NEWS RELEASE 07.19.22: IMPACT FUND MAKES GRANTS OF $100,000 FOR ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE
One grant funds a case that seeks to protect O’ahu’s sacred waters from contamination from the world’s largest underground fuel storage facility.
New Grants to Support Impact Litigation on Behalf of Indigenous Communities and Black Lives Matter Protestors.
Berkeley, CA 07.19.22 – The Impact Fund has made recoverable grants totaling $100,000 in its summer cycle to fund three lawsuits that protect the rights of Black Lives Matter protestors and challenge environmental racism and pollution on behalf of Indigenous communities.
“With these grants, we continue our support for communities challenging environmental contamination and police abuse,” said Impact Fund Executive Director, Jocelyn Larkin, adding: “we’re grateful today to renew our commitment to economic, environmental, racial, and social justice.”
The first grant was made to the Civil Liberties Defense Center to fund a civil rights case against the city of Springfield, Oregon, its police department, and 26 police officers for excessive force, wrongful arrest, conspiracy to deprive civil rights based on race, and lack of due process during a Black Lives Matter protest. In response to Black Unity’s peaceful march and its messages against police brutality and racism, the Springfield Police Department took deliberate actions to punish, prevent, and impede protestors’ constitutionally protected assembly and speech. They are accused of arbitrarily halting a peaceful march on a public street while allowing far-right counter-protestors free rein, assaulting the plaintiffs, and wrongfully arresting some of them.
The second grant was made to Gitxaala Nation to support an environmental racism and Indigenous rights case in British Columbia challenging mineral claim registration, which allows companies to undertake exploratory work for minerals without consultation with the Indigenous peoples who claim the land. The lawsuit aims to quash the mineral claims registered on Banks Island, a location integral to Gitxaała’s way of life. The island’s wildlife is culturally significant and a critical source of food. In addition, a specific location of importance in Gitxaała culture, spirituality, and cultural practices is located near the mineral claims. This case aims to ensure no further mineral exploration can occur on the mineral claims without consultation with Gitxaala.
The third grant was made to Wai Ola Alliance to fund a case against the U.S. Navy to ensure the immediate and permanent elimination of ongoing, unpermitted discharges of petroleum pollutants into O’ahu’s sacred waters. The lawsuit seeks to protect the water from contamination from the world’s largest underground fuel storage facility, owned by the U.S. Navy, situated just 100 feet above the aquifer local residents use for their drinking water. The U.S. Navy has self-reported more than 365 unpermitted discharges to Pearl Harbor over the last three years. These and related discharges have contaminated the island’s “sole source” aquifer on which 70% of O’ahu’s residents depend. O’ahu’s surface and ground water resources are not safe as long as the U.S. Navy allow contamination to pollute them. In addition to holding the U.S. Navy accountable for its past pollution of O’ahu’s precious water resources, the Wai Ola Alliance is working to ensure community oversight of the defueling and closure process.
Helen Kang, Chair of the Impact Fund’s Grant Advisory Committee, said: “It’s especially important in these critical times for communities to have their day in court, and we’re grateful to do what we can in the pursuit of justice.”
Letters of inquiry for the Impact Fund’s next grantmaking cycle are due July 19, 2022.
ENDS
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About The Impact Fund
The Impact Fund was founded in December 1992 to help advance economic, environmental, racial, and social justice through the courts. Originally envisioned as a purely grantmaking organization, the Impact Fund has made 734 grants totaling $8,366,291. Click here for Grant Criteria and information about Grant Deadlines.
Since its inception, the Impact Fund has grown to include both advocacy and education in its range of services. Today, the Impact Fund litigates a small number of cases directly, authors amicus briefs, provides a substantial amount of pro-bono consulting, and presents an annual conference for plaintiff-side class action practitioners, a training institute for budding public interest class action practitioners, and numerous seminars and webinars. Click here for the 2021 Annual Report.
What Is Impact Litigation?
Impact Litigation is a lawsuit, often a class action, where the outcome of the case will advance economic, environmental, racial and/or social justice for a community or a large group, which may not have access to the courts on its own.