Grid Magazine March 2015 [#071]

MARCH 2015 / ISSUE 7 1 GRIDPHILLY.COM

S U S TA I N A B L E P H I L A D E L P H I A

THUMBS UP!

Get ready to garden

THUMBS DOWN!

How to protest effectively

TIME FOR CHANGE

Photos by Zoe Strauss

Philadelphia’s bid to be America’s greenest city threatened by a proposed petrochemical hub

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Will our city’s sustainability progress be derailed by a petrochemical hub?

P H OTO BY © C H A R L ES M OSTO L L E R / Z U M A P R ESS .CO M COV E R I L LUST R AT I O N BY K AT H L E E N W H I T E

In this edition of Grid, what we’ve internally been calling our “Green Thumbs/Black Lungs Issue,” we’ve put together a package of sto-

ries designed to get you started growing food and plants, and pointing you in the direction of local resources and businesses that can serve your gar-dening needs. We hope it inspires you, and that your growing season is a great success.

Unfortunately, we must leave our personal gar-dens of Eden to talk about a major issue facing our city. Thousands of advocates and residents have worked hard for years trying to make Phila-delphia a model of urban sustainability, but the idea of Philadelphia becoming a petrochemical hub—what some call an energy hub—may derail our progress.

It’s an idea that’s gaining momentum like a runaway train. Like an explosive runaway train.

As we were going to print, a train carrying crude oil from North Dakota careened off the tracks along the Kanawha River in West Virginia. According to news reports, a powerful fireball ex-plosion led to the evacuation of residents within a half mile.

The train was carrying more than 100 tank cars of highly volatile crude oil when 12 to 14 cars derailed, several caught ablaze, and at least one fell into the river. The river was set afire and one house was burned while residents fled for their lives in frigid temperatures.

Could this happen in Philadelphia? It almost did last year. On Jan. 20 2014, seven train cars derailed while traveling on the Schuylkill Arse-nal Bridge; one of the cars, filled with crude oil,

dangled over the Schuylkill River for days.But wait, there’s more: On Jan. 15, 2015, what

has been described as an “operational issue” pro-duced ominous black clouds billowing out of the old Sunoco refinery in South Philadelphia. An untrained eye might have mistaken it for a fire.

Finally, on January 31, 2015 in south Philadel-phia, 11 tank cars carrying crude oil derailed in the rail yard along the Delaware River next to Rt. 95. There has been no information released about how the cars were righted, or what risks the hazardous materials posed to the community or the river.

And these are just the operational risks refin-eries pose. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to avoid a tragedy like the one that struck in Que-bec on July 6, 2013, when an unmanned runaway crude oil train derailed and exploded in the center of the town of Lac-Mégantic, killing 47 people. However, there is no way to dodge the com-promised air quality a petrochemical hub will produce. Given the poor state of Philadelphia’s air, we can’t afford to tumble backward into our industrial past.

We’re entering a critical time here in Philadel-phia as we are just a few short months away from mayoral and city council primaries, which, in all likelihood, will determine our leadership. Next month, we will be asking candidates their posi-tions on issues important to our community, and the first question will be: Where do you stand on the proposed petrochemical energy hub?

We hope our informed and engaged readers will hold our prospective leaders accountable.

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OUR CITY AT A CROSSROADSstory by Meir Rinde • illustrations by Kathleen White

industrial future

HAUNTEDBY AN


Phil Rinaldi aspires to build a 120-mile-long, 42-inch-wide pipeline from northeastern Pennsylvania, where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of Marcellus Shale deposits is pro-ducing huge volumes of natural gas. That gas would power factories and serve as feedstock for chemical plants, reindustrializing swaths

of the city.Forces are mar-

shalling for and against the plan. The business com-munity, Philadel-phia City Council members and local congressmen are aligning themselves with Rinaldi, while groups like Clean Water Action, the

Clean Air Council, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the lo-cal chapter of the Sierra Club are working to publicize the plan’s potential hazards. What happens next will depend on a cornucopia of unknowns: energy and construction prices, the political leanings of a new mayor and new governor, big-industry muscle and residents’ willingness to fight for a future Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s role as a vibrant manufacturing center faded decades ago, bringing both hardship and benefits. The loss of companies that employed hundreds of thousands of people was an economic blow, but also allowed the city to literally breathe a sigh of relief. Following a century of intense pollution, the shift away from heavy indus-try—as well as reduced use of coal, conserva-tion, and technological improvements—con-tributed to a nearly 70 percent drop in toxic emissions in fewer than 20 years, from 1966 to 1985. Pollution levels have continued to fall since then.

Yet the major improvements of the last 50 years now face an unprecedented challenge. The chief executive of the city’s biggest polluter, the sprawling oil refinery along the Schuylkill River responsible for 72 percent of the city’s toxic air emissions, is touting a plan to signifi-cantly expand the use of fossil fuels in the heart of the city.

In the short term, the plant’s owner, Phila-delphia Energy Solutions (PES), has talked about increasing the number of trains that deliver volatile North Dakota oil through residential neighborhoods for processing into gasoline and other fuels at the PES Philadel-phia Refining Complex. In the long term, CEO

that isn’t haunted by the city’s industrial past. “The city’s made great strides in improving

air quality and water quality—however, that’s mainly because the manufacturing went away,” says Dr. Pouné Saberi, a board member with Physicians for Social Responsibility who spoke at a rally against the pipeline in December. “So, we got better because of the very things that pol-luted it, and now we’re trying to add that back?”

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Advocates of natural gas argue that it helps ease environmental burdens because it burns cleaner than coal and oil (although pollution figures often don’t factor in the environmen-tal costs of extracting gas). Regulation-driven technological advances also help limit emis-sions. But each additional gas-fueled cogen-eration or manufacturing plant will still add some combination of carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides, fine particulate mat-ter and other pollutants to the air inhaled by Philadelphians.

New pollution would come on top of already heavy emissions. While our skies are clearer than they were a half-century ago, our children are still reaching for inhalers at alarming rates: Philadelphia is the fifth most challenging city

Rinaldi

a proposed petrochemical hub a devil’s bargain? The CEO Council for Growth says it is an opportunity for economic revitalization, while organized opposition throughout the city says it will drag us into our past. Must we choose between prosperity and pollution?


for people with asthma, according to the Asth-ma and Allergy Foundation of America. The city ranks 11th worst nationally for the ozone that makes up smog, and 16th for particle pol-lution or soot.

“In many cases, what we’re talking about is a difference in degree, not a difference in kind,” says Sam Bernhardt, a Food & Water Watch or-ganizer in Philadelphia. The consumer rights group focuses on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water and fish-ing. “What we’re talking about is more pollu-tion; it’s more dirty infrastructure; it’s more dangerous oil trains; it’s more other kinds of explosive and dangerous fossil fuels like lique-fied natural gas; it’s more pipelines; it’s more manufacturing.”

Many city residents are only distantly aware of such hazards, Bernhardt says—at least for now. “But they are things that, if those push-ing this ‘energy hub’ idea get their way, many more Philadelphians will be dealing with on a day-to-day basis” he says. “And those who are already dealing with these issues, those front-line communities, will be even more impacted by them.”

Opponents have additional concerns. The methane that makes up natural gas is extreme-ly flammable, and has a potent greenhouse

impact with a much more intense short-term global-warming effect than CO2. While newer pipelines are relatively safe, the older gas pipes under Philadelphia’s streets are rife with leaks and occasionally explode, with deadly results. For some experts, that legacy raises concerns about how our children and grandchildren will be affected by current projects.

“All of the pipelines that we are building will be old one day,” says Dr. Marilyn Howarth of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania. “If attention is not paid to how they are main-tained, and if there aren’t regulations in place that clarify the expectations that they be main-tained and not leak, what we set up is a situ-ation that could be very dangerous for many communities.”

There are also environmental and safety im-pacts from cutting a pipeline channel through forests and under neighborhoods. And, back in Northeast Pennsylvania where the gas is ex-tracted, a host of concerns about water pollu-tion, soil compaction and waste disposal remain.

Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, says she’s also aghast at the prospect of the pipeline be-ing buried in the Delaware River, an option Rinaldi has mentioned. She called it an “out-

rageously harebrained concept” that could, in the case of an accident, prove catastrophic for the 17 million people who depend on the river for clean water.

“They’re looking at the river as if it’s a deliv-ery pathway or a ditch—it’s not,” she says. “The river’s alive, and it supplies people with some-thing they cannot live without. There would just be an environmental backlash like never before should they try to put a huge 42-inch pipeline down the bed of the Delaware River. We would fight it tooth and nail.”

SHROUDED IN SECRECY

Rinaldi, who declined to be interviewed for this article, became Pennsylvania Energy So-lutions’ CEO when the company was created two and half years ago to save the South Phil-adelphia refinery from shutting down. With well-developed rail, highway and shipping infrastructure that connect the site to suppli-ers and customers, it has become a profitable maker of oil products. But for Rinaldi, a much richer future remains just out of reach.

“We don’t have that opportunity with natural gas,” he says in a promotional video produced by the CEO Council for Growth, an affiliate of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber

While conducting a burn-off on Jan. 10, 2015, a crude oil pipeline at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Philadelphia Refining Complex in South Philadelphia caught fire, send-

ing huge plumes of smoke over the city, according to city officials. There were no evacuations or injuries.

P H OTO BY TO M K E L LY I V M A R C H 2 0 1 5 G R I D P H I L LY.CO M 17

“The Council for Growth doesn’t seem to even acknowledge that the communities that are paying

the biggest price for this fossil fuel ... are already overburdened with health problems related to

the legacy of industry development.”– Tracy Carluccio

Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network

Among the toxins released are:

of the 45,000 residents living within one mile of the refinery...

72 % 700,000 lbs. of the city’s TOXIC RELEASES of annual AIR EMISSIONS

Sulfuric AcidAmmonia BenzeneHydrogen Cyanide

PHILADELPHIA ENERGY SOLUTIONS is responsible for:

71%

22%

32% are below the poverty lineare people of color

Exposure can cause irritation to the skin, eyes, throat, lungs, burning coughs. Lethal in high doses.

Exposure can cause headaches, irritation to the skin & eyes, confusion, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, chest discomfort, heart palpitations, loss of appetite, and nosebleeds, coma, death

Exposure can cause death, drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches, tremors, confusion, unconsciousness, leukemia

Exposure can cause difficulty breathing, respiratory tract irritation, tooth erosion

of children in

Philadelphia have asthma

sources: Environmental Protection Agency’s 2013 toxic-release data

Agency for toxic substances and disease registry1 8 G R I D P H I L LY.CO M M A R C H 2 0 1 5

700,000 lbs.

Sulfuric Acid

of Commerce that is spearheading the pipeline project. “We have no choice but to take that dry gas, that methane, and get it into a pipeline from northeastern Pennsylvania down into the Philadelphia region for redistribution.”

Fracking has created a glut of cheap gas that producers are desperate to move to fac-tories and urban areas. But to justify building a billion-dollar pipeline, Rinaldi first needs to convince many other fossil fuel-based in-dustries to set up shop in the city. Those new plants would inevitably pollute the city’s skies and waterways.

The exact effects of the pipeline are tough to gauge because little information has been re-leased. A conference held at Drexel University in December was closed to the public, though it prompted the protest rally attended by Sa-beri and more than a dozen groups opposed to the plan, including 350 Philadelphia, Berks Gas Truth, the Clean Air Council, Clean Wa-ter Action, Philadelphia Interfaith Power and Light, and the Sierra Club.

Security was tight: Maxime Damis, an envi-ronmental engineering student at Drexel who belongs to the campus’s fossil fuel divestment group, says police swarmed her when she en-tered the Creese Student Center, where the meeting was being held, and made her leave. “My plan was to sit there quietly, listen, and

have a few targeted questions,” she says. “They didn’t have anyone asking those questions.”

In published interviews, Rinaldi has not dis-cussed the specific health and environmental impacts of a new pipeline, though he has dis-missed opposition to fossil fuels as unrealistic. Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa.), who was instrumental in keeping the refinery open, did not respond to an email, and a spokeswoman for the Mar-cellus Shale Coalition did not return phone messages.

Even the route of the new line remains un-clear. Rinaldi has only said that the “last 10 to 20 miles is going to run through Philadelphia, where it becomes much more expensive to site a pipeline.” Nor has he named companies that would buy the gas, though in an interview posted by the Chamber of Commerce, he says the firms could include oil refineries, steel mak-ers and steel rolling operations, in addition to chemical companies that turn gas into metha-nol, ethanol, urea and ammonium nitrate.

One fact we do know is that the city’s cur-rent air pollution already comes dispropor-tionately from his company. According to one Environmental Protection Agency measure, Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ refinery al-ready puts out 72 percent of the city’s toxic re-leases, including 700,000 pounds of annual air emissions. That includes sulfuric acid, which causes acid rain and can harm the lungs, along with hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and highly carcinogenic benzene.

As for greenhouse gases, the refinery emits 2.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, 5,900 tons of methane and 3,200 tons of nitro-gen oxides. The nitrogen compounds contrib-ute to Philadelphia’s high levels of ground-level ozone, which burns the lungs and increases vulnerability to respiratory and circulatory

diseases. For 2014, the American Lung Asso-ciation gave Philadelphia an F for air quality in part because it has 50 high ozone days a year—days when children, active adults and anyone with breathing difficulties should limit their outdoor exertion.

AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NIGHTMARE

Those bad days, when levels of ozone and particulate matter are high, are especially stressful for parents of children with asthma.

“The way I tell parents to think about it is, ‘Take a deep breath, breathe it out, then take a deep breath and try to breathe that same air out through a straw.’ You can see a big difference,” says Dr. Tyra Bryant-Stephens, director of the Community Asthma Prevention Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “In-flammation causes swelling of the tissue inside, and causes increased mucus, and can cause constriction around the airways.”

All that makes the affected child’s airway smaller, leading to scary and potentially dan-gerous breathing problems, she says.

“If you already have a little inflammation, you already have a little mucus, and now you go outdoors and you have emissions of sulfur dioxide or other pollutants, you’re more likely to have symptoms like wheezing and coughing and difficulty breathing,” she adds.

According to Bryant-Stephens, who works primarily with black and Hispanic children in West Philadelphia, irritants like sulfur and nitrous oxides not only make breathing more difficult for children whose lungs are already inflamed, but can also sensitize the airways in the first place so that they then react to allergens in the environment.

Sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides are also among the chemicals that turn into microscop-ic particulate matter. The particles lodge deep in the body, aggravating asthma, chronic bron-chitis, coughing and breathing problems and heart disease—and causing premature deaths. Some 1,550 such deaths could be prevented in the Philadelphia metro area every year if air quality standards for particulates were tight-ened, according to a study by the American Lung Council, the Clean Air Task Force and Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law organization. Increased pollution, meanwhile, would lead to more early deaths.

Cheap gas could lure a variety of companies to the area, each with their own profile of toxic

Exposure can cause difficulty breathing, respiratory tract irritation, tooth erosion


pollutants. Plastic manufacturers, for example, can release an alphabet soup of compounds, including carcinogens like vinyl chloride and ethylene oxide.

“The body doesn’t see particulate mat-ter separately from nitrous oxide, separately from benzene, separately from sulfur diox-ide. It sees it as air pollution. It sees it like a combination, a cocktail,” says Saberi of Phy-sicians for Social Responsibility. “That’s why the vulnerable populations make a difference. If you’re already an asthmatic, it makes a big difference. If you already have heart disease, it makes a big difference.”

A 2014 EPA study noted that of the 45,000 residents who live within a mile of the South Philadelphia refinery, 71 percent are people of color and 32 percent are below the pov-erty line, two groups that are already at high risk for respiratory and circulatory disease. A survey that Bryant-Stephens conducted in similar neighborhoods in West and North Philadelphia found that 22 percent of children had asthma, well above the national figure of 10 percent.

“The Council for Growth doesn’t seem to even acknowledge that the communities that are paying the biggest price for this fossil fuel, this dirty energy development that they’re pro-moting, are communities that are already over-burdened with health problems related to the legacy of industry development over the last century and a half,” says Carluccio, of the Dela-ware Riverkeeper Network.

A PIPELINE TO NOWHERE?

The glut of fracking gas has created huge economic incentives to build pipelines from the Marcellus region to urban areas, swaying public officials to go along with such proposals. Political leaders like Gov. Tom Wolf, Brady, and Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), support fracking and related industries, as do many Pennsyl-vanians. Lines are spreading everywhere; in 2013, even New York City got its first new gas pipeline in 40 years, despite concerns about health risks from fracking that eventually led Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ban the technique statewide last December.

Fighting pipeline proposals is hard. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which approves pipelines, doesn’t even factor environmental issues or commu-nities’ wishes into its decisions, and almost

never turns down an application. While FERC hearings do give citizens a venue to make pub-lic comments, pipeline opponents say that the commission often does not make a good-faith effort to let all voices be heard, holding too few hearings and locating them far from affected communities.

At the same time, those challenges don’t mean Rinaldi’s project is a sure thing, in part because of its unusual structure. To justify the new flow of gas, he’s depending on the es-tablishment of new petrochemical industries within the city limits, which would need the support of local officials and the public. That gives opponents and concerned families a ma-jor opening to change the terms of a debate that has so far been largely framed by Rinaldi and the Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s a whole lot of steps that have to take place,” says Gretchen Dahlkemper, a South-west Philadelphia resident and national field

manager for Moms Clean Air Force, a group of parents united against air pollution. “The people of Philadelphia can get ahead of it and tell Rep. Brady, Rep. Meehan, Councilman Ke-nyatta Johnson and the mayoral candidates, ‘Hey, stop, we don’t want to be a hub of the petrochemical industry, we don’t want to be a hub of liquified natural gas exports, because of the numerous health and safety risks associated with that.’ ”

Through mayoral debates and council candidate forums this election season, as well as public forums on the pipeline that Dahlkem-per’s group plans to hold, Philadelphians can create a climate inhospitable to more fossil fuel development, she says.

“If we get enough of the constituents to op-pose it, they might rethink the decision,” she says, referring to pipeline proponents. “There might be a pipeline built—but they’re not going to build one if they don’t have anywhere to use it.”

P H OTO BY TO M K E L LY I V

Philadelphia Fire Department responds with a hazardous materi-als dispatch, including at least one

medic unit, to the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Philadelphia

Refining Complex fire on Jan. 10, 2015 in South Philadelphia.


P H OTO BY TO M K E L LY I V

Philadelphia author and activist Eileen Flanagan’s book, Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness, and Hope, will be released March 3.

Before you do anything else, don’t for-get that April 20 is the last day to register to vote before the all-important Mayoral pri-mary election. Many Philadelphians are organizing for a just and sustainable future for our city, and these nonprofit groups and others can help you get focused, whether you want to be a donor, get armed with facts, or join an action.

GET INVOLVED

→Bread & Rose Community Fund breadandrosesfund.org

→Clean Air Council cleanair.org

→Delaware River Keeper delawareriverkeeper.org

→Mom’s Clean Air Force momscleanairforce.org/state-of-pennsyl-vania

→Penn Future pennfuture.org

→Philly 350 350philly.weebly.com

→Physicians for Social Responsibility psrphila.org

→Protecting Our Waters protectingourwaters.wordpress.com

→Sierra Club pennsylvania.sierraclub.org/southeastern

Protesters from the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) demonstrate in Sarasota, Florida—one of 31 U.S. loca-

tions—during Flood PNC Day of Action on Dec. 6.

“Simple, beautiful and nourishing, this book is a necessary reminder that the renewable energy we need most is people power!”

READ THIS BOOK

Fight Back5 ways to make your activism more strategic

by eileen flanagan

Thirteen years ago, at an anti-war rally where a small group of protestors gave speeches to each other in a park, my precocious five-year-old looked up at me and said, “Mom, this is not going to change George Bush’s mind. Can we go get ice cream?”

Of course, she was right, though at the time I didn’t know what was missing from all those rallies and marches I’d attended over the years. It was only through my involvement with Earth Quaker Action Team—a group founded five years ago that uses nonviolent direct action to work for a just and sustainable economy—that I learned the following keys to effective activism.

1. Choose one campaign. There are so many issues that need addressing, it’s tempt-ing to try to do a little bit on all of them, but history shows that picking one and focusing on it for an extended period of time is the best way to get results.

2. Pick a strategic target.. For its first campaign in 2010, the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT pronounced “equate”) decided to get PNC Bank to stop financing companies engaged in mountaintop removal coal mining, which contributes to both climate change and high rates of cancer in Appalachia. Was PNC the only bank financing environmental de-struction? No, but PNC claims to be a “green” bank, has Quaker roots and as a result, many Quaker customers—vulnerabilities our group was particularly poised to exploit.

3. Don’t be boring. Surprising actions are more likely to attract participants and press. For example, EQAT sang, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” in front of the PNC pa-vilion at the 2011 Philadelphia Flower Show; walked 200 miles to the bank’s Pittsburgh headquarters in 2012; sang “Which Side Are You On?” to each member of the PNC board during their 2013 shareholder meeting; and last December, organized over 300 people in 12 states and the District of Columbia to hold actions at 31 different bank branches.

4. Be willing to take a risk. Protest-ing inside a bank or a shareholder meeting is scarier than speeches out on the sidewalk, but if your goal is to pressure powerful decision makers, it helps to confront them directly. Even if your group is not ready to do civil disobedi-ence—a tactic EQAT occasionally employs—encourage your members to do something just a little bolder than what they’ve done before.

5. Create a dilemma. One way to esca-late the pressure on your target is to create a situation where they lose something no matter what. In the case of the shareholder meeting where Earth Quakers sang to the PNC board, the CEO had a dilemma. He could have the protestors arrested, attracting even more press and disrupting the meeting. Instead, he shut his legally mandated annual meeting down after only seventeen minutes.

By keeping its focus on PNC, EQAT has cre-ated an even bigger dilemma for the bank: stop financing companies engaged in mountaintop removal coal mining and risk angering the coal industry, or continue losing customers over this issue, getting bad press, and having ac-tivists show up at their meetings, their bank branches, and occasionally their homes. We know they are paying attention to us and be-lieve that a policy change is coming. If we’re right, it won’t just be because we protested, but because we protested strategically.

— B I L L M C K I B B E N


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T he first hint of spring and you’re excitedly standing in your local garden center, staring at the dizzying array of seed and seedling options. You want to grow stuff; you’re just not sure where to start. Thankfully, the experts at our local garden centers are there to help you whether you’ll be planting in containers, window boxes

or at your community garden center. Here are a handful of places you can go for the seeds and seedlings you’ll need to make this year’s garden the best ever.

BARTRAM’S GARDEN

54th Street & Lindbergh Blvd. Philadelphia 215-729-5281 bartramsgarden.org From April through November, sells lo-cally harvested heirloom vegetable, herb, annual and perennial seeds; seedlings; and hard-to-find native plants. Spring plant sale runs May 8 to 10.

BEHMERWALD NURSERY

4904 Garges Rd. Schwenksville, PA 19473 610-287-0480 behmerwald.com Perennials, shrubs and trees on site, minimizing use of pesticides—using organic or environmentally friendly products as often as possible. In May, annuals, vegetable and fruit plants are available, as are numerous native trees and shrubs.

BOWMAN’S HILL WILDFLOWER PRESERVE

1635 River Rd. (Rt. 32) New Hope, PA 18938 215-862-2924 bhwp.org Offers 200 species of nursery-grown plants native to the Delaware Valley. Also sells spring ephemerals, woodland understory plants and pollinator plants.

CITY PLANTER

814 N. 4th St. Philadelphia 215-627-6169 cityplanter.com Organic, non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers seeds); non-GMO and organic City Planter Packaged Seeds; seed starting kits and trays.

DAVID BROTHERS NATIVE PLANT NURSERY

Bean Rd. & Whitehall Rd. Worcester, PA 19490 610-584-1550 215-247-2992 davidbrothers.com Specializes in native plants and offers a full inventory of native trees and shrubs.

GREENSGROW FARMS

2501 E. Cumberland St. Philadelphia 215-427-2702 greensgrow.org/nursery Seeds and seed-starting supplies, herb and vegetable starts, soil, mulch, heir-looms and natives, and more. Opens March 5. Community garden days are April 25 and 26 and May 16 and 17.

Let the region’s experienced gardeners and growers help you sow your seeds

How Does Your Garden Grow?


GREENSGROW WEST

4912 Baltimore Ave. Philadelphia 215-531-4972 greensgrow.org/westphilly Seeds and seed starting supplies, herb and vegetable starts, soil, mulch, heir-looms and natives, and more. Opens March 5. Community garden days are April 25 and 26 and May 16 and 17.

LAUREL HILL GARDENS

8125 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia 215-247-9490 laurelhillgardens.com Seeds and seed starting kits, and offers more than two dozen varieties of annu-als from spring to fall. A huge selection of trees, shrubs and perennials for sun and shade.

MOSTARDI NURSERY AND GREENHOUSES

4033 West Chester Pike Newtown Square, PA 19073 610-356-8035 mostardi.com Certified USDA-organic and heirloom vegetable seeds, a wide variety of flower seeds, native trees, shrubs and vines.

PRIMEX GARDEN CENTER

435 W Glenside Ave. Glenside, PA 19038 215-887-7500 primexgardencenter.com Sells heirloom and organic vegetable, herb and flower seeds; seed-starting supplies; vegetable seedlings, native perennials and more. Get 20 percent off purchases March 21 and 22.

REDBUD NATIVE PLANT NURSERY

1214 N. Middletown Rd. Glen Mills, PA 19342 610-358-4300 redbudnativeplantnursery.com Mid-Atlantic region native trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, ferns and grasses. The nursery opens March 17.

SCHUYLKILL CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd. Philadelphia 215-482-7300 schuylkillcenter.org Heirloom vegetable and herb seedlings, native plants, wildflowers, grasses and sedges, ferns, shrubs and trees. Spring native plant sale May 2 and 3.

SUGARBUSH NURSERY

4272 Morgantown Rd. Mohnton, PA 19540 610-856-0998 sugarbushnursery.com Native plants, organic, non-GMO seeds, organic veggie transplants, organic herb plants, organic gardening products, bagged compost and rain barrels.

TINY TERRA FERMA

4324 Main St. Philadelphia 267-225-3478 tinyterraferma.com Native and edible landscapes, selling a wide variety of native trees, shrubs and perennials. Happy Cat and Fedco Seeds, organic herb and veggie starts.

URBAN JUNGLE

1526 E. Passyunk Ave. Philadelphia 215-952-0811 urbanjunglephila.com GMO-free, organic and heirloom Liv-ingston Seed Company Seeds and Happy Cat Farm Seeds. Vegetable starts and na-tive plants sold toward the end of April/beginning of May. On May 2, portion of sales donated to the Passyunk Square Civic Association (PSCA).

YELLOW SPRINGS FARM

1165 Yellow Springs Rd. Chester Springs, PA 19425 610-827-2014 yellowspringsfarm.com Dozens of native wildflowers, including those that support butterflies, bees, and other pollinators; ferns, grasses, shrubs including edibles; and trees. Open Farm Days are May 10, 16, 17, and 30.


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Pleasing Pollinators

Plant flowers, weeds and blooming trees to attract bees and butterflies by Leah Troiano

P H OTO BY A D D I SO N G EA RY

It’s no secret that we could use more pollinators. Pesticides, parasites, global warming and habitat loss have contributed

to a significant loss in honeybee numbers. As an urban beekeeper and member of the Philadel-phia Beekeepers Guild, I rely on blooming trees, weeds and flowers to feed my bees and to, in turn, have them pollinate my garden. But you

Interested in learning more about bees?

Visit phillybeekeepers.org.

don’t need to start your own hive to attract bees.My crabapple tree and clover brings the bees to

my yard. I also find them on the neighbor’s hon-eysuckle bush and two fruit trees, which have produced more since the bees’ arrival. In the fall, they feast on knotweed, a large bush with white flowers that grows en masse along our section of Cobbs Creek. (I know this because knotweed

nectar produces delicious, nearly black honey.)To encourage more pollinators, add dense

clusters of flowers or shrubs to your garden or in pots, keeping in mind that bees are gener-ally attracted to yellow, white, violet and blue flowers. Butterfly bush, bee balm, sweet alys-sum, lavender and sedum are all easy to care for, and can be found at most garden centers. Also consider planting oregano, dill, chives, thyme, sage, calendula, nasturtium, lemon balm, black-eyed susans, purple coneflower, yarrow and native wildflowers. When possible, buy organic plants and seeds.


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L ike many other cities with an industrial past, Philadelphia has soil safety issues. Grid eagerly awaits the

findings of the Soil Safety Working Group, cre-ated by the Mayor’s Food Policy Advisory Coun-cil, to advise food growers this year about best practices for soil testing and avoiding exposure to contaminants. But in the meantime, don’t put down your trowel just yet.

The best way to ensure you’re gardening safely is to grow food in a raised garden bed. Greens-grow Farm Manager David Prendergrast, who has helped Casa del Carmen install a raised gar-den bed for its afterschool program for children, recommends making beds at least 12 inches deep.

“The deeper the bed, the better yield you’ll get for the vegetables,” he says. “This provides a least a foot of clean soil above any potentially contaminated soil.”

For constructing your raised garden beds, Prendergrast says if you choose to buy new wood, construct the beds using non-pressure-treated poplar, which doesn’t warp like pine.

Better yet, use reclaimed wood. If you’re reus-ing old pallets, don’t use colored ones—those will leach chemicals into your soil. If you want a longer-lasting wood, there are a handful of plac-es around Philadelphia that supply reclaimed wood. Most of the pieces are joists—horizontal supporting pieces that run between foundations, walls, or beams that support a ceiling or floor—taken from older buildings. “Joist wood is much thicker and will last longer,” Prendergrast says.

Chris Stock, owner of Philadelphia Salvage, harvests mostly yellow pine and eastern white pine from residential and commercial buildings, and has contributed lumber for many raised gar-den beds across Philadelphia.

“[Reclaimed lumber] looks cooler than Home Depot’s lumber, and it will last 10 years,” he says. The wood can be cut to any size, though Stock says that they typically sell lumber to make 4-by-4, 4-by-6 or 4-by-10 foot beds.

For those on a budget, Nic Esposito, co-owner of the Emerald Street Urban Farm, recommends using scavenged wood or using Craigslist to find

contractors getting rid of wood joists. With the abundance of demos and construction, reclaim-ing some wood yourself shouldn’t be too diffi-cult, Esposito says. Prendergrast recommends applying Linseed oil to any lumber you’re using, because it will exceed the longevity of any wood and seal the lumber in a non-toxic way.

Keep in mind that growing in a raised garden bed means that the soil’s nutrients will dissipate faster than if you’re just growing right in the ground. Prendergrast says to add nutrients to the soil every spring and fall by adding compost or worm castings, and rotate your crops every year—don’t grow tomatoes where you grew them last year.

Tim Bennett, who started Bennett Com-post in 2009, can attest to the power of compost: “Good soil for plants is like good food is for peo-ple,” he says. “You can survive without it for a little while, but not for the long term.”

Esposito adds that Philadelphia residents can go to the Fairmount Organic Recycling Center to get free compost and herbivore manure. Resi-dents are allowed to take up to 30 gallons of ma-terial per trip: “I mostly use that compost, along with compost tea I brew from it as well as some worm castings I make at home, and our crops do awesome.”

Above BoardRaised beds provide solution to soil toxicity concerns

by sara schwartz


RICHARD S. BURNS & COMPANY

4300 Rising Sun Ave. Philadelphia 215-324-6377 burnscompany.net/topsoil Topsoil for small and large projects.

RAINBOW LANDSCAPE AND HARDSCAPE

4425 Rising Sun Ave. Philadelphia 215-457-7533 rainbowlhc.com Topsoil for small and large projects.

ORGANIC MECHANICS SOIL COMPANY

organicmechanicsoil.com Visit their website to find retailers to purchase 1 or 2 cubic foot bags of Plant-ing Mix Compost Blend to use in garden beds. Topsoil (10 to 25 percent) can be mixed in your raised bed as well.

MANAYUNK TIMBER

5100 Umbria St. Philadelphia 215-834-4299 manayunktimber.com Sustainable sawmill that sources rot-resistant black locust timber.

PHILADELPHIA SALVAGE

542 Carpenter Ln. Philadelphia 215-843-3074 philadelphiasalvage.com Harvests mostly yellow pine and eastern white pine from residential and commercial buildings.

PATCHWOOD RECLAIMED WOOD

1420 Locust St. Philadelphia 267-908-4771 patchreclaimedwood.com Reclaimed oak, pine, fir, chestnut, cypress, maple and more from the deconstruction of barns, industrial buildings and other structures.

BENNET COMPOST

215-520-2406 bennettcompost.com Compost, potting soil, worm compost and compost tea bags.

COMPOST COOP

1825 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia [email protected] thecompostcoop.org For an annual membership fee of $25 or $50, drop off your food scraps anytime and get a heap of compost.

FAIRMOUNT ORGANIC RECYCLING CENTER

3850 Ford Rd. Philadelphia 215-685-0108 215-683-0232 phillyparksandrec.com Free compost, wood chips, shredded wood mulch and herbivore manure.

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Window Dressing

You may not have a yard, but you prob-ably have a window. If you do (and we hope you do!), window boxes are a

great way to grow some of your favorite plants and flowers without too much fuss. Lauren Bo-malaski, a horticulturist at City Planter, recom-mends a variety of plants that complement each other, based on the season, colors and height.

“When selecting plants, we like to use a mix of ones that will eventually cascade over the window box, some that will grow taller and some that will stay shorter,” she says. “I’m sure you’ve heard it, but people like to say ‘the thriller, the filler and the spiller.’”

Here’s her short list of annuals, perennials and evergreens that thrive in small spaces. How much sun the window boxes will receive throughout the day will determine how well they will grow, but generally these will work for anyone. – Sara Schwartz

At City Planter, Bomalaski says they call small evergreens “window box babies” because they are “cute, small versions of the bigger plant” in one-gallon containers.

» Juniper

» Holly

» Arborvitae

» Cypress

» Boxwood

SMALL EVERGREENS

» Heuchera

» Brunnera

» Hakone Grass

» Blue Fescue Grass

» Creeping Thyme

» Sedum

» English Ivy

» Autumn Fern

» Ferns

» Spruge

PERENNIALS

If you have a window, you have plenty of space to grow

» Geraniums

» Petunias

» Verbena

» Lantana

» Coleus

» Dusty Miller

» Impatients

» Begonias

» Creeping Jenny

» Sweet Potato Vine

» Setcresea

» Dipladenia vines

» Dracaenas

» Alocasia

» Rancunculus

» Pansies

» Poppies

» Snow Princess

» Primrose

» Million Bells

» Chrysanthemums

» Pansies (last well into winter)

» Ornamental Peppers

» Ornamental Cabbage

» Ornamental Kale

» Cut Winterberry

» Cut Magnolia

» Cut Eucalyptus

» Cut Curly Willow

» Pine Cones

ANNUALS

Summer

Spring

Fall

Winter

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At first glance, wind power seems the epitome of clean, green energy: it harnesses an inexhaustible resource without causing pollution. Yet, large wind farms are increasingly opposed by the people who would have to live next to them due to unanticipated health effects. How can we ensure that other promising technologies are not slowed or stopped by effects not considered by scientists and engineers?

The most interesting and important questions of our time live at the intersection of science, technology, medicine and society. These are the questions that mean the difference between change and deadlock.

Start asking the important questions.

You can build it,but they may not come.

Start with a Master’s in Science, Technology and Society from Drexel University.

Drexel.edu/sts

24 G R I D P H I L LY.CO M M A R C H 2 0 1 5www.upenn.edu/grid www.facebook.com/UPennEES @PENN_EES

Staff from Penn’s MES Program are here to

answer your questions face-to-face on the second Wednesday

of each month. Walk right in.

Mike Coll Master of Environmental Studies ‘08,

University of Pennsylvania

To learn why nighthawks love South Philadelphia, and other

findings from Mike’s journey to a career in restoration ecology, visit www.upenn.edu/grid

The Hildacy Farm Preserve in Media, PA didn’t use to be so loud in the spring. But under the watchful eye of Mike Coll (Master of Environmental Studies ’08), Preserve Manager, birds and peepers are returning to the wetlands — and growing noisier every year. Once a photographer and woodworker, Mike didn’t know where he’d end up when he began his degree. But the Penn’s Master of Environmental Studies offers students the chance to sample classes from a huge diversity of fields, so they can find their own best path. Mike found his in a life-changing restoration ecology course. And today, Mike helps to build healthy habitats from the ground up. Which is certainly something to peep about.

www.upenn.edu/grid

noise complaintWild creatures and their noises return to the land.

Grid Magazine March 2015 [#071]

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Transcript of Grid Magazine March 2015 [#071]