We are excited as we move farther into the 2000's. Happy 2017 everybody! This will be a year of Collaboration and Action. A year of knowing we are going to create this New Economy and New Earth with one another. How exciting! Thanks and Blessings to Lois Drumheller, former Monroeville Councilwoman who hatched the Monroeville Food Garden a number of years ago that supplied 500 pounds of fresh produce to four local food banks for three years. Thanks to Jeff Newman and Elizabeth Lynch for consulting on the design of the garden. Thanks again to Lois Drumheller for turning the garden for the past few years into a pollinator garden for birds, bees, butterflies and beyond, knowing the vegetable garden can come back any season once we have a few more volunteers lined up. How about it Mr. Pottinger at Gateway High School?! Thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers and speakers that have graced us with your presence over the past seven years. Thanks to Pam Barroso for working on the Monroeville Certified Sustainable Community piece. We still have a long way to go on that one, so if you or anyone you know is interested in spearheading that effort, we will be grateful! Contact us at sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com.
Thanks to all of you who attended our December 2016 meeting. The whole food plant based pot luck dinner was absolutely delicious! Thanks Adam Tuznik of Clean Water Action for educating us about all of the projects Clean Water Action is involved in and about the issues occurring in Potter Township, Beaver County, PA one half hour north of Pittsburgh, PA and sharing the same AIRSHED as Pittsburgh regarding the proposed Shell Oil Petrochemical "Cracker" Plant. Comments regarding this project and the AIR and WATER permits can be made until December 26 and submitted to Nora Alwine, the Social Justice Coordinator at the PA DEP office in Homestead. Go to the Clean Water Action web site for submission details.
We continue to embrace these challenging times as a gift from the universe. There can be dissonance as with paradigm shifting and change comes shifting energy.
Some observations about technologies from the 1900's that seem to be lingering....On a recent visit to Beaver County, PA about seven miles from the proposed Cracker site also along the Ohio River we came upon the Shippingport Community Park just across the street from stacks from one of the chemical plants and the cooling towers of the Shippingport Nuclear Power Plant.
This playground is adjacent or perhaps part of the Shippingport Community Park. The playground has a CLOSED sign on the very tall fence surrounding it. We wonder why this playground is closed? Could it be that the area is too toxic for children to play in the smokey clouds of two chemical plants and a nuclear power plant?
The image on the sign of the Shippingport Community Park includes the nuclear power plant cooling tower in the scene. The playground on this site is closed. We wonder why?
The view from the park entrance.When is the last time you took a field trip? I've been told we've probably taken enough field trips to Potter township this past month, yet I feel deep in my heart and soul, we are just beginning to get to know our northern neighbors. Take a look at the PublicHerald.org website to learn about what is going on with the PA DEP regarding the Marcellus Shale Industry and water pollution in our area in Western Pennsylvania. Two investigative reporters analyzed complaints that have come in to the DEP since 2010 and their observations have been eye opening to say the least. Take a look at the PA DEP web site and look at the documents Shell Oil has submitted to the PA DEP for approval. Beware, you may be astounded. I certainly was even after spending three days and many hours in hearings and field trips to Potter Township this past month. The old paradigm corridor in Beaver Township must be a thing of the past. Moving into the Regenerative Restorative future, let's work together to forge, to reacquaint ourselves with Panchamama, Mother Earth. We are a part of nature, no longer apart from nature.
As we move into 2017, may we all be blessed with abundant health and wellness and the ability to understand that for the near future we must all be detoxifying our inner ecosystems on a daily basis as our outer ecosystem here in Western PA, aka the "environment" is way more polluted than we realize. Here in Western PA, some types of Air and Water pollution have been reduced, but there is so much more to do. So, the addition of another polluting plant, the one being PROPOSED by Royal Dutch Shell, one that would be the largest in North America, is not part of the Regenerative, Restorative equation.
May we all have the intestinal fortitude to feel all we are grateful for deeply and to work together as we move into 2017 :)
Blessings and More Blessings,
Elisa Beck :)
Sustainable Monroeville, Founder
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