Cato Ridge Environmental Coalition

Try this at home...

2010-06-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this works as well in South Africa as it does in the U.S. but try it. Click on the link below and see a very scary interactive graphic that puts into proportion the extent of the Gulf of Mexico oil 'spill' (don't I mean 'catastrophe'?)

If this was your home...
(Let me know what you see....)

After you get your breath back, drop down the page and read the text, including:

What Can You Do?
* Talk. First, share this map with your friends so they can understand the impact as well. Next, write to your Representatives and Senators and share your feelings about this disaster. (FROM SA POINT OF VIEW, LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT THE CONTAMINATION IN AREAS NEAR YOU... YOU CAN BE SURE THERE IS SOME AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT SORT SO YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR WATER, FLORA, AND FAUNA!)
* Think. The EPA is soliciting ideas for possible technology solutions to aid in the oil spill response efforts. Submit your idea. You can also visit the clever inventors over at GulfClean.org and help them build their crowdsourced technology for oil cleanup.
* Volunteer. Lousiana and Florida are both looking for volunteers to help in cleanup and prevention. If you have a boat and live or work on the gulf coast, you can participate in the Vessels of Opportunity program where BP will pay you to take part in oil skimming operations.
* Donate The National Wildlife Foundation and International Bird Rescue are accepting donations for coastal relief. Matter of Trust is also collecting hair to be bundled into booms. Hair absorbs oil even better than the synthetic materials being used. You can find a participating hair salon or barbershop at their site. (NOT SURE THAT THIS IS ACCURATE.. I'VE HEARD THAT SALONS THAT HAVE COLLECTED HAIR HAVE HAD TO DISPOSE OF IT AS IT IS NO LONGER USED.)

Sign up for Regular Updates to CREC

2010-06-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to sign up for CREC Updates if you receive the opt-in email. That will allow you to stay in touch with the Coalition as things develop in the Cato Ridge area.

And, if you know of other developments in the area that are not mentioned here, send that information so we can post it and keep people informed.

If you did not receive the Sign Up Invitation, Sign up here

Transition Towns and Cities ...how would it work in Cato Rigde?

2010-06-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

What is a Transition Town and Initiative?

A Transition Initiative (which could be a town, village, university or island etc) is a community-led response to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and increasingly, economic contraction. There are thousands of initiatives around the world starting their journey to answer this crucial question:

"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly rebuild resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil and economic contraction) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"

It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change? It began in the UK and is growing really fast there Learn more >>
What is happening to California?
Could it work in South Africa and Cato Ridge?

Download your own copy of the Transition City Primer

If we don't pay attention to history, it has a tendency to repeat.

2010-06-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Cato Ridge Environmental Coalition began as a kind of community watch group with local area people becoming involved with new business as they move into and around our "neighborhood".
And, it is always instructive to know what is happening in other parts of the world, learn from it, and apply the learning to our own situation.
With that in mind, the author of the following article, Diane Wilson, has a lot ot teach us. She describes herself as "a high school–educated fisherwoman with a pile of kids and a broke-down truck." She plies her trade, shrimp fisherwoman, in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read her article: "The BP oil gusher is just the latest in a long line of assaults on the Gulf of Mexico"

Connecting the dots... or, what goes around comes around

2010-05-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

You be following the fast-moving tragedy overtaking the Gulf of Mexico and the people, animals, and plants along that coast. (I continue to write about it on another blog.)

Here is an excerpt:
In an interview with the UK Guardian two weeks ago, BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, described the spill as "tiny" relative to the size of the gulf.

Today, he drastically scaled upwards his assessment of the spill. He told CNN: "This is clearly an environmental catastrophe. There is no two ways about it. It's clear that we are dealing with a very significant environmental crisis and catastrophe."
Wow, who knew?

Read the UK Guardian article.

This past week, Greg Moses wrote a terrific piece for CounterPunch titled "Oil Wars Come Home to Roost." Here is the opening:

Even the birds are pissed. Whether it’s the Mockingbird who guards the footpath down by the bus stop. Or the Blue Jay who cusses across my back deck. Or even the frigging Grackle who buzzed me early morning at the grocery-store parking lot. This week I‘m a Hitchcock player and these birds come straight for my neck.

AP says 333 birds have been found dead along the Gulf Coast with no oil on them. Well, the birds I know are telling me what their fellows died from. The lead weight of grief. As if the oil companies hadn’t wrecked every other week this century. As if this must be nothing but the century of dirty oil. Suddenly the oil wars have come home to roost and there is nothing to do about it except what everybody else has done who gets smacked by this dark force of history. You just stand there and cry.

It’s like shock and awe bounced back off the dark side of the moon. All the wealth and brains and power of the mighty American empire sucked into a vacuum of arrogant corruption and relayed back to earth in the form of a blob that will not be stopped until the death of it all finally sinks in. You call this stinking mess democracy?

Read his - short - article.
I was struck with his passionate anger and emailed him:

Hello Greg Moses,
I've enjoyed both your Counterpunch articles this week. The article, "Oil Wars Come Home to Roost" was great: short, passionate, direct...and unafraid of your pain and anger. Almost unAmerican of you!
I'd like to interview you on my radio show....

He emailed me back:

Thank you...however, I can't even begin to imagine talking about the death of our beloved Gulf of Mexico without crying out loud. I'm afraid I could only supply rather pathetic conversation right now....

Yes, if Greg cried on the show I'd cry too. We'd have a cry-fest...which is what the whole country needs: to howl, scream, cry, rage, cry, cry, cry....

The Gulf is a fast moving catastrophe made to look 'manageable' by the criminals who perpetrated the crime. This is one result of the thinking that Grover Norquist represents: "government small enough to drown in the bathtub." Except government -- that is, run with the little guy's tax dollars that are too few for education, health care, community care -- will be enough to pay for this ongoing corporate crime/tragedy.

As an aside, there is also a slow moving tragedy-in-the-making in rural South Africa -- where I grew up -- as it undergoes massive industrialization.

Long story that will unfold over the next months but, summarized, the Outer West zone of the municipality eTekwini -- home to SA's largest cargo port, Durban -- has been earmarked for industry, "dry dock," and to house the many freight trucks that upset Durban's residents. (Yes, there, same as here, we use diesel/oil instead of trains for freight. And, remember, this was once a British colony and the Brits built train track everywhere they went.) Instead of assessing what could be done differently to minimize the problem in Durban, the municipality is expanding its area of operations. So, besides the fallout from the manganese smelter, Assmang Cato Ridge Works that we have been subjected to for six decades, and the criminal spills of toxic mercury that continue to dibble into rivers from the days of UK's transnational manufacturer Thor Chemicals... the area will soon have the world's largest landfill, but not a fill, instead it'll be a pyramid that goes into the sky on the edge of a windblown escarpment! Plus, all sorts of other industries.

A cry-fest is long overdue. Then a real workable cross-cultural, trans-national, apolitical, non-U.S.-centric enforceable agreement for a sustainable way of life. Sure, we Americans may have to cut back on privileges -- for example, spending money on junk food like the currently vastly over-promoted "Hotpockets" and all the other forms of edibles that have little to do with solid nutrition and everything to do with profit.

Hey, wouldn't that bring down the epidemic of diabetes, heart disease, obesity...which also means the cost of health care?

My god, a win/win among the tarballs, mercury, and manganism!

EIA DM 0137 - Ferez Storage & Distribution Centre on Georgedale Road

2010-04-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

EIA DM 0137 FEREZ STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION CENTRE ON PORTION 369 ( OF 216 ) AND 403 ( OF 368 ) SITUATED ON THE GEORGEDALE ROAD AREA OF CATO RIDGE

Please find attached to this email a scoping report for this application. The figures and appendices are linked below and in the right column of this blog.

The purpose of a scoping report is to inform the registered interested and affected parties of what is proposed in the activity, to provide a list of the issues and alternatives that have been identified so far in the scoping process, and to provide an opportunity for these parties to provide their comments, if they so wish, with these comments being taken account of in the next stages EIA process.

Cato Ridge 369 & 403 - DSR Report compact
Cato Ridge 369 & 403 - DSR Appendices compact

FYI: Articles on what is compost...and what is not!

2010-04-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Listen to radio shows on environmental topics.
(If you are downloading to listen at home on your computer, use the 24 kbps file as it downloads faster. If you want to air the show on a radio, use the 128 kbps file.)
"Compost: the highest tech method to preserve our planet and our health"
Robert Reed of San Franciso's Recology, one of the largest composting and recycling employee owned organizations in the country, is with us for the first half of the show. Then soil scientist and agronomist, Bob Shaffer shares the known secrets of composting and recognizes the secrets of humus that no one really knows.
Read the article: Getting beyond the Yuck factor: The virtues of compost

"San Francisco's “green” mayor has toxic sludge on this hands"
San Francisco’s first 100% “off-grid” building, modeling solar power and alternative wastewater technologies opened at Bay View Hunter's Point on Earth Day. Also this weekend was a deeply moving multi-day ceremony called Welcome to Ohlone Territory also held at Heron's Head Park.
And an update on the World Bank loan to South Africa's parastatal Escom.
Then John Mayer and John Stauber of Organic Consumers Association talk about toxic sludge and how San Francisco's “green” mayor has sludge on this hands.
Read the article

Radio interviews for Raising Sand Radio and articles by Susan Galleymore.

Assmang Cato Ridge Works - Update: Applications and Licenses etc.

2010-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

An email received from Kristen King, Consultant with Assmang Cato Ridge Works

Please find attached the license application and report for decommissioning of the historic slag dump (i.e. Item 1 below). Let me know if you require any specific appendices. They are also available for download off SRK’s website at www.srk.co.za/Public Documents/Assmang.

A public participation process is being undertaken for three separate applications to the relevant authorities for approval in terms of the National Environmental Management Waste Act No. 59 of 2008 and the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations of 2006 as follows:
1. An application for a waste license for decommissioning of the historic slag disposal facility.
2. An application for a waste license for the operation of a new lined slag disposal facility (DEA Reference Number: 12/9/11/L1191/4).
3. Application for amendment of the Environmental Authorisation, as issued on 30 January 2007, for the new lined slag disposal facility (DAEARD Reference Number: EIA/6804).

Comments should be submitted to the undersigned by 12h00 on Thursday 25 March 2010.
Should you have any queries or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned.
Regards
Kirsten King, Senior Environmental Scientist
SRK Consulting Engineers & Scientists
Tel: 033-345 6311
Fax: 033-345 6403
Cell: 083-609 7783

Composting! A BIG business for up-and-coming entrepeneurs....

2010-04-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

As we have seen reported in many local newspapers, South Africa has a huge problem with all sorts of waste. And it doesn't have to be so. Out there somewhere, is a bright, hardworking, visionary South African looking for a good business opportunity can heal the earth, solve some of the waste problem, and make a good income!

Take, for example, San Francisco where the mayor Gavin Newsom passed a mandatory source separation ordinance in June 2009. Today, the city is recycling, reusing, and composting waste from more than 225,000 households, 4,000 businesses, and about 46 percent of 8,500 apartment buildings.

Read more about this >>
Or, listen to a radio show about it >>

Kettleman City, California. has a large landfill site...

2010-04-02T16:40:00.001-07:00

Articles in LA Times re landfill area in California, Kettleman City.

Thanks to all who responded!

2010-04-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you for responding so positively to the Cato Ridge Environmental Coalition!

More documents from Arup posted April 1 - download at links to the right.
Environmental Workshop, March 30
Base Map Environmental Mgmt Framework
Environmental Assesement - Extract

Some are big and take time to download. If you or your computer are not able to download them, contact:
Siloshini Naidoo at Arup: siloshini.naidoo@arup.com
or telephone her: +27 (0) 31 328 8700.

Please feel free to post any comments on this blog (see Comments icon below this post). You can also send an email (catoridgeec@gmail.com) if you require anonymity.
Here is something to comment on: People in the Outer West area say that there is not much 'the little guy' can do if and when industry wants to build. They say, "Well, we didn't want ChlorChem but we got them; we don't want Assmang pollution but we have had it for 60 years. We fought for Thor to clean up the mercury but it is still there. We don't want the proposed Landfill, but how can we stop it?"

Does this perception breed a sense of powerlessness that contradicts 'the little guy's' actual power?
What do you think?

Proposed DSW Landfill Site - Cato Ridge - It's baaaack!

2010-03-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

Received the following email. There is movement on the Proposed DSW Landfill Site in Cato Ridge. Use the link on the right to download the Comments document. Here is the DSW Landfill Final EIA Report has been requested and will be posted here on receipt.

Dear Stakeholder
This e-mail serves to inform all registered stakeholders that the Final EIA Report for the Proposed DSW Cato Ridge Landfill Site was submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs and Rural Development (DAEA&RD) on 17 March 2010 for review and consideration.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all stakeholders for your participation in this project. You will be notified of the decision taken by the DAEA&RD in due course.
Many thanks
Hilary Konigkramer
Associate, WSP Environment & Energy
Tel: +27(0) 31 240 8871
Email: hilary.konigkramer@wspgroup.co.za

Cato Ridge Documents....

2010-03-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

The following are the most recent documents for the Outer West Corridor and Cato Ridge Local Area Plans. They are large documents and take time to download. If you do not easy have access to them, call or email Siloshini Naidoo (contact info below) and let her know.
IMPORTANT: Keep notes on the day, date, time, and general content of your conversation about when and how she will ensure you receive the documents in the short time frame Arup has set for feedback.
Outer West Corridor Study and Cato Ridge Local Area Plan

Appendix: Opportunities and Constraints
Cato Ridge Project Information Document THIS IS THE DOC WITH THE FORM TO SEND BACK TO ARUP TO REGISTER AS AN INTERESTED & AFFECTED PARTY. IF YOU CANNOT DOWNLOAD/FAX IT, TELEPHONE SILOSHINI NAIDOO: 031-328-8700...OR EMAIL HER: siloshini.naidoo@arup.com.
IDP Summary 2002-2006
Since there are more Zulu speaking residents in the area, it makes sense that Arup/Graham Muller Assoc also present all these documents in Zulu. Email Siloshini with this request too.