Loudoun County Takes Step in Green Direction

By: Lowell
Published On: 4/17/2008 8:26:27 AM

I'm glad to see this news from Loudoun County:

Loudoun County officials pledged Tuesday to help reduce the region's greenhouse gas emissions and encourage more environmentally friendly buildings, which they said probably will save taxpayers money and cut the county's contribution to global warming.

The Board of Supervisors voted to join three regional environmental initiatives. One of them provides tools and guidelines to help the county adopt green building standards. A second would grant Loudoun the label of "green county" if it meets certain requirements.

The third measure signs up Loudoun for the Cool Capital Challenge, which aims to reduce the Washington region's carbon dioxide emissions by a billion pounds by next April...

Good for Loudoun County's supervisors (except for the Eugene Delgaudio, who "mocked fears related to global warming" and thereby proved once again that he is a caveman).  

By the way, here is a great idea for Loudoun County (and every other county in Virginia):

Paved sidewalks and driveways keep shoes clean and cars out of the mud. But environmentally speaking, too much paving is a disaster, blanketing the ground and preventing rainwater from soaking in. Runoff, especially after strong storms, erodes soil and carries oily residue into streams and eventually into sensitive estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay.

Pervious paving, though, is friendlier. Attractive enough for casual patios and walkways and sturdy enough for driveways, it is designed to let rainwater drain through, usually into a deep layer of gravel where it can slowly percolate into the soil.

"The paving keeps the storm water from acting like a fire hose on stream banks," says Ann English, a landscape architect at the Low Impact Development Center...

Given the sorry condition of the Chesapeake Bay, including its famous blue crabs, pervious paving is exactly the type of thing that should be encouraged and/or mandated across the Bay watershed.  On this, as on so many other environmental areas, what are we waiting for exactly?

P.S.  Earth Day 2008 is on Tuesday, April 22.  Events in Virginia are listed here.

Comments



Forget the environment ... (TheGreenMiles - 4/17/2008 9:48:13 AM)
Is Eugene Delgaudio against saving taxpayers money by reducing energy bills? That's what he seems to be saying. His politics take precedence over cutting the county's energy bill.


Eugene Delgaudio is against anything (Lowell - 4/17/2008 10:27:17 AM)
that would possibly make sense, make peoples' lives better, provide good government, or get results on things people care about.  When it comes to politicians, Delgaudio is pretty much as bad as it gets.


hopefully the new leadership in loudon... (notwaltertejada - 4/17/2008 1:13:58 PM)
will do something about their sprawl. for years people would talk about how loudon was the fastest growing county in the country like it was impressive...how about a disaster. if people really want to do something to help the environment they will stop this out of control growth. the environment cannot handle their growth rate (59% or 100,000 people since 2000!) much longer before the fit hits the shan.