Saturday April 18^th was a day that the community was able to come together and have a discussion regarding the environment. The meeting was held at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and consisted of individuals discussing the Tarsands resistance within the community.

These people are on tour throughout the Midwest to raise awareness of the dangers regarding the pipelines being provided by oil companies. More information on their tour and how to help their cause can be found here (https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/stop-enbridge-tar-sands-tour).

People such as Eriel Deranger, Andy Pearson, Thomas Frank and many more came out telling personal stories of how tar sands has affected their environment, health and personal lives. We learned of a 51 year old woman whose community inhabited 80 families and now 10 are left. Due to the devastation of pipelines bursting and contaminating the river, Eriel mourned over the deaths of her neighbors and continues to miss the other neighbors that left.

Thomas Frank, Olga Bautista and Tom Shepard soon discussed petcoke and its effect on South East Chicago. Pictures were provided regarding the amount of petcoke as well as the change of properties throughout the years as BP is buying land areas for parking. This change of ownership is causing community members to be concerned as they do not want to leave and do not want to face the health consequences. The implications that BP is causing on South East Chicago is driving people away, and causing respiratory illnesses amongst the people that stay.

People need to know more about the environmental problems going on throughout the Midwest. The purpose of this meeting was to raise awareness about the Midwest pipelines and fracking & its effect on the nearby population.