CFE agenda 061217 - Laserfiche WebLink

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t.t .(: °Iliirnn..........� Orange County Commission for the Environment CFE Committee Priorities (updated May 2017) Air and Energy Resources Committee (Becker, Parry, Crook, Newby, Nickodem) 1. Review Carrboro's Climate Action Plan and related actions and assess their applicability and feasibility to Orange County operations and residents. 2. Survey grants that other local governments in NC are leveraging to work on environmental and sustainability projects and assess their feasibility Orange County. 3. GHG Emissions Inventory — Consider whether it is feasible and worthwhile to conduct a comprehensive update of the County 2005 greenhouse gas emissions inventory. 4. Green Building — Exploring various recognition and incentive programs to help the County promote green construction /retrofits and weatherization. 5. Climate Change — Educate county residents about climate change, alternative energy sources and efficiency, and steps to reduce their (and County government's) carbon footprint. 6. Energy Efficiency — Partner with Piedmont Electric Membership Corp and /or Duke Energy to take advantage of USDA program for low- interest loans for energy efficient upgrades for its members /owners. Water Resources Committee (Cads, Ray, Thomas - Ambat, Kaiser, Gray) 1. Hydrilla Treatments — Continue to educate the public about hydrilla and other invasive species of concern; continue to monitor chemical treatments to assure they are not harmful to rivers. 2. Surface and Ground Water Quantity & Quality — Increase the collection of data for surface and ground water quantify and quality; increase public education so it might lead to more funding for data collection. 3. Water Supply — Continue to educate county residents about our water supply and what steps can be taken to improve /maintain quality and quantity of future water supplies. 4. Identify key entities and agencies involved in regulating and managing water resources. Land Resources Committee (Marzuola, O'Connor, Wegman, Gronback) 1. Food Waste - Work with Solid Waste Administration to support and encourage composting throughout Orange County. 2. Native Plant Habitats - Renew collaboration with NC Botanical Garden and others to identify significant roadside habitat for native plants; then ask NCDOT and other utilities to eliminate the use of herbicides to manage vegetation in those special roadside habitats. 3. Native Landscaping - With the goal of educating homeowners and businesses on reasons to choose a diversity of regionally native species for landscaping and other ways to promote biodiversity, we will seek out partners and try to make opportunities for education and funding known to the community. 4. Write articles for publication or posting related to the following topics: a. County Parks that are open and discussion of Summer Events; b. Explaining and highlighting environmental impact report of Durham - Orange Light Rail; C. The relation between land use and alternative energy generation.