S.L. County is going green

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon has a message for those who carry out the government's business: Keep it green.

Corroon issued an executive order last week calling on county agencies to "incorporate environmentally sustainable practices in their day-to-day operations."

"It's an administrative request to our departments that we expect them to be environmentally conservative in their actions," Corroon said. "We know we can do a lot to reduce waste, preserve our resources and conserve energy."

What that means in practice, Corroon said, is that environmental protection will be more at the forefront of county decisions. The county now expects agencies to take into account the environmental records of companies seeking contracts for government work and to recycle more, use less energy and conserve resources.

Corroon said the order came from his office rather than as a County Council ordinance because the work of county agencies is under the mayor's direction. It's an initiative he has been considering for a while, he said, and the upcoming observation of Earth Day, to be celebrated April 22, made the order timely.

The county has already launched many environmentally minded efforts, Corroon said. A central command center is now in place for watering county-run facilities, so on rainy days or during cooler weather, sprinklers can be shut off countywide. Corroon said the command center was a $200,000 investment. The money will be recouped by reduced water bills in the first year, according to a study that said the county can save up to $2 million yearly by watering less.

The county is also phasing hybrid gas-electric automobiles into its fleet. Five such vehicles have already been bought, and Corroon said as vehicles age, they will be replaced by hybrids.

Automatic lights are being installed in county buildings so that when a room is empty, the lights will turn themselves off. All county-owned traffic lights were replaced by energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs over the past three years. And the county is beginning to participate in Utah Power's Blue Sky program, in which power customers buy units of wind power.

When county employees buy 400 blocks of Blue Sky power on their own electric bills, the county will buy 750 for its power needs. Each $1.95 block equals 100 kilowatt-hours of energy.

Park City and Moab have both participated in the Blue Sky program since 2003.

And while wind power costs more, Corroon said, "the payback is what we do to help our environment."