healing wholecommunities weber_gc2b_v2: industrial ecology to repair and restore whole landscapes
DESCRIPTION
'Industrial ecology' is key to design methods to 'heal' this region, severely polluted over hundreds of square miles by historical mining activities. Biogeochemical engineering methods are known and available, but EPA and the affected states will not marshall the will to act with resources that will benefit residents.TRANSCRIPT
Healing Whole Communities
Tar Creek Beyond Superfund through Integrative
Sustainability Design
Ivan Weber –
Weber Sustainability Consulting – Salt Lake City, Utah
Tar Creek among ‘Legacies’
Community Integrative Design Problem on truly grand scale
• > 500,000 abandoned mines in US• None exceeds devastation of NE Oklahoma ‘Tar
Creek’
Superfund area –
“Superfund No. 1”• Recipient of > a century of lead‐zinc mining impacts:
toxic wastes, acid/metals water, collapse‐prone ground
Legacies almost Countless
• Clear‐cut forests, Appalachia and the West
• Wetlands drained almost completely
• Toxic compounds found in every living organism
• ‘Mountain‐top’
coal mining in Appalachia
• Climate Change
Orr, again:
• “This is a design challenge like no other. It is not about making greener widgets but how to
make decent communities that fit their places with elegant frugality. The issue is whether
the emerging field of ecological design will evolve as a set of design skills applied as
patchwork solutions on a larger pattern of disorder or whether design will eventually help to transform the larger culture that is badly in need of a reformation.”
Integrative Processes
Regenerative Redevelopment Essentials:• Political Power• Intercultural Cooperation• Economic Creativity• Finance• Compassion• Humility• Inclusive, Integrative Processes ‐‐‐
all appropriate
disciplines, stakeholders• Design
Oklahoma’s Tar Creek: Part of Larger Tri‐State Pb‐Zn Mining District
KS
OK
MOTri‐State
District
Location: Tri‐State Pb‐Zn Mining District ca. 1850‐1970 ~ 2,500 Sq. Mi.
KS
OKMO
Tri‐ State
Mining District
Tar Creek Superfund Site
( )
Great Diversity of Peoples in a Fertile, Dangerous Land
• Lush native prairie grasslands on rolling hills• Dense oak and riparian forests• Close relationship with rivers, wildlife and
shell art appearing in archeological and historical record
• Abundant living for Indigenous Peoples before European Settlement
Tar Creek Region: Home to 10 Native American Tribes
• Quapaw• Peoria• Cherokee• Miami
• Ottawa
• Eastern Shawnee• Wyandotte
• Modoc
• Seneca Cayuga• Shawnee
THE TRIBES OF TAR CREEK ‐
1
Modoc
Ottawa
Eastern Shawnee
THE TRIBES OF TAR CREEK ‐
2
Miami
Peoria
Shawnee
THE TRIBES OF TAR CREEK ‐
3
Seneca‐CayugaCherokee
Wyandotte
THE TRIBES OF TAR CREEK ‐
4
Quapaw
Approximate Tribal Boundaries – Tar Creek Region
MIAMI QUAPA
W
PEORIA
OTTAWAEAST.SHAWNEE
MODOC
WYANDOTTE
SENECA‐CAYUGA
CHEROKEE
Kansas
Oklahoma
Missouri
Quapaw lands were most ‘mineralized,’most heavily mined, and are site of muchof mining’s direct
legacy. Watershed
effects have spread
beyond, onto other
Tribes’
lands.
Mining’s Progress
• Missouri – Lead‐Zinc mining from 1740s, began ca. 1850 in ‘Oronogo‐Duenweg’
area east of
Joplin, in Jasper County• Kansas – Pb‐Zn mining 1870s onward to ca. 1970
in Cherokee County• Oklahoma –
1890s ~ 1978, Pb‐Zn
mining/smelting concentrated on Quapaw Tribal lands, Ottawa County
• ‘Strategic Metals’
area, munitions for American wars depended on Tri‐State lead and zinc.
Tri‐State Lead for Projectiles, Zinc for Brass: America’s Wars, Civil War – Viet Nam
Civil War
WWI
WWII
Korea
Viet Nam
Tar Creek Superfund Area
Tar Creek: Extreme Barriers to Regenerating Communities and Lands
• 130 years of neglect Environmental and Socio‐Economic Sacrifice Zone
• Many Divisions: Ten First Nations Tribes, Two EPA Regions, Three States, many Counties and Municipalities
• Pollution extensive and severe.• Geographical context: Dead zone in what should be
biologically, agriculturally and economically productive area
• No “deep pockets”
‐‐‐
Companies have vacated responsibilities or ceased to exist.
• Superfund has been feeble or abdicated.• Environmental justice has not been served, by any
measure.
Picher, OK
Homes, Businesses,
Towns among Mining Wastes and
Contaminated Water
April, 2004 TIME
aerial,
Picher, OK
Can we leave it like this?
• David Orr: Environmental problems come from miscalibration of intentions.
• But can’t “intentions”
become calibrated to regenerative redevelopment, safe
housing, vibrant towns, and ecological restoration?
• Can’t intentions be initiated, ramped up and maintained into a sustainable future for places like Tar Creek?
Tar Creek Superfund Site: Approx. 40 Sq. Mi.
KS
OK MO
Joplin
Picher
Quapaw
Commerce
Miami
Baxter Springs
Galena
How Did Tar Creek Become Such a Mess? History Informs Action
• Legacies:– Poisoned Water: Ground water filled mines, became
acidic & metals‐laden, Emerged to surface waters in Tri‐State’s topo low area, NE Oklahoma, beginning ~
1979. Tar Creek, Neosho River watershed, Grand Lake of the Cherokees contaminated
– Mine Waste: Millions of tons of ‘chat’
(pulverized ore remnants, some with lead content up to 15%, high
zinc & cadmium) remains on surface
– Unstable Ground: Surface subsidence and cave‐ins common over shallow underground mines
Acid‐Metals Contaminated Tar Creek
Sinkholes and Acid
Mine Shafts Disgorge Pervasive Acid Waters
100 million tons + of ‘Chat’
–
Lead‐Bearing Milling Waste: Region’s Dangerous Playground
…With Predictable Health Consequences
• Pervasively high child blood‐lead levels • Asthma rates abnormally high
• Diabetes reportedly >40% among Quapaw
• Learning disabilities common
• High blood pressure• Apparently elevated cancer rate
Productivity of Land Devastated
• Once Productive, Tar Creek area now cannot be cultivated
• Unsafe for Gardening• Agriculture has not been possible for Decades• Pervasive Airborne Smelting/Refining Pollution
and Lead‐Rich Dust
• Forests Cut for Mine Timbers (well into Ozarks to east and southeast)
We propose the following Regenerative Approach to Tar Creek:
! Understanding ‘Place,’
Culturally, Ecologically, Economically
! Envisioning an integrative process of holistic, creative stimuli to regenerative ‘eco‐economic’
activity! Applying community/place‐centered, industrial
ecology methodologies ‐‐‐
encouraging what can be strong in order to remedy what is deficient and
weak.! Recognizing that it is a design problem, a public
financial problem, a political problem, an intercultural problem ‐‐‐
but not just
the
technological problem as it has been made out to be
Regenerative Redevelopment Vocabulary
• ‘Sustainability’
–
Ability to Sustain: by Design• Restoration – Seek Endpoint resembling
predecessor condition• Regeneration – Seek Dynamic, Sustainable
Condition• Redevelopment – Focus on Sustainable Human
Economies as Most Effective Path toward Sustainable Ecology of ‘Place’
envisioned by
residents of the Place• Regenerative Redevelopment
First Steps:•Environmental and Ecological Engineering ‐
Stabilize
from Danger•Control Sources of Toxic Hazards•‘Re‐Set’
Ecological Succession, Restorative Processes
•Reclaim where Appropriate•Seize Control of Acid Water Seeps,Flows at EffectiveREGIONAL and LOCAL Scales (i.e.,Do what it takes)
Chat ‘Crater’, Picher
OK
Next Steps:
• Assess Economy and Present Interrelationships, Politics
• Recognize Barriers and Damaged Attributes
• Identify Strengths, Latent Resources• Apply ‘INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY’
Principles
Industrial Ecology ‐
Sustainable Economies Mimic Ecosystems
Principles of Ecology:• “Energy
(from Sun) is the currency of the
economy of Nature. Energy relationships dictate community structure.”
F. Montague,
“Environment Notebook”
and text “Wa‐Maka‐Skan”, U. of Utah
• Matter
cannot be created or destroyed. • Nutrients cycle: used by organisms and
returned to environment. • Trophic structure is established as energy
and nutrients flow through community hierarchies of organisms.
Ecology and Economies: both seek stable interrelationships among community
members & natural systems/beings
SUN ENERGY
ECOSYSTEM ECONOMY
GREEN PLANTS
HERBIVORES
CARNI‐VORES
TOP CARNIVORES
PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
MANUFACTURER S
FAB‐DISTRIB‐SALES
CONSUMERS
Community‐Focused Industrial Ecology
• Sustainable Jobs for Productive Regeneration & Ecological Restoration
• Can’t Wait for EPA, State or Others for Ecological Restoration
• Only Reasonably Healthy, Content People ‘Sustain’
their Environments.
• Sustainable Jobs Engender Stewardship.• Industrial Ecology’s Primary Tool: Eco‐
Industrial Park
EIP: Eco‐Industrial Park
• Old Practice, New Realization• Communities of Businesses Cooperating for
Environmental, Economic, and Technological Performance Advantage
• EIP Demands Interdisciplinary, Inter‐ Organizational Cooperation, Planning, O&M
and Finance• ‘Primary Producers’
Recruit ‘Niche’
Businesses
• Joint Marketing for Long‐Term Commitment
EIP Metabolism and Purpose• Energy Flows Understood and Managed for
Efficiency, Renewable Productivity
• Material Flows Constantly Analyzed for Resource Opportunities, Material Recovery
• ‘Niche’
Users Recruited, With New Regional Resource Utilizers
• EIP Strategic Planning Can Integrate Restoration, Regeneration, Socio‐Economic
and Community Goals and Objectives
Energy at the EIP Core
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY
• Solar Energy in All Forms
• Wind, Geothermal, other Renewables
• Biomass Conversion, Biofuels, MSW‐to‐Energy
• Strengthen Agriculture by Crops & Ag Waste Conversion
• Energy Efficiency within EIP • Energy Efficiency for Community and Region
• Energy Efficiency in All Design Projects
Integration: Energy, Materials, Ecosystems Recovery thru Economy
• ‘Integrated Biorefinery’
–
EIP Complex of Industries, R&D and Complementary
Businesses • Focus is on Full Range of Uses of Woody, Crop
and Organic Wastes• Conversions Include Cellulose & Lignin‐to‐
Energy, Cellulose/Hemicellulose‐to‐Value‐ Added Chemicals, Fibrous Materials to Value‐
Added Architectural Products
EIP: Interdisciplinary‐Integrative: Every Applicable Sustainability Discipline Required
• Environmental Engineering
• Ecological Engineering• Geochemistry &
Biogeochemistry• Agricultural Engineering• Agribusiness• Sustainable Forestry &
Wood Sciences• Materials Sciences• Energy Sciences &
Engineering
• Landscape Planning & Design
• Urban Planning• Land Development &
Finance• Economic Design &
Geographic Analysis• Industrial Planning, Design
& Engineering• Industrial Finance• Sustainable Architectural
Planning & Design• Sustainable Construction
Green Design is Extended to Whatever It Takes to ‘Get It Done’
• Green Design and Building is a Subset of Sustainability ‐‐‐
a Core, Essential Subset!
• Community and Its ‘Place’
in Regional/Historical Context Must be at Center
• We Must Find Ways to Design an Economy Appropriate for Each Community in Need of Regenerative Redevelopment and Ecological Restoration
High‐Performance Industries and Communities
• HP – Axiomatic for EIP Facilities and Surrounding Community
• ‘Greensburg Principle’: Strive for best possible performance in restoring distressed,
damaged communities.• Housing development, Architectural
restoration & Energy Efficiency Retrofits = Basic Industries of Sustainable Economy
• Center HP Industries in EIP
VISION: Tar Creek Integrative EIP• Process
Toward Regenerative Strategies
• EIP Visioning & Regenerative Redevelopment
• Environmental
Remediation & Restoration
• Integrative Biorefinery Plan & Recruitment
• Sustainable Land/Industries Development, Town Restoration, Housing Improvement
• Energy
Efficiency & Renewable Energy
• Financial Investment for Regenerative Redevelopment
‘PROCESS’
Essential to Integrative Design
• Process Envisioned and Managed by Residents and Stakeholders
• Possibly Extend ‘Eco‐Charrette’‐Type Facilitated Intensive Process
• All Communities, Tribes, Governments, Institutions, Corporations
• PATIENCE Essential: Determined, not Resigned Patience, to Establish Baseline
Expectations at Outset, then Progress Toward Long‐Term Productivity Regeneration
EIP Strategies• One EIP? More than one?
• Inventory and Assess Assets and Opportunities– ID Existing Industries & Employers in Region’
– Inventory Regional Resources– Envision Sustainable Employment from Resources
– Inventory Unique Locational and Cultural Attributes & Opportunities
– ID Possible ‘Niche’
Enterprises
– ID Financial Support Mechanisms
• Formulate Recruitment Plan
Envision Primary and ‘Symbiotic’ Economic Activities
• Primary Industries (possible): Biorefinery– Biomass Energy – Organic Waste, Municipal
Waste, Ag Waste, Dedicated Crop Byproducts
– Biofuels, Value‐Added Cellulosic Chemicals
– Ag Fiber for Value‐Added Architectural Products (‘Agriboard’
type panels, etc.)
– Soil Restoration Nutrients, Compost Amendments for Land Productivity Restoration
Envision Primary and ‘Symbiotic’ Economic Activities ‐
2
• Primary Industries (possible): Re‐Mining Metals and Best Utilization of Mine Wastes
• Primary Industries (possible): Solar, Wind, other Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
• Housing –
Efficient/Affordable
• Attractive Places Creation (Reverse the Cancer)
Environmental Remediation & Restoration
• Restoration of Land and Waters to Healthful Productivity: Core Activity
• Creation of Safe, Efficient and Attractive Community Infrastructure: Core Activity
• Strategic Regional and Localized Water Clean‐Up and AMD Prevention
• Sequester Chat: Back into Mines, Use as Building Aggregate, or Cap Safely
• Confirm Surface Safety: Long‐Term Strategy for Earth Support, Controlled Collapse, other Assurance
of Firm Ground
Restoration and Regeneration: Tar Creek is Target # 1
Integrative Biorefinery Plan & Recruitment
• Conceptualize Integration of Biorefinery Activities over Development Schedule
• Match Activities to Market Development
• Secure Local/Regional Resources for StartUp• Initiate R&D for Critical Future Technologies • Recruit Primary Participants
Sustainable Land/Industries & Community Development
• Draft Iterative Landscape‐Scale Master Plan
• Assure that Other Strategies are Based on Plan• ID Key Areas to Return to ‘GreenField’
Status First
• Coordinate with Land Development Investment Planning
• Watershed Planning Must Take Precedence
• Sustainable Agriculture Must Take Precedence
• Cluster EIP, Business and Town Developments to Minimize Footprint, for Optimum Bio‐
Productivity
Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Development
• Community Energy Efficiency Investment: ESCos, Government Programs, Incentive‐Based Programs to Improve EE in Buildings
• LEED Everywhere @ ‘Greensburg Principle’
Levels
• Renewable Energy Integration• Solar‐Thermal & PV on Buildings
• District Heat• Secondary Water Systems: Avoid ‘Engineering’
Water Needlessly (save energy!)
Financial Investment for Regenerative Redevelopment
• Establish Regional Regenerative Investment Funds
• Designate Area as Target for Investors• Mining Companies Should be Key Participants
(without assurances)
• US Government MUST INVEST HEAVILY (Remember Century of Wars)
• Focus On Clean, Sustainable Jobs• Always Mindful of Restoring and Regenerating
Environment
Financial Investment for Regenerative Redevelopment ‐
2
• Cleaned Land Lender Verification and Liability Relief ESSENTIAL
• Regional Redevelopment Fund/Authority• Business Incubator(s) and Recruitment Center• R&D and Grants‐Seeking Management Center• By‐Products Exchange and EIP Infrastructure
Management for EIP Optimization• Environmental Assurance for Business Discipline:
Zero‐Discharge/Zero‐Emissions Performance• ISO‐14000 Certification for EIP
Conclusions: Extending Understandings of ‘Sustainable Design’
• Must Extend Capacities to Manage Integratively the Many Disciplines Needed by ‘Tar Creek,’
Neighboring Sites, and
Other Similar Areas. • Must Extend Our Sensibilities Toward Assisting Damaged,
Disadvantaged Communities and Landscapes.• Not About Us: Must Direct Attention and ‘Intention’
Toward Picher and All the Other Towns, First Nations, Communities and Regions , to Help Them to Help
Themselves through Community Regenerative Design.• ‘Community‐Centered EIP’
Concept can Help Restore Pride
of Place, a Regional Guiding Intelligence (across borders), and a Unified Conscience about the Land.
Tar Creek: Voice of Devastated Lands, Damaged Economies
Time April 2004
Ivan Weber, Principal/OwnerLEED-AP / USGBC953 1st AvenueSalt Lake City, Utah 84103801-355-6863 / 801- 651-8841 [email protected] mwww.webersustain.com
The Green Man