[HN Gopher] Fort Lauderdale saves nearly $350K after repurposing...
___________________________________________________________________
Fort Lauderdale saves nearly $350K after repurposing seaweed into
planting soil
Author : ph0rque
Score : 29 points
Date : 2023-06-29 20:38 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.local10.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.local10.com)
| [deleted]
| aaron695 wrote:
| [dead]
| Solvency wrote:
| They've saved money, sure. They've also added toxic fat soluble
| molecules and heavy metals into the soil. What a win for the
| people!
|
| This is the same city that made an ecological disaster by dumping
| thousands of tires into their ocean. So I'm not surprised.
| 3-cheese-sundae wrote:
| Source on the former? I know about the latter.
| drjasonharrison wrote:
| https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/osborne-tire-reef-
| how-m...
|
| "The Osborne Reef is an artificial reef project situated off
| the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was one of many
| attempts in the 1970s and 80s to mimic the environmental
| benefits of coral reefs using old tires, but it has become an
| environmental disaster.
|
| ...It was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and
| the dumping operation was supervised by a U.S. Navy
| minesweeper.
|
| In the years to follow, many of the tires -- which were held
| together only with nylon rope and steel clips -- came loose,
| making the "reef" useless as a habitat and, in some cases,
| damaging real coral reefs nearby.
|
| Over the past two decades, groups both public and private
| have launched programs to remove the remaining Osborne Reef
| tires from the ocean.
|
| ...The state estimated that there were 650,000 tires
| remaining in 2016, and 4ocean estimates that there are still
| over 500,000 in 2022."
| justinclift wrote:
| They seem to be asking about the other one, not the tire
| related thing. ;)
| frankfrankfrank wrote:
| It's quite interesting that the group dynamics of
| government results in an extremely predictable indicator of
| bad decisions, i.e., if "government" believes something is
| a good course of action, it is far more likely a negative
| and bad course of action.
|
| I believe it is likely due to the perverse incentive
| structure of government that tends to be characterized by
| abuse of power and control, combined with approaching zero
| accountability and consequences, only amplified by
| individuals benefiting from the degree of corruption.
| Analemma_ wrote:
| Interesting! Do they do some kind of washing or processing to
| remove the salt? I assume without that step it would be
| impossible to use as soil, but I don't know.
| stevespang wrote:
| [dead]
| frankfrankfrank wrote:
| Salting and poisoning the soil to "save money" and "solve
| problems" ... sounds exactly like a solution that government,
| i.e., groups of humans operating under perverse incentives
| would conclude.
| myshpa wrote:
| https://dcnanature.org/sargassum-fertilizer/
|
| ... found that vegetables grown in soil enriched with sargassum
| had higher levels of arsenic and cadmium, heavy metals that can
| be toxic to humans and animals. Researchers warn that sargassum
| should not be used to compliment animal fodder, nor used as a
| fertilizer for consumables until further investigated.
|
| https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1163385168/sargassum-seaweed-...
|
| ... we're finding [sargassum] can contain heavy metals, including
| arsenic. It has fairly high concentrations of the toxin," he
| said. "There's a concern that, through leaching, that could
| impact groundwater."
|
| https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230622-what-is-causing-...
|
| Another interesting thing we discovered is a set of genes called
| 'zot' genes, which causes leaky gut syndrome," says Mincer. The
| toxins produced by bacteria carrying these zot genes increase the
| permeability of the intestinal tract, leading to a range of
| symptoms including chronic diarrhoea.
| xyst wrote:
| Wow, how can a city not do their due diligence on this?
|
| Literally poisoning the people they serve.
| warricksothr wrote:
| The article says the soil mixture is available to residents
| and being used by the city to restore damaged boulevards.
| None of this is being communicated as being sold to farms for
| growing produce.
|
| It seems like they probably are doing due diligence and
| they're not poisoning the people they serve.
|
| They talk about the city using it for fill soil on their
| site. They do have a picture suggesting it might be usable in
| a garden but that's it.
|
| https://gyr.fortlauderdale.gov/greener-government/natural-
| re...
|
| I suggest if you're concerned that you email them and let
| them know not to suggest using it for gardening.
| frankfrankfrank wrote:
| Because cities are run by people and out whole civilization's
| incentives structure has been turned upside down and inside
| out for at least 100 years now. When there are Not only no
| consequences, but also immense rewards and any few
| consequences are simply calculated into the operating budget,
| it leas to all these types of things we see today all across
| the western world where corruption, fraud, public plunder,
| and degeneracy are rampant and well being the house of cards
| down in some period.
| jjkeddo199 wrote:
| Farmed seaweed might have different properties than seaweed
| harvested directly from the ocean. It could be safer in
| controlled environments.
| obblekk wrote:
| In fairness, they are using the decomposed soil to line streets
| (I'd guess medians which have grass) and people's lawns.
|
| Distributing to farmers would be terrible, but it seems like
| distributing near roadways is exactly the right move given that
| land is already unsafe to eat from due to car pollutants.
|
| The metals are already there in the moss. Is it better to
| decompose on the beach, throw into a landfill, or recycle into
| ornamental land use?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-06-29 23:02 UTC)