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By Heather Lawrie and Ted Fischer Seattle Mayor
Greg Nickels reported to mayors attending The United States
Conference of Mayors 74th Winter Meeting January 27 on the
progress of the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.
The agreement sets the stage for local leadership in alleviating
greenhouse gas emissions and calls on the federal government
to establish a national policy to enable further progress
in achieving emission reductions. Nickels also reported that
“as of January 26, 2006, 200 mayors have joined the
Climate Change Agreement, representing over 41 million Americans.”
In describing what a tremendous problem global climate change
is to both the economic and environmental health of our nation,
he said, “We must take action now.” Reduced water
levels in Seattle-area reservoirs and the lack of mountain
snow fall over the past few years have energized Nickels to
push for stronger environmental safeguards and encourage other
mayors to start looking at impacts on their local natural
resources.
Nickels noted that 74 percent of Americans are concerned about
global warming, suggesting the importance of this as a national
issue. Nickels cited the work of several mayors and their
local efforts to combat global climate change. For example,
Austin Mayor Will Wynn with his Plug-In Hybrid Program; Salt
Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and his program to offer free
parking for hybrid vehicles; and New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg’s program that converts conventional taxis
into hybrid vehicles. Nickels’ Seattle Green Ribbon
Committee is another example of a strong community support
system that includes commitments from Starbucks, REI, and
other sponsors.
Nickels thanked the mayors for their strong dedication and
support on the issue of global climate change, and stated
that, “There needs to be more flexibility within cities,
since it is harder to accomplish on a federal level.”
He also spoke of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
that he spearheaded to reduce greenhouse gas emissions locally.
He said, “Two hundred mayors and counting have signed
on, and we have plenty of work left to do. We need to grow
a coalition and network that works. We need to be able to
trade information and create a menu of items that are working.
150,000 lives a year are lost due to climate change and it
something that is preventable,” Nickels concluded.
By Ted Fischer and Judy Sheahan
Mayors participated in an interactive Brownfields Task Force
meeting on January 26 held at the annual Winter Meeting. The
working group focused on the topics of eminent domain, mothballed
properties, tax incentives and reauthorization of Brownfields
legislation.
The Task Force, co-chaired by Elizabeth (NJ) Mayor J. Christian
Bollwage and Kenosha (WI) Mayor John Antaramian, was joined
by Susan Bodine, the new Assistant Administrator for the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response, David Lloyd, the new Director of the Office of Brownfields
Cleanup and Redevelopment, and representatives from Congressman
Michael Turner’s (OH) office, including Stacy Palmer-Barton,
his Chief of Staff, and Michael Wiehe, his Senior Legislative
Assistant. They, along with outside experts briefed Mayors
on the latest brownfield developments and participated in
the discussion of how to speed up the redevelopment of brownfields
in the nation. Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized
properties whose redevelopment is hindered by either real
or perceived environmental contamination. The Government Accountability
Office estimates that there are between 400-600,000 brownfields
in the United States.
The mayors were briefed on the status of various brownfield
tools including EPA’s assessment and revolving loan
fund program, the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative
(BEDI) at the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
the Economic Development Administration’s brownfields
program at the Department of Commerce, and the current status
of the tax incentive package. The general conclusion was that
while the issue of brownfields remains very popular with both
the Hill and the Administration, budget cuts are occurring
in many of these programs.
The mayors discussed Brownfield legislation, reauthorization,
and what needed to be done to improve the program. “I
am willing to work with cities to try and improve the program.
I believe a lot of you have valid suggestions and I am more
than willing to consider options on what can be done to improve
the overall process on the redevelopment and remediation of
brownfields,” Bodine said.
Lloyd added, “Susan and I are new to EPA’s brownfields
program which means we are not wedded to doing anything just
because that is the way we always do it. We are looking to
be innovative.”
Palmer-Barton outlined Turner’s Brownfields Proposal
(H.R. 4480), which would allow $1 billion in tax incentives
to be distributed by the states for brownfield properties
that are located near certain poverty thresholds and are involved
in a voluntary cleanup program.
Antaramian, who recently hosted a meeting in Kenosha, presented
the results of that meeting, including a list of recommendations
for enhancing EPA’s brownfields program and underlying
statutory authority. Included in the list of recommendations
were options to combine assessment and cleanup grants into
one flexible grant, an option to modify the revolving loan
fund and an overall liability recommendation.
The Brownfields Taskforce also discussed the role that eminent
domain plays in conducting brownfields and other economic
development activities. The Conference of Mayors Executive
Committee passed an emergency resolution that stated eminent
domain is critical to municipalities to promote sensible land
use, the revitalization of distressed communities, clean up
of polluted land, the opportunity to build new infrastructure
and alleviate the problems of unemployment and economic distress
by fostering economic development. The resolution urges Congress
to study the issue prior to making any sweeping changes to
the law.
By Susan Jarvis and Judy Sheahan
Environmental Committee Chair Charlotte Mayor Patrick McCrory
focused the Committee’s attention on the issues of green
buildings, water reuse, regionalism, and land use planning.
These topics were “best practices” to help alleviate
major environmental problems identified by the Conference
of Mayors including global warming, water availability, and
air quality.
“At our last meeting in Chicago, two important topics
came forward – the Mayor’s Climate Protection
Agreement which challenged mayors to do what we could to reduce
a city’s impact on climate change and the Urban Water
Council’s survey results which indicated that 35 percent
of 414 cities that responded did not know where their water
would be coming from in 20 years,” McCrory said. “The
Solaire Project in Battery Park, New York City, is a best
practice solution for both of these problems,” he added.
Susan Kaplan, Senior Project Manager for the Battery Park
(NY) City Authority and Dr. Andrew Higgins, Chief Technical
Officer for Applied Water Management, gave an overview of
The Solaire Project, a Gold LEED certified building, which
has an independent wastewater treatment and recycling system
that reduces the demand for potable water by up to 50 percent.
The Solaire Project is a 92-acre site, comprised of both commercial
and residential developments. In addition to meeting Gold
LEED standards, the building was held to strict architectural
standards, including street walls, stone bases and masonry
facades, in order to create a “real environment."
The building features a central air filtration system that
filters 85 percent of particulates, and provides each apartment
with fresh filtered air that is heated and humidified during
cold weather, and cooled and dehumidified during warm weather.
The energy efficiency of the heating and cooling system is
further enhanced by design features, such as window selection
and placement that take advantage of passive solar heating,
and planted roof gardens that help alleviate the heat island
effect that plagues most urban environments.
The Solaire was the first beneficiary of New York Governor
George Pataki's Green Building Tax Credit, which allows building
owners and developers to deduct expenses associated with the
design and construction of “green” buildings.
McCrory also stated his passionate commitment with dealing
with environmental problems holistically across media and
as a region. “I feel strongly that efforts need to be
coordinated among jurisdictions,” McCrory said. “For
example, it doesn’t matter if I do something to improve
air quality in my city and if the neighboring counties or
states don’t do their part. Much of what we deal with
– air and water issues to name two – doesn’t
have the same borders that our jurisdictions do.”
A best practice example of working together is a US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Program in the Charlotte region. Charlotte
is one of 84 governmental jurisdictions participating in the
SEQL (Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life) initiative;
a program designed to support the region’s efforts to
develop integrated and sustainable long-range planning. The
program addresses air and water quality, transportation, land
use, energy use, and economic development. According to presenter
Jeff Clark, Director, Policy Analysis and Communications Staff
Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, US EPA, SEQL
is putting in place environmental improvement measures and
developing a regional vision in order to incorporate environmental
considerations into planning. So far, the 84 jurisdictions
have implemented 732 actions impacting air quality, water
quality, sustainable growth, and other environmental measures.
By: Susan Jarvis
The Municipal Waste Management
Association, the environmental affiliate of The United States
Conference of Mayors hosted a conference call for it’s
public and private sector members to learn about San Diego’s
innovative use of GPS systems to streamline operations, improve
customer service and save money. The city’s Collection
Services Division collects more than 374,000 tons of refuse
annually and covers more than 8,000 miles of streets. Management
wanted to find ways to reduce air emissions and reduce mileage
traveled. Elmer Heap, Environmental Service Director for the
city, and his colleague, Nader Tirandazi, gave an overview
of the strategy. “ When the city used the GPS system
to re-route refuse collection, 70% of the population had a
change in day of collection,” began Mr. Heap. In the
first few months, there was a rise in the number of missed
stops and an increase in overtime, but once the “kinks”
in the system were worked out, more than $900,000 has been
saved in reduced overtime, and the amount of miles traveled.
Additionally, with a more efficient trash collection system,
both financial and human resources could be re-assigned to
recycling, which allowed the city to increase greenery collection
from 150,00 homes to 200,000 homes. This increased the city’s
overall diversion rate.
The city garnered support from the union by emphasizing that
the human resources needed to be coupled with the new technology.
The city understood that it was ultimately the drivers who
would make the system work k. The GPS system allowed the city
to balance the workload to a seven and a half hour workday
and track the number of arm lifts per route hour. “
We know every time a truck picks up a bin,” explained
Mr. Tirandazi. The information collected by new system proves
that the city can be competitive with the private sector.
The Department of Environmental Services isn’t finished
yet, concluded Mr. Heap. “Collection Services rated
97% on a customer satisfaction survey, administered earlier
last year. We had high a standard to begin with and through
some innovative thinking, long term planning and ongoing community
education, we’ll continue to meet and exceed both our
internal and external benchmarks.”
For more information about MWMA, please log on to ww.usmayors.org/mwma
or call Susan Jarvis at 202.861.6760. Conference calls are
offered quarterly for MWMA and SWAC members.
The United States Conference of Mayors and Novelis Inc. announced
the winners in the Cans For Cash: City Recycling Challenge
on America Recycles Day and presented the awards during The
United States Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in January.
For the second year, the program challenged like-sized cities
to compete against each other in aluminum can collection for
monetary awards and to encourage recycling. During the first
two weeks in September, more than 40 cities collected over
3 million pounds of aluminum cans, which equates to 107 million
used beverage cans.
“We are pleased with the results of this year's campaign
and want to thank communities for their enthusiasm and tremendous
effort in encouraging their residents to recycle aluminum
cans,” said Kevin Greenawalt, President, Novelis North
America. “Recycling is a fundamental element of Novelis'
corporate sustainability commitment, and we are dedicated
to fostering efforts to promote the value of recycling aluminum
through programs like Cans for Cash in order to encourage
and help cities sustain their local efforts.”
The 2005 campaign saw a 73% increase in aluminum cans recycled
– an additional 45 million cans were collected and recycled
over the 2004 campaign which collected a total of 62 million
cans. Based on the national economic average for recycled
aluminum cans, the 2005 Cans For Cash: City Recycling Challenge
cans collected and processed have a dollar value at approximately
US$2 million.
The winners of the $5,000 awards for the most aluminum cans
recycled are:
• Division One (population 250,000+) Milwaukee, WI*
- Mayor Tom Barrett at 1,002,792 pounds
• Division Two (population 100,00-249,999) Knoxville,
TN*– Mayor Bill Haslam at 182,672 pounds
• Division Three (population 50,000-99,999) Des Plaines,
IL - Mayor Anthony Arredia at 356,380 pounds
• Division Four (population below 50,000) Artesia, CA
– Mayor Larry R. Nelson at 73,020 pounds.
To help mayors engage their communities in recycling and raise
awareness about its importance over the long term, cities
submitted innovative education and marketing ideas for an
additional $5,000 award. The cities being recognized for the
most innovative campaigns are as follows:
• Division One: Louisville, KY – Mayor Jerry
E. Abramson
• Division Two: Salt Lake City, UT* – Mayor Rocky
Anderson
• Division Three: Fargo, ND – Mayor Bruce Furness
• Division Four: Monticello, IN – Mayor Bob Fox
Note: 2004 Winner in Division Category
"We are proud that our Cans For Cash Program helped
jump-start existing programs and redirected many communities
to focus on a common goal. Mayors leveraged their relationships
with community and civic organizations, partnered with schools,
and linked the can recycling challenge with community improvement
and service projects," said The U.S. Conference of Mayors
President and Long Beach (CA) Mayor Beverly O'Neill. "Participating
cities should be excited and proud that they contributed to
the recycling of more than 3 million pounds of aluminum cans."
The aluminum can is the country’s most recycled beverage
container and has been for more than 20 years. In 2004, more
than 100 billion aluminum beverage cans were produced in the
United States and 51% of them were recycled (a 1.2% increase
over the previous year). Nearly the same amount – close
to 50 billion cans or roughly $1 billion worth of aluminum
– was lost to landfill.
For a complete list of cities that participated in the 2005
Cans for Cash program, please visit visit: www.usmayors.org.
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