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Fond Farewell!
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In August, we bid farewell to Project Manager, Jessica Seipp, who most recently oversaw aspects of the County's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. Jessica worked for the County for nearly 10 years and also led the urban wetlands program. Jessica is now working for Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, where she will be responsible for growing Dewberry's presence in the total daily maximum load (TDML) and NPDES markets for the mid-Atlantic region.
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Residential
RESOURCES for
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
&
Renewable Energy
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 EVENTS &TRAINING
Hedderick Family Forest
Saturday, October 12
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Catoctin Creek Stream Survey
Catoctin Creek Nature Center
Saturday, October 12
11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Union Bridge, MD
Sunday, October 13
9:00 a.m. -1 p.m.
Maryland Clean Energy Summit
Tuesday, Wednesday
October 15,16
Hyattsville, MD
Frederick County
Sustainability Commission
Meeting
Winchester Hall
Wednesday, October 16
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Frederick Green Drinks
Quynn's Attic
Wednesday, October 16
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Dulles Hyatt
Friday, October 18
hrough Sunday, October 20
Various times
2013 Family Festival
@ The Farm
Saturday and Sunday,
October 19, 20
(Rain Date, October 27, 28)
Visit any of 23
participating farms.
301-600-1058
Catoctin Forest Alliance
Fall Public Meeting
Sunday, October 20
2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
Thurmont Regional Library
76 E. Moser Rd., Thurmont
Speakers from CFA,
Catoctin Mountain Park,
Cunningham Falls
State Park,
Artist in Residence
Frederick County
Nature Council Meeting
Catoctin Creek Park & Nature Center
Monday, October 21
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Monocacy & Catoctin Watershed Alliance Meeting
Guest Presenter Eric Eckl
C. Burr Artz Library Community Room
Wednesday, October 23
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Catoctin Forest Alliance
Banquet & Fundraiser
Saturday, October 26
5:00 p.m.
Elks Club in Frederick
cfabanquet@yahoo.com
Drug Disposal Event
Sponsored by
Whitesell Pharmacy,
Frederick Police Department, & DEA
Saturday, October 26
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Harry Grove Stadium
Parking Lot
Drop-Off Day
Free!
Saturday, October 26
8:00 a.m. - 12 noon
Public Safety Training Facility
5370 Public Safety Place
(formerly 8349 Reichs Ford Rd.)
Frederick
301.600.1848
Clarksburg and Mt. Airy
pick-up locations
Saturday, November 2nd and Saturday, November 9
9:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Volunteer Tree Planting Event
Lovell Farm,
New Windsor, MD
Saturday, November 16
9:00 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Frederick County Sustainability Commission Meeting
Winchester Hall
Wednesday, November 20
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Frederick Green Drinks
Quynn's Attic
Wednesday, November 20
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Frederick County Sustainability Commission Meeting
Winchester Hall
Wednesday, December 18
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Frederick County Sustainability Commission Meeting
Winchester Hall
Wednesday, January 15
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Frederick Green Drinks
Quynn's Attic
Wednesday, January 15
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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BUSINESS RESOURCES FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS & RENEWABLE ENERGY
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Making Connections
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Photo by Kai Hagen
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Greetings!
The leaves are falling all around; still it's hard to believe we are already in the midst of autumn. In the last few months, we wrapped up some important projects, such as our Green Infrastructure Map and Solarize Frederick County. At the same time, we began work on new energy initiatives as a Maryland Smart Energy Community, and welcomed two new staff members, Chesapeake Conservation Corps volunteer,Taylor Schuman and Suzanne Cliber, our new Green Homes Program Coordinator. We also said goodbye to a much valued project manager, Jessica Seipp.
This month we're initiating a new feature, the Municipal Spotlight, where we will share some of the impressive sustainability and energy projects being implemented around our county. Check out our Business Corner to learn where you can grab a quick healthy meal made from locally grown food. And speaking of all those leaves, read our Mythbusters article before you start up or purchase a leaf blower!
Fall is a busy season for our MCWA partners as we collaborate to plant trees, install bioretention projects, and protect some of our most scenic county landscapes. Check out the new MCWA articles below and our Events listing for ways you can become more involved.
Finally, we congratulate OSER's Sustainability Program Coordinator, Lisa Orr, who will be receiving the Excellence in Public Service award at this month's Maryland Clean Energy Summit.
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MCWA UPDATES | |
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| NEW INITIATIVES: Maryland Smart Energy Communties | 
In September, Maryland Energy Administration awarded OSER $249,616 in grant funding to implement the Maryland Smart Energy Communities program. These grant funds will be used to (1) set policy to help meet state energy goals for local governments, (2) fund energy projects, and (3) fund an energy efficiency project for low-moderate income households. Specifically, Frederick County will implement policies and action plans to reduce petroleum consumption by Frederick County vehicles by 20% by 2016, and meet 20% of Frederick County buildings' electricity demand with distributed renewable energy generation by 2022. In the spring of 2014, Frederick County will implement a refrigeration replacement program targeting low-to-moderate income households.
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GREEN HOMES CHALLENGE UPDATE:
Solarize Frederick County Wraps Up - 81 Systems!
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The Thomas children show their enthusiasm for the Solarize program. Their sign reads
"We 'love' Our Solar Panels."
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Solarize Frederick County,
a special initiative of the
Green Homes Challenge, wrapped up in September, with a final count of 69 solar electric and 12 solar hot water contracts signed. The total capacity of these systems is
573 kilowatts. The program offered volume purchase discounts and local incentive grants that augmented incentives provided by the state and federal governments. During the enrollment period between April 26 and September 30,
309 residents attended Solarize workshops, 321 requested solar electric assessments from Astrum Solar, and 186 requested solar hot water assessments from Solar Energy Services. With the volume discounts and the Solarize incentive grants alone, most participating households realized discounts between 27% and 33%; that does not include the Maryland renewable energy grants or the 30% federal tax credit.
More than half of the total number of systems have been installed. Photos and testimonials can be seen here.
- Annual emissions from electricity use in 70 homes
- Annual emissions from 106 passenger vehicles
- Carbon sequestered by 13,071 tree seedlings growing for 10 years
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WATERSHED MANAGEMENT UPDATE:
Frederick County's Green Infrastructure Map Completed! |
OSER thanks the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Forest Service and Environmental Protection Agency Region III for providing expertise and technical assistance to develop a map of Frederick County's Green Infrastructure. Although maps of forests, wetlands and streams have been available for a long time, the Green Infrastructure map identifies hubs of natural resources with high function and integrity. Integrity means that the natural resource areas have a strong core that is not fragmented; for example, by roads. Function means that they serve a purpose that is important, such as water quality filtration, habitat for forest interior dwelling species, brook trout habitat, and much more. The hubs are connected by corridors. Corridors indicate where functions relate and where species within the hubs are likely to move between them.
The State of Maryland has a Green Infrastructure (GI) map layer, and it is included as the base of Frederick County's layer. Frederick County added areas to the state map by using more refined local data and by using smaller area thresholds that were supported in the scientific literature. For example, intern Emma Bowers researched the forest size thresholds for Forest Interior Dwelling Species (FIDS) habitat and learned that although the state chose a 100 acre minimum for the support of FIDS, the literature supported a 50 acre size for most key species. There is more GI on the eastern portion of the County in the local map than in the state map, and the hubs in the west are more contiguous.
Jessica Seipp of OSER provided the project management for the project, put together the streams GI layer, and collaborated on the wetland layer that was developed by EPA Region III. Heather Montgomery of OSER coordinated with the DNR Forest Service who created the forest layer.
We plan to use this information to direct voluntary restoration and protection efforts. For example, the County collects money for reforestation from developers to comply with the state's Forest Conservation Act and can reach out to landowners in the GI network to invite their participation in tree plantings. We are also required to restore urban areas where water can't percolate, and can overlap this priority with the GI layer to provide multiple restoration benefits.
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| MUNICIPAL SPOTLIGHT: Emmitsburg | Mayor Don Briggs of the Town of Emmitsburg has a vision for its sustainability.
 | | Mayor Don Briggs |
The first step, according to the Mayor, was to replace street lights with LED bulbs. The rebate for the Town's lighting project was about 85% of the cost of the fixtures. The project will reduce street lighting costs by 50 percent.
The second step was solar power. For Mayor Briggs, "Solar is a dream come true." The Town obtained a Smart Energy Communities Grant from the Maryland Energy Administration in the amount of $37,000. Funds from the grant will allow Emmitsburg to construct a large solar installation on top of its old sewer lagoon spreading fields. The Mayor even took a solar evaluation course in Albuquerque for two days and says that staff and the City Manager worked hard to make sure that the project will be a good deal for the Town.
 Emmitsburg is participating in a Power Purchase Agreement, or PPA, where a third party finances the project and sells electricity back to the Town. The Town is also is taking advantage of a new Virtual Net Metering law for solar power that allows them to offset the electricity from a list of facilities with the highest electricity rates, even though the facilities are not all in the same location. The Town will have about 86% of its electricity provided by the new installation. The project will save the Town up to an estimated million dollars over its twenty year lifespan. A second phase of the solar project in 2015 will provide electricity for the Town's new Wastewater Treatment Plant. This $15.5 million dollar plant will replace the old sewer lagoon and provide Enhanced Nutrient Removal, a top-of-the-line technology for removing pollution from human effluent. This project will protect and restore local waters as well as the Chesapeake Bay. Mayor Briggs is also upgrading the town square and making Emmitsburg more walkable. He says that "to make the town attractive, you have to get people out of the car." He has been working to connect the swimming pool to the library, connect a local subdivision to the downtown area, put a walking trail through the park, and improve safety through designated crossings. To make sustainability practical, Mayor Briggs says he is "tying together a lot of things that work, such as improving public safety, building connectivity, becoming more sustainable, and making the town more enjoyable for visitors and residents." He is working to create a small town destination with sustainability at its core. Back to Top
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ENERGY SAVERS: $100 Rebate for HVAC Check-Up!
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Want to save energy this winter by ensuring your heating system is running at peak operating efficiency? Did you know that, through Potomac Edison's
Residential HVAC Program, you can receive a $100 rebate when you have a tune up of an existing central air conditioner or heat pump? Click here to find a list of participating contractors to choose from in your area and be sure to check out 10 Tips for Hiring a Heating and Cooling Contractor. You can download your rebate application here.
Potomac Edison's Residential HVAC Program also offers $500 rebates when you replace a traditional furnace with and energy efficient air-to-air heat pump or an Energy Star qualified geothermal heat pump.
Would you like a list of all of Potomac Edison's available rebates?
Click here.
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BUSINESS CORNER:
Local Healthy Food Options for Busy Folks on the Go.
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Maybe you're just looking for a quick healthy meal, or perhaps you're deeply concerned about food justice, a community's right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food -- either way, Frederick has many eateries that have jumped on the 'local produce wagon.' Here are three:
 The Common Market, at 5728 Buckeystown Pike, is a grocery store coop that also has a caf� and buffet. The buffet features soups, hot and cold dishes, and a salad bar prepared with locally grown, organic produce. The menu changes on a regular basis to reflect the seasonal, local ingredients available for cooking. The Common Market is also a great place to learn about sustainable practices; stop by their information desk where you can learn about nutrition and sustainably made products, or sign up for one of their many workshops offered in their Community Room.
 The Seventh Street Sandwich Shop, at 903 west 7th street opened in August of this year. According to their website, they offer "fresh, natural and organic products from local farmers and purveyors who further sustainability and the humane treatment of animals." Their menu of 40 different sandwiches provides lots of options for vegetarians and meat-lovers alike.
Juice Plate is a smoothie and juice bar/sandwich shop that just opened in September at 629 N. Market Street. They offer breakfast wraps, sandwiches, and salads, but the real attraction is their selection of produce to mix up into smoothies and juices. With a myriad of locally grown fruit and vegetable offerings (including some less known gems like kohlrabi), you can choose from recipes on their menu or select your own ingredients for a custom drink. Many of their juice recipes are designed with your good health in mind and provide a hearty amount of nutrition in a drinkable, tasty beverage. For example, their wheatgrass shots are made fresh from wheatgrass grown in a small hydroponic garden in the store.
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| MYTHBUSTERS:
MYTH - Leaf Blowers Produce More Harmful Emisssions than Cars
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It's autumn, and everyone's yards are beginning to be covered in fallen leaves. Cleaning up leaves is a bothersome chore for many. Why not use a leaf blower to make the process as fast and painless as possible? A leaf blower will help you work faster than cleaning leaves by hand with a rake or broom, right? Plus, all it does is blow air so it can't be bad for the environment to use, right? Wrong and wrong! It turns out that leaf blowers have much more of an impact than you might initially think. Many leaf blowers use gas powered engines and emit carbon monoxide and other dangerous chemicals into the air, the same as car engines do. However, research has shown that the average emissions of various leaf blower models are much greater than those of most cars on the market today.
 One research project that pit two leaf blowers models against a Ford Raptor and a Fiat 500 showed that the leaf blowers released between 36-300 times the amounts of dangerous airborne pollutants as the cars. As for the leaf blower completing the job faster than a rake or broom, just ask Diane Wolfberg. As part of an effort to restrict the use of leaf blowers to reduce air and noise pollution in Los Angeles, Diane, a woman in her late fifties, participated in a series of experiments where two yards of the same size were given the same amount of debris to clean; in one yard a leaf blower was used and in the other Diane used a rake. In each test she was able to work as fast as or faster than the leaf blower, and in every case her space was more thoroughly cleaned. These are only two examples of a great deal of research that points to the fact that leaf blowers simply aren't worth the convenience they advertise. With a rake or broom the job can be done just as fast without any dangerous chemicals being released into the atmosphere, and no noise pollution either!
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| Staff Updates: New Green Homes Program Coordinator and CCC Volunteer |
 OSER welcomes Suzanne Cliber as the new Green Homes Challenge Coordinator. Suzanne has been an active part of the downtown Frederick community for the last 12 years having worked most recently as Cultural Administrator for the Frederick Arts Council. Her past work included working in patron services for the Weinberg Center for the Arts and serving as Director of the nationally recognized Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) with Volunteer Frederick/HandsOn Frederick County. Suzanne looks forward to continuing her community involvement by engaging and assisting residents in adopting a green lifestyle through the Green Homes Challenge.
In August, OSER welcomed Chesapeake Conservation Corps (CCC)
 volunteer, Taylor Schuman. Taylor graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) with a BA in Environmental Studies. He has worked with local/grassroots movements including local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, neighborhood advocacy groups, and educational farms where he taught classes about the environment and agriculture. "I am excited to join OSER because I want to learn how local governments implement environmental projects," said Taylor; "I've already learned a lot about how to properly manage projects with many partners, and how to better communicate ideas and messages to the general public." Taylor will serve full-time for one year. He will be working on the grant-funded "Riparian Buffers for Frederick County Streams" project, the Green Homes Challenge, and his capstone project for the CCC through which he will design and implement educational workshops and a rain garden installation in the Lake Linganore area.
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The Frederick County Sustainability and Environmental Resources Office advances practical solutions for protecting the environment, conserving energy, and living sustainably in Frederick County.
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