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The Fire in the Belly
A Rain-Fed Oasis in the Heart of East Oakland
"The Fire in the Belly" is a regular feature in our newsletter on what personally motivates people to work on localization. This issue's feature is written by Ingrid Severson, a partner with the Oakland-based DIG Cooperative, and rooftop systems advisor with Bay Localize.
These essays are personal statements exploring the diverse viewpoints that lead to localization as an organizing framework, and as such do not necessarily reflect the positions of Bay Localize.
Green Collar Jobs. What does the term bring to mind for you? I've found most people think solar power, wind power, green building and sometimes, landscaping. While all these fields are crucial, in my view, there is no green without the blue. Without a progressive and sound plan for securing water resources, everything else is diminished. With the worsening drought, and the projected reduction in Sierra snowpack due to global warming, more and more people are recognizing the need to plan for water security. Thankfully, in the past year, rainwater catchment, graywater and water efficiency have experienced a growing emergence. These decentralized solutions need further support and public investment, lest they be eclipsed by a corporate push for more destructive dams and desalination plants. This past summer and fall, I had the opportunity to contribute to this potential and bridge water conservation and reuse with the growing green jobs movement. In July, I had just started apprenticing with DIG Cooperative Inc., an ecological design/build worker owned cooperative, when I connected with The East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA), a youth empowerment organization that serves hundreds of East Oakland youth with martial arts training, academic and recreational skill building, as well as organic gardening, nutrition and cooking classes. EOBA was struggling with an astronomical $400 monthly water bill, a landscape that puddled and flooded during storms, and, to make the flooding problem worse: no gutters on their building. When we learned about the city's new Green Works Development Program, a capital and ecological improvement project based in the Coliseum Redevelopment Project Area, EOBA staff and DIG members decided to showcase a comprehensive water conservation, harvesting and re-use system at the EOBA site. EOBA was fortunate to gain a Redevelopment Agency grant to initiate a green job-training program and install the water conservation system! Members of DIG Cooperative consulted with EOBA staff and a team of eight youth interns to design and plan the project. Over the course of three months, we evaluated the site, trained the students in basic tool use, constructed the system, and moved massive amounts of earth, transforming the site into a rain-fed living oasis. EOBA now features water-efficient sinks, showers and dual flush toilet kits; a 3,000-gallon cistern that can capture and distribute 18,000 gallons of rainwater annually to irrigate both crops and an overflow bamboo pollution screen; a garden washbasin to irrigate fruit trees; and a series of rainwater Earthworks throughout the landscape with plenty of beautiful drought-tolerant plants. When asked about their new system, Elizabeth Kendall, Executive Director of EOBA said, "The garden has truly become a model green space that can be replicated throughout the community. People have come to take ideas about community garden spaces, both small and large scale, to be replicated in their own backyards as well as in school gardens. It is great to have had the opportunity to work with DIG Cooperative and the City of Oakland to show that conservation is completely doable and important to sustain the community and the planet." Find out more about the work of DIG Cooperative by visiting www.dig.coop. |
