Compiled by Cameron Lawrence and Bruce Allar
The Grading Process
Louisville Magazine convened a panel of experts on various environmental issues to assess what the city is doing well and what it is doing poorly in 10 “green” subject areas. The focus was on where we as a community stand during this pivotal moment on the planet, as reports on global warming and other human-caused environmental changes are mandating that all of us re-examine our impact on the earth.
The panel met for a preliminary session to select the categories for grading and trade information on them. Members then were given a couple of weeks to do further research and file a preliminary grade. Those marks were passed among the panelists, who convened for a second, two-hour-plus session to discuss differences in their grades. By e-mail the following week, they submitted their final grades, which were averaged to get the composite grades reported here.
After the final grades had been assigned, the panelists met for a third time to participate in a roundtable discussion to further amplify Louisville’s environmental status. Extensive comments from that roundtable are presented on page 50. Some of the comments from that session are included in the discussion that follow on specific grades, as is information from the second meeting’s free flow of opinions on each of the report card’s subjects. The Editors
Report Card
Energy: D+
The consumption of fossil-fuel energy relates directly to issues of global warming and climate change, which makes it a major barometer of a community’s “green” status. Because Louisville is so dependent on electricity from coal-fired power plants and a lifestyle driven by petroleum-burning vehicles, it is far from the forefront in any switches to alternative, cleaner energy sources.
Some of the panelists took Louisville to task for not engaging in serious conversations — and not taking serious actions — to combat its fossil-fuel dependencies. One member mentioned the Partnership for a Green City, formed in 2004 among Metro Government, the University of Louisville and the Jefferson County Public Schools, all major energy users. Noting that the partnership had not yet appointed any staff dedicated to its green programs, the panelist expressed frustration that “there’s not anybody within Metro Government who’s in charge of the Green City program.” (The three partners have recently agreed to jointly fund a position for a full-time coordinator for Green City, with dollars to become available July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.)
Kentucky’s coal-based economy makes major change difficult at power plants, which burn coal mined in the state and produce cheap electricity, on which industry and residents have become reliant. One positive: Metro Government has converted the 600-plus stoplights in the old city limits from incandescent bulbs to LED lighting, which has a high initial cost but eventually saves because it uses 80 percent less energy.
Initiatives to trim automobile and truck traffic have been lacking here, due in part to lower population densities and Louisville’s status as a mid-size city, which do not place a great emphasis on mass transit. One panelist mentioned that the biggest immediate change in energy consumption cities can make is retrofitting old buildings with more efficient insulation, windows, heating and cooling units and other technologies such as solar panels. So far, activity on this front has been slow in Louisville even though it has been reported that buildings account for 50 to 70 percent of energy consumption in cities.
Where other cities — and in some cases utilities serving those areas — are providing more assistance for energy-efficiency upgrades, not much is being done here yet. But panelists noted that actions and discussions are beginning on these fronts. Credit was given for improvements in hydroelectric power generation capabilities at the McAlpine Locks and Dam, which is being bumped from an 80- to a 96-megawatt capacity; for modest increases in hybrid vehicles and cleaner fuels in fleets operated by public entities; and for energy audits at low costs through local utilities. Talk of making the soon-to-be-constructed downtown arena energy efficient also drew praise.
Air Quality: C+
Located in the Ohio River Valley, Louisville has long been susceptible to stagnant air and the buildup of ozone and other harmful pollutants. As a manufacturing center with industrial emissions, the city also has been confronted with the releases of toxic chemicals into its atmosphere. Add to that our region’s heavy reliance on burning coal for electricity and a car-loving culture and it’s easy to see why one panelist said, “We can’t say our air is good. It isn’t.”
Our panel emphasized two major messages on air quality: On the one hand, the city’s air is better than it was a decade ago; on the other, we have a long way to go to have clean air that is healthy to breathe.
Panelists noted three major air quality issues. Though the city has made progress, Louisville does not yet meet federal standards for ground-level ozone, the principle component of smog, formed when certain pollutants from automobile exhaust, coal-burning power plants and other sources combine on hot, sunny days. Ozone can aggravate breathing problems among asthmatics and others with respiratory problems, and in the elderly. (The city has an “attainment” status petition pending with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but tougher ozone standards are coming that may again change the way Louisville is rated.)
The city also currently exceeds federal standards for fine particulates, the source of the haze that reduces visibility in polluted cities. Here, fine particulates come chiefly from coal-burning utility plants and industrial plants. They can cause health problems for certain susceptible individuals. A third area of concern is air toxics, chemicals released by utilities and motor vehicles as well as industry, which can have long-term health effects, including an increased risk of cancer. A 2000-2001 air monitoring study in the city’s West End revealed levels of air toxics hundreds of times higher than what the EPA considers safe. In some cases, levels of air toxics were higher than those recorded anywhere in the country.
Across the board, panelists gave an A-plus to the city’s new Strategic Toxic Air Reduction (STAR) program, a comprehensive clean-up effort pushed into existence by Mayor Jerry Abramson, the Air Pollution Control District (APCD), the Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development at the University of Louisville and an amalgam of citizen groups. If kept in place, STAR is expected to drastically reduce air toxics by the year 2012. “It’s a tremendous feather in our cap,” said Carolyn Embry, “and it will set us apart as a national leader in air toxics control.”
Also praiseworthy are the city’s incentive program offering rebates to residents who purchase cleaner, electric-powered lawn mowers; the Metropolitan Sewer District’s use of natural-gas-powered motor vehicles in its fleet; APCD’s awards for “no-mow” landscaping methods; and LG&E’s early commitment to installing more pollution-control equipment at its plants.
However, several panelists gave a thumbs-down to the demise of Vehicle Emissions Testing in the county, the former VET program that kept some poorly maintained and heavily polluting cars and trucks off the road. The panel also expressed concern that many of us are driving more than we were a decade ago, offsetting gains made by more fuel-efficient and lower-emissions vehicles.
Because air quality is so important, said Embry, “we owe it to our community not to be self-satisfied.”
Water Quality: C+
Common urban water quality issues include “non-point” sources of pollution: runoff from paved and built-up areas that picks up dirt and pollutants on its way to waterways; erosion and sediment runoff from construction and road-building sites; inadequate or antiquated backyard septic systems; small sewer plants discharging untreated waste directly into rivers and lakes; and overflows of raw, untreated sewage into rivers from outdated, overloaded municipal sewer lines and storm drains, especially after heavy rains. Industrial “point” sources are also polluters, though easier to control than non-point sources. Louisville has had all of these problems to varying degrees.
While noting that the quality of municipal drinking water is very good here, the panel did not include tap water in its assessment, focusing instead on the health of area streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and aquifers. “We’re in a long recovery process from massive abuse of our local streams and the Ohio River,” said Gordon Garner. “We let it get about as bad as it could (get).”
Since 2005, the Metropolitan Sewer District has been under a consent decree, a settlement with the state and the federal government to address the city’s aging storm drain and sewer infrastructure. Louisville has agreed to sp/files/storyimages/as much as $500 million over the next 19 years to improve sewage treatment and storm water runoff, in time, according to state officials, reducing by nearly five million gallons each year the amount of untreated wastewater going into the Ohio River and local streams.
But as of now, local streams remain impaired and, at times, smell and look bad after storms. The Ohio River is under a fish-consumption advisory due to toxins in the catches from its waters. Bacterial contamination of local waterways makes swimming and other recreational uses risky. As across much of the state, there’s mercury contamination in local water bodies (probably from coal-fired power plants), and in many places flora and fauna are greatly compromised.
Also contributing to water contamination is the propensity in many neighborhoods for residents to use chemical lawn services. Golf courses that rely on herbicides and pesticides also pollute our waters. Homeowners who strip vegetation from the edges of streams and ponds for a manicured look contribute to erosion problems and to overheating the unshaded water, killing many aquatic organisms.
Among the good things happening across the region: The preservation of the Floyds Fork corridor is an A-plus, what one panelist called “the water equivalent of the STAR program.” Also, many of the city’s small, under-operating sewer plants have been closed and modern treatment plants have been added, expanded and upgraded. Miles of old sewer lines have been replaced.
“In 20, 30 or 40 years, you want your kids or your nieces and nephews to be able to splash in (a stream),” said Dan Jones. “You want them to be able to catch a fish. You want kids to be able to go out and pick up the rocks and find live creatures.”
“It’s going to take a lot of different thinking to get us there,” said Garner. “A lot of different behaviors than what we have now.”
Addressing Climate Change: C
To survive, we need the so-called “greenhouse effect,” a gift from gases like carbon dioxide in our atmosphere that modulate our climate by trapping heat and holding it in a kind of warm-air blanket around our planet. But at higher levels, greenhouse gases trap too much solar heat and raise the Earth’s temperature. That’s what’s happening, a by-product of our heavy burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline and oil — processes that release carbon dioxide into the air. Another contributor: massive deforestation around the planet taking down trees that absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Most experts agree that melting polar ice sheets, more severe storms and the spread of diseases like malaria to new regions are signs of global warming. Environmentalists say this is the most important environmental issue we face and that we must quickly reduce our “carbon footprint.”
While one judge gave an A for efforts under way, most of the panel gave the city very low marks in the realm of treating climate change as a priority. “I want nothing to do with a C,” said Sarah Lynn Cunningham, who felt an F was more appropriate.
Garner noted that while Louisville may be average in its efforts to address this issue, the average American city is doing almost nothing so far to change its rapacious fossil-fuel appetite. Mayor Abramson has signed The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which promises to pursue green land-use policies, urban reforestation and major greenhouse gas emission reductions. But so far there’s little happening here on the ground, said the panel. There’s been little commitment to developing renewable energy sources. We remain almost completely coal-dependent, and we’re destroying eastern Kentucky’s mountains and forests through strip-mining and mountaintop removal.
Few city residents have solar panels on their roofs, there are essentially no green building codes that encourage sustainable building practices and few government incentives to “go green,” according to panel members. And we’re as reliant as ever on cars as our chief mode of transportation.
As noted by one panelist, new houses are being built bigger than ever, with high square footages, multiple bathrooms and energy-guzzling appliances. Worth looking at: the city of Portland, Ore., often cited as one of the greenest cities in the nation. There, among other environmentally sound initiatives, incentive programs for building green houses, offices and developments are in place.
The panel praised Louisville’s green spaces — the city’s expansive parks; the Jefferson Memorial Forest, the largest city-owned urban forest in the nation; the new City of Parks initiative; and the Floyds Fork preservation effort — all helping to offset a heavy carbon footprint in other areas. Plus we’re improving access for pedestrians and cyclists, and there’s talk of reviving light rail discussions.
As one panelist noted, however, our lifestyle habits are “highly consumptive.” We’ll need more mass transit, green building codes and incentives, renewable energy sources, hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles, less driving, less sprawl and more smart growth. We’ll need to recognize our planet’s limits and pull together to address this ?urgent issue.
Land Use and Planning: C+
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, sprawling land development is grabbing the nation’s countryside at a rate of 365 acres per hour. This pattern of growth is heavily automobile-dependent (increasing air pollution and carbon emissions), it pollutes watersheds and streams (from chemicals as well as sediment), and it destroys farmland and open space. How well Louisville deals with this issue, as well as land re-use in its more urban areas, will play a role in determining the area’s green potential for the future.
In many ways, the land-use picture across the metro area is not pretty. Our urban sprawl is gobbling up open space and farmland, leading to more roads and traffic and polluted watersheds. One panelist went so far as to call the city’s land-use patterns “land abuse.”
“We’ve got a legacy of bad land-use practices,” said Garner. “We’re a long way from what would be called green development.”
Historically, the body now known as the Louisville Metro Planning Commission has been heavily weighted with development interests. That has changed to some degree, but “we have allowed developers to have their way with our community,” says Embry. Several panelists noted that the city’s Cornerstone 2020 plan, adopted in 2000 and touted at the time as a forward-thinking land-use strategy, has not been implemented well. Panelists pointed to too much sprawling development and too little focus on the best smart-growth strategies — concepts such as pedestrian-centered development, integrated mass transit and the preservation of outlying open spaces. The East End bridge project was pointed out for encouraging more development in the countryside while simultaneously sucking money away from other projects.
Our panel did note several bright spots, however. The city’s commitment to its parks, including the refurbishment of the Olmsted Parks, is “forward-thinking,” said one panelist. The 6,200-acre Jefferson Memorial Forest is a rare gem in an urban landscape. Waterfront Park has replaced an urban wasteland with an 85-acre oasis that lures 1.5 million visitors annually. And there’s more commitment now to pedestrian travel and to bike paths.
The panel singled out as especially noteworthy the innovative and unique City of Parks initiative, which will create a 100-mile recreational loop around the city; preserve at least 2,000 acres in the eastern and southeastern part of the county around Floyds Fork, a still-biologically diverse tributary of the Ohio River (in an area that’s developing quickly); the continued upgrade of existing parks; and the continued expansion of the Jefferson Memorial Forest. The effort is capturing national attention for its vision and progress.
Our panel also praised the Metro Planning Commission staff as “talented” and called the move to renew downtown living “an A-plus” and “exceeding expectations.” It called for more emphasis on smart growth and continued support for downtown housing.
Traffic and Transportation: D+
Cities built with automobile travel as the nearly exclusive mode of transport are not well positioned to make adjustments in the coming push to lessen our carbon footprints, which are tied heavily to petroleum burning. Louisville is one of those communities. Suburban sprawl, the need to drive a car to most errands and activities, and plans to emphasize bridge and freeway construction in the metro area all work against a perceived need to reduce the number of miles logged on the community’s roadways.
One panelist labeled Louisville “not visionary” and “reactive rather than proactive” on transportation issues. Since this is, by and large, still a relatively easy city to navigate by car, immediate pressures have been lacking to improve mass transit and promote alternative ways of moving people around. The de-emphasis of light rail, which was on the table in planning circles until recent years, was viewed by members of the panel as a major setback. And actions taken here to promote the use of clean fuels and hybrid vehicles were seen as lagging behind many other comparable cities.
Another member of the panel said that the $3.9 billion Ohio River bridges project is tying up all of the federal dollars available for transportation issues and absorbing the political clout of the area’s representatives in government. Devoted to auto and truck traffic, this project muscles out alternative ideas. The Louisville area’s partnership with the Kentucky Department of Transportation — “a poor co-dependent relationship,” one panelist said — draws this region into planning in Frankfort that has not been visionary about environmental issues.
On the plus side, panelists noted some green leadership at TARC, which has five hybrid buses and plans to add four more this summer. A master plan for bicycle routes in the city, part of the “Complete Streets” initiative, also drew praise, although the high number per capita of auto-on-pedestrian collisions here drew the characterization of Louisville as a “pedestrian-hostile” city.
Waste Management and Recycling: B
An environmentally sound program means drastically reducing how much waste we produce, recycling and re-using any materials we can, and then disposing of the leftovers in the least environmentally damaging manner. A comprehensive recycling program in a city saves landfill space, energy and natural resources.
Across the board, our panel gave the city high marks in this realm, largely because of the enthusiastic public embrace of recycling and Metro Government’s commitment to a comprehensive recycling program. “I’ve yet to visit another large U.S. city, except for Seattle, with recycling and composting programs as good as what Louisville has crafted,” noted one panelist.
Several years ago, the city closed its clunky old polluter, the Meriwether Avenue incinerator, and made way for environmentally friendly recycling. Within the Urban Services District (the old City of Louisville boundary), residents enjoy both curbside recycling and yard waste pick-up. Yard waste goes to a local compost facility and is made available later (after it “cooks”) for purchase by gardeners. Recyclables go into the marketplace to be made into a broad variety of products.
Some of the metro area’s smaller cities have their own programs for both recycling and yard waste. For suburban residents (outside the old City of Louisville boundary), there are several recyclables drop-off sites for use by all metro residents. In addition, solid-waste regulations require that private waste-haulers (used most often by those in the outlying areas) must offer recycling and yard waste pick-up to any customer who requests it.
The city’s recycling program expanded recently and now accepts a long list of materials, including several kinds of paper, glass, metal and aluminum, plastics marked with numbers 1-7, and batteries. CyberCycle, for recycling electronics such as computers, printers, monitors, scanners and other items, was launched last year at the Louisville Waste Reduction Center on Meriwether Avenue. The program is the first year-round electronics recycling program in the state. The HazBin program for collecting household hazardous materials was called “a very good start” by one panelist, though it is in an out-of-the-way location with limited hours.
One other innovation: The methane gas from the county’s Outer Loop landfill is collected and sold to industrial customers.
Environmental Equity: C
Some neighborhoods — often those with a high percentage of minority citizens and lower socio-economic status — are more exposed to the waste and poisons of our consumption-based society. Environmental inequity takes into account the presence of chemical plants, heavy industry, utilities, incinerators and landfills near those neighborhoods.
Panelists agreed this is an important social-justice issue. Environmental equity can also affect a city’s overall green profile. Historically, cleanup efforts have been delayed or nonexistent when the pollution is in minority and lower-income neighborhoods.
This was the case with Rubbertown in the city’s West End, the huge industrial tract that’s home to 11 chemical plants. Residents complained for decades of bad smells, high rates of asthma and other lung ailments, and other health problems. Only in the last decade have those complaints been taken seriously, leading to the air-monitoring study that confirmed high levels of toxic chemicals in the air.
“As long as we have individuals anywhere in Jefferson County who are more exposed to any type of pollution than any others, we have an environmental equity problem,” said Arnita Gadson. “It’s improving, but we are not where we should be.”
“And it’s more than (toxic) exposure,” said Garner. “It’s access to life, to green things, the same access to trees and parks and things that link us to our environment.”
Promising developments include the STAR program, slated to substantially reduce Rubbertown pollution by the year 2012 and the City of Parks initiative, which includes a 100-mile recreational loop that will circle the entire city and expand green space options, some of them near lower-income areas.
Environmental Leadership: C+
Progress on green issues must come from several segments of the community, including government and the public sector, business and private citizens. The panel incorporated all of these groups during the grading process.
Several members of our panel held citizen groups up as providing the best examples of environmental leadership in Louisville, pointing particularly to the efforts to clean up the city’s air. “We wouldn’t have a STAR program today if it wasn’t for the groundwork laid by the West Jefferson County Community Task Force,” said Embry. That group pushed the air-monitoring study that revealed alarming levels of toxic chemicals emanating from Rubbertown. Another noteworthy group, Rubbertown Emergency Action, maintained pressure for STAR’s passage. Also cited were the American Lung Association, for its longstanding work on air-quality issues, and the local chapter of the Sierra Club.
“I think the mayor (Jerry Abramson) gets credit where credit is due,” added Embry. “He proposed STAR and he stood behind it.” Embry also lauded the leadership of the Air Pollution Control District.
Panel members noted environmental lawyer Tom Fitzgerald’s decades-long commitment to environmental causes as well as the work of the Kentucky Waterways Alliance for its work on the preservation of the Floyds Fork watershed in the eastern part of the county.
They also praised the Courier-Journal newspaper for its commitment to coverage of environmental issues, largely through the work of environmental reporter Jim Bruggers. They also held up the innovative, important City of Parks initiative as well as the community’s support for farmers’ markets and local, sustainable agriculture.
But several panel members chided government officials and business generally for a lack of vision and leadership on environmental causes. There are relatively few green businesses here, unlike more recognizably green cities. Traditionally, few developers here have incorporated smart-growth principles in their buildings and designs. Until recently, transportation planning has failed in key areas, including the decisions to take light rail off the table and not to explore other areas of mass or alternative transit; placing all emphasis on interstate bridge-building and Spaghetti Junction reconstruction — as well as partnering with the nonprogressive Kentucky Department of Transportation — were seen as increasing the area’s costly reliance on automobiles. And the demise of the VET (vehicle emissions testing program) struck one panelist as “politically wimpy” and irresponsible.
One promising initiative is The Partnership for a Green City, a cooperative effort among Louisville Metro government, the Jefferson County Public Schools and the University of Louisville, launched in 2004. The goal is a greener vision for the city through stronger environmental education, energy efficiency, waste reduction, pollution control and management efforts. The panel noted, however, that accomplishments so far have been limited.
It’s going to take efforts on several fronts — government regulation, private initiatives, partnerships and citizen action — to go where we need to go, noted the panel.
Environmental Education: B
In the wake of Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, the recently released U.N.-sponsored report on massive global impacts of climate change and other developments, Americans are becoming more aware of environmental issues. Louisville is participating in that awakening, which may lead to improvements in the other categories on this report card.
While one panelist questioned how the community could rate a B in environmental education when all other grades were C or lower, the majority felt that good things are happening to raise the awareness of local residents. Both public and private elementary and secondary schools were applauded for the success of their efforts — sometimes with few resources — to teach environmental subjects. The Louisville Science Center, noted one panelist, has reinvented itself, and in the process become a good learning center on the environment. Most adults get their education through the media, and the Courier-Journal received praise for its recent coverage on green issues. Television news stations, on the other hand, were discredited because of their propensities to sound bites and lack of depth.
One drawback: The Louisville area, like Kentucky, tends to have a less-educated population when compared with the rest of the nation on all issues, and that would be expected to hold true for environmental ones as well.
