We meet on the 3rd Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m.
to work on the following initiatives.
Current Initiatives
•The proposed AGU Thriving Earth Exchange project, Identification of Pollutants in the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed: A Recommendation for Protectionaims to conduct a review, identifying all current data and research for soil, biosolid, wildlife, and surface, ground, and well water for the following chemicals: N, P, O, Temperature, turbidity, conductivity, bacteria, Novel Entities (plastic, micro and nano plastic), Heavy Metals, Persistent Organic Pollutants, Per and Polyflouralalky Substances (PFAS), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Synthetic Playing Surfaces, Polychlorinated DiBenzol-P dioxin (PCDD), Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) • We will determine point and nonpoint source pollutants and recommend further testing, monitoring, and remediation. Partners: Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), POWR Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds Resources, Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association, …•A Conversation of the Impacts of SUP on the Health and the Environment. Partners Bosler Library, South Central PA Climate Realty, Beyond Plastics, US Composting Council, FoCo Trash Mob, US Reduces, BYO, …•Synthetic Playing Surfaces harming our youth, Partnering with Safe and Healthy Playing Fields & Beyond Plastic reaching out to municipalities •PFAS drinking and wastewater testing reaching out to municipalities and residents with wells, personal avoidance, land spreading of biosolids•Halt the Harm also announced our new PFAS Campaign Accelerator Online Course!•PFAS legislation Partnering with LWVPA, PFAS-action-group.•Point, PA Chemical Recycling Plant - partnering with organizations including Beyond Plastics (BP) and Save Our Susquehanna (SOS) to stop Chemical Recycling plants. We are working to stop the construction of the Encina Point Township plant.•Zero Waste PA legislation,Partnering with LWVPA, Upstream, Beyond Plastic, Note the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246-a/A.5322-a) of NY. Do we want to do something like this?•Reusables in restaurants,Partnering with Beyond Plastic, FoCo Flash Mob Panera & Spoons- Sustainability Feedback•BYO -US Reduces for Pennsylvania Partnering with BYO •Reuse in Schools and Colleges/UniversitiesPartnering with Upstream and Cafeteria Culture•Participate in Planning the MPP Sustainable Fashion Show•NO PVC for replacing lead pipes with IRA funds- reaching out to municipalities REPORT: The Perils of PVC Plastic Pipes•Great news to share with you! The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, Senate Bill 3217, and House Resolution 6053 were reintroduced this week by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Congressmember Jared Huffman (D-CA-02).•Learn more about PFAS and how you can
protect your drinking water and participate
in the PFAS Campaign
Harms from Synthetic Playing Surfaces
PA Constitution - Article 1 Section 27
Natural resources and the public estate.
The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people..
•What Dangerous Chemicals Are Lurking in Your Drinking Water? Recording Video•1 /2 /24 Why Plastic Recycling is a Myth? Recording Video•2/6/24 What are Safe Playing Surfaces for Your Children?•3/ 5/24 What Are Alternatives to Disposables for Take-out and Restaurants?•4/9/24 What Does Poop, Farms, and Food Have in Common?•5/1/1/24 How Many Fish Can I Safely Eat?•6/17/24 Finding Sustainable Clothes•7/2/24 What Home Renovation Materials Are Safe and Healthy for the Planet?•8/6/24 What am I?•9/3/24 Alternatives to Plastic for Serving Snacks and Lunches•10/1/24 What do Healthy Built Schools Look Like?•11/6/24 How do we keep plastic and its toxic chemicals from our meals?•12/3/24 First Annual Single-Use Plastic Trivia
Conversation on Compost, Biosolids, Food,
and Plastic
Tuesday, April 9th, 2024, 6 pm - 7 pm EST
What Does Poop, Farms, and Food Have in Common?
Where does our food waste go? What is the price we pay for our disposable economy? Discover the unlikely places we find plastic. What are some of the potential harms of plastic in various interconnected systems? We will follow our poop to the wastewater treatment plant to farm fields and the food you buy at the store.This webinar wants to address Anaerobic Digestion vs. Composting: Choosing the Best Organic Waste Management Method. Hi-lite decreases GHG, carbon sink, healthier soil, plants, etc. It will also tackle hazardous chemicals from biosolid land spreading, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons (Benzene, Toluene, Xylene), dioxins, Heavy metals, PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls), BPA’s, PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons) and VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Microplastic impacts on soil composition, function, microbiology, and plant health will be discussed.
Guest Experts
Tracy Frisch is a long-time grassroots environmental leader, organizer, and independent journalist. She earned an MS in Entomology from Cornell University. In the 1990s, she worked with pesticide victims and advocates for alternatives. She ran a regional sustainable agriculture organization that excelled in farmer-to-farmer education for nine years. She was the lead author of the June 2023 Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter report, Sewage Sludge ‘Fertilizer’ Contaminates Farms with Toxic PFAS. She is the co-founder and chair of the Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls and the coordinator of a local citizens group, Zero Waste Warren County. Last fall, she co-founded No Safe Level, the statewide coalition advocating to end the land spreading of sewage sludge. She is also a key leader in a multifaceted campaign to stop the first sewage sludge biochar plant from being built in the small town of Moreau, NY. Linda Norris-Waldt is Deputy Director and Advocacy and Chapter Director of the US Composting Council, where she has advocated for compost as a healthy soil and carbon-sequestering solution for organic waste for ten years. She has been in the recycling industry for 30 years, having spent ten years as the recycling director for Frederick County, MD. She is a University of Maryland graduate and a member of the MD-DC Composting Council Board of Directors and Maryland Compost Advocacy Coalition. She is part of the Frederick Compost Workgroup, a citizens advocacy group for composting and food waste in Frederick County. She lives in Middletown, MD..
•The proposed AGU Thriving Earth Exchange project, Identification of Pollutants in the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed: A Recommendation for Protectionaims to conduct a review, identifying all current data and research for soil, biosolid, wildlife, and surface, ground, and well water for the following chemicals: N, P, O, Temperature, turbidity, conductivity, bacteria, Novel Entities (plastic, micro and nano plastic), Heavy Metals, Persistent Organic Pollutants, Per and Polyflouralalky Substances (PFAS), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Synthetic Playing Surfaces, Polychlorinated DiBenzol-P dioxin (PCDD), Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) • We will determine point and nonpoint source pollutants and recommend further testing, monitoring, and remediation. Partners: Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), POWR Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds Resources, Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association, …•A Conversation of the Impacts of SUP on the Health and the Environment. Partners Bosler Library, South Central PA Climate Realty, Beyond Plastics, US Composting Council, FoCo Trash Mob, US Reduces, BYO, …•Synthetic Playing Surfaces harming our youth, Partnering with Safe and Healthy Playing Fields & Beyond Plastic reaching out to municipalities •PFAS drinking and wastewater testing reaching out to municipalities and residents with wells, personal avoidance, land spreading of biosolids•Halt the Harm also announced our new PFAS Campaign Accelerator Online Course!•PFAS legislation Partnering with LWVPA, PFAS-action-group.•Point, PA Chemical Recycling Plant - partnering with organizations including Beyond Plastics (BP) and Save Our Susquehanna (SOS) to stop Chemical Recycling plants. We are working to stop the construction of the Encina Point Township plant.•Zero Waste PA legislation,Partnering with LWVPA, Upstream, Beyond Plastic, Note the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246-a/A.5322-a) of NY. Do we want to do something like this?•Reusables in restaurants,Partnering with Beyond Plastic, FoCo Flash Mob Panera & Spoons- Sustainability Feedback•BYO -US Reduces for Pennsylvania Partnering with BYO •Reuse in Schools and Colleges/UniversitiesPartnering with Upstream and Cafeteria Culture•Participate in Planning the MPP Sustainable Fashion Show•NO PVC for replacing lead pipes with IRA funds- reaching out to municipalities REPORT: The Perils of PVC Plastic Pipes•Great news to share with you! The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, Senate Bill 3217, and House Resolution 6053 were reintroduced this week by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Congressmember Jared Huffman (D-CA-02).•Learn more about PFAS and how you can
protect your drinking water and
participate
in the PFAS Campaign
Harms from Synthetic Playing
Surfaces
PA Constitution - Article 1 Section 27
Natural resources and the public estate.
The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people..
•What Dangerous Chemicals Are Lurking in Your Drinking Water? Recording Video•1 /2 /24 Why Plastic Recycling is a Myth? Recording Video•2/6/24 What are Safe Playing Surfaces for Your Children?•3/ 5/24 What Are Alternatives to Disposables for Take-out and Restaurants?•4/9/24 What Does Poop, Farms, and Food Have in Common?•5/1/1/24 How Many Fish Can I Safely Eat?•6/17/24 Finding Sustainable Clothes•7/2/24 What Home Renovation Materials Are Safe and Healthy for the Planet?•8/6/24 What am I?•9/3/24 Alternatives to Plastic for Serving Snacks and Lunches•10/1/24 What do Healthy Built Schools Look Like?•11/6/24 How do we keep plastic and its toxic chemicals from our meals?•12/3/24 First Annual Single-Use Plastic Trivia
Conversation on Compost,
Biosolids, Food, and Plastic
Tuesday, April 9th, 2024, 6 pm - 7
pm EST
What Does Poop, Farms, and Food Have in
Common?
Where does our food waste go? What is the price we pay for our disposable economy? Discover the unlikely places we find plastic. What are some of the potential harms of plastic in various interconnected systems? We will follow our poop to the wastewater treatment plant to farm fields and the food you buy at the store.This webinar wants to address Anaerobic Digestion vs. Composting: Choosing the Best Organic Waste Management Method. Hi-lite decreases GHG, carbon sink, healthier soil, plants, etc. It will also tackle hazardous chemicals from biosolid land spreading, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons (Benzene, Toluene, Xylene), dioxins, Heavy metals, PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls), BPA’s, PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons) and VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Microplastic impacts on soil composition, function, microbiology, and plant health will be discussed.
Guest Experts
Tracy Frisch is a long-time grassroots environmental leader, organizer, and independent journalist. She earned an MS in Entomology from Cornell University. In the 1990s, she worked with pesticide victims and advocates for alternatives. She ran a regional sustainable agriculture organization that excelled in farmer-to-farmer education for nine years. She was the lead author of the June 2023 Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter report, Sewage Sludge ‘Fertilizer’ Contaminates Farms with Toxic PFAS. She is the co-founder and chair of the Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls and the coordinator of a local citizens group, Zero Waste Warren County. Last fall, she co-founded No Safe Level, the statewide coalition advocating to end the land spreading of sewage sludge. She is also a key leader in a multifaceted campaign to stop the first sewage sludge biochar plant from being built in the small town of Moreau, NY. Linda Norris-Waldt is Deputy Director and Advocacy and Chapter Director of the US Composting Council, where she has advocated for compost as a healthy soil and carbon-sequestering solution for organic waste for ten years. She has been in the recycling industry for 30 years, having spent ten years as the recycling director for Frederick County, MD. She is a University of Maryland graduate and a member of the MD-DC Composting Council Board of Directors and Maryland Compost Advocacy Coalition. She is part of the Frederick Compost Workgroup, a citizens advocacy group for composting and food waste in Frederick County. She lives in Middletown, MD..