Environmental program helps Bronx residents get fresh start in cleaning up planet
It's been a year since Delio Martinez rushed to help after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and choked the Gulf of Mexico with brown crude and the sights of ruined natural beauty remain fresh in his mind.
A graduate of the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) Academy, Martinez hopped a convoy bound for the Barrier Islands of Mississippi, excited to join the emergency cleanup effort.
"It was an adventure," recalled Martinez, 40, of Norwood. "Other than the Dominican Republic, I'd never been out of New York. I didn't know what to expect."
On the Gulf Coast, he worked sweaty, 12-hour shifts for an environmental cleanup contractor, vacuuming oil from the water and shoveling tar off the beach.
"It was hot and humid, but they had people working day and night," Martinez said of his four months in Mississippi.
Now back in the Bronx, he has a new job with a company that removes asbestos from old buildings.
He takes the subway to work rather than drive a gas guzzler and says the spill was an eye-opener.
"It changed the way I look at the Earth," said Martinez. "Maybe all this could have been avoided if we didn't depend so much on oil."
The BEST Academy, a free program run by Sustainable South Bronx, trains locals to plant green roofs, recycle rainwater, retrofit buildings and respond to environmental disasters.
It was founded eight years ago and caters to ex-cons, recent high school graduates and construction workers. Even laid-off bankers have enrolled.
Graduates snag "green collar" jobs at landscaping and construction firms. The academy is bankrolled by grants and foundations and trains 120 people a year.
Martinez, who spent 10 years in prison for a felony he committed as a teenager, was working as a day laborer before he signed up at BEST.
"Our students have had doors closed to them," said Annette Williams, the academy's director. "We give them tools and skills to go up the ladder."
Following last year's spill, contractors hired a dozen of the academy's grads to work on cleaning the beaches of the Gulf. "We were very proud," said Williams. "They were able to use their training and help the environment."
The natural bounty of the Barrier Islands wowed Martinez, who grew up near Yankee Stadium.
"There were trees and marshlands," he said. "There were dolphins swimming along our boat. I'm from the Bronx - I never saw Flipper before."
But the waves of caramel-colored crude oil disgusted Martinez.
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A year has passed since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, so we can ask ourselves: Have we learned our lesson? Has the oil industry? First, the latest industry news. Transocean, the offshore drilling contractor used by BP at the
On the Gulf Coast, he worked sweaty, 12-hour shifts for an environmental cleanup contractor, vacuuming oil from the water and shoveling tar off the beach. "It was hot and humid, but they had people working day and night," Martinez said of his four
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