2009: April Edition - News & Events; the Snackwell Effect
Monday, 17 August 2009 15:46
Welcome to the April 2009 edition of
Fort Wayne’s Green City Newsletter
RALLY FOR RAIL On Friday, April 3rd at 4:30 PM, a rally to demonstrate this region’s support for the return of passenger rail service to
Fort Wayne. For more information visit www.nipra2rail.wordpress.com
Green FEST ‘09 Waynedale Green Alliance in partnership with Southwest Conservation Club and Community Harvest is hosting the 1st Annual Green FEST in
Northeast Indiana
on Saturday, April 25, 2009 at the conclusion of Earth Day Week. The event will be held at the Southwest Conservation Club, 5703 Bluffton Rd., Fort Wayne, IN46819
from noon until 5:00 PM. This year’s theme is “Go Green, go local = $ave Green”
CITILINK RECEIVES STIMULUS DOLLARS Citilink is eligible to receive $4,095,327 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) or stimulus bill. The funding will be used to replace large buses that are at the end of their service life with hybrid buses that will reduce fuel consumption and improve air quality. This money will be obligated quickly to help create and maintain bus manufacturing jobs.
Indianacompanies active in bus manufacturing include; Cummins, Allison Transmission, Supreme, Delco Remy and Braun Lifts to name a few.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION BLOCK GRANTS Last week the U.S. Department of Energy issued the allocations and guidance for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, a program authorized December of 2007 which was unfunded until the passage of the ARRA (stimulus bill). Under the released allocations the City of Fort Wayne will receive $2,474,400 and
Allen
County
will receive $404,500, provided an application which conforms to the guidelines is received prior to June 25, 2009. The City is currently developing a detailed strategy to reduce fossil fuel use and an application.
City Utilities Tests New Ways to Keep Pollution from Our Rivers As most of you know the City is under a federal mandate to reduce Combined Sewer Overflows. The Consent Decree requires the City to make improvements that will reduce the amount of sewage and other pollution that flows into our rivers through our sewers.
As a way to reduce floatables (cans, rags, paper, and plastic bottles) and keep them out of our rivers, City Utilities is pilot-testing three projects that will screen and capture the debris in our sewers before it reaches our rivers. The screens will basically serve as a filter with the goal being to capture and remove one-half inch diameter and larger solids and floatables.
Engineers are studying three separate methods. Here are brief explanations and the project locations.
Located on the
St.JoeRiver, at an outfall just south of the St. Joe Dam, is a “fine screen” made of coated metal and attached to concrete. The screen openings are 4 millimeters wide and the screen has a 10’ diameter.
Located on the St. Mary’s River, located in the Wildwood neighborhood is a pivoted bar screen with a half inch between the bars. It is 6’X5’.
Located along the St. Mary’s in the Woodhurst neighborhood, are two strong nets that are 3’X3’ each, and attached to a concrete structure. The holes in the net are ½”.
All the devices are encased in a cement vault and stormwater and combined sewer pipes flow into them. They filer the debris and water continues on to the river. City Utilities crews will maintain and check the screens and remove the captured debris periodically to dispose of it properly to keep it out of our rivers.
City Utilities engineers will monitor each project for the entire year of 2009 and will assess the success rate, evaluate the amount of maintenance and operational attention needed from maintenance crews, and weigh on-going maintenance costs.
These projects are part of the EPA’s Consent Decree signed in December of 2007. See cleanriversteam.org for more information on the consent decree.
GREEN TIPS Minor leaks account for more than 1 trillion gallons of water wasted each year in the United States homes, EPA has launched “Fix a Leak Week” to remind all of us that there are environmental and economic benefits to fixing leaks from household plumbing and irrigation systems.
A few water-saving tips
When replacing a bathroom fixture, look for the WaterSense label
Reduce faucet leaks by repairing faucet washers and gaskets, and if necessary, replace the faucet with a WaterSense labeled model
Leaky toilets are most often the result of a worm toilet flapper. Replacing the flapper is a quick fix that could save you up to 200 gallons of water per day
For leaky garden hoses, replace the nylon or rubber hose washer and ensure a tight connection to the spigot using a wrench.
Landscape irrigation systems should be checked each spring before use to make sure they were not damaged by frost or freezing.
THE SNACKWELL EFFECT Great, just as we are buying more energy efficient appliances and installing compact florescent light bulbs a new study on consumer behavior reveals that promised energy savings are not being achieved. This Snackwell Effect, named originally for the tendency of dieters to eat more low fat cookies and sabotage their diets, appears to be the result of behavior that causes folks to use an appliance more often than they would have otherwise just because its energy efficient. People who install efficient lights lose 5 – 12% of the expected energy savings by leaving them on longer. Purchasers also lose 10 – 30% of the projected savings from buying an energy efficient furnace, probably from raising the thermostat. And people given energy efficient washers? You guessed it – they wash more clothes and run small loads.
The lessons? Standards for energy consumption will not be sufficient by themselves to reduce our carbon footprint. People will still need to be conscious of energy usage. Another solution would be hour-by-hour electricity use information so we can know what a particular appliance is using. Link that hourly information to tomorrow’s price of electricity and you begin to have the means in place for consumers to control their use and their bills. Think of it as the cookie label which still tells you how many calories you are consuming.
