#Florida: Donations wanted for #OrlandoFL and #JacksonvilleFL #LibraryOfThings!

"The #CenterForBiologicalDiversity fights not only to protect wildlife and wild lands in Florida but also to address the underlying causes of the extinction crisis, including the excessive production and consumption of new products.

"That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’re working with #Shareable and other partners to establish Library of Things pilot projects in Orlando and Jacksonville.

"A Library of Things is a shared community resource where useful items can be borrowed just like books that are in circulation for years, reducing the demand to produce new goods that destroy habitat, generate greenhouse gases, create pollution, and harm wildlife.

"Sharing also disrupts the current U.S. economic model that demands endless growth through the constant purchasing of new things. It challenges the traditional consumerist mindset that drives overproduction and leads to items getting thrown away after only a few uses.

"You can support this effort by donating items from the library’s wish lists. Whether it's a bicycle repair kit for someone who bikes for transportation, kitchen items for a new university student, or a generator for emergency preparedness, every item counts. By donating, you’ll help neighbors save money and push back against the culture of consumerism.

Here's how it works

"The Jacksonville Library of Things pilot, located at University of North Florida dormitories, is looking for donations of board games, kitchen items, phone chargers and tools to be used by students living in the dorms, based on a needs assessment conducted with students in partnership with the University.

"The Central Florida Tool Library (serving Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties) is seeking donations related to disaster preparation and response, as well as home repair and maintenance. These items were identified based on conversations between community members and our partner, #CentralFloridaMutualAid.

"Each wish list notes whether the item can be gently used or refurbished or must be new. (Certain products must be new for the libraries to ensure they meet safety and fire code standards. But purchasing these items once to be shared among the community prevents each future borrower from buying more.)

"Links to secondhand and refurbished sites are included where possible. The wish lists also provide a desired quantity of each item. Once the maximum number of items is claimed, you’ll see the request has been fulfilled. The mailing address to send the products for inclusion in the Library of Things can be found in the wish list."

Original article:
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/library_of_things

#CentralFlorida #ToolLibrary Wishlist:
https://sokindregistry.org/registry/CFLToolLibrary

Jacksonville Library of Things Wishlist:
https://sokindregistry.org/registry/JaxFLLOT
#LibrariesRule #Libraries #LibrariesOfThings #SharingEconomy #SolarPunkSunday #BorrowDontBuy #Degrowth #CircularEconomy #LibraryOfThings

Proposed #LithiumMine in western #Maine clears key hurdle

New rules recommended by the Board of Environmental Protection [#MaineDEP] would allow the testing needed to build an open-pit mine over a large lithium-rich deposit at #PlumbagoMountain in #Newry.

by Penelope Overton
February 29, 2024

"The provisional amendment – the result of a state law adopted last July intended to overhaul the mining law to allow for the extraction of non-reactive minerals like spodumene, the hard rock source of lithium – now heads back to the Legislature for final consideration.

"If adopted, these rules would allow Mary and Gary Freeman, retired rock hounds who split the time between Maine and Florida, to begin the rigorous testing needed to build an open-pit mi over a large lithium-rich mineral deposit they discovered while hunting for gemstones in New 2018.

"'This has been a big lift,' board Chair Susan Lessard, the town manager of Bucksport, said of regulation change. 'I think the department has done a very good job of trying to enact some rules to go along with what the Legislature adopted in the most protective way that they were able.”

"The Newry deposit is a potential piece in the global ramp-up of lithium production to make batteries for storing clean wind and solar energy and powering electric cars. Alternative lithiu batteries are being tested, but for now, lithium is still used in most electric vehicles and grid batteries.

"Despite government and industry interest in building up a domestic lithium market, #Nevada currently has the country’s only operational lithium mine. The #SilverPeaMine, which began operating in the 1960s, pumps lithium-rich brine from underground into large evaporation pools.

"But the United States has at least a hundred domestic #LithiuMines that are hoping to get the permits needed to compete with the likes of Australia, #Chile, #China and #Argentina, which cur dominate the world market, according to conservation biologist Patrick Donnelly of the #CenterForBiologicalDiversity.

"Unlike most U.S. deposits, however, the Freeman find is a hard rock deposit of lithium, similar those in #Australia. They form when hot magma intrudes into the crust and then cools into met rich crystals. Hard-rock lithium is costlier to mine, quicker to market and yields a more valuable form of lithium than brining.

"In a 2020 paper detailing the discovery, the Freemans claimed the 10 million metric-ton #PlumagoMountain deposit had the highest average lithium content of any known spodumene deposit, including gigantic 36-foot-long crystals embedded deep inside the coarse brown and white rock face.

"Initially, the Freemans said they wanted to sell to the battery market, something that would lik require chemical processing on-site or nearby. Later, they said they wanted to sell raw spodum ore with the highest levels of lithium to scientific glass manufacturers, which could eliminate t need for processing.

"Neither the Freemans nor their attorney responded to emails and telephone requests for an interview.

"The provisional rule requires applicants seeking an open-pit mining exemption to prove the operation does not have the potential to violate state water quality standards or expose radioactive materials that would endanger human health or the environment.

"The applicant would have to conduct extensive testing and sampling to show the deposit would react when exposed to the air or water of an open-pit mine. Spodumene is non-reactive, but other metals like copper and silver will create a harmful acid discharge when exposed.

"For example, the Newry spodumene deposit is believed to contain some galena, the blue-black mineral that contains lead sulfide, which has the potential to leach lead and often occurs in combination with iron sulfide, the major culprit in causing acidic mine drainage.

"'We are uncertain if galena is present at levels that are dangerous, but the only way to know w be through detailed characterization of the deposit in the manner that these rule amendments propose,' said Nick Bennett, a staff scientist at Natural Resources Council of Maine.

“#NRCM supported the provisional rule in part because the Board of Environmental Protection decided to add back in requirements that an applicant would have to conduct real-world testing, kinetic testing, to ensure there is nothing reactive in the deposit before a mining exemption is granted.

"'We are supportive of the proposed rules that DEP drafted and BEP approved because we beli they would only allow open-pit mining of metallic minerals when that extraction presents a very low risk to water quality and the environment,' Bennett said.”

https://www.pressherald.com/2024/02/29/state-environmental-board-adopts-new-mineral-mining-rule

#WaterIsLife #Environment
#NoMining in #Maine #OpenPitMining #WesternMaine #NewryMaine

via @arizonamirror

If #Hobbs is serious about protecting #groundwater, she must work to close the #mining loophole

by Russ McSpadden
February 12, 2024

"In her first State of the State address just over a year ago, Gov. #KatieHobbs was unequivocal about her commitment to tackling one of the state’s greatest challenges: our dwindling #water supply.

“Our groundwater should be used to support #Arizonans, not foreign business interests,” she said in that speech, referring to the Saudi Arabian conglomerate #Fondomonte. Over the past few years, Fondomonte has been pumping unlimited amounts of groundwater in La Paz County for alfalfa crops that it ships to feed cows on the other side of the earth.

"Though the Hobbs administration has already canceled one of Fondomonte’s four leases and says it won’t renew the others when they’re up this month, the problem doesn’t end with Saudi agriculture.

"It’s also mining companies that take advantage of loopholes in the state’s water laws to maximize profit at the expense of Arizonans — including mining giants #RioTinto and# BHP.

"Because of intense pressure from #lobbyists, when lawmakers adopted the much-heralded #ArizonaGroundwaterManagementAct in 1980 they exempted #mines from groundwater regulation, even when located in #ActiveManagement Areas — state-designated areas where groundwater pumping is controlled. That means that mines can pump unlimited amounts of water without paying the state a dime.

"This exemption was controversial in 1980. Today it’s existentially dangerous.

#ResolutionCopper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto and BHP, is a perfect example. Their proposed mine at #OakFlat — about 70 miles east of #Phoenix in the #TontoNationalForest and within the Phoenix Active Management Area — would pump 250 billion gallons of desert groundwater over the life of the project.

"That’s 17 million gallons of water every day for four decades.

"Under current water prices, that equates to $404 million worth of groundwater that Resolution Copper will get for free. Arizona won’t see a cent for it. And it’s more than likely that the copper ore from Oak Flat will be exported to China for smelting, again depriving local communities of economic benefit.

"This limitless pumping would happen even as the #megadrought that has plagued the #AmericanSouthwest for the past two decades is likely to worsen, straining the #ColoradoRiver and #Gila rivers even more and making us all more reliant on groundwater aquifers.

"If left intact, the mining loophole will facilitate construction of Resolution’s massive mine. The extreme water pumping from the #EastSaltRiverValley will lead to groundwater depletion and subsidence, threatening to deplete wells and damage infrastructure.

"The #CenterForBiologicalDiversity, where I work, has been fighting for decades to stop this mine, and Canadian mining company Hudbay’s disastrous plan to mine for copper in the #SantaRita Mountains south of #Tucson (in the Tucson Active Management Area).

"Both projects would devastate surrounding fragile #ecosystems, pushing endangered species like the #MexicanSpottedOwl closer to the brink of #extinction. They would also destroy sacred #TribalLands and gulp down massive amounts of water when other users are being asked to conserve.

"Handing mines unlimited access to Arizona’s precious desert groundwater would be an injustice to Arizona’s #Tribes and every resident of this state.

"Fortunately, Hobbs has the vision and courage to fight for a secure water future for Arizona. It is time for her to work with legislators to close the mining loophole in Arizona water law and subject mines to the same groundwater pumping limits that apply to other entities within the state’s Active Management Areas.

"We’re hopeful she will work to block #ResolutionCopperMine and other terrible mining projects like #Hudbay’s. At the very least, it’s time for mining giants to pay for the water they use just like the rest of us."

https://azmirror.com/2024/02/12/if-hobbs-is-serious-about-protecting-groundwater-she-must-work-to-close-the-mining-loophole/

Advocates demand halt to #uranium #mine near the #GrandCanyon

#EnergyFuels says #nuclear power is necessary to fight #ClimateChange, but #Indigenous tribes fear losing their homes

By Matthew Rozsa
January 31, 2024

"The Grand Canyon truly lives up to its name, being the largest canyon on Earth and one of the most popular national parks in America. But due to #UraniumMining in the area, some advocates are warning it could become the site of a future #EnvironmentalDisaster, which threatens to make one Indigenous village 'extinct.'

"More than 80 groups signed onto a statement on Monday — representing Indigenous communities, scientists and environmental nonprofits such as the #SierraClub and the #CenterForBiologicalDiversity — directed at President #JoeBiden and #Arizona Gov. #KatieHobbs, demanding they close the #PinyonPlain uranium mine, which is located near the Grand Canyon.

"'We have a choice in front of us. Allowing the Pinyon Plain mine to proceed is subjecting this landscape and its interconnected waters to a legacy of devastation and disregarding the rights of the #IndigenousPeoples on the land,' Sanober Mirza, Arizona program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said in the statement. 'Or we can choose a different path — one that holds a promise of protecting the Grand Canyon’s cultural sanctity, its people and natural resources.'

"To understand why the mine's opponents feel so strongly, one can turn to #AmberReimondo, who work as energy director at a conservationist non-profit called the #GrandCanyonTrust. Reimondo explained to Salon by email that, on the one hand, #Biden permanently banned mining operations on nearly 1 million acres of federal managed lands by creating the #BaajNwaavjo I'tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August 2023. Yet the Pinyon Plain mine was #exempt from this prohibition, and Reimondo argues that the impact on the region has been 'several fold.'

"'What they've created here is a long-term, slow motion #EnvironmentalDisaster."

"'The Grand Canyon region as a whole and especially the location of the mine, is deeply significant to Indigenous cultures and is a place where tribal members have conducted #ceremonies, collected medicine, hunted, and more, for centuries,' Reimondo said. 'The mine also overlies critical and complex [and] not well understood groundwater systems. One #aquifer in particular — the #RedWallMuavAquifer — is the sole source of water for the remote #HavasupaiVillage of #Supai inside the Grand Canyon. The mine poses a #contamination threat to these #groundwater resources not just today, but importantly, after the mine's mere 28-month operational lifespan has concluded and the mining operator 'cleans up' and moves on.'

"Supai is so remote, it's only accessible only by helicopter or an 8-mile mule ride or hike, Reimondo explained, noting that if the newly-oxygenated groundwater comes into contact with nearby rocks, minerals like #arsenic and #uranium will be dissolved by the groundwater and enter aquifers used by the local community and essential to local ecology, including #HavasuFalls. Taylor McKinnon, Southwest Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed similar concerns.

"'Ultimately, this mine is going to require political leadership,' McKinnon told Salon in an interview, referring to both the Biden and #Hobbs administrations. 'Those administration's agencies have the authority to fix this problem if they so choose, and that's what they should do.'

"We have detailed strenuously for years that neither regulators nor industry can ensure against the permanent and irretrievable damage to Grand Canyon's aquifers and springs," McKinnon added. "This mine was approved originally in 1986, under a record of decision from the US Forest Service under a presumption that it was highly unlikely that the mine would encounter groundwater, and further unlikely that if it did, it had the potential to contaminate deeper aquifers in the springs that they feed. Subsequent state permitting from the #ArizonaDepartment OfEnvironmentalQuality has basically parroted those same assumptions.'

"Yet McKinnon alleges that in 2016 the mine punctured a perched aquifer, causing roughly 10 million gallons of water per year to drain into the mine workings. From there he asserts that a surface pond formed with water that has concentrations of uranium and arsenic far in excess of the Environmental Protection Agency (#EPA)'s water quality standards. Not only does this threaten the local endangered and endemic species, but it also impacts the nearby Havasupai tribe.

"Havasupai means 'people of the blue-green water,' McKinnon said. "It's their longstanding cultural identity, and it is the water they drink, they farm with and that provides for all of their tourism economy because it is this just a beautiful series of massive verdant waterfalls that flow through the village and down into a series of waterfalls and pools where people camp and they derive tourism dollars.'

"In a 2022 letter of opposition, the Havasupai Tribal Council, laid out what is at stake in the uranium mining controversy.

"'Our identity as a people is intrinsically intertwined with the health of #HavasuCreek and the environment to which it gives life,' the tribe’s letter explained. 'We use this water for drinking, #gardening and irrigating, municipal uses, and #cultural and #religious uses. If the water source becomes contaminated like we have seen in other areas of Arizona due to uranium mining, we will no longer be able to live in our homes and Supai Village will become extinct.'

"These fears are based on precedent. The nearby #NavajoNation is scattered with old uranium mines — over 500, in fact — awaiting cleanup, exposing locals to risk of '#LungCancer from inhalation of #radioactive particles, as well as #BoneCancer and impaired kidney function from exposure to #radionuclides in drinking water,' according to the EPA. Likewise, members of the #UteMountain #Ute tribe in #WhiteMesa, Utah have protested against uranium mines they say have contaminated local groundwater, air and even wildlife."

https://www.salon.com/2024/01/31/advocates-demand-halt-to-uranium-mine-near-the-grand-canyon/

Center for Biological Diversity

For Immediate Release, October 4, 2023

Contact:
Laiken Jordahl, (928) 525-4433, ljordahl@biologicaldiversity.org

#Biden Administration Waives Laws to Rush #BorderWall Construction Through #Texas Wildlands

STARR COUNTY, Texas — The Biden administration announced today that for the first time it will waive environmental, public health and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Texas. The administration says it will take “immediate action to construct barriers and roads” along the border, including through fragile habitat near the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

“It’s disheartening to see President Biden stoop to this level, casting aside our nation’s bedrock environmental laws to build ineffective wildlife-killing border walls,” said Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Starr County is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it. This is a horrific step backwards for the borderlands.”

The waiver sweeps aside 26 laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands, endangered wildlife and Indigenous grave sites. The announcement marks the first time the Biden administration has used the REAL ID Act waiver authority.

“Every acre of habitat left in the #RioGrandeValley is irreplaceable,” said Jordahl. “We can’t afford to lose more of it to a useless, medieval wall that won’t do a thing to stop immigration or smuggling. President Biden’s cynical decision to destroy crucial wildlife habitat and seal the beautiful Rio Grande behind a grotesque border wall must be stopped.”

Wall construction in Starr County could harm recovery plans for endangered ocelots, which depend on contiguous wildlife corridors of protected habitat along the Rio Grande. Two endangered plants, the Zapata bladderpod and prostrate milkweed, are endemic to the area and will likely also be threatened by wall construction with their protections stripped by the waiver.

Last month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a damning report detailing the severe damage the border wall has caused to wildlife, public lands, and Indigenous sacred sites and burial grounds along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.

Today’s action seeks to waive the following laws:

- National Environmental Policy Act

- Endangered Species Act

- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

- American Indian Religious Freedom Act

- Federal Water Pollution Control Act

- National Historic Preservation Act

- Migratory Bird Treaty Act

- Migratory Bird Conservation Act

- Clean Air Act

- National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act

- Eagle Protection Act

- National Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956

- Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act

- Archeological Resources Protection Act

- Paleontological Resources Preservation Act

- Safe Drinking Water Act

- Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act

- Noise Control Act

- Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

- Antiquities Act

- Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act

- Farmland Protection Policy Act

- National Trails System Act

- Administrative Procedure Act

- Federal Land Policy and Management Act

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/biden-administration-waives-laws-to-rush-border-wall-construction-through-texas-wildlife-refuge-2023-10-04/