A Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) is defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a 4-wheeled vehicle with a top speed of 20-25 mph.  Across the country a growing number of states and municipalities are looking for ways to factor NEVs into their commuter-traffic considerations.  This is something we could, and should, be pushing in the Golden Triangle area.

Many of our roads already meet the criteria to encourage access to NEVs, and others could be brought on line with small reductions in the posted speed limits.  Florida statute 316.2122 allows for NEVs on roads posted at 35mph or less, and permits NEVs to cross (at intersections) roads with higher speed limits. 

NEVs are unlikely to replace the family car anytime soon–they’re simply too limited in their application given the lifestyle we’ve adopted and the infrastructure we’ve created to support it.  However, a substantial argument can be made for augmenting the family fleet with the addition of an NEV.  A significant number of the trips we make each week are short and confined to our community–it just doesn’t make sense to fire up the Pickup or the SUV for a spin to the convenience store.  As an ‘around-town’ alternative, or a vehicle for teens to get back and forth to school, NEVs can offer families and communities real benefits.

Gas prices are headed for unknown heights, and only the most optimistic or ill-informed among us have reason to believe this is a temporary condition.  No gas bills with an NEV. 

Electric motors are significantly more efficient than internal combustion engines, and produce no emissions.  Sure, the power plant necessary to produce the electricity to power the NEV produces emissions, but the impact is a lot less (1/4 the carbon dioxide and less than 2% of the nitrogen oxide my car spits out).

Tavares is hoping to encourage NEV traffic in their community, and you have to applaud the foresightedness they’re bringing with this announcement.  Eustis and Mt. Dora need to be a part of this discussion.  It will take some public will, and some work, to facilitate a traffic grid that enables NEV transportation among the three communities, but the benefits should be recognizable to everyone.

Rain barrels are making a welcome comeback

Florida receives an average 52 inches of rainfall a year.  Most of that water flows off our roofs onto lawns and driveways, picking up hitchhikers, in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants, for a joy ride that ends in our lakes and streams.  Not a particularly healthy practice for a lot of reasons.

Rainwater harvesting is the process of capturing some of that flow for use around the house.  And the old-fashioned rain barrel is making a tremendous comeback as the easiest do-it-yourself method going.  There are a number of companies out there that offer customized cistern systems of various shapes and sizes, but most folks seem to be building their own, using the ubiquitous 55-gallon plastic drum as a receptacle.  Reconditioned drums are available for $29 in Zellwood through Industrial Container Services (407-889-5500).

There’s a little bit of engineering involved, but not much.  And there are numerous sites on the web that offer instructions and answer questions (check out the UF Site).

You’ll be surprised how quickly you can fill up one barrel, so people often link several together.  500 sq ft of roof area (regardless of pitch), during a 1/2 inch rainfall, will collect 150 gallons of water.  Granted, this isn’t pressurized water from a hose bib, but as long as the barrel is off the ground you can still gravity-feed a pretty large area.  You’ll save some money, and reconnect to the process of growing things (which we tend to lose when the flora of our homes are controlled by timers)–and most of all, we need people to step up in this fashion.

More than 70% of the earth’s surface is water, but only 2.5% of that water is fresh.  Most of it is locked up in glaciers and ice caps, leaving us just 3/10 of 1 percent to fill the jacuzzi and pressure wash the Hummer.  At least half of our local water consumption gets spent outdoors, just the place where a rain barrel can help.

We are an increasing population with increasing demands for water, and measurable strain is already being placed on our ground water and aquifer sources.  Particularly in Florida, we are using too much potable water and wasting much of it.  The word is out that if enough people start using rain barrel water for some of their needs, it can make a significant difference in water consumption. 

And while you’re at it, why not turn them into ART!

Happy Arbor Day!  Great day to plant a tree in Eustis.

Were you aware that Eustis is a Tree City, as recognized by the National Arbor Day Foundation?  Yes we are.  But there’s always room for more canopy, and this year the City of Eustis celebrated Arbor Day by giving away some 300 3-gallon Live Oak trees to anybody willing to plant them inside the city.

Trees are great!  A fully-grown Live Oak can transpire 40,000 gallons of water into the atmosphere every year.  Of course that could be 30 years from now–they’re not exactly speedy growers.  But that’s okay.  Look around town at the Live Oaks we currently enjoy and remember that somebody planted them and cared for them just so we could have them now…

Could have been the City of Eustis.  Last year the Public Works Department, under the able leadership of John Futch, facilitated the planting of over 200 trees throughout city parks and along the streets.  Keep growing that canopy! 

Many of us have replaced the incandescent bulbs in our lights with higher efficiency compact fluorescents (CFLs).  Last night the question came up, “what to do when they burn out?”

While CFLs for your home are not legally considered hazardous waste according to federal solid waste rules, it is still best for the environment to keep them out of our landfills.  Treat them like you would batteries or motor oil and deliver them to the Household Hazardous Waste Center at the Astatula landfill–or catch the mobile unit as it bops around the community picking such stuff up (2008 mobile schedule).

Most of you know that CFLs contain mercury, which is unhealthy stuff to snort or use as hand lotion.  However the amount contained is pretty small, about 4-5 mgs.  Still, if you break one, you want to exercise some caution.  The EPA recommends that you:

1. Immediately open windows to reduce risk from mercury vapors in your home.
2. Do not touch the spilled mercury.
3. Clean up the broken CFL glass carefully and immediately (but not with your hands or a vacuum cleaner.
4. Wipe the area with a damp paper towel to remove all glass fragments and mercury.
5. Seal any paper towels and fragments in a plastic bag and deliver it to the Household Hazardous Waste site.

And something else to consider…

Because they are so energy efficient, requiring far less consumption than their incandescent counterparts, CFL bulbs go a long way towards reducing potential mercury pollution from the single largest U.S. source: coal-fired power plants.

Many of us have had questions about how this works, so I did some sleuthing…

In a standard example, where you install photovoltaic panels on your house to offset some of your energy requirements, Progress Energy will:

1. Furnish, install and maintain the metering equipment to measure the kWh’s produced.
2. Credit your account for kWh’s produced in excess of your usage requirements.  The amount of the credit is based on ‘as-available energy costs.’  This would have averaged $.0547 per kWh during 2007, but is likely to grow given the rising costs of energy.

You are responsible for:

1. Paying a $95 application fee.
2. Carrying property liability insurance of at least $100k.
3. Passing a local building code inspection of your PV system.
4. Installing a manual disconnect switch that breaks the connection to the grid.
5. Taking care of your own equipment and keeping it serviced.

See full interconnection procedures at http://www.progress-energy.com/environment/ras/florida.asp

Other government incentives are available as well.  Rebates from the State of Florida are up to $20k for residential systems and up to $100k for commercial.  However, this year’s funds are all gone and there are already 1,541 approved applications awaiting the release of next year’s funds on July 1, 2008, so don’t be in a hurry to get your money.  http://www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/energyact/solar.htm

Federal incentives allow for a tax credit (better than a deduction!) of 30% of the PV system cost up to $2k.  http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/media/enews/2007/2007-07_EPAct2005-R1.htm

As energy costs rise, and PV technology prices fall, this may be something most of us are pursuing at some point.

Some time back our daughter, a student at USF in St. Pete, gave us a cloth grocery bag she had gotten at her local Publix.  She used the cloth bags consistently and urged us to do the same. 

Well, one bag will only take you so far, and my wife spoke with the folks at the Eustis Publix on Hwy 19 about getting some more.  Initially they weren’t aware of the bags, and didn’t think they could get them through Publix.  But she showed them our bag, with the logo emblazoned on the side, and it was apparent there was a disconnect somewhere.

Shortly after they came through with some fresh new Publix bags and began making them available to all their customers.  So come on, customers, get on the stick!

The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic bags each year.  It takes 12 million barrels of oil to make those bags and the cost (passed along to everyone) runs about $4 billion annually.  In NYC alone, one less grocery bag per person each year would reduce waste by 109 tons and free up 1200 barrels of oil.

Hundreds of thousands of marine animals die every year from eating plastic bags mistaken for food.  Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, it photodegrades–breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, contaminating soil and waterways and showing up in our food chain.

So shop at our local Publix, get some cloth bags of your own, and train yourself to stow them in your car when you’ve unloaded your groceries.  That way you’ll always have them available when you need them.

Last Sunday, Trout Lake Nature Center celebrated 20 years of service to the community with a festive reunion for years of volunteers.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget that right at the edge of Eustis sits the only nature center of this kind in the county, educating all ages on the rich flora and fauna native to our part of the state.

With 230 acres of wildlife preserve and 1,000 feet of “get close to nature” boardwalk, the volunteers and supporters who staff and maintain the Center have gradually and consistently expanded the value they bring to this community.  During 2006, some 2,500 school kids had the opportunity to take their science education into the wild.  And during that same year another 2,500 folks took advantage of opportunities to reconnect with the biological cornucopia that is Central Florida.

The mission of Trout Lake Nature Center is “To instill a knowledge and appreciation of the natural world and to teach stewardship to the environment.” 

What a fantastic reason for being. 

To accomplish this mission, the Center opens its doors to the public at no charge and promotes educational opportunities for all ages.  Like so many worthwhile endeavors, it’s the steadfast commitment of people willing to give of themselves that makes it work.

Happy anniversary and many thanks to the givers and doers at Trout Lake Nature Center.

The other side lets you know…

How much effort does it require not to throw something on the ground or out a car window?  Must be a huge self-control issue for a lot of folks because there never seems to be a shortage of litter.  

I am so completely baffled by the propensity of my fellow travelers to do this.  Do they grow up as the children of abstract artists, and a slurpee cup splashed across the parking lot is just their creative way of contributing to the global mosaic?  More likely they’re self-absorbed pinheads with an inability to appreciate anything they can’t eat or watch on tv.

Mostly, however, it’s just frustrating.  Consider all the time, effort and money so many people in this community are contributing towards keeping Eustis a desirable place to live, and how easy it would be to make an immediate improvement if people would just stop throwing crap on the ground.  The Florida Dept. of Transportation spends about $10M annually to clean up roadside trash, with local govts spending thousands more on local roads.  What a waste.

Eminent people with psychology degrees have concluded that people litter because: 

1. They feel no sense of ownership to public property

 (translation: ”there’s nothing in it for me” ).

1. They believe someone else will pick up after them

(“I don’t want to deprive some poor guy of a job” ).

1. Litter has already accumulated

(“like one more beer can’s gonna make a difference” ).

1. It’s convenient

(“hey, I’m a busy guy with places to be” ).

 So I guess we will continue to pick up after our countrymen, and not let ourselves get discouraged.  A road crew in Tampa last November found two trash bags stuffed with 60 pounds of pot.  $54,000 according to the Tribune.  Just think of it as a lottery.

On average, studies have shown that U.S. homeowners use about 50% more water outdoors than indoors, and lawn irrigation accounts for nearly half the potable water used in South Florida.  Michael Dukes, a researcher at the University of Florida, has found the use of rain sensors resulted in water savings ranging from 69% to 92% compared to grass watered without the help of sensors.

And as the technology has advanced and interest grown, prices are coming down accordingly.  Rain sensors, the simplest devices, generally cost between $20 and $50, while the more complex soil moisture sensors run anywhere between $150 and $250.  They hook right into existing home irrigation systems (some calibration required) and work happily with little additional attention from you.

Unfortunately, calls to our local Home Depot and Lowe’s elicited replies of “Huh?” and “Never heard of ‘em.”  So access may be limited to the internet for the time being, unless we can talk Roy into carrying them at his Ace Hardware stores.

In the meantime, try www.sprinklerwarehouse.com for a breakdown on sensor options from Hunter, Weathermatic, Rain Bird, Toro and Nelson.

Creating RubeLab is an undertaking which will certainly have its fair share of i’s and t’s which must be attended. These early stages carry with them a bucket of decisions which must be made, and which will ultimately shape the organization’s course towards its mission. RubeLab’s board is Bill Ferree, Andrika Donovan, Taylor Johnson, Lou Arasi and James Sims. These folks have all stepped up and are shouldering the responsibility for wrestling with the i’s and t’s.  We’re lucky to have them.

One thing about good planners is they tend to be careful. They realize the implications of what they’re doing and they take that responsibility seriously. They work to mitigate risk. This focus naturally introduces a measure of caution in which decisions are considered in light of “what could go wrong and how can we prevent that?”

The challenge is that this endeavor, a “community-created environmental innovation incubator in the middle of Eustis,” isn’t a cautious idea. It’s a bold, timely, opportunistic, challenging and kind of whacky idea. No real examples out there of how it should be done. We’re on our own.

The design of RubeLab is underway and I don’t think it’s a stretch to think our success will hinge on creativity and innovation in that design as much as in the ideas and inventions we hope to attract and support.

I know. Every endeavor requires a measure of caution. I just think we should work to minimize it here, I don’t believe it will prove to be a friend to RubeLab.