Community Profile: Jesus Torres

The refineries of BP Arco, Conoco-Phillips, Valero and Shell in South East L.A. are household names for Jesus Torres, a community organizer with the non-profit group, Communities for a Better Environment or CBE.

For the past two years Torres has been working to inform residents in the Harbor cities of Wilmington, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate and others about the impact of air pollution from gasoline and diesel refineries and from the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach.

"We're sandwiched between those high sources of pollution," says Torres who grew up and continues to live in Wilmington. "These are some of the highest polluted areas in the region."

Over the years, Torres has seen many refinery explosions in his community, but daily he is concerned with the thick smog clouds that hang over the region from the thousands of diesel trucks that make trips to distribution centers every day.

"These trains and diesel trucks run right through these communities and pollute them," he says. "They're working poor neighborhoods, mostly with people color."

Harbor area residents are so used to the sources of pollution that they even consider the refineries as part of the community, according to Torres. Still, he believes that no matter how long these residents have been used to living with pollution, something needs to be done to avoid more cases of asthma, cancer and other chronic diseases.

By cleaning up the Ports the air quality of the area will improve, but that needs to include not only the ships and trains, but also the trucking system.
Torres says that diesel trucks make about 40,000 trips a day, all emitting large emissions that affect him, his family and entire communities.