>>ANNOUNCER: Promoting a healthy environment. It's the air we breathe. Clean, safe
water.
Responsible management of our natural resources.
To protect and restore -
for a sustainable future...
Environment Matters.
A local landmark is getting a green makeover -
Ahead, why sustainable design along with community input
is helping one city to revitalize its downtown.
Plus if there's a problem it's his job to solve it -
we'll meet DEP ombudsman Dr. Terry Polen.
>>GREG ADOLFSON: Hello everyone and welcome to Environment Matters - I'm Greg Adolfson
with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
What defines a community? For most it means having a sense of place - an
identity - something that says this is who we are.
For years that sense of place often centered on a city's downtown area
but as population shifted
and retail patterns changed, many of those once bright centers faded.
Helping to reverse that trend is the Partnership for Sustainable Communities -
a joint effort from the U.S. EPA, Department of Transportation and HUD
through the Greening of America's Capitals program.
Charleston was one of five U.S. capitals selected for the first round of grants
back in 2010 and the city targeted a redesign of Slack Plaza as a
key lake and it's sustainable downtown redevelopment plan.
>>DAVID MOLGAARD: Slack Plaza was designed in the early 80s
and
while probably looked good on paper and and
looked like it would work, quite frankly never did work. >>GREG: David Molgaard is CHarleston's
City Manager.
He says over the years, the plaza began to be associated with crime and vagrancy
and its broad expanse of concrete considered tired looking and unappealing.
>>DAVID: We got numerous complaints from people that uh... they weren't comfortable in
the park
uh... and that it just didn't work for them and so people were, quite frankly, avoiding it.
>>GREG: The city used the grant funding to enlist Pittsburgh based Origin4Design
with help from WVU's School of Community Design to re-envision
Slack Plaza for the twenty-first century.
The design includes a lot of input from the public.
>>SUZIE SALISBURY: I think we as a community now understand why
citizens need to be involved.
It means the citizens are going to reap the benefits or feel the pain from planning
decisions that they need to be right there at the table as we move forward.
>>GREG: And a lot of that input gets incorporated into the final design...
>>DAN VRIENDT: Our consultants
have um...
do an exercise using the word cloud
and the words that come up more frequently in the process appear larger and
larger
and
I was really encouraged that some of and tuesday these concepts
that were bubbling up in the public's mind were walk ability, bike ability,
multimodal transportation
and green space and parks.
These are things that we've been advocating for
for years and now the public
is starting to demand these things. >>GREG: The new design features things like a redesigned and relocated
transit hub,
more green space including trees for shade, permeable pavement to help with
storm water runoff along with plenty of comfortable seating,
efficient LED lighting and a gathering space that includes a projection screen
for movies, artwork and musical performance.
This reinvented Slack Plaza would then become a magnet mixed usage development -
businesses on the street level with residential space in the upper floors.
>>DAN: I think if we get some that going on in the downtown area that's really going to
take
the downtown to the next level.
We're already starting to see downtown turn a corner 69 00:03:45,249 --> 00:03:48,939 on evenings and weekends with Taylor Books
and Pies and Pints
Those businesses right there are creating a high synenergy that are drawing people into
the downtown
on off hours but if you had
people living above those store fronts
you'd really get a big impact of that
twenty four-hour vitality.
>>GREG: but finding those urban pioneers is not without its challenges...
>>SUZIE: I think as we begin to see Slack Plaza redeveloped -
there is some new housing above Ellen's Ice Cream in the Lowenstein building.
We're seeing some of the benefits of that already but we have some other
buildings and a lot of other area that we can incorporate more housing in downtown
and I think that
will really grow the vibrancy of
downtown Charleston,
but it's getting those investors convinced that it is a good place to do business and
you will have
quality tenants
that want to live downtown that want to make the project work.
>>GREG: And as city leaders look for ways to continue moving this plan forward, a theme emerges...
>>DAN: My parents' generation, they moved to a location where there
were jobs
and then they found a job after they moved. THis younger generation
moves to a great place
and then finds a job. 97 00:05:04,500 --> 00:05:07,020 So it's now about place making
and making Charleston the best place it can be. >>GREG: The city has created a program called
Imagine Charleston
Your dream, Our future as a way for local residents have input on everything
from buildings, potential projects and the nature of neighborhoods, transportation,
attractions and more.
You can find them on the web at imagine charleston dot com. You can also follow
them on Facebook and Twitter.
An update now to a story we told you about last month:
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced that bids for the 2013 model year
statewide motor vehicle contract will include compressed natural gas fuelled
vehicles.
Last month Governor Tomblin created the natural gas vehicles task force to look
into the feasibility of using West Virginia natural gas
to fuel the state's vehicle fleet.
The governor also announced that the city of Charleston would play host to
the 2013 Appalachian basin natural gas vehicle expo and conference
this coming May at the civic center.
Governor Tomblin says the expo will provide the opportunity for cities,
counties and private businesses to learn more about using natural gas as
a fueling option for their fleets.
Natural gas powered vehicles produce less air pollution than conventional gas
or diesel-powered vehicles.
When the state legislature passed new laws in December
governing the rapidly increasing development of horizontal oil and gas
wells in West Virginia,
the DEP figured it would take roughly a year to get the permitting process
smoothed out.
Well, it's been about eight months and we're just about there.
The DEP's office of oil and gas added additional staff in the permitting
section which reduces the time it takes to review a well application without
sacrificing the high standards the agency demands in the review process.
In May, the office of oil and gas issued 37 horizontal well permits.
By July that number had grown to 57.
The DEP's division of air quality is conducting several studies looking into
the impact of drilling activities on air quality in and around gas well sites.
The studies are requirement of the natural gas
horizontal well control act passed by the state legislature last December.
The DEP is partnering with West Virginia University for the studies which began
earlier this summer.
The studies for monitor dust and volatile
organic compounds as well as light and noise and overall pit and impoundment safety.
The results of the study will be used to determine if additional regulation
is required.
The studies will look at all phases of well site development.
Results from the first of these are due by the end of this year.
The DEP recently wrapped up its series of public hearings on the proposed
2013 legislative roles including a rule governing the
development of horizontal wells.
Public hearings are an important part in the process of determining how the
department proceeds
with various permits and regulations
Here's the DEP's Tom Aluise with a look at what goes on inside a typical
public hearing.
>>TOM ALUISE: I'm Tom Aluise with the Department of Environmental Protection's public information office
and I'm the
facilitator for tonight's hearing.
It's one the proposed rule governing the development of horizontal wells
and that's rule 35 D S
R 8...
And that's how it typically begins with an introduction and an explanation of the
topic of the hearing.
Participants who want to speak or present written comments register at a
sign up sheet before the hearing starts. THey're then introduced and their
comments recorded and transcribed to become part of the public record.
If there is a large number of people registered to speak, there may be a time limit set.
Here are some suggestions for making the most of the
public comment time: keep your comments limited to the specific issue covered by
the hearing. Have notes to refer to so your comments can be substantiated
and always try to submit your comments in writing. Submitting comments in
writing doesn't prevent you from making a public statement at the hearing, In
Charleston, I'm TOm Aluise for Environment Matters.
>>GREG: The optimal time to request a public hearing on a permit application or
renewal is at the beginning of the thirty day comment period that follows
the public notice of application.
You must submit a written request to the DEP in time for the agency to organize a
public hearing.
An informational meeting can be requested anytime there are concerns about
an environmental issue within the DEP's jurisdiction that needs to be clarified
or addressed.
Keeping up with current impending state and federal environmental rules can be a
challenge -
especially for small businesses
but there is help available.
The DEP's Brent Kessinger introduces us to Dr. Terry Polen - ombudsman...
already...
they've already agreed to do this...
>>BRENT KESSINGER: Look up ombudsman in the dictionary and one definition you'll find is trusted
intermediary.
For a lot of West Virginia businesses thats Terry Polen.
>>TERRY POLEN: I love the idea that at this job allows me to work with people, organizations,
businesses -
folks that are trying to do the right thing
or trying to
build a business or trying to
build an organization -
trying to do the right thing.
It helps the state.
It helps us
and help them work through
that the difficulty and the complexity that is environmental regulation.
>>BRENT: Dr. Poland says helping businesses large and small to operate within the
regulations
is preferable to citing them for inadvertently breaking them.
>>TERRY: If an organization
can know what the right thing is,
and what I have found in time, if they can know what the right thing
is and then do that,
it makes their life a lot easier, makes our life a lot easier, makes the
public's life a lot easier.
Everybody wants
everybody to comply. The worst-case scenario is an enforcement.
For the public,
for the business and for us - we don't really need that.
The vast majority of folks -
exceedingly so -
want to comply.
They don't know how to. There are people that I have run into that have no clue.
>>BRENT: Dealing with a regulatory and enforcement agency like the DEP can
sometimes be a daunting prospect
and that's where the trust factor and building relationships pays off.
>>TERRY: Being able to help them
and help them do it right
and at the same time then there's a...
the public out there gains from this. The folks are complying with
environmental regulations.
There are jobs out there.
It's a good thing. Done right, done early -
keeping enforcement out of it...
This is one of those definitions of synergy --
of a two plus two equals five - when we can work with folks
everybody wins - that's cool...
>>BRENT: and as for his favorite part of the job...
>>TERRY: THere is nothing like a typical day
and sometimes I am in the office, sometimes I'm out of the office
sometimes i m walking through a site, sometime though I am
teaching or training - I do a lot of that -
do a lot of that with businesses...
It's a hoot to be able to walk in here
and know that there's a meeting or some phone calls I have to make but who
knows what's gonna happen.
It keeps a job interesting,
keeps me interested - that's good thing
>>BRENT: for Environment Matters, I'm Brent Kessinger.
>>GREG: If you have any questions about the services offered by the Ombudsman's
office,
contact Dr. Terry Polen here at the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection.
Up next, they're part scientists, part detectives
monitoring West Virignia streams to make sure they're they are safe for aquatic life...
will head out with a division of water quality's watershed assessment team.
But first, did you know that an American home can waste, on average, more than
ten thousand gallons of water every year due to running toilets, dripping faucets other household
leaks?
Nationwide, more than one trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes
each year.
That's equivalent to the annual water use of Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami
combined.
Keep your home leak free by repairing dripping faucets, toilet valves and showerheads. We're back in a moment.