Group Needing Donations for Testing

Concerned citizens in an area of Jackson County have decided to take their life and safety into their own hands and now they need your help.
The group of Pascagoula residents from the Cherokee neighborhood joined forces about a year ago when they started smelling strong odors in their neighborhood and finding yellow dust on their cars. Residents began realizing they all had similar sicknesses and those could be linked to pollutants created by nearby plants. MDEQ and the city have been measuring air quality in the area but residents believe their tests may not be able to monitor what’s truly hurting the residents.
Jennifer Crosslin with the Steps Coalition said, “We partnered with Community Science Center and we trained some of the residents to take their own samples. So far we have collected a few samples with particulate matter and they’ve come back with high elevated levels of toxic metals above World Health Organization standards but they need to take more. They need to identify which industry is the cause.”
The group has had thousands of dollars in air monitoring equipment donated to them. Now, they need money to help cover the expenses of getting their findings tested. If you’re interested in donating, visit stepscoalition.org.

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