Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) is an environmental justice litigation organization dedicated to helping grassroots groups across the United States with problems related to the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by poor people and people of color. Their primary offices are located in San Francisco and Delano, CA. They provide organizing, technical and legal assistance to help community groups stop immediate environmental threats. In the last 20 years CRPE has successfully litigated or assisted in litigation to stop toxic waste incinerators, force oil refineries to use cleaner technology, stopped a number of tire burning proposals, helped bring safe drinking water to various rural communities, and stopped a garbage dump on the Los Coyotes reservation in southern California.
Notable Cases
On June 20, 2010, the CRPE filed a lawsuit on behalf of two environmental groups in Kettleman City, California regarding the way the Kings County officials handled hearings about a proposal to expand a hazardous waste landfill near Kettleman City. The groups argue that the hearings involved systematic racial discrimination because Spanish speakers were given one half of the commenting time at the hearing that English speakers were given, due to the time needed to translate.[1]