 Children's Health > School Siting > Lois Gibbs' Senate Testimony
Senate Testimony
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CHEJ Executive Director Lois Marie Gibbs testified on behalf of the Child Proofing Our Communities campaign before the U.S. Senate's Environmental and Public Works Committee on October 1, 2002. Gibbs was part of a panel presenting at a Hearing titled Green Schools: Environmental Standards for Schools. Lois's testimony focused on the urgent need for school siting legislation to prevent the widespread practice of building schools on or near contaminated sites.
Gibbs cited the campaign’s Creating Safe Learning Zones report, which found that 1,196 schools in five states are within a half-mile of a known toxic site. Gibbs called for:
- The establishment of community represented school siting committees
- Categorical exclusions for schools sites – so that no school could be built within 1,000 feet of a hazardous waster disposal site or garbage dump
- A three-tiered evaluation/assessment/ remediation process approach derived from a California state law, which is the country’s only statewide legislation
Moreover, Gibbs called for this process to be federally funded “to support schools that apply for the assessment, remediation and construction of healthy schools on otherwise unsafe sites.”
Listen to an audio version of the hearing.
Read the full transcript of the hearing.
Read the full written testimony.
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