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Bioremediation in New Orleans
by Starhawk
Common Ground has sponsored the “Road Trip for Relief,” to bring hundreds of volunteers into the Ninth Ward, one of the areas most devasted by Hurricane Katrina. Juniper, Scotty and I have been on a special mission to set up a small bioremediation demonstration as a seed for a long-term project.
“Bioremediation” means cleaning soil and water and restoring it to health using beneficial bacteria, plants and fungi. Restoration on the scale of New Orleans is an overwhelming project, but many techniques are applicable on a small scale. Common Ground has been working on a proposal to fund and train a worker’s cooperative that would be able to put them into practice.
Juniper, an environmental engineer, has tested soil samples from many areas in New Orleans. She’s found lead, arsenic and other chemicals, but reports that toxin levels are no worse than they were before the flood. These are the result of generations of paint on old buildings, auto exhaust and lawn chemicals.
Scotty has set up a 100 gallon compost tea brewery. Beneficial bacteria and fungi can break down toxins and restore life to the soil.
We’ve been networking with a number of really great groups in New Orleans who are already doing sustainability work, including the New Orleans Farm and Food Network and local nurseries. We’ve trained more than 45 volunteers. We’ve sheetmulched ground that was covered with garbage, built a compost bin, made 100 gallons of bioremediation brew. We created a Powerpoint on bioremediation and several visual displays and put in a graywater system for the outdoor showers. We consulted on the solar hot water heating and its augmentation by a kettle over a wood fire.
Projects here are hellish or easy. They’re easy because there are lots of resources around to scavenge, wood and building materials that can be reused. It’s as if everyone in New Orleans opened their door and shoveled out their belongings onto the street. They’re ruined and moldy, of course, but many things can be salvaged. I found a plastic tub perfect for a compost bin, and a stack of giant cardboard boxes perfect for sheet mulch. The round, bamboo skeleton of a broken swing chair made a perfect cover for the compost.
The hellish aspect is that you may not be able to find something specific, a plumbing part or valve that fits a particular pipe. After finally escaping frustrating hours spent in the Home Depot line, you almost always immediately remember something you forgot to buy. Or you remember the minute you return to the worksite.
The solar showers, cobbled together from discarded water heaters, plywood boxes and plastic, were simple in design but complicated to assemble. At best, they’ll only provide a very inadequate amount of hot water for the number of people who needed to shower. We’re praying for a miracle. But just in case, we build a firepit.
The police in Algiers continue to harass Common Ground. It takes times and energy to deal with them. They arrested a young man for double parking while loading supplies from the depot. But Ninth Ward cops have all lost their homes. Many have lost friends and family members. They appreciate that people have come down here to help.
It’s heavenly to hang out with people at their best - people who have come to do something good for others, take on truly nasty, dirty jobs such as cleaning out black mold. There’s a lot of stress. People don’t always get along. There are irritations and frustrations. But overall, it’s really good to be with people actively doing something to help a really bad situation.
Their work inspires generosity. Kaysey and Nick from the Covington Farmers’ Market come down and cook our opening meal. She hadn’t bargained on feeding 150 of us, but graciously rose to the occasion. A group from Minnesota have sent truckloads of supplies to Mississippi for weeks. They received more donations than they need, and spent the money on 800 pounds of turkey for Common Ground’s Thanksgiving feast.
Generosity generates abundance. That’s something the idealogues of greed don’t get.
“Solidarity, not charity,” is Common Ground’s motto. People feel good when they are standing in solidarity with others, giving of themselves, doing something instead of feeling helpless. The tragedy and destruction here have been immense.
But so is the hope.
Starhawk is an activist, organizer, and author of The Earth Path, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, The Fifth Sacred Thing and other books on feminism, politics and earth-based spirituality. She teaches Earth Activist Trainings that combine permaculture design and activist skills, www.earthactivisttraining.org and works with the RANT trainer’s collective, www.rantcollective.net that offers training and support for mobilizations around global justice and peace issues. For details about fungi bioremediation go to http://www.fungiperfecti.com.
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