BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Since 2009, Clean Air Buffalo has been committed to holding big corporations that pose environmental health risks accountable by empowering neighbors effected by them.
"We started as an all-volunteer effort for folks who wanted to hold the Tonawanda Coke Corporation Accountable for polluting their environment with cancer-causing benzene," Clean Air Buffalo executive director, Chris Murawski said.
The nonprofit's most recent win was one over the Battaglia Trucking Inc.
Residents living on Peabody Street, in Buffalo, had to put up with its pollution for about a decade, until the company was shut down, in 2018.
"This company was polluting the Seneca Babcock Neighborhood by crushing concrete really close to a residential neighborhood and filling the neighborhood with dust and silica dust, which is a cancer-causing item," Murawski added.
The organization does not simply come up with a task; it works with community members who are already working on a cause.
Clean Air Buffalo board chair, Sydney Brown said, "We basically give them skills to help them run a campaign to address the issue that they're dealing with. It's really important because I'd say there's power in the volume of people uniting their voices together."
The organization is currently powered by four people. It is small but mighty, and in need of more helping hands with things like monetary and intellectual abilities to able to do phone banking for causes.
Brown said, "Volunteerism is important because if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem. It's important to have volunteers that will put forth their energy, their time, the efforts. Their resources."
As the legislation session picks up, the organization is also looking for folks to help get petitions signed.
"We're hoping to do some canvassing while the weather is still nice and COVID is still low. We'd love to have some folks come and do some canvassing with us," Clean Air environmental justice organizer, Bridge Rauch said.
The organization recently moved its office to 371 Delaware Avenue.
Questions about volunteering can be sent to info@cacwny.org.
You can also follow the organization on social media, via Facebook and Twitter.
Right now in the Buffalo Strong section of wkbw.com, you will find a list with contact information for more than a dozen organizations in the city looking for volunteers to "get involved".
