Environmental rights lawyer dies in crash
Luke Cole defended small Valley communities in dairy and toxic-waste cases.
Published online on Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009
By Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
Environmental justice lawyer Luke Cole, well-known in the San Joaquin Valley for his defense of small communities against large corporate projects, died June 6 in a head-on crash while visiting Uganda. He was 46.
Mr. Cole of San Francisco was the founder of the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment in 1989. The Harvard-educated lawyer is nationally known as a pioneer in the environmental justice movement -- defending those in poverty against high-polluting projects from large industries.
When the accident happened, he was on sabbatical from his work, traveling the world and visiting his brother, who lives in Uganda. Mr. Cole's wife, Nancy Shelby, was injured in the crash, but she is expected to recover.
"Luke's death is such a shock," said lawyer Brent Newell, who is based at the San Francisco headquarters of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. "He was huge in the environmental justice movement."
Local government officials and industry leaders accused him of being an outsider who had little understanding of the communities involved in his fights. But, to many people in the small communities, he was a teacher and a leader who helped them figure out ways to defeat corporate giants.
His first major case was in 1990, involving residents of Kettleman City, a poor farmworker community near a toxic-waste disposal site in Kings County. Mr. Cole helped the community battle the construction of a toxic-waste incinerator, which ultimately was not built.
Mr. Cole later fought against a large dairy complex planned by farming titan J.G. Boswell. With help from the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, Corcoran residents were successful in stopping the Boswell dairies, which would have housed more than 40,000 animals. More recently, he settled a case against a zinc-mining operation that he said was destroying water quality for an Inupiat Eskimo village in Kivalina, Alaska.
Lawyer Caroline Farrell, who is based in the organization's Delano office, is acting executive director.
A memorial service is pending for Mr. Cole.