MEJO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit grassroots organization that formed in 2005 as the Madison Environmental Justice Organization (also called the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization for some years).
Toxic pollution harms everyone, but has disproportionate impacts on low income people and people of color that are rarely recognized or addressed by our regulatory agencies, institutions, or society as a whole. MEJO works collectively with affected communities to prevent and reduce–and hopefully eventually eliminate–these disparities and the pollution itself.
MEJO’s founders & beginnings
After finishing her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, Dr. Maria Powell co-founded MEJO in 2005 with Jody Schmitz, a retired social worker and community center director at Kennedy Heights, a low-income housing complex on the north side of Madison (Sadly, Jody passed away in 2020; we miss her so much!). Kazoua Moua, Hmong outreach educator for Dane County Extension who lives near the center with her family, was also a MEJO co-founder and leader. Several Hmong and Latinx subsistence anglers from the north side joined MEJO’s leadership team, along with Jim Powell, Maria’s partner. The Powells also live on the north side near Kennedy Heights.
When MEJO started, we primarily worked with local subsistence anglers to engage people about risks related to the consumption of contaminated fish from local waterways–a well-documented environmental justice problem. This work is described in detail in our 2011 article “Invisible Risks, Invisible People” that we co-authored with other MEJO leaders (published in the book Technoscience and Environmental Justice, MIT Press).
For many of our founding members and their families–and many low income Madison anglers–self-caught fish are important and free sources of food. Unfortunately, Madison fish are contaminated with mercury, PCBs, PFAS, and a number of other toxic chemicals. From 2005-2010, MEJO engaged hundreds of people in learning about local fish contamination and fish advisories (from 2006 to 2008, our work was funded by a U.S. EPA grant). During this time and for years afterwards, with Hmong, Latinx, and Black leaders from the community, we co-facilitated “Let’s Talk Fish” meetings, where anglers came together to eat, build relationships, and talk about fishing, how to collectively address the fish contamination problem, and ways to more effectively share advisories with people who weren’t receiving them. We also worked with Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC) to design and place appropriately translated fish advisory signs in popular shoreline fishing spots in Madison, and then did extensive surveying on shorelines to evaluate the effectiveness of the signs (see our final report here). Through public forums, published reports, and print media and television coverage, we broadened awareness of EJ issues and our work in the Madison community.
(Above, fish advisory sign designed by MEJO’s Jim Powell, with technical and sign location assistance from MEJO Hmong Outreach Coordinator, Ly Xiong. These signs have now been removed and replaced by PHMDC with signs that do not mention any chemical names or fish, but instead have a QR code to access that information. MEJO was not involved in decisions on this risk communication approach.)
Preventing sources of toxic pollution
After many years of working on fish consumption risks and advisories, around 2011-2012, MEJO switched its focus to working with affected communities to identify and reduce sources of toxic contaminants to local neighborhoods, waterways and fish, and has engaged a diverse group of north and east side individuals and organizations in this work since then.
Over the years we’ve worked to address many sources of toxic pollution to our communities, lakes, and fish: Madison Kipp Corporation, the Dane County Regional Airport, Truax Air National Guard, former Truax Landfill and Burke Sewage plant, Oscar Mayer Corporation, and many others (search the website to learn more about this work). We have tried to reduce and eliminate the use of pesticides by the City of Madison and Dane County, and advocated against the placement of F-35 fighter jets at the Truax Air National Guard base, next to several low income communities.
For several years, with funding from the U.S. EPA and the Center for Health, Environmental & Justice (CHEJ), we focused on Starkweather Creek, which runs through our neighborhoods on the north and east sides, and receives toxic chemical runoff from all of the sources listed above, especially the Dane County Regional Airport and Truax base. Since 2018, demanding that our government leaders and regulatory agencies address sources of PFAS pollution has been a major focus of our work.
People’s Environmental History of Madison
When the pandemic ended our in-person community organizing in March 2020 (EJ requires in-person work–it cannot be Zoomed!), MEJO director Maria Powell began working on the “People’s Environmental History of Madison.” Some excerpts from that work are here. This project, based on historical research, old newspaper articles, review of government records, along with past and current community advocacy and discussions with community members, will be ongoing for several years.
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[Below, MEJO leader Ida Jammeh teaching kids and adults at the Darbo-Worthington apartments about Starkweather Creek]
