OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A spiritual journey and call to action in North Omaha on Saturday as the historic 24th Street family of parishes came together to raise concerns for the environment in the area.
First Alert 6 spoke with North Omaha resident Ella Willis who has lived in town for more than 50 years. She is very familiar with the OPPD coal power plant in her neighborhood.
“It was a lot of smoke and stuff out there, but I guess I survived,” said Willis. “I did not come up with anything.”
Ella joined neighbors, faith leaders, the Blue Bucket Project, and others at Miller Park for a special effort. A pilgrimage to highlight the coal plant’s environmental impact to North Omaha. The morning started with Saturday mass in the park.
“I think it is a day of prayer and praise and then also mindful that we have to be good stewards of creation to recognize that perhaps some of our practices have worked against creation,” said Archbishop Michael McGovern of the Archdiocese of Omaha.
“And that we need to find new ways of providing different resources that we need but without harming the earth.”
Once mass wrapped, volunteers split into groups and walked 3 miles round trip from Miller Park along Florence Boulevard to the Grove across from the plant. Carrying blue buckets and picking up trash along the way.
“It tells me that a lot of people really care and concern about North Omaha,” said Ella Willis. “I think each person that lives in North Omaha should care about the neighborhoods where they live at.”
For years, many have expressed concerns about the plant, especially air quality. The two remaining coal fire units were supposed to be converted to natural gas two years ago. However, that conversion plan was delayed until 2026.
“We have been concerned because we have a lot of health disparities in our community,” said Precious McKesson with the North Omaha Neighborhood Alliance. “The increase of asthma, cancer, different things. This plant, it covers so much, we have schools in this district, we have daycares in this area.”
Precious was joined by Omaha Senator Terrell McKinney and tells First Alert 6, conversations with OPPD about the plant have been productive.
“It is not that we are attacking, we just know that we got people in our community and we want to see them have a longer life expectancy,” said McKesson.
She tells First Alert 6, seeing so many people supporting the effort feels really good.
“The neighbors here do take pride in their community and they do some much to make sure this area is vibrant,” said McKesson.
“They activate this during different holidays, and so just want to make sure that they can continue to do that but do it safely and have their family and kids be able to enjoy it.
Organizers created a petition to send to OPPD regarding the future of the plant. It can be found here.
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