Environmental dangers raised in Marin City

Marin City advocacy groups held a demonstration at George “Rocky” Graham Park to bring attention to local environmental dangers and promote community inclusion.

The event on Sunday included a walkathon organized by Play Marin, a nonprofit for youths, and a “march for life” organized by Marin City Climate Resilience and Health Justice.

“There was hope in the air. We have to get this message out to other people. We can’t keep it confined within our community or else there won’t be change,” said Terrie HarrisGreen, executive director of the climate group and a board member of the Marin City Community Services District.

The demonstration included speeches, chants and marching from the park to the Marin Gateway Shopping Center. Harris-Green said the march was intended to call attention to environmental and quality-of-life problems such as cracked lead-based water pipes, a lack of drainage pipes at the entrance to Marin City and pervasive contaminants from the highway.

She said the late-October storm flooded the only way in and out of town and forced residents to tread through toxic water.

Harris-Green also cited persistent macro-issues that Marin City leaders believe are consequences of environmental contamination: higher chronic disease and disability rates and lower life expectancy.

“The lives of our residents are at stake and some people did not know this. I refuse to believe that everybody in this county is heartless. Everyone who was there knows we need change,” she said.

Paul Austin, founder of Play Marin, said an estimated 300 total people from Marin City, the county and the Bay Area attended the event.

“We want to make sure Marin City isn’t overlooked,” Austin said. “Unless we really do some work to try and see what’s going on, it’s going to keep happening. Marin City is going to need the collective of everybody in Marin to work as one to work on these issues.”

Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, who represents southern Marin, acknowledged the grievances, but stressed the county was taking steps to resolve the longstanding issues.

“There are things we can do in the short term,” she said.

Moulton-Peters said her hope is that communication can improve between county institutions and the community to allow citizens preparation time before another major storm. She recommended citizens sign up for emergency alerts through alertmarin.org and said the Marin County Sheriff’s Office can reach the area if residents require emergency assistance.

The county is seeking partnerships with state and federal agencies to fix chronic issues such as flooding and environmental contamination, she added.

In March, the county announced that a flood mitigation project in Marin City advanced to the design phase with the help of $337,500 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The project is intended to improve drainage in the pond adjacent to the shopping center, permit a new culvert under Highway

101, construct a permanent floodwall along the pond and construct a new tide gate control structure.

Julian Kaelon, spokesman for the Marin County Department of Public Works, said the design phase was slated for completion in March but might be extended another year. He cited two hurdles: lack

of access to the privately owned pond to conduct design work, and geotechnical problems with boring a culvert under Highway 101.

The county and Caltrans are exploring other ways to install the new culvert that might involve major construction and a dramatic impact on highway traffic flow.