Reimagining Your Space

Reimagine a Regenerative Future

Join the monthly Reimagine Turtle Creek Watershed and Airshed Communities Plus, TCWAC+, meeting to imagine a regenerative future together Monday, July 6, 2020 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Emily Richie & Marissa Stakeley interns from Chatham Unniversity will be presenting the blueprints for the five main working groups (Food and Agriculture, Land Use/Land Management, Reduction of Single-use plastics, Health and Wellness and Renewable Buildings/Infrastructure). 

Register to get the zoom link to join Monday night @6:30. Whether you have attended before or not, you are invited to join in the discussion and participate in one of the working groups around a topic of your interest. 

Questions? Email reimaginetcwac@gmail.com.

If you'd like to take part in the newly launched podcast that sprang from Reimagine the Turtle Creek Watershed and Airshed Communities Plus, Reimagine TCWAC+ called Journey Through Health and Wellness, please let us know by e-mailing to ReimagineTCWAC@gmail.com

Many blessings for a wonderful, balanced and blissful July!

You are INvited! Free to ReImagine! Wednesday, December 11, at 5:00 pm

Join us to Reimagine the heart and soul of Southwestern Pennsylvania: Free and open to the public!

The ReImagine initiative began in the spring of 2017 in Beaver County. Led by the League of Women Voters and local residents, a group of community members met for three visioning sessions, where they discussed sustainable economic and community development projects that they wanted to see completed in their county. In May of 2019, ReImagine Beaver County released a report with the community's visions, and now they are actively working to implement positive change in their communities. Similar initiatives have also taken place in Butler and Indiana Counties.

And now this:
The League of Women Voters and local community partners are now launching an initiative to Reimagine the Turtle Creek Watershed, which encompasses the eastern part of Allegheny County including the city of Pittsburgh, and western Westmoreland County. To make this event as inclusive as possible, we are expanding it beyond the watershed into the "airshed" to include District 8 of Allegheny County Council and PA congressional District 18 - because the positive and negative externalities of economic and community development don't know municipal boundaries. This initiative will begin with a series of brainstorming sessions about the things that the people of these communities would like to see in their area.

Join us on Wednesday, December 11th at 5:00 pm at the Braddock Carnegie Library to learn about the initiative and to begin the visioning process.
The main agenda for the evening is as follows:

5:00 to 6:00pm: Free, plant-based dinner will be served courtesy of the League of Women Voters; organizations will also have tables set up for people to browse.

6:00 to 6:30pm: Introductions, Introductions to visioning, and short presentations by Ujamaa Collective, Epic Metals, and Coalfield Development

6:30 to 7:30pm: Small group brainstorming / visioning activity

7:30 to 8:00pm: Large group discussion and next steps

For those interested, prior to the main event, starting at 2:30pm, there will also be yoga led by Dr. Moni Wesner and a free screening of the documentary The Need to Grow.

This initiative only works if there is representation from many communities. We hope that you will be able to join us and share your visions. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to ReImagine the Turtle Creek Watershed on Facebook or sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com.

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Holiday Party and You are INvited! Organic, vegan raw pot luck 6:30 PM & Speaker on Veganism and our Regenerative Future NOW at 7:30 PM!

Holiday Party and You are INvited! 

Organic, vegan raw pot luck 6:30 PM on Monday evening, December 3, 2018 &

Dr. Elisa Beck speaking on:

Veganism and our Regenerative Future NOW at 7:30 PM!

Please join us for the mostly RAW Vegan Party of the Year! Sustainable Monroeville meets at the Monroeville Public Library in the downstairs program room the first Monday of every month, so this fabulous event will be on Monday evening, December 3, 2018 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. We'll light Hanukah candles for the second night of Hanukah (no worries if you do not celebrate Hanukah), eat amazing food & hear some great information about the importance of all of us on this spaceship Earth eating as low on the food chain as possible to save our inner ecosystems and our selves on this precious plant.

This event is free and open to the public, so please feel free to share widely!

At the event, there will be a VERY exciting announcement about the upcoming inaugural meeting of a new group in the Pittsburgh region! What kind of group you might be wondering? Come on out on Monday, December 3, 2018 and you'll find out! 

There is a FACEBOOK event for this party and talk at the Sustainable Monroeville Facebook page!

You Are Invited! Celebrating Moving Into Our Regenerative Future Now!

Hello, and Happy warm sunny days! *** 

Sustainable Monroeville has been collaborating with Food and Water Watch, and we are deeply grateful for their insights regarding our move into our beyond sustainable, regenerative future. What does a regenerative future, now, look like? Hey, scroll back and read and study the blogs from the inception of Sustainable Monroeville in 2009-2010 to learn about morphing culture... How do we create a healthier economy in Monroeville, PA and beyond? We can support many more small businesses, social and environmental justice, more community interaction and integrating solar, wind, and growing our own food... Imagine what it will look like in our town with all of the front, back and side yards in Monroeville of both private residences, municipal property, and commercial spaces, including the lawn of Forbes Regional Hospital as Food Forests with solar panels and small cylindrical Wind Stax, wind turbines .. Plant that seed today! Blessings for a wonderful end of 2017, Elisa Beck:)

What's Next?
Let's celebrate our accomplishments! 
December 4, 2017 from 6:00 to 10:00 PM: Please join Food & Water Watch and Sustainable Monroeville as we host a potluck celebrating a year of Allegheny County communities standing up to fight the fracking industry.

***Help us keep track of how many people we should be prepared for by RSVPing here: fwwat.ch/mopfundraiser. Once you RSVP, we'll send you an email with the event location ***

We’ve seen amazing victories over the past year. In Monroeville and Oakmont, we passed ordinances to protect communities from seismic testing, and are moving forward with oil and gas zoning ordinances to protect families from fracking. The Plum Borough community is fighting newly proposed fracking wells and underground injection wells for the disposal of fracking wastewater.

These victories show what is possible when we get organized to fight for our health and safety. Food & Water Watch wants to replicate our fight in many of the surrounding communities, such as North Huntington, Upper and Lower Burrell, Pitcairn, and Penn Hills. That means building the resources we’ll need to scale up this important work.

Please consider signing up as a monthly contributor to Food & Water Watch at this event! If you can't make the event, or want to sign up as a member before you come, you can do so here:

http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Donation2?6194.donation=form1&df_id=6194&mfc_pref=T

We’ll have de-toxifying green drinks, made with organic veggies and roots, as well as delicious salad and soup. There will be a potluck starting at 6 PM so please feel free to bring vegan, preferably organic, dishes.

Starting at 7 PM we'll have a short program with speakers including former Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields, who has led the Food & Water Watch’s Municipal Outreach Project.

RSVP at this link and we'll send you an email with the event location:
fwwat.ch/mopfundraiser

To read more about our campaign, check out this Post-Gazette article: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2017/05/30/Marcellus-Shale-drilling-Allegheny-County-zoning-ordinance-pa/stories/201705240023

Call for Volunteers and Save the Dates!!

Hello, and Happy Beautiful Fall!

We need YOU whether or not you live in Monroeville, PA! We will reciprocate with other communities as it's time to come together and work together for Clean Air and Fresh Water for all of us. We share the same Airsheds and Watersheds, all of US!

We need callers to remind folks about the Sustainable Monroeville meeting this coming Monday, October 2, 2017 at 7:00 PM at the Monroeville Public Library; the Citizen's Night meeting this coming Thursday, October 5, 2017, at 7:00 PM at the Monroeville Municipal building, and for the Council meeting on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, at 7:00 PM where Monroeville council will be voting on amending the existing Oil and Gas Zoning Code to limit FRACKING to industrial zones in Monroeville, PA.
If you are available to make calls for one hour, or many hours, please contact Doug Shields of Food and Water Watch at dshields@fwwatch.org 

See the incredible exhibit called Petrochemical America at the SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA. It's there at SPACE through October 7, 2017. We do NOT want Monroeville, or the whole state of PA for that matter, allowing gas flares spewing pollution into our lungs anymore...

SAVE the DATES:

Monday, November 6, 2017 at 7:00 PM for the next Sustainable Monroeville meeting with Heather Harr of the League of Women Voters and also a speaker from the Environmental Health Project with open discussion.

Thursday, November 8, 2017 at 7;00 PM for Citizen's Night
Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 7:00 PM for Council Meeting

Monday, November 13, 2017 for the FREE Shale & Public Health Education Day in Pittsburgh, PA, sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Registration is open!

Blessings for our Regenerative Future NOW! Elisa Beck:)

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Monday evening, September 11, 2017 at the Monroeville Public Library for INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective at 7:00 PM, Organic Whole Food Plant Based Pot Luck at 6:00 PM; Tuesday evening, September 12, 2017 at 7:00 PM for the Monroeville Council Meeting

Hello and Happy September to all those who have been part of Sustainable Monroeville since its inception in 2009~2010, to all who have participated in our meetings and events over these past many years, and to those who have recently discovered our blog and events in the past few eventful months! 

We welcome all people of all ages and all political persuasions to join us in our now broadened Mission as Regenerative Monroeville leading to Regenerative Western PA: To gently and with lots of inspiration, joy, and fun move Western PA forward in the Regenerative Green Economy!

We certainly are blessed here in Western PA to be far inland as hurricane Harvey has passed through Houston and hurricane Irma is poised to pass through Florida and possible other southern states as I type this blog entry.... We are not displaced here in Western PA. Rather, we are hosts for lots of displaced people and animals. We are working with the shift into our Regenerative Economy, one step at a time. There are so many brilliant examples of our Regenerative Economy NOW in Pittsburgh, PA. Last night I was blessed to spend time with my family at the newest in Pittsburgh Living Building Challenge Zero Net Energy and Zero Net Water Building, the Frick Environmental Center. We viewed filmmaker Kirsi Jansa's tenth and final film short in her Sustainability series. Here's the link to the first nine episodes: http://sustainabilitypioneers.com The tenth and final episode will be available on-line soon!

Join Sustainable Monroeville on Monday evening, September 11, 2017 for an organic whole food, plant-based pot luck dinner at 6:00 PM, and a viewing of the documentary INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective, at 7:00 PM.

INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective : A new documentary introducing permaculture: designing a world where and planet can thrive. INHABITFILM.COM

Monroeville Council will be voting on the proposed Seismic Testing ordinance at the September Council meeting Tuesday, September 12, 2017 at 7:00 PM, at the Monroeville Municipal Building. We are so excited that the Monroeville Council in collaboration with the Municipal Mayor, Lawyer, and Manager, drafted a protective ordinance based on both the South Fayette and Oakmont Seismic Testing Ordinances. 

We, the citizens of Monroeville and beyond are working along with Doug Shields, Western PA Liaison for the national non profit, Food and Water Watch and with the Municipality of Monroeville to forge an updated Protective Oil and Gas ordinance. We intend to protect ourselves, our communities, our property values, and of course, most important of all, the health and wellness of ourselves and all of the animals, plants, and the entire ecosystem here in Western PA, beginning now in Monroeville!

Have a blessed weekend and see you in Monroeville, PA early this week!

Elisa Beck :)

Founder, Sustainable Monroeville

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Clearing the Air in Monroeville with the Clean Air Council, ProtecT, and Protect Our Children

On July 18, 2017 we'll meet with the Clean Air Council at the Good Shepard Lutheran Church to learn about clean air in Monroeville!

Please note, the meeting will be at the Good Shepard Lutheran Church in Monroeville, PA.

Happy July everyone! :)

Here's the link with details: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByMeKDxLK264SEdpWTVCZ3ZIV2Nhem90TmtRNkF2MnlkQUFv/view

Tonight, Tuesday, July 11, 2017 in Monroeville, PA. Share Widely!

Please join us tonight, Tuesday, July 11, 2017, in the Monroeville Council Chamber at 6:00 PM. Let's talk  about preserving the value of our homes and properties! 

Share widely with all of your friends and neighbors!

Grandmother Earth is calling us!
Some breaking fabulous news!
1) On June 20, 2017, the Supreme Court affirmed by majority, the Environmental Rights Amendment, Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to assure Clean Water and Clean Air for all Pennsylvania citizens.
2) On Monday, July 3, 2017, the borough of Oakmont, PA, held a special meeting and enacted by unanimous vote, a very limiting Marcellus ordinance.
3) Please join us tonight, that's Tuesday, July 11, at 6:00 and 7:00 PM for the July 2017 Citizen's Night and Council Meeting, to hear the proposal for a similar very limited Marcellus ordinance for Monroeville, PA.
If you care about limiting or eliminating chemicals in our water causing hormone disruption, limiting, or eliminating both air and water pollution from the Marcellus Shale industry, please join either or both of these meetings as a supportive observer, or to share your opinion.

In case you did not hear the front page Times Express News a few weeks ago, Seismic Testing is being conducted in Monroeville. Tim Little, Municipal Manager met with the gas company Huntley and Huntley to approve this Seismic Testing. Mr. Little was able to approve the Seismic Testing in our Municipality without putting the information in front of the citizens of this municipality because the Municipality of Monroeville does not have a law on the books yet, to limit these activities.
Individual citizens are being, and have been approached since April, 2017 by Huntley and Huntley to ask if it is fine to test for both Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale under their private properties. Please know that you, as a private land owner in Monroeville, or anywhere, can deny the testing.

The following essay was written by an intentionally unnamed individual about the Fracking process:
"This is what has happening in Pennsylvania and all over the world.
The Fracking process:
1. A gas company identifies an area with underground gas.
2. The company leases the right to extract gas from many sites in the area without revealing the risks.
3. The company uses seismic tests to map the locations of underground shale and natural fractures.
4. The company applies for permits to drill and extract gas. Companies will subvert any local zoning laws made by communities to keep fracking out, appeal straight to the federal government and bankrupt municipalities in court. See Grant Twp, PA.
5. The gas company removes all the trees from a 5-10 acre swath to build the "well pad".
6. Initially one or two wells are drilled for every square mile. Eventually there can be 10-12 wells per square mile.
7. First, a vertical well is drilled in the bare ground, cutting through different rock layers and pushing toxic drilling muds into aquifers.
8. A cement casing is poured to protect the groundwater, but casings are fragile and can crack under the extreme pressure of hydraulic fracturing or earthquakes. Eventually the casing will fail, allowing chemicals and gas to leak through the cracks. 6% fail the day they are put in.
9. The horizontal well is then drilled, cutting across natural faults and fractures in the rock. These wells can be up to two miles long.
10. Each Frack= 5 million gallons of water, 1,000 truck trips, 100 tons of toxic chemicals X up to 10 fracks for each well X 4 to 12 wells per pad. This mixture of water, chemicals, and sand are forced into the well under extreme pressure to shatter the shale rock and release the gas.
11. 60-80% of this fluid remains underground contaminating groundwater. The radioactive wastewater and drill cuttings that return to surface are stored in tanks or open pits. Later it will be buried on site, dumped in landfills, injected back underground or into aquifers and they have even illegally dumped at sewage treatment plants.
12. Processing facilities, compressors, and pipelines are built to separate and transport the gas. Pipelines fail, explode, and leak methane into the atmosphere which is 80 times more potent than Co2 as a greenhouse gas.
13. A chemical dryer removes moisture and light oils from the extracted gas using the hazardous chemical 2-butoxyethanol.
14. The gas is compressed before being put into pipelines.
15. Gas is vented out along the pipeline to relieve pressure in the system.
16. Gas is then liquified for export overseas or odorized and delivered to your home.
Some of the most important laws that protect the public don't apply to oil & gas companies due to loopholes put into the Safe Drinking Water Act including community right-to-know laws. We must end this invasive, destructive, and devastating process now! Ban fracking worldwide!!"

Tonight, we plan to propose an extremely conservative fracking, and fracking related activities ordinance for Monroeville, PA.  

Please join us at Citizen's Night at 6:00 PM and also at the Monroeville council meeting following at 7:00 PM to show your support for this ordinance.

Thanks,
Elisa Beck:)
Ward 2 Resident, Monroeville, PA
Sustainable Monroeville, Founder

Eastern 'Burbs Sustainability Huddle!

Join us this coming Sunday, May 7, 2017 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library in conjunction with the Eastern Burbs Huddle and Monica Joyner to learn about easy ways we can all move into our beyond Sustainable Future. YES.WE. ARE!

No worries, No R.S.V.P. necessary. Come on over with some family and friends, or by yourself!

Facebook Link to the event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1752078305122487/

May is exploding with Sustainability events at the Monroeville Public Library!

Please note, Sustainable Monroeville will NOT meet on Monday evening, May 8, 2017 as we will be collaborating with the Eastern Suburbs "Huddle". 

MPL sponsored programs in May, 2017 are listed below. I hope to see you in May:) Elisa Beck :)

Backyard Composting

7:00 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Cosponsored by the Garden Club of Monroeville

Join us for a presentation about turning your kitchen scraps and pesticide/herbicide-free lawn clippings into treasure! Since 1998 Ellen C. Keefe has been passionate about teaching others how to recycle and reduce waste by making healthy compost. She also discusses the microscopic structures of compost and recent research regarding the benefits of it.

Ellen Keefe is Executive Director of the nonprofit Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling in Latrobe, PA. Ellen is also a Derry Township Municipal Authority Board Member and was Board Chair for the Latrobe Municipal Authority. She attended Robert Morris University’s School of General Business Administration and Management and is a Certified Recycling Professional. Last year Ellen spoke at Monroeville Library regarding the work of Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling.

Gallery Space

Climate Change: Challenges and Responses

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The scientific community is essentially unanimous in its conclusion that human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels and release of other greenhouse gases, is responsible for a rapid and significant increase in the average global temperature. This warming is leading to retreating glaciers and melting polar ice sheets, phenomena that will threaten water supplies and put coastal regions at risk from rising sea levels. Other environmental changes will disrupt ecological systems and agriculture. We are already seeing more extreme storms, droughts, floods, and outbreaks of disease that only will become worse without a change in our collective behavior.

For the past six years, Dr. Bob Mitchell has been informally researching the science and politics of climate change. He has taught several short courses on the subject, including in the Pitt and CMU Osher programs, and is an active member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. In this talk, Bob will review Earth’s remarkable climate history and provide insights into its likely future. He will then examine the human consequences of a changing climate. Finally, he will discuss technological and policy approaches that offer hope for the future, including meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accords.

Dr. Mitchell has an MS in physics and a PhD in electrical engineering from CMU. His early career work on gas lasers and circuit breakers used much of the same fundamental physics that applies to climate modeling. Later he managed engineering research on automated image analysis with applications in radar, sonar, medicine, and robotics. He retired in 2014 as the industry director of the Army’s collaborative research program in robotics.

Gallery Space

Meet the Beekeeper!

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Come spend some time with Monroeville beekeeper John Yakim. John will show everyone inside a real beehive and answer questions about honeybees, including how they make honey and how the honeybee helps improve our community. We’ll also learn what we can all do to help the bees survive and thrive!

Gallery Space

Elisa Beck:) 

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Our Regenerative Future Musings, Thanks, and Happy December y'all! :)

Hello there and Happy December from all of us at Sustainable Monroeville! Sustainable Monroeville meets the first Monday evening of the month in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library. Be sure to check this blog regarding specific meeting dates. Meetings are free and open to the public.

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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