Environment

Halloween on the Highway – CANCELLED

DO TO LACK OF INTEREST AND CAMPAIGNING CLEAN UP IS CANCELLED UNTIL SOMETIME IN NOVEMEBER.

Phillipe Cousteau dives into the oil slick in the Gulf

The scale of the disaster may not be known for some time. Phillipe describes layers of oil beneath the surface. What will happen to them? Will we see beaches fouled by the surface oil cleaned over time, only to find the off shore sea floor destroyed by this subsurface oil? I doubt that there are any plans whatsoever for cleaning up oil beneath the surface over the continental shelf. And if it remains suspended in the water beneath the surface, out of sight, will the currents then send it around the world for years and years to come? A lot of questions but not many answer forthcoming just yet.

People Making a Green Difference

An interesting article from the Grist blog. Click the link to read about individuals who are making a real difference in their communities.40 People Redefining Green from grist.org.

Will the Board of Supervisors be raising our taxes soon?

If this article is any indication the answer may well be yes. To quote Prince William Conservation Alliance “As described in the 2005 Service Efforts and Accomplishment Report for Watershed Management, developers pay a Development Permit Fee to “meet expenses of site plan and lot plan review, site development inspections, and erosion control inspections.” In contrast, “[r]evenue from the stormwater management fee is dedicated solely to the operation and construction of watershed management projects.”

In the budget being voted on soon, supervisors plan to switch 70% of the cost of the Watershed Inspections Function away from developers. Developers who build new stormwater facilities will still pay 30% – perhaps enough to cover initial inspection costs, but all future inspections and repairs will be covered by the residents.” Click here to read the entire article.

The Road Ahead

We met on the January 12th and discussed where we would be going in the year ahead. The Gainesville Group is going to take a detailed look at the issues that are on the minds of PWC residents. We’ll explore them, determine the points of view and attempt to organize forums, open to the public, to discuss and explain them.

To accomplish this goal, we have formed the Issues Committee consists of Carol, Judy, Suzanne, and Terry. They have been challenged to develop a method for identifying issues. Once this phase is underway we can look at how to research the identified issues, and begin thinking about appropriate forums.

The year ahead is going to be very exciting. We will have a finger on the pulse of Western PWC and be in a position to advocate for the kinds of policies and laws that will make a real difference in our community.

Our next meeting will be February 8th, 7 pm at Taste of Asian again. Hope to see you all there.

This is just plain fun!!

I won’t say that now I’ve seen everything ,but this is such a fun report I couldn’t resist. It’s a lot better use for those old worn out Barbie’s than a trash can I guess lol.Body Parts Jewlery.

Are you growing your own food?

This article on Grist (link below) discusses the growing trend in local farming. Even individually we can grow at least some of our own food and be sure of the quality. We grew lettuce and peas this past Spring and followed that up with bush beans, corn, cucumbers, and turnip greens through the summer. Of course Tomatoes are easy to grow in pots. We use “Earth Boxes” a product that allows effective watering without over watering. The rectangular boxes come with wheels to ease moving them around a deck or porch. You can add a trellis kit and grow vertically. With some select small varieties of things like melons you can have a wide variety of produce all summer long. You don’t need a lot of room either. We have a 12 foot by 3 foot raised bed behind the deck. Corn did very well the past two years in only a 3 x 4 foot plot. For more details on the trend to local famring check out this post.

PWC takes a step toward greening the county.

This post is from cgrymes on the Prince William Conserve blog (see the blogroll). The county has a lot of work to do to really move forward on greening our government. The streetlight pilot project seems small by comparison with other counties though it is moving toward cutting county costs and that saves all of us a few tax dollars. greening-the-county-six-streetlights-at-a-time

Who will win the clean energy technology race – are we already behind!

"Without a large national project to regain competitiveness in the clean-tech sector, the United States will miss a major opportunity to grow our economy, correct our trade imbalance, and reduce our national deficit. Indeed, even if we transition to clean sources of energy, we risk trading our dependence on foreign oil for dependence on foreign clean energy." Teryn Norris

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Green Roof Legislation in VA

A recent bill that authorized cities and counties to provide incentives to businesses to install green rfoof's.

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