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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Livable Frederick
Convening Retreat
January 22, 2016
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Browning Building
Pinecliff Park, Frederick
Solid Waste
What's Next?
Public Forum
January 23, 2016
10:00 a.m.
Thurmont Town Hall
615 E. Main Street
Thurmont
Wildlife Photography & Conservation January 23, 2016 Fox Haven Learning Center
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Neighborhood Green Workshop
February 13, 2016
Point of Rocks Ruritan Club
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Point of Rocks, MD
Wildlife & Conservation: Farms, Yards, Businesses, Parks, Schools
February 20, 2016
Fox Haven Learning Center
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Frederick County Sustainability Commission Meetings
January 20, 2016
February 17, 2016
March 16, 2016
3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
3rd Floor Meeting Room
Winchester Hall
Advanced Organic Gardening with Rick Hood
Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Seed Starting with
Rick Hood
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Pruning Basics with
Michael Judd
Saturday, March 5, 2016
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
 Green Neighbor Forum
Hood College
March 12, 2016
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Whitaker Campus Center
Controlling Invasive Plants for a Healthier Environment
March 15, 2016
Thurmont Regional Library
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Green Homes Challenge Recognition Event for Certified Households March 24, 2016 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center
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Frederick County Government has announced two winners of its annual
Business Waste
Reduction and
Recycling Award!
This award is designed to give public recognition to local organizations that
have taken steps to create
less waste. The winners are:
AstraZeneca and
Hometown Harvest.
CONGRATULATIONS!
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FREDERICK COUNTY OFFERS NEW APP TO KEEP
UP-TO-DATE ON
CURBSIDE RECYLING
It is that time of year when snow, sleet and ice can affect local efforts to collect recyclable materials. As winter storms are forecast, the Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM)
offers a variety of ways to stay up-to-date on changes to curbside recycling collection service. The newest tool to assist residents is the freely available My-Waste app. This technology can be accessed by any computer, as it is now available for use directly on the County's website, and it may also be downloaded as a mobile app for use on Android and iOs tablets and smartphones.
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BUSINESS RESOURCES FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS & RENEWABLE ENERGY
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 Neighborhood Green Program The Neighborhood Green Program helps landowners control storm water runoff and reduce pollutants from entering our local waterways feeding into the Chesapeake Bay by implementing best management practices like rain barrels, rain gardens, conservation landscaping and tree plantings.
Eligible landowners for this program must reside in Frederick County's Upper Monocacy Brook Trout or Potomac Direct watersheds.
A Neighborhood Green Workshop will be held for homeowners in the Potomac Direct Watershed on February 13, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. at the Point of Rocks Ruritan Club.
Click
here to register for the workshop or for more program information.
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FUN FACT
The very first glimmering of the modern HVAC industry came way back in 1758, when Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley discovered that evaporating alcohol and other similar substances cools down objects enough to bring water to freezing temperatures.
Source:
AmericanWeatherMakers.com
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IMPROVEMENTS
at HOME
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Potomac Edison
Maryland Energy Administration
Wind Power for Your Home
Leafkey.com
For Maryland Homes & Businesses. Save energy and money with rebates for natural gas equipment.
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Frederick County Office of Sustainability and Environmental Resources Staff
Shannon Moore
Manager
Darlene Bucciero
Project Manager IV
Suzanne Cliber
Green Homes Coordinator
Louisa McIver
Chesapeake Conservation
Corps Volunteer
Angelia Miller
Chesapeake Conservation
Corps Volunteer
Lisa Orr
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Matthew Witmer
Intern
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Great news! Participants in Frederick County's Green Homes Challenge are saving over ONE MILLION DOLLARS per year by living more sustainably! It's kind of like playing the lottery except everyone wins! Participants work towards certification in three challenges: Be a Power Saver, Be a Renewable Star, and Be a Green Leader. The online tool at ww.frederickgreenchallenge.com tracks simple actions you take and how much money you save from doing the actions. It also tracks other savings, like electricity, gas, water, pollution, and more! We also recently added a feature that lets you apply for a credit on your stormwater remediation fee. And if you participate in one of the County's special initiatives, it counts towards certification: Stay tuned to see if the county receives a grant for an upcoming 2016 Power Saver Retrofits Program, and contact us to see if your home is eligible for the Neighborhood Green program currently underway.
If you certify in at least one of the Challenges, you are eligible to attend our upcoming Green Homes Challenge Recognition Event on March 24, 2016. You could win one of many great prizes from a local business that supports the efforts of the Challenge. Come join the winner's circle!
Shannon
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Take a moment to check out the new articles posted on the
The Monocacy and Catoctin Watershed Alliance is coordinated by the Frederick County Office of Sustainability and Environmental Resources.
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GREEN HOMES CHALLENGE: 5th Annual Recognition Event
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Frederick County officials and OSER staff will recognize Certified Households at the 5th annual Green Homes Challenge Recognition event on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center.
The Recognition Event will include prize drawings for certified households from our event sponsors. Some of our previous prizes included gift certificates for local businesses, discounts off of home energy improvement projects, tickets to local theater events and more! Households will receive an entry for every challenge they are certified in!
If you haven't certified yet, now is the time! All households must be certified by February 22, 2016. Visit www.FrederickGreenChallenge.org
to get started! If you need help navigating the challenge or if you are interested in donating a prize for the event, please contact Suzanne Cliber at SCliber@FrederickCountyMD.gov.
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Preventing Illicit Discharges & Keeping Our Waterways Clean
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Did you know that a 1-acre parking lot produces 16 times more stormwater runoff than a 1-acre meadow? Impervious surfaces (e.g., parking lots, roads, driveways) are one of the greatest threats to our waterways because they can convey pollutants either directly to the water source or through our storm drain systems. While normal stormwater runoff carries pollutants in rainwater, substances that are directly deposited into the storm drain system, either by dumping or leaking, are considered to be an "illicit discharge." Illicit discharges do not necessarily need a rain event to contribute large concentrations of pollutants to our waterways, and can occur in the absence of a storm. To meet regulatory requirements, OSER staff members have been conducting visual surveys of commercial and industrial companies, in the form of Hotspot Site Investigations,to ensure that their housekeeping practices are not a danger to our local streams and rivers by producing illicit discharges.
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Courtesy of
RI Stormwater Solutions
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OSER staff visited 24 different properties w ithin the restaurant, automotive, and construction industries. In general, these inspections surveyed for pollution. Some examples include oil spills, open and leaking dumpsters, poor storage of outdoor materials, or evidence that waste was entering a storm drain as opposed to a sanitary sewer. Overall, OSER found that the properties visited were only potential pollution sources. OSER will be conducting these surveys over the span of the next five years to survey a total 120 sites to continue to help protect our waterways from pollution. OSER will also be working with businesses to help them to understand how to prevent pollution. OSER staff cannot identify all of the occurrences of illicit discharges themselves; OSER needs your help! To report a water quality problem, please click here or call us at 301.600.1413. For an emergency, call 911.
Illicit discharges and stormwater runoff are common in the residential sector as well, but present in different ways. Within the residential sector, illicit discharges can include water used washing a car, improper oil disposal, dumping waste into a storm drain or waterway, or a connection between a municipal sewer and a storm sewer system. Preventing pollution can also help you towards the Green Leader Certification in the Green Homes Challenge.
Stay tuned for information on storm drain stenciling events coming up in April as well as other activities to celebrate Earth Month!
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| Green Business Intiativies: Distributed Generation and PACE Loans |
Oser staff recently attended a meeting with the Maryland Energy Administration. The representatives from MEA were talking about a study they are doing to determine suitable locations for distributed electricity generation, or DG. DG is the production of electricity from decentralized sources, unlike how we currently get it from large power plants. Some DG sources like solar and wind are renewable as well as being locally produced. Another form of DG involves using natural gas to provide combined heat and power- basically providing a facility its own power plant. MEA is studying areas that are suitable for DG and will be mapping the areas where the electricity transmission and gas lines are close enough together to make installations feasible. This information is supposed to be available in summer 2016.
MEA believes that installers and financing organizations will be partnering to offer power purchase agreements (PPAs) to facility owners once the suitable areas are mapped. This is a similar model to how some solar companies are working now, where the property owner gets a guaranteed electricity price, the installer makes money from building the project, and the financier owns the plant and makes money off of the long term payment structure. DG is helps to create local electricity grid resilience. It also reduces pollution from power plants. DG is a great example of the triple bottom line of sustainability- people, planet, and prosperity.
Another initiative that is good for business is Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE. PACE loans are for commercial businesses and are administered through a third party and billed on tax bills; they fill a commercial lending vacuum and allow small businesses to make energy investments like energy efficiency and solar. We are working with the Maryland Clean Energy Center to learn more about the program and make recommendations for how such a program might work for Frederick County. Stay tuned!
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Frederick County Adopt-a-Road Program
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As the weather gets colder and plants lose their leaves for the winter, the health of the environment around us is not usually on our minds. Yet, the lack of plant growth provides a prime opportunity to notice the trash littered all over the place. Next time you are driving to work or to the grocery store, see if you can spot trash along the roadsides. You likely can. Litter along roadsides not only is unpleasant to look at, but it also can get blown or washed into nearby streams and harm the aquatic environment that we use for recreation and drinking water.
There's an easy way for you to help. Frederick County runs an Adopt-a-Road program where individuals or groups are responsible for picking up trash along a stretch of roadside four times per year. The program is coordinated by Frederick County Highway Operations and bags, road caution signs, and training are provided to Adopt-a-Road team leaders. Volunteers can leave bags of trash and other collected items by the side of the road for pick-up by Highway Operations. Some teams prefer to collect trash and recyclable items separately and have them picked up at home through their normal trash and recycling pick-ups. Currently, there are 38 teams in the program that clean up 84 miles of County roads (roads with names, not state roads with numbers such as Route 80). There are around 1,150 miles of County roads in Frederick County, most of which need Adopt-a-Road teams to clean them up.
Participating in the Adopt-a-Road program can be a good way to receive service hours for school-aged children. One teenager has been cleaning up his road once a week for the past year and a half. Other current Adopt-a-Road teams and individuals participate because they just want to keep their roads clean. "Who wants to live with a mess around them?" said Carol Ahlum, who joined the program 10 years ago after she kept noticing trash being dumped along her road.
Even if you choose not to participate in the Adopt-a-Road program, you can do your part to help clean up large items of trash that are dumped along roadsides. When notified, the County will come clean up these sites. If you find any dumping sites, please call 301-600-1564.
Click this link to find out more about the Frederick County Adopt-a-Road program, or call coordinator David Stonesifer at 301-600-1564.
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MUNICIPAL SPOTLIGHT: Town of Thurmont Pursues Sustainable Maryland Certification
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In 2015, the Town of Thurmont took on the goal of becoming certified through the state's Sustainable Maryland Certified program. The town adopted a resolution to participate in the program and established its Green Team in May 2015. Thurmont Green Team Leader Anita Phillips is currently working on the required Action Plan and public survey while other dedicated volunteer team members are working hard on action items and new initiatives. Their goal is to achieve certification in the spring of 2016.
The Green Team is partnering with the Thurmont Regional Library on a program entitled: "Think Green, Be Green: A Community Conversation".
This program will be hosted by the Town of Thurmont's Green Team and the Thurmont Regional Library and is tentatively planned for April 2016 in conjunction with Earth Day. The program will provide a series of programs for adults related to nature/environment along with an opportunity where residents can ask about the Green Team. Featured speakers will be from groups such as the Master Gardeners Club and the Frederick Forest Alliance.
Thurmont will also partner with Frederick County's Green Homes Challenge for its Residential Energy Efficiency program. As part of that program, Thurmont Green Team members will also be promoting the County's 2016 Power Saver Retrofits program (PSR) if funding is awarded by the Maryland Energy Administration. Through PSR moderate- and low-income residents will be able to take advantage of no-cost comprehensive home energy audits and energy saving home improvements. Coordinator Hillary Rothrock is working with OSER's Sustainability Program Coordinator, Lisa Orr, on this exciting action item.
Another of the larger and more exciting planned action items is the creation of a Community Garden in Carroll Street Park which is within walking distance of many multi-family dwellings. Other completed and planned action items include:
- Establishing and promoting the local Farmers' Market, local business directory, and the "Buy Local" campaign;
- Developing and Adopting a Pet Waste Ordinance;
- Participating in the MD. Dept. of Housing & Community Development Sustainable Communities program;
- Conducting a municipal energy audit;
- Planting native vegetation and dissuading the use of herbicides along the Maryland Midland Railway; and
- Promoting the Thurmont Food Bank.
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The Frederick County Office of Sustainability and Environmental Resources advances practical solutions for protecting the environment, conserving energy, and living sustainably
in Frederick County.
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