WEI’s EJEAC-East Metro Project was initiated in 2007 when attention
concerning possible soil contamination for East Metro Hmong farmers was
raised, given the contamination of PFC on nearby land and ground water
and its potential dangers to human health. Dr. Oliaei has been working
as WEI’s Principal Investigator with the East Metro Project’s Community
Steering Committee for more than two years, supported by Blue
Cross/Blue Shield, McKnight Foundation and U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency funding. She has provided many informational and
educational training workshops on this issue to the East Metro
low-income, Indigenous and communities of color that may be impacted.
She is currently seeking larger grant funding to do the extensive
scientific research on PFC soil and vegetation contamination which is
central to the East Metro EJEAC Project. In the meantime, she is
providing all of us with invaluable findings from the research
literature and publishing her own research findings from previous
investigations on fish and landfill contamination. While in residency
as WEI's Principal Investigator on this project, Dr. Oliaei has made
several presentations to the U.S. EPA and to the National Institute of
Environmental Health and Science, which has been receptive to her work
and which will be available on the WEI website. She recently
co-authored and released a peer reviewed research document and is in
the process of releasing two more.
You may recall that Dr. Oliaei was forced out of the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency in 2006 after she publicly urged a wider
investigation into PFCs. (The MPCA says her departure was voluntary and
the result of a mediated settlement over a lawsuit she brought against
the agency.) WEI at the time immediately recognized Dr. Oliaei as our
second Scholar Under Fire and awarded her a two year honorary residency
to continue her work. Subsequently, she became the Principal
Investigator for the East Metro EJEAC Project. Her tenacity and
dedication to the community’s right-to-know toxic exposures to this and
other hazardous chemicals has provided an important public service and
public education about the possible hazards of PFC contamination. She
will not give up. The update supports an immediate call for reducing
the risk of possible PFC exposure. For chronology on PFC research and
political discussions, go to Toxic Traces Revisited.
The East Metro EJEAC Project along with the Phillips Neighorhood EJEAC
Project are the foundational projects in WEI's Environmental Justice
Research Program. Watch for further updates and reports.