Aries Clean Technologies has proposed the construction of the Newark Biochar Production Facility near an existing site on Doremus Avenue in the Ironbound Section of Newark. If it becomes operational, it will be able to process up to 430 wet tons of domestic wastewater treated biosolids a day from New Jersey and New York. The resulting product will be sold as a concrete thickener to construction companies.
The announcement has ignited a fierce backlash from members of the Ironbound and Newark community, including several nonprofits in the city. In response to the push back, city leadership has held virtual meetings to discuss the issue, and the city planning board adjourned its meeting in February where Aries was scheduled to present its proposal for approval.
At the center of this resistance is the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC). The ICC, aside from providing direct services to residents of the East Ward, has had a rich history in environmental activism and social justice work. Among the many accomplishments of the organization are the cleaning up of the Passaic River, the creation of Riverfront Park, and the continued resistance of pollution and environmental degradation in Newark. Maria Lopez-Nunez and Christian Rodriguez are deeply enmeshed in this fight and came onto the podcast to share their thoughts on why this proposal should not be allowed, how they have organized around this issue, and their hopes for a just and equitable Newark.
Guests:
Maria Lopez-Nunez—Maria is a Bushwick native and Deputy Director of Advocacy and Organizing at the Ironbound Community Corporation, where she fights the bad and builds the new while challenging the current political system, holding power brokers and polluters accountable while fighting for environmental, housing, immigrant, and racial justice. She has organized and helped the passage of historic and landmark city and state legislation, including the Right to Counsel, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and the Environmental Justice Cumulative Impacts Bill. She was also featured in the documentary, The Sacrifice Zone and is a member of Right to City, Grassroots Global Justice, JUST Transition, Down Bottom Farms, and a whole host of other community-centered nonprofits.
Christian Rodriguez—Christian is a Newark native, raised in the Ironbound, and a Community Organizer with the Ironbound Community Corporation, where they advocate for the right to breathe clean air, have access to clean water, to healthy food, safer housing, as well as advocating to stop racism and capitalism under the White supremacist system. They are also a youth organizer/mentor, working with young adults throughout the neighborhood, and an Urban Farmer at Down Bottom Farms, where they teach the community how to to appreciate the land and soil for healthy agriculture.
Background & Articles:
Ironbound Community Corporation Main Site: here
Aries Clean Technologies Main Site: here
TAPinto Article on Proposed Site (February 4, 2021): here
City Zoom Meeting on Proposed Site (March 4, 2021): here
“Stop The Sludge” (ICC): here
The Sacrifice Zone (Documentary): here
Women’s Herstory Month Virtual Celebration: here
Quote: “Cities are an immense laboratory of trial and error, failure and success, in city building and city design. This is the laboratory in which city planning should have been learning and forming and testing its theories. Instead the practitioners and teachers of this discipline (if such it can be called) have ignored the study of success and failure in real life, have been incurious about the reasons for unexpected success, and are guided instead by principles derived from the behavior and appearance of towns, suburbs, tuberculosis sanatoria, fairs, and imaginary dream cities—from anything but cities themselves.” Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities