Page 3 - sustainable-life-081513

Pamplin Media Group Thursday, August 15, 2013 SUSTAINABLE LIFE C3 SustainableLife
EAST COUNTY BUSINESSES: LEADERS IN SUSTAINABILITY
Solar panels installed on three Gresham Fire &
Emergency Services vehicles are saving resources by
eliminating battery replacement and labor.
“It’s a great thing from an emergency vehicle
viewpoint because the solar panel keeps the
ambulance batteries charged -- so when we get
there the vehicle starts,” said Battalion Chief Eric
Lofgren.
In the case of emergency vehicles not driven
every day, such as the ambulance and a box truck for
Urban Search and Rescue storage, if the batteries
weren’t charged daily there was a real possibility of
it not running when needed by fire personnel in an
emergency.
The ambulance used to need two batteries,
plugged in daily, to charge its large equipment load
including radios and the control module that keeps
the emergency lights spinning after the vehicle is
turned off.
Not only did the batteries suck electricity to
charge the vehicle but they needed replacing every
six months at $100 each or $400 a year. The labor to
replace the batteries was $75.
“I think solar is a really cost effective idea,” said
Brian Morris, City Fleet Maintenance mechanic.
“They’re easy to install and now the vehicle fires
right up, before it might need a jump start.”
Reduces impact on the environment from battery replacement.
Reduces electricity use to charge batteries.
Reduces labor for battery purchase and replacement.
Panels have a 25-year solar life.
Solar panels produce energy under fluorescent lights.
Less than one year payback for the cost of the solar panel.
The solar panels were installed by the City’s Fleet Maintenance team.
Solar Equals Safety, Reliability for Gresham Fire & Emergency Services
330,000
readers
ask us about advertising in
INTERESTED IN REACHING
IN THE PORTLAND-METRO AREA
ON A MONTHLY BASIS?
Call your local East County
Advertising Representative for details
503-665-2181
left – City of Gresham mechanic
Brian Morris inspects an
ambulance solar panel. “I think
solar is a really cost effective
idea,” Morris says.
bottom left – Fleet Maintenance
staff installed the City of
Gresham’s first emergency
vehicle solar panel.
below – The solar panel, mounted
on an ambulance, takes the place
of batteries needed to charge
large equipment.
Natural and Financial Benefits of Solar on Emergency Vehicles: GreshamOregon.gov
This editorial space provided by
Community Newspapers with information
supplied by the City of Gresham.
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By STEPHANIE HAUGEN
Pamplin Media Group
Two months after thou-
sands of bumblebees died in
Hillsboro, scientists and Or-
egon Department of Agri-
culture officials are faced
with more questions than
answers.
After about 50,000 bees were
found dead in a Wilsonville
Target store parking lot, scien-
tists determined that Safari, a
dinotefuran pesticide sprayed
on linden trees to control
aphids, had killed them.
A short time later, thou-
sands more dead bees were
found under a linden tree in
downtown Hillsboro. Even
though the Hillsboro linden
trees were sprayed with Safari
several months before the bee
deaths were reported, it’s still
undetermined whether the pes-
ticide killed the bumblebees.
While many observers ex-
pected conclusions by now on
the cause of bee deaths in Hills-
boro, they’ve had no such luck.
Bruce Pokar-
ney, Oregon De-
partment of Agri-
culture director
of communica-
tions, estimates
the agency will
release more in-
formation in Sep-
tember.
“There are still
a lot of questions
to be answered
about what hap-
pened,” Pokarney
says. “We’re still
not anywhere
close to knowing what hap-
pened there.”
Along with the agriculture
department, a field-crop ento-
mologist at Oregon State Uni-
versity, Sujaya Rao, is trying to
find answers.
“Maybe this is widespread
and we just haven’t noticed
yet,” Rao says of the bees fall-
ing from the trees.
To confirm the bumblebees
feeding on Hillsboro linden
trees died from Safari, Rao
says she’d have to evaluate the
trees’ nectar and the pollen to
see if she could find any trace
of the pesticide. But by the time
the bumblebee
deaths were re-
ported and she
collected samples,
the blooms were
on their way out
and the nectar
was all dried up.
Pesticides like
Safari, Rao says,
are designed to be
absorbed into the
plant or tree — as
opposed to just
working topically
and killing insects
on contact. As a
result, aphids bite into the
plant and suck out the pesti-
cide, which kills them.
Extensive research has not
been done to examine how long
the chemical sticks around in
the linden trees after they are
sprayed, Rao says.
Safari is considered a re-
duced-risk pesticide, but that’s
only reduced risk for wildlife,
Rao says. The pesticide is, after
all, designed to kill insects, and
bees are insects.
Her future research will in-
clude putting the pesticide in a
sugar solution and observing
whether bumblebees die after
they feed on it.
But Rao has to take a com-
plete look at the conditions sur-
rounding the deaths.
Not all bees affected
She also wants to explore
why thousands of bumblebees
died in Wilsonville and Hills-
boro, yet honeybees apparently
were left unscathed.
Researchers in Europe re-
ported the presence of a sugar
found in stressed linden trees
— mannose — that they be-
lieved to be toxic to bumble-
bees, but not honeybees, Rao
says. In addition, stressed
plants — perhaps due to hot
weather — often produce more
flowers. It could be that the
Hillsboro blooms attracted
more bees than usual, but
there wasn’t sufficient nectar,
so they starved, as indicated by
another European study. There
also could be synergistic inter-
actions between stress effects
and the pesticide.
Scott Black of the Xerces So-
ciety for Invertebrate Conser-
vation says the state agricul-
ture department is looking into
at least a dozen bee kills that
have been reported on its web-
site, www.xerces.org.
“There’s a variety of reasons
people find dead bees, so it’s
hard to say what the causes
are,” Black says.
Coming to conclusions and
developing solutions may take
awhile, but there has been ac-
tion.
Temporary regulations
In late June, the agriculture
department issued a tempo-
rary restriction (not a ban) on
18 pesticide products that con-
tain dinotefuran. That lasts for
180 days, while officials investi-
gate the bumblebee deaths.
Dinotefuran belongs to a
group of chemicals called neo-
nicotinoids.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer,
D-Portland, recently intro-
duced the Save America’s Pol-
linators Act of 2013, which di-
rects the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency to “suspend
use of the most bee-toxic neo-
nicotinoids for use in seed
treatment, soil application, or
foliar treatment on bee-attrac-
tive plants within 180 days,
and to review these neonicoti-
noids and make a new deter-
mination about their proper
application and safe use.” The
act cites the bumblebee die-
offs in Hillsboro and Wilson-
ville as well as “disturbing
preliminary research” of the
chemical’s impact as reasons
for a second look.
“We firmly believe these in-
secticides should be restricted
from use on bee-pollinated
plants until the EPA says
they’re safe,” Black says. “Doz-
ens and dozens of scientific
studies” show this class of
chemical is problematic for pol-
linators, he says.
The Xerces Society, based in
Portland, is pushing its Bring
Back the Pollinators Cam-
paign, which calls people to
sign a pledge to protect polli-
nators and create a pollinator-
friendly space by planting
flowers and trees that provide
nectar and pollen, and reduc-
ing pesticide use.
“The good news is anybody
can take action — whether you
have a yard, garden, farm or
manage a park, you can stop
using pesticides and plant flow-
ers,” Black says.
For some, there’s a light at
the end of a dark tunnel.
“There’s a lot of momentum
to better understand the total
impact of these insecticides,”
Black says. “We never want to
see this happen again, and peo-
ple all around the Portland met-
ro area are talking about it.”
“Although the situation is
very sad,” Rao says, “where
else would you find such a high
population of bumblebees and
such conscientious citizens?
“It’s very Oregonian.”
Researchers: Safari
pesticide may not
be culprit there
Hillsboro bee deaths still a mystery GREEN
BRIEFS
North Plains compost
plant runs afoul of DEQ
The company operating the
odor-wracked compost plant in
North Plains built a 67,000-gal-
lon tank to hold and treat runoff
— before getting the required
go-ahead from regulators.
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality issued a
$5,600 fine to Recology Oregon
Compost for building the tank
at the Nature’s Needs facility
without DEQ approval.
The tank was designed to
hold liquid runoff from the com-
posting process, called leachate,
which can increase odors and
harmfish when discharged into
aquatic environments.
Gear up for bike
commute challenge
The Bicycle Transportation
Alliance is gearing up for its
annual Bike Commute Chal-
lenge next month.
The idea is to motivate more
people to try commuting by
bike in September. Teams are
organized by work place, with
prizes awarded. To sign up:
bikecommutechallenge.com
Army Corps sued for
oil leaks into Columbia
Columbia Riverkeeper sued
the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers, charging it is allowing
“acute spills and chronic leaks
of oil and other pollution”
from dams, including those at
Bonneville, The Dalles and
John Day.
The Hood River-based advo-
cacy group alleges the oil leaks
have violated the Clean Water
Act for the past seven years.
Columbia Riverkeeper’s law-
suit describes dozens of oil
spills, including reports of the
Army Corps discharging more
than 1,500 gallons of PCB-laden
transformer oil at one dam.
PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP PHOTOS: CHASE ALLGOOD
Workers put a huge net over this tree in downtown Hillsboro to keep bees away. Though the tree was
sprayed with the pesticide Safari earlier, experts aren’t yet sure what killed thousands of bumblebees there
two months ago.
Below right, a solitary bee crawls along the ground nearby.
“There are
still a lot of
questions to be
answered about
what
happened.”
— Bruce Pokarney,
Oregon Department
of Agriculture
communications director