KEEN website hopes to help Kern Couny communities to report environmental hazards./ Courtesy of KEEN
By CLARA BRUNO/South Kern Sol
The Kern Environmental Enforcement Network (KEEN) will be hosting an introductory meeting and bus tour on Feb. 29.
The bus tour will take state agency people and Kern County community members on a tour to shed light on the environmental problems in Kern County, particularly in South Kern. Representatives from many agencies will be attending the event including Jared Blumenfeld, who’s the director of the EPA Region 9.
“We want agencies and community (members) all at the table at the same time to resolve these problems together. Whereas before it was usually the organizations, who work with the environment, complaining but really not getting anywhere at solving the problem,” said Teresa DeAnda, Central Valley Representative & Coordinator from Californians for Pesticide Reform. “Well now, we’ll have the agencies at the table and they will hear from the community, they will hear from the organizations and what the problems are.”
At the event there will be the unveiling the KEEN website. A website where people can report an environmental hazard, odors and other things like graffiti or abandoned buckets containing motor oil said DeAnda.
“People just don’t know who to call or report that to, so it just stays there. But now with KEEN, they can take a picture of it with their cell phone or they can just call and report it or they can go on the Internet and report it,” she said. “And so what happens when it hits the Internet is that the person managing the website…will refer to the agency that is in charge of that environmental hazard.”
Those, who attend the meeting will have an opportunity to be part of the KEEN taskforce.
The bus tour departs from the Greenfield Family Resource Center at 5400 Monitor Street, Bakersfield, Calif. at 11 a.m. The last tour stop will be at the Lamont Library at 8304 Segrue Rd., Lamont, Calif. There will be a meeting in the Lamont Library from 2:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The community is invited, but there are only a few seats left on the bus.
If you would like to reserve a seat on the bus or more information, please contact: Teresa DeAnda at teresa@pesticidereform.org or at 661-304-4080.
