>>ANNOUNCER: Promoting a healthy environment...
It's the air we breathe...
Clean, safe water...
Responsible management of our natural resources...
We protect and restore...
For a sustainable future...
Environment Matters
>>Julie Colaw: "This is the environment where these kids live and grow and they need to
learn about how to take care of it so it's here."
>>KATHY COSCO: A visit to one of West Virginia's newest National Green Ribbon schools -- where
teachers are finding creative ways to pass on some important environmental lessons...
Plus: >>Callie Sams: "I think as that awareness
builds, and as their infrastructure grows, and as they feel more empowered as people
with the freedom of democracy, I think that they'll be able to address the problem of
litter."
>>KATHY COSCO: A chance to teach environmentalism half a world away creates a once in a lifetime
opportunity for a member of the DEP's Youth Environmental Program.
Hello everyone and welcome to Environment Matters.
I'm Kathy Cosco with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
If you're a gardener, by now your seeds have been planted.
If the conditions were right you were rewarded with a bountiful harvest.
Growing the principles of sustainability is the driving force behind a series of mini-grants
designed to help West Virginia communities become more environmentally, economically
and socially sustainable.
The DEP's Greg Adolfson joins us now with a look at this year's winners and Greg; these
community organizations are looking to use these grants as seed money for some pretty
ambitious projects...
>>GREG ADOLFSON: That's right Kathy, we're here in Charleston
at the group SAGE's urban micro-farm.
This project was one of four grants awarded this year by West Virginia Sustainable Communities,
in partnership with the DEP, the West Virginia Community Development Hub and the Claude Worthington
Benedum Foundation.
>>NARRATION: SAGE stands for Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurs and while this may look like
a community garden it's anything but -- this tiny farm in the middle of Charleston is first
step in what organizers hope becomes a booming business.
>>Cullen Naumoff: We are not producing gardeners.
We are producing micro farmers and this is really a job training opportunity because
in the state of West Virginia alone, the food economy is worth seven billion dollars -- currently
West Virginians only own six million dollars of that.
>>NARRATION: SAGE is a farm incubator and is using its
grant to hire an agriculture consultant to teach participants how to maximize yields.
Participants in the program also learn how to market their crops to meet the demand for
locally grown food -- restaurants, caterers, farmers' markets -- and organizers say the
demand is real...
>>Cullen: These are all herb pallets.
That's probably been the number one demanded product from our end markets are herbs -- fresh
herbs, right?
Because they're hard to keep fresh over a long travel distance and they're expensive
so if we can shorten that supply chain, increase access -- that's a huge possibility for growing
that local food economy.
>>NARRATION: But when the demand for what you're producing dries up then it's time to
plant something new -- and that's the situation in Richwood.
Once a booming lumber town along the banks of the Cherry River, Richwood has fallen on
hard times.
It's population has dropped from a peak of around ten thousand during the boom times
of the early 20th century to just over two thousand at the last census.
Community leaders in Richwood are hoping to take advantage of its proximity to the Monongahela
National Forest and a nearby rail-trail system by finding ways to make the town more walker
and bicycle friendly...
>>Ray Moeller: We're looking for some concrete numbers for
what it would take to connect the city from one end to the other.
Whether that's a few bridges and then we can get estimates on exactly how much it would
cost to construct such a bridge or do some paving or some strategic widening of roads.
We're looking at just getting a real feasible number and breaking the walkability improvement
into parts that we could then approach groups, local folks, whatever we can do to raise the
money to actually put it in play.
>>NARRATION: and by making the downtown more accessible, the hope is that new niche businesses
will sprout up and put Richwood back on the map as a tourism, hospitality and retirement
hub.
>>Nancy Leffingwell: I moved here five years ago and I love it and I came here because
I wanted to, not because I knew anybody or had a relative.
I just came because I wanted to and there are a lot of people who would like to live
in a small town, safe place that has wonderful opportunities like we do with the outdoors.
>>NARRATION: The growing cost of utilities is putting a
serious squeeze on another small town's plans to keep a former school serving as its community
center.
Arnettesville Elementary school is currently home to a branch of the Morgantown Public
Library, a food pantry, a meeting place and dozens of programs that serve area students
and seniors alike.
>>Jennifer Steele: It really is a multipurpose facility and what the Sustainable Communities
grant will allow us to do is to do an energy audit and heating analysis because we desperately
need to reduce our heating costs.
>>NARRATION: Built in 1955, the building still has its
original boiler and radiators -- originally coal fired, it was converted to fuel oil in
the 1970's.
It's old, inefficient and expensive to maintain and time is running out to find a viable alternative
solution...
>>Jennifer: We've looked at trying to request funding
for energy improvements in the past and without the really good numbers it's a hard thing
to do.
That's where this will be really critical to get that analysis so we can write some
better proposals.
>>NARRATION: And that's often the stumbling block...
>>Jamie Durant: It's more often than you realize because a
lot of our communities just don't have that little jump start and in order to get the
bigger funding, they have to have these little things done -- all their ducks in a row -- in
order to actually get the funding on bigger projects.
Sometimes a feasibility assessment is all they need to get that jumpstart.
>>NARRATION: Jamie Durant is program coordinator for West Virginia Sustainable Communities...
>>Jamie: Long term, we hope to basically work ourselves
out of a job.
If things go well then eventually West Virginia will be a sustainable state not just a series
of sustainable communities and our efforts will have come full circle.
>>GREG ADOLFSON: One big key to the program is that these communities
take what they've learned and teach it to other communities throughout the state -- in
fact, West Virginia Sustainable Communities holds a showcase every year at Bridgemont
Community and Technical College where communities present their information.
Kathy, these are small grants -- typically around five thousand dollars each - but we've
seen they can produce some big results...
>>KATHY COSCO: ...like the success they've had at the Wild Ramp in Huntington, one of
last year's grant recipients.
Thanks, Greg.
The other winner of this year's mini-grant, Energy Efficient West Virginia plans to use
its funding to train additional people to do energy assessments.
Last year, the group collaborated with the West Virginia Department of Education to research
energy use in schools and found a potential savings of $20 million dollars a year through
improved efficiency.
The group is looking for low or even no cost opportunities for schools to save energy.
Sustainable West Virginia also helps coordinate the state's E-3 program where helping business
and government agencies save energy is just one of the services they provide.
The DEP's Ashley Hicks has the details...
>>NARRATION: It's early Monday morning and a team from West Virginia University's Industrial
Assessment Center is on the roof of the city building in Parkersburg taking a closer look
at the building's heating system.
The team is part of the E-3 program -- which stands for Economy, Energy and the Environment,
a joint program between WVU, the US EPA and other federal agencies and the West Virginia
Department of Environmental Protection.
Its mission -- helping government and industry improve energy efficiency at buildings and
facilities...
>>DR.G: I think they are going to be very surprised even in the LEED buildings that
they have that we would be able to find some good energy efficiency measures that might
have been missed as well as some other buildings that are a little older but at the same time
we do have some good energy efficiency opportunities and I think they would be good cost savings
for the building managers and with a reasonably good payback on investment.
>>NARRATION: The team uses a variety of high tech tools to measure and monitor energy use
and loss, checking everything from electrical loads to outside air infiltration -- it's
a thorough check.
>>Dr. G: Because of the nature of energy efficiency measures, some of the measures like insulation,
for example, on the hot water piping in this building or the other building we were in,
it's probably easier to do because of the shorter payback on investment but once you
start looking at sealing some doors or initiatives like that, you run into more than eight, nine
year paybacks on investment but the buildings are going to be here -- these are government
buildings so it does make sense to invest so you can reap the benefits of sustainability
and the reduction in carbon footprint.
>>NARRATION: City leaders say with a limited pool of resources, and money saved on energy
costs means more money to spend on things like roads, parks and other city services.
>>Ann Conageski: Governments are always looking for places to save money because, you know,
we always have financial issues especially over the last couple of years but also just
the broader picture of setting an example for the community to set up programs and projects
to save money in their home and industry and various -- so we're hoping that will help
translate into becoming more energy efficient and using our resources better than they presently
are being used.
>>NARRATION: The program also offers valuable hands on, real world experience for WVU students
who assist with the assessments -- helping to ensure a highly trained workforce to serve
the needs of a 21st century West Virginia.
In Parkersburg, I'm Ashley Hicks for Environment Matters.
>>KATHY COSCO: In addition to the WVU's Industrial Assessment Center, the DEP is also partnered
with the West Virginia Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Industries of the Future -- West
Virginia and the West Virginia Division of Energy.
To find out more about these programs, you can check out our website: dep.wv.gov.
Coming up: area high school students are getting a firsthand look at the environmental sciences
-- we'll check out this year's Envirothon...
Plus: >> Seneca: "Earthworms help our soil, they
do...
They help soil by -- well, they eat all the bad stuff and spit out some good stuff."
>>KATHY COSCO: Early lessons make a big impression.
What goes into making a National Green Ribbon School -- those stories and more when Environment
Matters continues...