Earth Guardian LNT Practices for Shangri-La Village

Each camp within SLV will have its own 'Trash Czar' with these responsibilities:

Encouraging, educating, managing, and maintaining a 100% Leave No Trace (LNT) policy. This includes traveling to and from the playa as well as time spent in Black Rock City (BRC).

The duties include keeping track of the trash, putting a new bag out when necessary. Draw string bags are the best. Keeping track of recyclable materials and putting them into bags. Keeping track of food materials that need to be 'dried'. And keeping in contact with Steve and the Gray Water project and seeing if there is anything you can do to help with that.

Each camp will need to "Check" in with the Village LNT Czar prior to departing the Playa for a MOOP Check. Failure to check in will cost you 4 Penalty Points, and believe you me, you do not want Penalty Points. If the CZAR sees MOOP, the remaining camp members will need to stay and finish the job, before leaving, it will NOT be the Czars responsibility to clean up others MOOP.

High traffic, shared, public areas will be monitored in such a way that discourages the accumulation of MOOP. Attention to the fact that MOOP breeds more MOOP will require astute enforcement of LNT policies. Camp participants will be expected to encourage other participants to LNT as well as take ownership and responsibility of the area should MOOP be present. Again, Clean as you go!

Scavenging for MOOP...Form a line side by side and walk from one end of your camp to the other and repeat back and forth, obviously looking down and retrieving ANY MOOP no mater how small....MOOP is MOOP...It does not belong there.

The most important ethic will always be 'Never Let It Hit The Ground'. If it never touches the ground it can not be MOOP. Clean as you go...There is no reason to leave a spill or a potential future MOOP issues when you can deal with it before it becomes a more serious issue.

Each village member is expected to participate in 2 hours of playa cleanup OUTSIDE of the village prior to final camp and village cleanup. Once camp breakdown is completed each camp is expected to sweep their entire camp area in a grid, removing all debris and traces of foreign matter for proper disposal.

Village organizers will perform a final grid sweep as the last individuals of the village assuring the village and surrounding areas are in compliance with LNT ideals.

As you know Steve Iddings of PP will be heading up the Gray Water Reclamation Project. The 'Gray Water Central' will be located at the corner of 'Freak Street' and the Village Community Center. This will be the central location where ALL of the Gray Water processing will take place.

It will be your camps responsibility to bring your Gray Water to this location for processing. When you get your camp settled, please make sure to go over and meet Steve at GWC with your Camp Trash Czar so he can give you the Poop & the Scoop on the Gray Water process.

Here's some text on Water terms: (from Steve Iddings)

Water Words: These are not legal or chemical terms, they are terms of endearment and convenience in purposefully playing a game of 'Leave No Trace'.

Fresh Water: Water you'd be willing to drink if you were thirsty, whether it's from a city's tap water or it's bottled water. It's free of dust and mud, without bacteria or other biological agents, and it looks clear. It might have the slightest leftover smell of chlorine from a city's water supply, but otherwise is odorless and just smells moist.

Grey Water: Also known as Dirty water or Sad water (wouldn't you be sad?). Usually it's fresh water that has been used to cook or clean. It's been collected from the ice chest or the Human Carcass Wash or your camp shower or leftover from brushing your teeth. It probably has dust and maybe a little mud in it, perhaps smells bad and we need to assume it has nasty biological agents in it which are out to get us. Maybe it has cooking oil, conditioner, soap, blood, spit, tears, body paint, glitter, food particles, algae, scum, etc. Try to think of 'pee' as being in this category, but for legal reasons we need to be careful about how we talk about 'pee', ... we're all very sensitive about 'pee', (for example, I could never specifically tell anyone to 'pee' in my water reclamation pond, because that would be classified then as a public toilet by the dept. of Health and Safety, and I could be cited and fined). Grey Water is reclaimable water, it's dirty but it can be Saved by the ministry of laying on of hands, or evaporated by the sun, leaving it's scummy essence to be packed up and taken off the playa as wet trash. It's not so toxic that it isn't salvageable as water to be returned to the environment by land or air.

Toxic Industrial Waste: Also known as Nuclear Waste. Notice we're not even calling it water anymore, even though it's liquid and often has water in it. Hopefully we will have very little, if any, of this on the playa to deal with. It is un-reclaimable, and needs to be sealed up, hauled off the playa and kept away from the environment no matter what the cost, ... forever.

Reclaimed Water: This is Grey Water which has been processed for one purpose, to get it clean enough to release back into the environment leaving no measurable impact. It's been filtered several times to get particles out, though it still looks siltly, dusty &/or muddy because it has playa dust in it. It's been treated either with heat or certain chemicals to kill all biological agents (no more bacteria, algae or viruses). And it's been treated to breakdown any residue of soap, conditioner, coloring, and various different oils. Treated and processed enough to qualify for our purposes of 'Leave No Trace' as pretty much just water and dust. It's not good for drinking, but it is good for cleaning bikes and cars, and maybe even humans (but most will shy away from this). It's odorless except for the last bit of chlorine and acid evaporating from it, leftover from the treatment process. Most of it will be evaporated, the rest to be distributed on the roads of Black Rock City to keep down the dust.

May you never thirst...

Tips from our Water Czar...Steve Iddings ( htsy@powersforgood.com ) ......

Leave No Trace of Scarring on the Playa

1. Contain it. The splashing from the shower has got to be caught and contained. If you're washing up, don't let soap, body paint, conditioner, etc. hit the ground. When you brush your teeth with toothpaste, don't spit on the ground, contain it and turn it in for processing or evaporation, or just spit in the trash. When cooking in the kitchen, don't just dump that water from the pots, don't just dump the gooey water from the ice chest where the food bag split open,...bring a container in which to CONTAIN IT.

2. Capture it. Bring cardboard to nail down under your vehicle to prevent the common fluid drippage from your brakes, oil, radiator, gasoline, etc., from scarring the playa. Capture it on the cardboard, then burn the cardboard before you go home, but remember to take the cardboard out from under your vehicle first and take it to a designated community burn station.

3. Bring it. Evaporate, Process and haul out your captured fluids, then bring the rest of your dirty water over to the water reclamation plant, bring it to Water Log Steve. There will be a clear and obvious place for you to pour your used fluids through a simple particle filter as your dirty water contribution joins the rest of the happy waters at Water Log's Processing Plant. Unfortunately, this year Steve will not be prepared to take water from camps which are outside Shangri-La Village.

4. Dig it. When we fail or have a mishap and some fluid scars the playa, scrape it up and put it in the trash, don't just leave it there, and don't just cover it up.

5. Haul it. No matter how good we all are, no matter how thorough, there will be that last little bit of water or water scum on the last day,...the last bit in the evaporation pond, the scraped up playa we discovered got contaminated at the last minute, water from that last meal after the water processing plant has already been dismantled,... be prepared with a bucket or two to haul it out with you and dispose of it properly, and legally, on your way home..... Off the playa.

OK, that is enough about Water...Lets move on...................................................

Kitchen LNT Requirements:

Draw String garbage bags are a blessing...

All kitchen gray water will be skimmed and strained, and submitted for treatment.
Any gray water that cannot be processed by our gray water recycling unit will be containerized and hauled off the Playa for proper disposal.

Liquid Wastes (cooking oil, ect) Must be put in "Sealable" buckets to be transported off-Playa and dropped in an appropriate public facility

Place "Tarps" under the entire Kitchen area, since Kitchen is the most MOOP prone area (Careful may be slippery when wet)

Use a drip pan under any Water Dispensers to minimize making a Playa Mud Puddle and tracking it elsewhere
Strain all water before transporting to Gray Water Area (Paint Strainers work best for this)
Create a "Food Drying" location where wet food can be set out to dry, preferably on a screen of some type to allow air to flow underneath for faster and more complete drying) and then put in sealable containers to be transported off-Playa. These buckets or any other 'Trash' transported off the Playa should be dumped in a proper "PUBLIC" Facility.... Nothing shames me more about the Citizens of BRC then to leave the Playa and less than a mile down on the side of the road are bags & bags of trash...NEVER DO THAT...PLEASE...

Trash needs to be separated into the following:

1. non-burnable, non-recyclable trash.
2. non-toxic, burnable trash.
3. recyclable aluminum.
4. recyclable plastics.

SLV will have a central collection area for burnable trash, which will be incinerated in community burn barrel, and the ashes removed for proper disposal. There will be a central collection site for aluminum cans. It will be your camps responsibility to bring your Burnable materials or aluminum cans to the collection stations.

And now for something completely different....................

All shower structures will be placed within evaporation ponds, constructed of 6 mil black poly, supported on all sides by 2X4s. Whatever water is not evaporated will be bilged from the ponds daily and submitted for gray water recycling. Villagers are encouraged to use the evaporation ponds when brushing their teeth, to avoid contaminating the Playa with toothpaste residue. Evaporation ponds will be checked periodically for leaks and over splash, and immediately repaired if necessary.

Anchoring devices: All stakes, rebar and otherwise, will be removed from the Playa before we vacate the site. Villagers are encouraged to avoid wooden or cheap plastic stakes, as they have a tendency to break off below the surface and become submerged. We have several structures that will require digging post holes in the Playa. When all posts have been removed, the holes will be backfilled, tamped, and leveled.

Vehicles. All vehicles on site will be inspected for potential fluid leaks, and a sheet of cardboard will be anchored under the vehicle to collect any light leakage, or a pan to collect heavier leakage. All vehicular fluids collected will be hauled off Playa for proper disposal.

Tainted Playa: Inevitably, there will be the odd patch of motor oil, cooking oil, or paint imbedded in the Playa. All such contaminated Playa will be removed and hauled away for proper disposal.

Construction: All structures will be pre-manufactured off site to minimize the generation of sawdust, PVC shavings, metal shavings, or slag. In the event that work of this nature needs to be carried out, a large drop cloth will be placed down to collect all debris. All painting done on site will be done over a drop cloth.

Things NOT to bring to the Playa:

Astroturf or carpet without edges or with flaky backing
Feather Boas
Glitter
Nuts with shells
Silly String
Clothing items with loose Sequins
Fireworks of ANY kind
Firearms of ANY Kind
Glass Bottles

EVERY SMOKER MUST HAVE A PERSONAL ASHTRAY

Keeping coolers off the Playa will keep Ice longer - Re-Use cooler water for dishwashing

Cap or Candy Cane Rebar

Have plastic containers for left over food items

Zip Lock Bags of all sizes

Pack to reduce potential trash. Remove any packaging materials before leaving for the playa. Avoid foods that create trash, like nuts in shells, fruit with cores, bony meats, etc.

Label your gear. This includes chairs, cups, or anything else that might wander off from your camp and need to be returned to it's rightful owner.

Educate ourselves and fellow Black Rock Citizens about the LNT policies expected by the community. It is extremely important to let new participants know that LNT means 100% AT A MINIMUM. Leave it cleaner than you found it!