#soilislife — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #soilislife, aggregated by home.social.
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No surprise. #ChelliePingree voted against HR556, #JaredGolden voted for it.
Protect #Wildlife from Toxic #LeadAmmunition [and #FishingTackle]
"#HR556, a bill to prevent federal agencies from prohibiting or regulating the use of toxic lead ammunition and fishing tackle on certain public lands and waters, passed the House of Representatives on March 18. However, we are not done fighting this bill! Lead ammunition is a well-documented threat, leading to illness and death for millions of birds and other wild animals each year. Since there is no safe level for lead exposure, hunters, anglers, and their families can also be harmed. Please contact your US representative about their vote on H.R. 556 and urge your senators to oppose this bill."
https://awionline.org/action-center#/535
Bill Status and details:
H.R.556 — 119th Congress (2025-2026)
Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2025
"This bill bars the Fish and Wildlife Service (#FWS), the Bureau of Land Management (#BLM), and the Forest Service from prohibiting or regulating the use of lead ammunition or tackle on federal land or water. The bill makes exceptions for specified existing regulations and where the FWS, the BLM, or the Forest Service determines that a decline in wildlife population at the specific unit of federal land or water is primarily caused by the use of lead in ammunition or tackle, based on the field data from such unit, and the state approves the regulations."
House Roll Call Vote 93 119th Congress - 2nd Session (2026)
Passed - Yea: 215 | Nay: 202
(R 208-1 Pres=0 NV=9, D 7-201 Pres=0 NV=6, I 0-0 Pres=0 NV=0)Full voting roster:
https://www.congress.gov/votes/house/119-2/93#USPol #MainePol #ProtectWildlife #ProtectNature #LeadPoisoning #WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #NatureIsLife
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#MaineDEP #Sustainability program - #HomeComposting
"What is composting?
Compost is a dark brown, earthy, crumbly material made of decomposed organic matter.
Benefits of Composted Material
When added to soil, compost improves soil porosity and water retention, and provides plants with essential nutrients.
Composting diverts organic materials from the waste stream and our landfills!
How does Material Decompose? Millions of microorganisms work to break down organic material. We can speed up composting by managing the process.
How do I start a compost pile?Start by picking a location. Look for an area that is:
- Well -drained and close to level
- In partial shade, to help with water retention
- At least 1 -foot away from walls, fences, bushes, trees etc.
- A convenient spot to place materials and to get the end product to its final locationWhat tools will I need?
These tools may help get you started:
- Compost bin
- Pitchfork (compost turner)
- Chipper/shredder
- Wheelbarrow (for transport)
- Garden hose
- 4’ X 12’ Sturdy coated wire mesh (to form cylinder to contain compost pile, if desired)"Learn more:
https://www.maine.gov/dep/sustainability/compost/home-composting.html#SolarPunkSunday #Composting #Compost #HomeCompost #SoilIsLife #ReduceFoodWaste
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#LAFires Could Transform Former #Rocketdyne Site into #FEMATrailerPark
January 2025
"#Radiation and chemical vapors on 47-acre #CanogaPark site are too toxic for housing, but could be mitigated to safely house residents displaced by January 2025 fires in above-ground trailers.
- Gross site contamination and development encumbrances prohibit residential housing
- Hundreds of #FEMATrailers, mobile homes and even shipping containers could be placed on site safely and temporarily house thousands of #LosAngeles disaster victims [Or maybe a potential #DetentionCenter? Hmmmm...]
- Efforts to clean up polluted west Valley groundwater could emulate 2024 agreement to remediate fouled east Valley aquifer and provide billions of gallons of clean water"The former Rocketdyne Canoga Park facility in the western #SanFernandoValley is so contaminated that it is nearly impossible to build anything on it other than light industry even though a developer wanted to construct homes on the site.
"#Chemicals and #radiation severely contaminate the land and #groundwater in and around the site according to documentation obtained by EnviroReporter.com.
"According to astonishing information never before covered in the media, areas offsite and around #RocketdyneCanoga are hot with high amounts of gross alpha and uranium radiation."
Read more:
https://www.enviroreporter.com/2025/01/la-fires-could-transform-former-rocketdyne-site-into-fema-trailer-park/
#USPol #RadioactiveHazards #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #UraniumContamination -
A creek with #AtomicWaste from WWII is linked to increased #cancer risk
By Ronnie Cohen, July 21, 2025
Excerpt: "Children who lived near a #SaintLouis creek polluted with #radioactive #AtomicBomb waste from the 1940s through the 1960s were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer over their lifetimes than children who lived farther from the waterway, a new study has found.
"The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, corroborate worries that neighbors of #ColdwaterCreek have long held about the #MissouriRiver tributary where generations of children played.
Radioactive waste found at #Missouri elementary school" 'We actually saw something quite dramatic, not only elevated risk of cancer, but one that increased steadily in a sort of dose-response manner the closer the childhood residents got to Coldwater Creek,' said the study's senior author, Marc Weisskopf, an epidemiology professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"As part of the Manhattan Project, #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks processed uranium in St. Louis for the development of an atomic bomb. By the mid-1940s, according to historians, the company began to haul its radioactive waste north of the city, leaving it in open steel drums, unattended and exposed to the elements, next to Coldwater Creek."
#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
#SaintLouis’ long history of #radioactive #contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
Oct 9, 2025
"From the public announcement that #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks helped refine #uranium for the #ManhattanProject to the present, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has covered the issue of storing #RadioactiveWaste and subsequent #contamination of #ColdwaterCreek, #WeldonSpring and surrounding areas."
Read more:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/collection_29db6be1-fe7f-56b6-bdc6-fcf9dda512cd.html#1Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AIoN2#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
Um, anyone who willingly uses #PFAS-laden #SkiWax these days should be forced to eat it! After all, all the critters exposed to the wax will end up consuming it. Fairs fair! You use it, you eat it!
The #Olympics just saw its first ‘forever chemical’ disqualifications
Waxes containing #PFAS are banned at the Milan-Cortina Games. Three athletes already have been disqualified for using them
Tik Root, Feb 12, 2026
"Heading into the Milan-Cortina #2026Olympics, skiers and snowboarders were already adjusting to a ban on #fluorinated waxes long prized for making their equipment faster. This week, the #WinterGames saw their first enforcement of that rule, which is aimed at protecting public health and the #environment.
" 'South Korean cross-country skiers #HanDasom and #LeeEuiJin were disqualified from the women’s sprint event on Tuesday. That came one day after Japanese snowboarder #ShibaMasaki was disqualified from the men’s parallel giant slalom. In all three cases, routine testing found banned compounds on their equipment.
"For decades, elite snow sports athletes have relied on waxes with #fluorocarbons that are exceptional at repelling water and dirt. Former U.S. cross-country racer Nathan Schultz told Grist the so-called '#fluoro' waxes provide a 'really ridiculous speed advantage,' especially in warmer conditions like those experienced at these Games.
"But these waxes also contained PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. This class of 15,000 so-called 'forever chemicals' are notorious for never breaking down. Studies have linked exposure to PFAS to #ThyroidDisease, developmental problems, and #cancer, and research has found elevated levels in ski technicians who regularly handled the waxes. PFAS have also been detected in #soil and #water near ski venues, including wells drawing from aquifers in #ParkCityUtah, suggesting broader #environmental #contamination."
Read more:
https://grist.org/accountability/the-olympics-just-saw-its-first-forever-chemical-disqualifications/#ForeverChemicals #Poisons #Wildlife #WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #HumanStupidity #3MKnew
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The smoke from #Canada’s #wildfires may be even more #toxic than usual
A legacy of #mining means that #ToxicMetals could be carried along plumes of smoke.
by Matt Simon, June 5, 2025
"More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they’re so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe.
"As the climate changes, the far north is drying and warming, which means wildfires are getting bigger and more intense. The area burned in Canada is now the second largest on record for this time of year, trailing behind the brutal wildfire season of 2023. That year, the amount of #carbon blazed into the atmosphere was about three times the country’s #FossilFuel emissions. And the more carbon that’s emitted from wildfires — in Canada and elsewhere — the faster the #PlanetaryWarming, and the worse the fires.
" 'There’s obviously the #ClimateFeedback concern,' said Mike Waddington, an environmental scientist at McMaster University in Ontario who studies Canada’s forests. 'But increasingly we’re also concerned about the smoke.'
"That’s because there’s much more to wildfire smoke than charred sticks and leaves, especially where these blazes are burning in Canada. The country’s #forests have long been #mined, operations that loaded #soils and #waterways with #ToxicMetals like #lead and #mercury, especially before clean-air standards kicked in 50 years ago. Now everyone downwind of these wildfires may have to contend with that legacy and those pollutants, in addition to all the other nasties inherent in #WildfireSmoke, which are known to exacerbate respiratory and cardiac problems.
" 'You have there the burning of these organic soils resulting in a lot of carbon and a lot of #ParticulateMatter,' said Waddington. 'Now you have this triple whammy, where you have the metals #remobilized in addition to that.'
"What exactly is lurking in the smoke from Canadian wildfires will require further testing by scientists. But an area of particular concern is around the mining city of #FlinFlon, in #ManitobaCanada, which is known to have elevated levels of toxic metals in the landscape, said Colin McCarter, an environmental scientist who studies pollutants at Ontario’s #NipissingUniversity. Flin Flon’s 5,000 residents have been evacuated as a wildfire approaches, though so far no structures have been destroyed.
"But a fire doesn’t need to directly burn mining operations to mobilize toxicants. For example, in #Yellowknife, in Canada’s #NorthwestTerritories, #GoldMining operations between 1934 and 2004 spread #arsenic as far as 18 miles away, adding to a landscape with an already high concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. In a paper published last year, Waddington and McCarter estimated that between 1972 and 2023, wildfires around Yellowknife fired up to 840,000 pounds of arsenic into the atmosphere. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and developmental problems, according to the World Health Organization. (After the 2023 #LahainaFire in Maui, officials reported elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other toxic substances in ash samples. California officials also found lots of lead in smoke from 2018’s #CampFire.)"
Source:
https://grist.org/climate/canada-wildfire-smoke-toxic-arsenic/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #AirIsLife #Mining #ToxicLegacy #FirstNations #Canada #Pollution #Worldwide #AQI #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe #AirQualityIndex