Some good news: our drought is only "extreme" now! The rain is is barely, slightly, kind of starting to catch us up.
Durham, Orange, Chatham, Person and Granville counties are now listed as being in "extreme" drought, the fourth highest of five drought classifications used by the state. The five area counties had been listed in the worst drought classification, "exceptional," for months.
It's that time of year again, the sweet smell of campaigns are starting to fill the air. The Sierra Club will be hosting a forum on environmental issues for Orange County Commissioner candidates on Monday, March 17th at 7pm in Carrboro Town Hall. Members of the public are invited to attend, though it will be televised if you are unable to make it.
Because I get a number of questions regarding the process the Sierra Club takes to endorse local candidates, I wanted to explain exactly what it is we do to make our decisions. Rather than put you to sleep with a long written explanation, I took to my webcam and tried to describe the process as best I could. Enjoy by clicking "read more" below.
Please
join the Triangle Chapter EGB and
East West Partners as we talk about the East 54 community development
project in Chapel Hill. East 54 is currently under construction as one
of the only LEED-ND pilot participants in North Carolina. East West
Partners will be discussing the LEED-ND rating system, which credits
they are incorporating into East 54, as well as any challenges they
have faced while designing the project.
I am all for lending my fellow brother a helping hand, but not if my brother expects the handout without making the necessary changes needed to prevent further bailouts. For months, citizens of Chapel Hill/Carrboro have bit the bullet and took necessary action to conserve water during the drought. As we watched our gardens wilt and our vehicles dust over, our Durham neighbors still washed their cars and hand-watered their lawns. We silently noted the limited supply of our Farmer's Markets while still supporting our struggling farmers, and while we grew impatient with the restrictions, we gain perspective every time we passed a sign in town reminding us to conserve. Perhaps the rumors are true, and Carrboro/Chapel Hill is the hippie,green cousin of our Durham city, and therefore able to embrace green incentives easier, but as they laughed at our progressiveness, Durham held out a bucket and asked for us to fill it up. Our supply is still barely half full, and OWASA is upholding Stage 3 restrictions, but my patience is wearing thin for my Durham neighbors when I see a gas station car wash being used in Durham that is not using recycled water!
Have y'all seen the web site that the County's consultant set up about the new site search process? At the Orange County Transfer Station Siting Website, visitors can find background, details on the siting criteria, and upcoming meetings.. This is a good start and represents an improvement on the amount of information previously available.
My wishes are that:
They would provide a syndicated feed so that we can follow updates to the site without having to visit each page every day to see whether there's something new.
The COUNTY ought to provide this kind of information on it's own website, since this is the people's information, and should do this for more projects. Of course, the Towns should do this as well.
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