EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last of a three-part series on local response to climate change.
Skepticism, political considerations and tight budgets have prevented the cities of Sequim and Forks — the east and west ends of Clallam County — from tackling climate change as aggressively as, say, the governments of Clallam and Jefferson counties, city officials said.
In Sequim, a climate change survey will be conducted beginning in June that will examine the impact of city operations and city employees who commute to work — almost two years after a “Green Sequim” committee established by the City Council went nowhere.
And in Forks, budgetary issues and a skeptical constituency have prevented the city from even considering such a survey, Mayor Nedra Reed said.
Sequim
The “Green Sequim” committee the Sequim City Council established on Aug. 13, 2007, to research climate change and report back to the City Council “has kind of just gone away,” said City Council member Walt Schubert, who is the former mayor.
But the present mayor, Laura DuBois, said the city has joined the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives and bought software to conduct a carbon dioxide emissions survey later this year.
Schubert said that John Beitzel, who was in charge of forming the committee, was one of four council members – a majority – who were defeated in the November 2007 election.
Schubert said new council members DuBois, Susan Lorenzen, Erik Erichsen and Ken Hays do not appear to have made it a priority, and for Schubert, “it kind of got away from me,” he added.
“It’s not one of those things we chose to make an issue of here. I’m not sure it would have kept going on the council anyway.”
Monetary considerations work into city decisions that affect climate change, Schubert said.
For example, energy-saving light bulbs have been installed in city facilities.
But at the same time, the City Council has opened discussion on discontinuing the public yard-waste collection area.
“It’s costing more than it brings in,” Schubert said. “It hasn’t come to the council for a vote, but that’s the move, to discontinue it.”
Schubert said he “absolutely” believes humans contribute to climate change but contends there is still a vast difference of opinion among experts and the community “as to whether we are actually affecting global climate change or whether it’s a natural thing.”
Dubois: City efforts
DuBois agreed with Schubert that the City Council’s plate has been full, but that mandates for clean energy and traffic mitigation are in the works at the state level.
She also is convinced of the human role in climate change.
“I certainly believe we are contributing to it,” she said.
“It’s very obvious we are contributing to pollution, and there’s rampant consumerism with all these disposable products. It’s a problem I see in our sewer system. People see disposable; they see flushable. It causes a lot of problems. We are contributing to our problem.”
She said she will approach Sequim Irrigation Festival and Lavender Festival organizers to reduce the waste that’s produced by two of the area’s largest events and will push for broader Earth Day 2010 activities.
The climate change survey will take from 45 days to 60 days, said city Frank Needham, the city’s capital projects manager.
“By 2010, we want to start to implement some kind of climate action plan for the city and residents,” Needham said, adding it will be voluntary for residents.
Composting
Sequim Middle School, Greywolf Elementary in Carlsborg and Wild Rose Senior Residence in Sequim have already taken advantage of the county Waste Reduction Group’s composting programs.
Six seniors live at Wild Rose, where owner Judy Sensintaffar built two 3-foot-high by 1 ½-square-foot composting beds about nine months ago.
Wild Rose’s garbage is collected by the city under a standard rate, so she won’t realize monetary savings, she said.
But the worms eat through a layered lasagna of shredded, water-drenched newspapers, garden waste or vegetable waste and old leaves, creating what she calls “worm juice.”
Sensintaffar taps it from a faucet at the bottom of the bin, using the elixir to nourish her potted plants.
“It’s just like fertilizer to them,” she said.
Forks
Forks Mayor Nedra Reed indicated Forks is a long way from assessing the city’s carbon footprint.
City officials have more pressing needs, she said.
“We are all aware that statistics seem to be accumulating to the point where it definitely seems to be an issue, but as far as climate change planning and going to hybrids and that sort of thing, we do not have the resources to do that. We have not really looked at any issue involving climate change on the local level.”
What concerns Forks citizens more is the outdoor-burning ban imposed by the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, Reed said.
Those rules are imposed because Forks is considered an urban growth area, where population is concentrated, said Fran McNair, executive director of the regional clean air agency.
Outdoor burning contributes two major ingredients to climate change: carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, though burning contributes only 10 percent of greenhouse gases in Washington, where vehicles are by far the major culprit, McNair said.
“The key for us is finding alternatives,” McNair said.
Those alternatives include using the woody debris — biomass — from forest land that is so quintessentially Forks to fuel paper mills, McNair said.
The clean air agency is meeting in May with the state Department of Natural Resources to explore those opportunities, she added.
New trucks
Another program would have logging companies and other truck-dependent businesses turn in old, diesel-fueled trucks for new, retrofitted, fuel-efficient vehicles, she said.
Companies would pay $450 a year into an account, out of which $100 would go into a savings account for the trucking company to accumulate funds to use as a down payment on a newer, more climate-friendly truck.
McNair said North Olympic Peninsula residents shouldn’t be fooled by the sweet, crisp air they so often breathe when they step outside.
“Emissions go somewhere,” she said. “Air travels. If everyone changes, there will be a positive impact for the state.”
And Reed allowed that her own skepticism is waning.
“The science is beginning to prove even to small-town America that we need to look at the impact we are creating,” Reed said, pointing to the negative impacts of the weather patterns El Ninos and La Ninas on fishing resources, which have drastically declined but upon which Forks is still dependent.
“We will do all we can to make sure we are not increasing the problem in areas we can,” she said.
Still, “in all honesty, we are trying to survive on a day-to-day basis,” Reed said.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
