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Palms West Monthly • January 2020 • Page 1
Palms West
Monthly
WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • WEST PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE GROVES • THE ACREAGE Volume 10, Number 1
PalmsWestMonthly.com
TENNIS ANYONE?
Wellington Tennis Center set to host “Tennis Fun Day” Saturday, Jan. 11. PAGE 4
FREE • January 2020
Is the sugar industry causing unsafe air quality in parts of western Palm Beach County? That’s the …
Burning Question
PBA kicks off homecoming with annual bug race
Palm Beach Atlantic University students and faculty recently held the school’s longestrunning tradition: The Annual Great American Bug Race.
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Steam billows from the Sugar Cane Cooperative’s mill in November, where sugar cane is processed in Belle Glade. Sugar cane harvesting equipment works the fields in the foreground. For generations, Florida’s sugar cane farmers have legally set
Quantum Foundation awards $1 million to area nonprofits
Quantum Foundation recently held its ninth annual Quantum in the Community initiative, and for the first time, grants to 123 local organizations totaled $1 million.
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Leapin’ Lizards! Frog sculptures invade Mounts
Mounts Botanical Garden is set to host a special family of 23 whimsical frogs sculpted in copper when “Ribbit The Exhibit” opens Jan. 11.
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AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
fire to their fields prior to harvest. But a 2015 study funded by the U.S. Education Department concluded that nearby residents who are frequently exposed to large burns experience a greater amount of respiratory distress..
Sugar field burning plagues poor western communities with soot exposed to large burns experience a greater amount of “respiratory distress.” The PAHOKEE — For residents of the Glades, Environmental Protection Agency has said a string of poor, predominantly African residents are exposed to hazardous air polAmerican rural towns dotting the southern lutants on par with some urban areas. shore of Lake Okeechobee, the beginning But an analysis last year by the American of the annual sugar cane harvest in October Lung Association and data compiled by means the arrival of “black snow.” the Florida Department of Environmental “You’d hate to come down here when Protection both concluded that air quality it’s snowing,” said Kaniyah Patterson, an in Palm Beach County was up to code. asthmatic 12-year-old who lives with her A class-action lawsuit filed in June against mother and grandmother in a housing nearly a dozen sugar companies in the region project surrounded by several large sugar – which leads the nation in sugar production cane fields in Palm Beach County’s western – claims the burns reduce property values community of Pahokee. and compromise air quality with toxic car“That black stuff irritates me,” Kaniyah cinogens. The two other states where sugar said, sighing. “Sometimes I can’t is grown are Texas and Louisiana. breathe.” In Florida, 75 percent of sugar is The “snow” is an airborne grown in the Glades region of byproduct of the disputed Palm Beach County. The rest is practice of burning sugar fields harvested in the adjacent counties before harvests. Kaniyah says it of Hendry, Glades and Martin. “stuffs up” her nose and stains Patrick Ferguson, who is leadher clothes. At times, she says, ing an anti-burn campaign for the the poor air quality makes it difSierra Club, called the matter a lopficult to keep up with her friends sided “environmental justice issue” when playing outside. that disproportionately affects For generations, Florida’s poor communities of color. sugar cane farmers have legally U.S. Sugar, one of the compaset fire to their fields prior to the nies listed in the lawsuit, stands harvest, leaving only the cane, a by the practice of burning. It practice that reduces transportacontends that its methods are tion costs because they ship the safe, closely monitored and cane without the surrounding highly regulated, and that the AP Photo/Ellis Rua vegetation. overall well-being of its workers In this Nov. 4, 2019 photo, Kina Phillips holds her 5-year-old grandson Jamal In the Glades community alone, Tillman, at their home in South Bay. Phillips says Florida’s annual sugar cane and the greater community is home to more than 40,000 peoburning season is difficult for Tillman, whose immune system suffers and asthma ple, cane growers burned more SUGAR CANE BURNING / PAGE 10 worsens during burns. By ELLIS RUA The Associated Press
than 1.5 million acres of sugar cane between 2008 and 2018 – a land mass about the size of Delaware – according to state data. In several major sugar-producing countries such as Brazil, the practice is being phased out due to health concerns. The fires can produce sooty plumes of smoke that hover over the surrounding communities and dust the area with burnt flakes of plant matter. Research in Florida on the potential health consequences of sugar cane burning has produced conflicting results: A 2015 study funded by the U.S. Education Department concludes that residents of areas such as the Glades that are frequently