Chapter 8: Reaching Out from BioMuncie

[ draft version comments appreciated]  Catherine Kavassalis       Return to Contents    Return to BioMuncie

last revision: 11/24/2002

Sections:

Timeline

From its inception in October of 2001 to the spring of 2002, BioMuncie impacted on the Muncie community. This would not have happened without continual outreach to the community. The following timeline highlights those events and activities which spawned growth in the website and those which were the direct result of the website.

Carol's Reflections

Multiple threads have spun out from BioMuncie or have been supported by BioMuncie. Different strands connect diverse groups of people drawn together over a particular environmental issue effecting the Delaware County area. Coal emissions, lead poisoning, and sprawl are just three of many ongoing concerns impacting the community. The following are Carol's reflections on her effort to draw attention to these problems and the role the website played in supporting her efforts. 

Ball State’s Coal Burning Plant

In October, Genny Gordy, chair and founder of the local Sierra Club group, told me that Ball State’s coal plant did not meet Clean Air Act standards and was not monitored.   I still assumed other factories in town were more serious polluters.   After all we have a steel and wire company, a battery company, many car plants.   There was no information online about the plant so I had to request printouts from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management by phone and by visiting their Indianapolis office.  Most IDEM people were very helpful, but one in particular seemed uninformed about the Community Right to Know Act and was reticent to provide emissions records.   So I called a superior and received the information immediately.   Ball State University turned out to be the worst polluter in the county by far.   Next I looked at information from Ball State.   They had been working on a “Greening of the Campus” campaign.   Their own report said the plant was “grandfathered” because of its age and was exempt from Clean Air Act regulations.

The fact that a university was the biggest polluter in an old industrial city was shocking to me.   So many locals had lost their factory jobs and yet the factories here were managing to meet Clean Air Act requirements.  I wrote a letter to the university president, provost, and board of directors with the information we had compiled and asked the chair of the local Sierra Club to sign it with me.   I forwarded the information I had to the paper, but they did not do a story.   But that was O.K. because we had our own free press –BioMuncie.   Cathy could put it on the web-site and make it publicly accessible, if IDEM could not.   The university did not acknowledge the letter with a response.   So I called the provost of the university and asked for a response to put in the Sierra Club newsletter. He promised to get a plant upgrade listed on the next legislative funding request.

Meanwhile, Cathy’s research on the web-site led me to The Hoosier Environmental Council web-site.   They had well researched information on coal and coal burning plants.   I contacted them and was invited to help them lobby the legislature regarding legislation to protect ground water from coal mining.   We had no luck, but established a relationship.  They are now working on a Campus Clean Energy Campaign for the State.

It was a very bad year for the state and no money was to be found.   It became clear that no active effort was being made to seek funding at Ball State for pollution controls and the paper had shown no interest in the story.   So by mid April, I decided I would picket.   Not having done this before, I did not try to recruit other people. (Many Sierra Club members are employed by the University and seemed reticent anyway).   Three of us made signs and I wrote up a handout with information from BioMuncie.   On Earth Day we walked up and down the street in from the plant, handing out flyers to businesses and at the hospital.   We were out for two or three hours. 

The next day the paper wrote about the action using some of the information we had put on the handout from BioMuncie.   I got a lot of response from people around town concerned about the pollution after the story and heard that that there was renewed discussion at the university.  Shortly after that, the provost sent a notice that he had made a 20 million dollar request  for a plant upgrade in 2005.   A further acknowledgement of the problem, but not good enough yet.   In talking to university people involved, the decision of what to do, what technology to use is as much a  problem as finding the money. I hope we can look into that and provide some direction to both Ball State and the many other universities with similar old facilities across the State of Indiana.

It was gratifying to read a letter to the editor on May 20th from a Muncie elementary school student that stated, "I'd like to thank The Star Press for educating the public about the level of pollution released by the Ball State heating plant. Before reading your recent article, I was unaware of the tremendous toxicity of the plant. ... Hopefully, Ball State will do its part and clean up the heating plant."  BioMuncie was making a difference.

The Lead Risk

A couple of years ago I went to a “Universe City” lecture on lead by Kevin Turcotte, a Ball State professor who was working with the state health department to map blood lead levels. He had very detailed information on where children were at high risk in Muncie from lead paint in houses, and I was struck that the state had not instituted an action plan. I was working on reform of the social service system and was very concerned because of some reports I had seen of very high numbers of mentally retarded children in Indiana. At that time Kevin said he hoped eventually to get this information on a website and I remember being very impressed with that idea. Two years later I was again confronted with the problem of lead in the Muncie area as Cathy linked BioMuncie to federal databases. She found federal statistics showing the Muncie area not only had a lead paint problem, but that lead was also contaminating the air, the land, and the water.

Through a complicated series of conversations, I discovered that a lead task force was being put together. I contacted them and expressed my concerns.  They asked if I would come to one of their meetings and talk about BioMuncie. Kevin Turcotte was there. He believed that hot spots were solely caused by lead paint in old houses, but I was concerned about factory contamination -many of the high-risk areas were near old glass and battery factories. The Health Department Administrator did not know about the report that we had of high lead levels in the air and asked me for a copy. (Another person needed information on filing a complaint about getting sick at work from mold. I happened to know whom to call because Cathy and I had just helped someone with a complaint about pesticide fumes at work and gave him the phone number for OHSA.) The task force told me they wanted to be cautious in their approach, providing educational materials rather than being confrontational with landlords. I told them I was not a good person to have on their task force if that was going to be their approach because I preferred to confront issues more aggressively.

Soon after that meeting I talked to the Sierra Club about the lead issue and we agreed to find a speaker for the monthly meeting.   One of the members wanted to hear about neurological impact of lead poisoning so I contacted a local Medicaid clinic for a potential speaker. A nurse (required by federal law to test clients for lead poisoning) didn't know what lead poisoning was.  I decided to call the hospital speaker’s bureau to see if they could find a doctor to talk about lead poisoning. Lloyd Snider, an EMT and the hospital’s HAZMAT instructor, agreed to do some research and come up with a talk. I invited the lead task force to come hear his talk, but only Kevin Turcotte showed up. His attendance was very important because two local reporters came. Lloyd Snider and Kevin Turcotte provided complimentary information and the local paper was able to do a well-informed story on the subject. The local Health Department posted the lead maps on their website and Lloyd Snider began to work with the local health department on a seminar at the hospital on lead exposure and lead poisoning.

There still needs to be an active and aggressive campaign in the city to locate dangerous sources of lead and to determine how to best protect children from exposure. 

Muncie shrinks and sprawls

I agreed to be chair of the local Sierra Club’s sprawl committee in the fall of 2001. We attended the monthly Delaware County Plan Commission meetings and observed for several months.  In April of 2002.  At that time, a case came up involving a development on a road that bordered one of the few biologically diverse areas in the county.  My committee decided to oppose it.  We combined photos of wildlife in the area with information from BioMuncie’s sprawl page. The Federal Highway Administration has a wonderful web-site called Critter Crossings that explained our concerns about traffic on that road being incompatible with an area that should be preserved for wildlife. The developer did not attend the first meeting, but heard that the Sierra Club was opposing it from a local reporter who wrote a story about our opposition for the Muncie StarPress. Citing financial problems, the developer withdrew his application. 

In May, another reporter who had done the profile on BioMuncie for the StarPress gave me a call.  He said a developer had applied for rezoning of almost 400 acres of land that was owned by a Commissioner’s stepsister. The development would directly impact his neighborhood and he asked if I could help him get signatures from environmentalists and professors who might oppose the rezoning. We only had a couple of days before the meeting, but many groups were still able to send representatives or sign petitions. The Association of Concerned Taxpayers, the League of Women Voters, the Sierra Club, as well as business people, architecture and planning professors joined together to oppose the rezoning.  

At the rezoning meeting, I gave out copies of  an article posted on the Sprawl page of BioMuncie from the March/April issue of Sierra Magazine called Why Shrinking Cities Sprawl that specifically mentioned Muncie. I also testified to the most dramatic points about sprawl that I could remember from the website - ugliness, pollution, economic segregation.  One County Commissioner who sat on the Plan Commission gave extensive testimony on behalf of development.  The Plan Commission recommended that the land be rezoned and the issue was forwarded on the County Commissioners for a final vote. 

Some affected residents had not received legal notice of the application for rezoning and were talking about setting up a legal fund to fight the rezoning.  The conduct of the Plan Commission also seemed inappropriate and possibly corrupt to me, so the next day I got on the phone and called around the state trying to find information on the laws pertaining to planning. Eventually I was referred to the Public Access Councilor, a state office that provides information on the Open Door Law.  A lawyer at the office explained the applicable law. Cathy looked up the laws and posted them on BioMuncie along with the Public Access Counselor’s contact site.  Then I filed a written complaint with the Public Access Counselor through BioMuncie's Sprawl page. I explained to others how to do the same. The staff attorney returned my e-mail, saying she had a call in to the Plan Commission Office. 

At the County Commissioners meeting, again many segments of the community showed up to oppose the rezoning.   I spoke this time about the many public agencies that were concerned with sprawl such as the Federal Highway Administration and the Center for Disease Control - agencies that we were linked to on the BioMuncie Sprawl page. But, it was a “done deal,” as many observers in the audience said, and the Commissioners voted to rezone.  The different groups that were opposing the rezoning gathered together at the end of the meeting and discussed joining forces to vote out these commissioners. 

When I returned home I contacted the Public Access Counselor through the BioMuncie Sprawl page and wrote a follow up complaint stating that: one of the commissioners was related to the land owner and had worked with the developer on previous projects, another commissioner had testified on behalf of the developer at the Plan Commission meeting, and the third commissioner had contacted a real estate agent before the meeting to gather information and ask that he testify on behalf of rezoning. These actions seemed to be in conflict with the law pertaining to commissioners duties. I am awaiting a response. Meanwhile the Sierra Club is planning to invite the numerous individuals and groups concerned about sprawl and environmental justice to come together and discuss actions to reform the planning system currently in place.

Conclusions

In only six months, BioMuncie.org has had an impact in Delaware County. The website has served as an educational resource providing a basis for environmental action. As such, it has raised public awareness about local environmental issues; it has connected people interested in addressing environmental problems; it has provided information and support to activists and active learners; it has motivated and encouraged people to become involved in resolving problems. 

A dozen articles in the Muncie StarPress between April and June reflect BioMuncie's impact.

The following are excerpts from articles that appeared in the StarPress.

Earth Coffee House looks at local environment

By SETH SLABAUGH                February 19, 2002

MUNCIE - Carol Blakney wants people to know that a great deal of useful information about the local environment is available on the Internet. That's one of the reasons she is spearheading a quarterly "Earth Coffee House Series" - the first of which is Sunday at 2 p.m. - at Danner's Books and Coffee Shop. ...

Lead threatens local kids

By SETH SLABAUGH                April 20, 2002

MUNCIE - Elevated levels of lead were found in the bloodstream of 800 to 900 local children tested between 1993 and 1998, a Ball State University professor told members of the Five Rivers Group of the Sierra Club this week. Data indicate toddlers in older, poorer sections of Muncie where homes are not well maintained are more likely to be exposed to lead, said Kevin Turcotte, an associate professor of geography. ...

Will Land Rezoning Help or Hurt

By SETH SLABAUGH                April 30, 2002

MUNCIE - Blakney told the plan commission the rezoning would contribute to "economic segregation" and result in more empty buildings in Muncie." We are abandoning people in our community and running off to Yorktown," Blakney said. She also told commission members that "we are now nationally famous for shrinking and sprawling. ...

Clean Water Initiative Draws a Small Crowd

By RICK YENCER                      April 15, 2002

. . . Carol Blakney, a local environmentalist, asked whether the plan would protect against industrial storm water discharges such as a 1999 incident at Indiana Steel and Wire. She cited a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on that incident.

"That is news to me," said Richard Huyck, director of the district's water quality bureau.

Ball State is a top local air polluter

By SETH SLABAUGH                May 21, 2002

MUNCIE - Ball State University's advertising slogan - "Ball State - Everything You Need!" - was printed on one side of a protest sign carried by Sierra Club member Carol Blakney. The other side read, "Mercury, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, soot, acid rain." Blakney and two other pickets marched during recent Earth Day events in front of Ball State's coal-fired heating plant, which is exempt under a grandfather clause from limits on emissions established by the federal Clean Air Act. According to the national non-profit Environmental Defense, the heating plant is the leading emitter of nitrogen oxides among Delaware County facilities, and it is one of the dirtiest facilities in the United States in terms of sulfur dioxide emissions (1,389 tons in 1999). The plant is also a major producer of carbon monoxide and particulate matter .

The StarPress has a circulation of around 35,000. Thus the media attention Carol brought to the issues of lead pollution, sprawl, coal emissions, and water quality, etc., raised general public awareness throughout the Delaware County area.  The stories not only educated readers about environmental problems but more importantly they publicized the fact that people were working towards solutions and that information was available to help them do so. Whether these issues would have eventually appeared in the news or how they would be spun without Carol and BioMuncie is impossible to say, but the influence of BioMuncie in fostering concern for the environment is clear.

As BioMuncie became prominent in the media, other environmentalists at the Sierra Club meetings expressed their enthusiasm. It has been motivating for many to see that Carol, an activist armed only with information, could have an impact on local environmental issues. As a result, there has been increased interest in becoming involved in environmental projects and in joining groups working to find solutions.  For instance, Mikey Brooks approached Carol with the idea of organizing a Green Map for Muncie. (The Green Map System, developed by Wendy Brawer in the early 90s, is a computer-based system for mapping ecological and cultural resources within a given area.) With Carol’s help, Mikey has drawn together interested people and begun the process of map-creation. At the first Coffee House, many people requested information on how they could become involved when they completed the Coffee House questionnaire.

Questions on Coffee House Questionnaire

  • Where do you live? (Please check or circle):
    • Delaware County
    • Another County
    • Muncie
    • Another city or town
    • On a farm
  • Why did you come to the Coffee House on Water Quality?
  • Do you or would you use the Internet?
  • Have you looked at www.biomuncie.org?
  • What concerns you about the Environment in this area?
  • What would you like to know more about?
  • Do you have information to share on the environment?

Respondents commented: “[I] want to be more involved with water and soil conservation concerns;” “What I can do to improve the situation?” “How [do I] get awareness out about promoting the environment?” Following the meeting, several began to participate in Sierra Club activities and were informed about other organizations working on water quality. In addition, following the article on Ball State's coal plant, local high school students staged their own protest and a junior school student felt compelled to write in to the local newspaper.

BSU heating plant

I'd like to thank The Star Press for educating the public about the level of pollution released by the Ball State heating plant. Before reading your recent article, I was unaware of the tremendous toxicity of the plant.

Learning of the plant's polluting nature was especially troubling to me, because I spend a week every summer in the gorgeous Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. Here, the effects of acid rain pollution we create (primarily through coal powered plants like the Ball State heating plant) have destroyed entire lakes and ponds.

It would be a shame if my grandchildren aren't able to enjoy the peace and beauty of the Adirondacks as I have. Hopefully, Ball State will do its part and clean up the heating plant.

After the Sierra Club meeting on lead, the HAZMAT coordinator and the Health Department Consultant began to work together on an educational program for medical professionals. These individuals were motivated to become actively involved in working toward resolution of environmental problems because of the chain of events associated with the creation of BioMuncie. As a result of BioMuncie, new networks of people have come together to learn, to address issues and to try and resolve problems.

BioMuncie has not only provided information and connections to local residents but according to the Site Stats, it is proving useful to learners from around the globe.  Users have accessed BioMuncie from public schools in the United States like Mitchell School in Indiana (indicated by the URL suffix K12.'state code'.us); users have accessed BioMuncie from 25 different universities, including Indiana state, Purdue, Berkeley, Brynmawr, etc. (indicated by the URL suffix .'university code'.edu); users have accessed from government agencies like USDA, EPA, DOE and the military NIPR; and users have accessed the site from at least 20 countries.  Using a program written by the service provider, softwareImpact, I am able to view the sites accessed by individual users and the amount of time they spent on particular pages. Often users simply click in and out of pages, spending only a minute or two browsing for information and then exiting via one of the many resource links. Most of the interest in May, for instance, focused on pesticides and, in particular, on the carcinogenic potential of chemicals. Search strings indicate a wide variety of interests from users seeking information on particular chemicals (often entering only a CAS, Chemical Abstract Service, number) or 'graphs of asthma rates due to air pollution' to more general queries on 'urban sprawl in Indiana'. Only a few users appear to be repeat customers, although this is hard to determine, given that hostname IPs can vary from visit to visit depending on the service used to access the site.  The statistics do show that about twenty visits are made to BioMuncie each day by people actively trying to learn about their environment.

These active learners, like Carol, become educators in their communities of practice. With the knowledge they build using the site’s resources they are able to teach others through their words and actions. Information has been made available to various people at meetings and coffee houses and through handouts, discussions, phone conversations, letters and emails and, of course, through the media coverage of environmental action.  BioMuncie is merely an educational conduit, which although in principle can reach an unlimited population, in practice is only accessed by a few. Without outreach to the community the site would be little used. With outreach, BioMuncie has shown that knowledge is empowering and with such knowledge individuals can make a difference in protecting and improving the environment.