparity in the distribution
of resources. Developers have now
discovered available and neglected
land in Southeast Raleigh. All citizens
of Raleigh have a civic responsibility
to insure that development be monitored
to benefit the citizens and protect
the environment.
Dr. Camp remembers exploring
the Walnut Creek area as a child,
"I used to walk the two miles to
Walnut Creek as a kid. I loved to
explore the area. I remember the stench
of raw sewage from the City of Raleigh
that was dumped into the stream. As
kids we thought it was exciting and
humorous to see and smell the raw
sewage. The local chicken processing
plant (located on Rock Quarry Road
at the site of the current flea market)
also dumped their waste chicken parts
into the creek. At that time (1940's)
people thought that streams purified
the water within 50 feet. As a chemist,
I know now that they were mistaken."
The creek is now more
protected so it smells clean and is
more beautiful, but the problem has
not been solved. The wetland is loaded
with trash and the potential for runoff
of hazardous chemicals from the Brownfields
area just north of Hammond Pond still
exists. The Brownfield area is currently
under analysis to determine the effect
of chemicals used by Ashland Chemicals
and Dumas Oil. They could potentially
create problems for the people and
the wildlife.
Dr. Camp was inspired
by several things to make a difference
in the wetland environment. He and
other members of his church were concerned
by the trash that was accumulating
in the area. He also found a turtle
trying to nest on a sidewalk because
the wetland was so trashy and polluted.
After I-40 was built, runoff that
resulted from the restructuring of
the topography and the addition of
concrete was causing flooding the
historically significant Rochester
Heights causing property damage. He
was enraged to discover that the Raleigh
City Council told Rochester Heights
citizens that they would be required
to pay for drainage corrections for
the I-40 runoff when citizens in more
prosperous areas of the city had been
provided similar service by the city.
Hurricane Floyd damage and flooding
also contributed to the destruction
of property and caused several elderly
people to lose their homes. Dr. Camp
knew that the flooding and property
destruction were the result of poor
decisions by the Raleigh City Council
back in the 1960's. Developers were
allowed to build parts of the Rochester
Heights community in the flood plain.
It was the first community in which
African Americans citizens could purchase
affordable homes. His awareness of
these problems coupled with his love
of Southeast Raleigh, its land and
its people, fueled his passion for
making positive changes.
In 1996 under the leadership
of Frank Gose, priest at both St.
Ambrose Episcopal Church located on
the south bank of Walnut Creek and
Trinity Episcopal Church located in
Fuquay-Varina, Dr. Camp and other
parishioners from both churches organized
a committee to improve the health
of the wetland and to combat environmental
injustice in the area. Members of
St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cary
joined them. That committee evolved
to include environmental conservation
groups, North Carolina State University
experts, business and community leaders
and became the Partnership for Environmental
Justice - a diverse group of people
with one dream.
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The partnership organized the
Walnut Creek
2000 project to address the
prolonged ecological crisis in the
Walnut Creek wetland. They are seeking
solutions for the repeated flooding
even after moderate rains. They
also address the neglect and abuse
of the wetland that results in habitat
destruction and creates a lurking
health problem. |
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The Partners for Environmental Justice
have made significant gains in restoration
of the wetland. First they had to establish
that the area was truly a wetland.
That was established. Additional tasks
have made great improvements in the
wetland environment. Since 1996 the
Partners for Environmental Justice have
worked successfully to get the City
of Raleigh to correct the I-40 runoff
problems in Rochester Heights, to encourage
the City of Raleigh to build a greenway
in the Walnut Creek wetland (dedicated
in June 2000), and to maintain and police
the greenway.
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The Partners for
Environmental Justice have sponsored
five cleanups since 1998 that
have removed tons of trash from
the area including over 600 tires,
refrigerators, industrial waste,
mattresses, at least 40 large
televisions, bicycles, basketballs,
plastics, and a fire extinguisher
hanging in a tree. The cleanups
not only remove the trash, but
also help keep the area cleaner
because people are less likely
to dump trash in an area that
is well kept and looks like someone
cares about it. After all, trash
begets trash. This also makes
the wetland environment healthier
and safer.
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| In the fall of 1998 four
graduate students taught by Dr.
Robin Moore, an instructor in the
NCSU School of Design's Department
of Landscape Architecture, developed
the park plan after studying the environment
and interviewing many of the community
residents. Professor Moore's teaching
areas are social assessment of public
environments, management and marketing
in community design, and the design of
environments for children and youth. His
mission is to carefully design natural
environments that help maintain the balance
necessary for well being and the healthy
growth of children, so he was particularly
interested in this project. The partnership
also had to gather support and raise funds
for the project. |
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As
Garner Road crosses the wetland
it now looks like this.
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The
proposed plan suggests a cypress
lined
roadside with an elevated pedestrian
walkway.
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