The protest attracted the attention of CBS Los Angeles and Univision, who featured her as a representative of the Clean Air Coalition.
Overmyer-Velázquez is a public sociologist whose activism and scholarship is focused on engaging communities for social justice and change. As one of the many facets of her work, she is a member of the Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier and Avocado Heights, an environmental and public health organization that advocates against sources of harm to the local environment and people—which includes the battle against the toxic battery plant in her hometown.
According to the story, the neighborhood has been subject to potentially dangerous contamination from Quemetco, a nearby battery recycling plant. According to officials from the LA County Department of Health, arsenic and lead emissions in the area around the plant are dangerously high. People living in surrounding neighborhoods have been warned to avoid spending time outside; local children are even discouraged from playing in their own backyards. Overmyer-Velázquez’ home is included in the affected areas, and she has taken a lead role in organizing the Quemetco Campaign, a fight to shut down the plant, which she says has a long history of public health and EPA violations.
