(The following is a summation by Duane Bond, who worked with the Sustainability Committee of McMinnville)

Some of the Sustainability Activities of the City

One of the things that I have discovered in my almost year-long association with the City’s Sustainability Committee is that there has been a plethora of sustainable activities that were going on, so I wanted to share some of them with you. Some of the activities were done under the guise of saving money or energy, and some of them are not completely sustainable, but the City is taking a number of steps to move in the right direction.

For Example:

The Fire Department’s lighting system was over 20 years old. The City will get rebates from Bonneville Power (BPA), a BETC (Business Energy Tax Credit) tax credit and Mac Water and Light that will provide for a new $40,000 lighting system that will save 156,000 kW of energy compared to the current lighting system. Net cost to the City……zero.

As long as we’re talking about energy savings, let’s look at the Water Reclamation Facility (Wastewater Services). Did you know that the Water Reclamation Facility uses 30% less electricity than it did 10 years ago, yet the population has increased about 33%? They’ve done this by analyzing energy usage and implementing energy savings projects. An example of this would be an air compressor project implemented in 2004 that resulted in an energy reduction of 117,000 kwh/yr.

Talking about water, let’s move to the Aquatic Center which is upgrading both its HVAC and lighting systems through the combination of BPA funding assistance, BETC support and grant supported reimbursements from Mac Water and Light. The combination of thee funding sources minimizes the City’s use of tax dollars for these significant energy savings improvements (which will be completed in October).

Public Works has the challenging assignment of making the City look nice.  This results in making a lot of visits to parks, buildings and street landscapes.  Public Works strives to consolidate trips, and sets up vehicles so all the tools and supplies necessary are on hand.  This is an ongoing effort, with the ultimate goal of reducing fuel usage.  They also have some clever park designs.  For example, the parking lot at Discovery Meadows slopes to the middle, where a vegetated swale captures the run-off.  From there it flows through a wetlands, and then eventually through the City’s storm system to Cozine Creek.  This approach has the dual benefit of evening out storm water flows as well as providing naturally filtering to the run-off before it enters the creek.

McMinnville Water & Light is working with Public Works on a pilot project evaluating the use of LED’s in the City’s street lighting system.  The LED’s are more expensive initially, but represent significant energy savings over the long term.  For example, a 65 watt LED produces approximately the same amount of light that a traditional 200 watt high pressure sodium lamp does, but uses approximately 1/3 of the energy.  This pilot project has drawn the attention and interest of various utilities and municipalities around the state.

If you go by the Public Library, you should notice a NO IDLING ZONE sign. The library receives daily shipments of books from other libraries in the system as well as daily UPS deliveries. The delivery trucks frequently idled for 5 to 10 minutes daily. Now they don’t, saving gas.

This City has a monthly e-newsletter (no paper waste here) that gives employees tips on sustainability and going green. It will soon appear on the City’s web-site.

The City Council has had 3 sustainability training sessions with Duke Castle (who is the Sustainability Coach for Lake Oswego). The City Council and especially the Mayor are determined to provide City services to residents in as sustainable manner as possible.

Finally the City has asked all departments to actively work to reduce their internal energy usage.

Duane Bond, Cool Mac member of McMinnville Sustainability Committee