During this campaign, both Lisa Shaffer and Tony Kranz have made it a priority to engage this resource of expertise and international experience for the benefit of the community. Having the benefit of Shaffer's own credentials in the scientific community are part of this opportunity. Of course, simply having scientific knowledge doesn't necessarily ensure there is no controversy. In fact, the scientific method demands testing, challenging and pushing the limits. Our city government is not so fragile it cannot tolerate pushing the boundaries of the status quo and the outdated or no longer valid assumptions.
At the last city council meeting, Oct. 10 the agenda held the long awaited visitation by the San Diego Department of Environmental Health. One of the key issues requested by Russell Levan and Teresa Barth 10 months ago was a full staff report on bioremediation of contaminated florist nursery soils so prevalent in Encinitas.
Sadly, the presentation, council deliberations and vote were tightly bound to the Hall Property timeline and budget questions.
Nonetheless, Councilwoman Barth tenaciously confronted all of the negatives, stressed the continuous improvement and the future freedom of healthy soils demanding no monitoring or maintenance. She needs to be supported by more voices and votes on the dais with reality of nature as a focus rather than simply Realty®.
Month after month Russell Levan spoke up to the council and asked that this environmentally friendly approach to cleaning the soils of corrupted agricultural land be agendized and discussed openly. He got part of his request.
For those interested - Paul Stamets' TEDtalk on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world.
Diversity in our community's makeup could stand this healthy, real attention. The scientists are just one group that have as much value as the short term thinking and fixation on risk, fiscal outcomes through commercial, insurance, development and real estate. This latter group and financial criteria, risk factors have been the only framework to judge any and all deliberations. Don't take our word for it, watch clips and check out the posts.
