2019-20_GYS_OPT

27 YELLOW SPRINGS NEWS The GUIDE to YELLOW SPRINGS 2019 – 20 PHOTO BY MEGAN BACHMAN Village Public Works Director Johnnie Burns stood proudly by the Village’s new one-megawatt solar array on the Glass Farm in 2017. By 2019, the Village’s electric portfolio was 83 percent renewables, the greenest of its 139-member muncipal electric supplier. A decade earlier, most of the Village’s electricity came from coal and natural gas. But a 2008 Council decision not to invest in a new coal-fired power plant at the urging of citizens, followed by commitments to new wind, solar and hydroelectric projects, started the village on a greener path. meeting and began going door-to-door to urge homeowners not to sign lease agree- ments. In April, an area resident found a binder containing what appeared to be a field agent’s guide advising them to use misleading arguments when seeking an oil and gas lease, prompting national media attention and an investigation by the Ohio attorney general. In May, Yellow Springs became one of seven municipalities in the state to pass an anti-fracking resolution. Officially, Vil - lage Council called on state leaders to ban fracking. And in August, Yellow Springs hosted a regional meeting of community organizers working to help other municipal - ities pass resolutions against the practice. Action against Cemex In the 1990s, a group of local environ- mentalists took on the county’s biggest air polluter and won. When Southwestern Portland Cement, predecessor of Cemex and Fairborn Cement on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road, started burning hazardous waste in 1991, a group of villagers formed the Green Environmental Coalition, successfully rallying citizens against the project. In 1994, GEC officially won a ruling from the Ohio EPA that prevented Cemex from storing hazardous waste at the plant. Then, in 2006, when the Ohio EPA gave the company approval to conduct tests of using whole scrap tires for fuel, GEC sprung into action once again. Two years later, the company officially withdrew their tire-burning proposal. But in 2014 and 2015, as Cemex looked to expand its quarry after township zoning By YS NEWS STAFF Pesticide resistance A 2013 pesticide controversy at the Gaunt Park pool, when Village workers accidentally applied an herbicide undiluted to grass at the Gaunt Park pool, put a fire under some villagers, who saw an opportu- nity to raise awareness about the dangers of pesticides being used across the village. One such resident was local landscape designer Nadia Malarkey. “People were so irate about the applica- tion of pesticides at the pool, but no one was thinking about the regular spraying in their neighborhoods,” Malarkey said. A voice for the voiceless pollinators, in 2018, Malarkey revived her Yellow Springs Pollinator Regeneration Project. Volunteers who take the Pollinator Pledge agree to 1) not use any synthetic pesticides or fertil - izers on their property, 2) plant a variety of flowering plants to provide pollen and 3) share what they learn with their neighbors. If villagers stopped spraying herbicides and insecticides, and instead planted native flowering plants, the bumblebees, monarch Actions for the earth YS NEWS ARCHIVE PHOTO Cooper Fleishman, top, and Hazel Tulecke, left, celebrated a win against hazardous waste burning in 1994. butterflies and other pollinators would return, according to Malarkey. And the vil- lage would be a healthier and safer place to live. In response to the pool pesticide inci - dent, Village Council immediately placed a moratorium on further pesticide spraying by the Village. Five years later, the Vil- lage reported it had changed its practices. Where it once sprayed along sidewalks and street gutters, workers were pulling weeds by hand or mechanically. “We started using organic or natural pes- ticides everywhere they could be effective,” Village Manager Patti Bates said. ‘No fracking way’ “No fracking way” signs popped up across Yellow Springs in 2011 as villagers quickly mobilized against the controversial oil and gas drilling technique linked with groundwater contamination. Oil exploration began in and around Yellow Springs in November 2010. By February 2011, a petroleum field agent was seeking land leases from Miami Town- ship residents to drill for oil and gas. Later that month, local organizers put on a public officials denied them, Fairborn came to the company’s rescue, annexing them into the city. With that move, 450 acres of land surrounding the plant was rezoned from agriculture to mining, guaranteeing the facility (now owned by Eagle Materials) can keep blasting rock and polluting the air, for another 40 years, although under the watchful eye of villagers.  ♦