Environment
UNC's Martin Doyle is the lead author of a paper in this week's Science with the subhead
Targeted decommissioning of deteriorated and obsolete infrastructure
can provide opportunities for restoring degraded ecosystems.
Discovery News gives the pop-sci (but free) treatment, citing UMd's Margaret Palmer:
Removing unused or under-used roads, breeching certain levees and converting old military bases to wildlife refuges are "no-brainers," Palmer said. Science shows clear benefits for wildlife and human safety by removing these structures, she said.
So what local infrastructure would you rather be without? Horace Williams Airport? The Eubanks Road landfill?
The County Commissioners are starting the new search process to site a proposed waste transfer station, just as they received official notice of an environmental justice complaint filed with the EPA in 2007 by the landfill neighbors.
Before getting to the search the board met in closed session to discuss a newly received notification from the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Civil Rights that a formal complaint had been filed.
The complaint alleges racial discrimination on the part of the county, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
County Attorney Geoff Gledhill said officials will not publicly discuss Eubanks Road until they decide on the board's response.
To avoid similar protests this time, the board will serve as the search committee but will work with Olver Inc., a Charlotte-based consulting firm that specializes in environmental issues and waste facilities.
The input session will begin with a formal time for citizens to speak at a podium about what they would like to see in the plan.
Afterward, County staff will be stationed throughout the room, each representing one of the seven plan elements: Economic Development, Housing, Land Use, Natural and Cultural Systems, Recreation and Parks, Services/Utilities and Community Facilities, and Transportation. During this period, staff will be in a listening mode giving County residents a chance to talk about important goals they desire to see included within each of the elements.
Date:
Monday, January 28, 2008 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Location:
Southern Human Services Building
A couple of recent letters to the editor are stretching logic and hyperbole in order to make their points. I think they end up having the opposite effect. In today's Daily Tar Heel for example, senior Chris Garrison complains that "if Benito Mussolini can get public transportation to run on schedule" why can't Chapel Hill? Do we really have to answer that, Chris?
In last week's Independent Weekly, Sharon Cook wrote a letter taking issue with that paper's October 2007 characterization of her as a newcomer to the issue of justice for the African-American neighbors of the landfill. She accused the Indy of shoddy reporting, and explained her history of supporting her Rogers Road neighbors.
On January 8, 2008, Scientific American published this article:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn
which describes the outcome of a study done on switchgrass culture by the Department of Energy. The results of the study were encouraging, demonstrating that switchgrass is capable of delivering as much as 540% of the energy required to grow, harvest and refine it into ethanol. This compares with about 25% for corn.
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