TANK FARM in Austin, Texas: Organizing for Justice [Video]

Friends:

Take a little time to view this important piece of Austin City history that consists of what we understand as "structural oppression," "structural racism," and the East Austin community's response to "environmental

injustice." These aren't empty terms, but deep, scarring ones not just to East Austin's, primarily low-income residents, but to the land itself. This political movement involved ousting six major oil companies that dumped their poisonous, lethal waste legally due to a zoning ordinance that dated by to a racist, segregationist "1928 Austin City Master Plan" that allowed this to occur.

Despite the irony that this is the part of Austin that is now gentrifying at a high rate in our city now that it's all cleaned up, it's nevertheless inspiring to learn about the community's success in the early 1990s of getting rid of the polluted, 52-acre tank farm into which our state's major oil companies dumped their toxic, cancer-causing pollutants. 

In particular, hats off to Susana Almanza, Gilbert Rivera, Sylvia Herrera and all the folks at People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER) for making this possible.

As a major oil and petroleum producing state, we can only imagine where throughout Texas such needs for enhanced community voice and power exist. 

-Angela Valenzuela

Para Español: https://youtu.be/3J7PhBMx_WA. Learn more and read the companion StoryMap at: https://www.austintexas.gov/tankfarm. “TANK FARM: Organizing for Justice” is a video about the history of the work done by the East Austin community from 1992-93 to shutdown the 52-acre petroleum tank farm near Airport Boulevard and Springdale Road, remediate the legacy pollution, and reduce the negative health impacts on the adjacent neighborhoods. Learn about the history of their work and how we can incorporate these legacy environmental issues into the City of Austin’s environmental planning today at https://www.austintexas.gov/tankfarm. Dedicated to the Memory of those Lost to the Legacy of the Tank Farm. Special dedication to EAST Founder and Travis County Commissioner Ron Davis (1946-2021). CREDITS: Interviewees (In Order of Appearance) Susana Almanza, Founder/Executive Director of PODER Gilberto Rivera East Austin Activist and Historian Ken Oden, Former Travis County Attorney Carmen Llanes Pulido, Director of GAVA, Austin Planning Commission member Executive Producer: Chris Herrington, City of Austin Environmental Officer Producer: Kaela Champlin, Watershed Protection Department Production by ATXN Editing: Christian Bruncsak Videography: Christian Bruncsak and Megan Lopez With special appreciation for the people who helped make this documentary: Susana Almanza Carmen Llanes Pulido Gilberto Rivera and Jane Rivera Ron Davis Rene Renteria Neil Carmen Austin History Center, Austin Public Library City of Austin Equity Office Watershed Protection Department Archival Photos, Articles, and Video Graciously Provided by: Austin American Statesman, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, ATXN, PODER, Rene Renteria, and Joe Vitone.