by
Dave Hardin

Public Information Officer

A few weeks back, I got an e-mail from another Public Information Officer in the western part of North Carolina. He had come across our web page with a list of Catawba County’s “green initiatives”. These are policies and practices that keep the environment in mind. He wanted to know what our management had done to foster such a focus on environmentally friendly policies. I was happy to answer him, and it reminds me to tell you that we’re in the process of updating that list.

Going green can have different meanings. It may refer to efforts to reduce energy use or support the use of alternative energy sources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or minimize the environmental impact of activities in the county. For others it may be a way to cut costs, enhance productivity or meet environmental regulations.

Catawba County’s been involved in environmentally friendly programs for over a decade. We were the first county in North Carolina to offer curbside recycling across the entire county, back in 1993. We’ve had household hazardous waste collection days since 1999, expanded to two collections per year in 2003.

Catawba County ranked second in the state in recycling, per person, in 2007. Thanks to the dedication of our citizens, we’ve ranked as high as number one and never lower than fifth in the state over the last seven years.

After we learned that Catawba County had exceeded Federal limits for ozone and particulate matter pollution, the County helped create an Early Action Compact to reduce ozone, which helped prevent some sanctions. As the idea of “green initiatives” became more popular in recent years, Catawba County has been involved in even more such projects.

Here are just a few:

• The County is using biodiesel fuels, which are made partially from glycerin separated into fat or vegetable oil, for some ambulances and other vehicles when it’s practical, and will soon be involved in research on ways to produce more efficient biodiesel fuels at our Eco Complex.

• The County has added to its fleet of hybrid electric cars, which use a combination of gasoline and electricity, and is now operating twelve of these vehicles.

• A very important green program is the ongoing development of the Eco-Complex at the Blackburn Landfill. It’s a cooperative partnership among businesses and educational researchers that re-uses the byproducts of the different partners for the benefit of the environment and the local economy. This is such an innovative idea that the Alliance For Innovation gave the program its Thomas H. Muehlenbeck Award for 2007.

• The County supported the Catawba County Schools as it used new design principles on the new Snow Creek Elementary School that are expected to be 40-45% more efficient than other recent designs.

• The Sherrills Ford branch of the County Library has a rain barrel to catch water for use with irrigation. And the entire library system is very careful about paper and ink cartridge recycling.

• Our Human Resources office, which had been a fairly paper heavy place in years past, is now offering online benefits, pay information, and benefit enrollment that has cut its printing by thousands of pages.

• The County’s Parks Division hosts environment education and stewardship programs for over 5,000 participants per year and Public Health has sponsored several contests to educate staff and the public on ways to reduce air pollution.

Those last three bullets are among items added to the list since I first wrote about this in mid 2007. All County departments have been asked to update their green initiatives and I’ll share some of the newest with you in few months.