Wake Tech Expands “Green” Technology Training
RALEIGH, N.C. – Wake Technical Community College announces two new programs in the rapidly-expanding field of “green” technology. The eight-week programs are designed to prepare workers for jobs that focus on home energy efficiency and “smart” home technology. The programs are free for unemployed and under-employed workers who qualify.
Students who complete the programs are awarded certificates demonstrating proficiency in the following areas:
● Smart Home Technology: The “smart” home includes devices
that automate lighting and manage energy consumption. In this program, students will learn to install energy-efficient lighting, temperature, and water systems and to perform post-installation service and maintenance.
● Home Analyst for Safety and Energy Savings: The Home Analyst
program provides the skills to evaluate energy usage through a complete home audit, and to make recommendations to homeowners about how to achieve greater energy efficiency.
The new programs, which begin March 29 at Wake Tech’s Plastics Technology Center in Zebulon, are supported by a $20,000 grant from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund. They expand Wake Tech’s existing green technology offerings, which include programs in alternative fuels, hybrid vehicle technologies, and green building fundamentals.
Unemployed and under-employed workers, including former tobacco farmers and other displaced agriculture workers, may qualify for free tuition by completing a Career Readiness assessment. For more information, visit http://greenjobs.waketech.edu.
Wake Residents Invited to Environmental Summit
NEW HILL, N.C. – On Saturday, March 20, the New Hill Community Association, in conjunction with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, will host a summit on environmental justice and environmental racism at the First Baptist Church New Hill from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Currently Site 14, which is located in the New Hill historic district, is the preferred location for the Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facility, causing great concern among New Hill residents and their supporters. The Environmental Justice Summit will focus on the history and legacy of environmental racism in North Carolina, and on environmental consequences that Site 14 will place on the New Hill community.
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Pig Power
Winston-Salem Journal Editorial
North Carolinians may soon be thanking pigs for powering their light bulbs.
The state’s electric utilities are looking for business partners that will convert swine waste into electricity. They’ll pay more than they spend, themselves, to generate power from coal, natural gas or nuclear fuel. But the cost will hardly be recognizable on utility bills.
Duke Energy residential customers are expected to pay 16 cents more each month.
North Carolina is on the verge of realizing some of the benefits of 2007 legislation that aims to reduce the burning of fossil fuels in power plants. The legislation requires the state’s utilities, over the coming decade, to hit benchmarks for the use of a number of alternative fuels. One is swine waste, and the utilities must produce .07 percent of their electricity from it next year. That share rises to .14 percent in 2015 and .20 percent in 2018.
According to a report on the Carolina Journalism Network, an online publication at UNC Chapel Hill, the utilities hope farmers will put swine waste into bioreactors and convert it to a biofuel and organic fertilizer. The biofuel will produce electricity, and the fertilizer can be used or sold.
If the whole process works, everyone wins. The swine waste now stored in lagoons, which is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, will be put to a good use producing clean electricity. The air around farms will not smell as bad because the lagoons will be capped. And farmers should generate new cash from the sale of both electricity and fertilizer.
There’s even a possibility that such processes will increase the number of hogs that any individual farmer can raise.
The primary beneficiary will be North Carolina’s environment. As swine waste sits in lagoons, it releases climate-changing gases. And, as hurricanes approach our coast every fall, the threat of a catastrophic lagoon spill only increases. In heavy rains, lagoons have burst in the past, dumping their waste into rivers and streams.
The 2007 law was a major step forward for North Carolina. Although similar legislation had passed in other parts of the country, this act was the first of its kind in the Southeast.
The utilities aren’t exactly sure of what they will get in their search for bids. But there’s a very good chance that the swine waste-to-fuel industry, which for so long has been a distant promise, is ready to get started.
It may be years before a significant amount of electricity is generated in this fashion. But we’re on our way. And, considering the number of hogs in this state, there’s almost no limit to the potential here.
Snows Heat Up Warming Debate
by Media General News Service
Some people seem to think this winter’s snows prove that global warming is a bunch of hot air.
They are wrong, the experts say.
“That is totally a red herring,” said Jerry Stenger, director of the University of Virginia’s climatology office.
“That’s just silly,” said Jim Kinter, a meteorologist and part-time George Mason University faculty member.
It’s no more legitimate to say the East Coast’s recent heavy snows disprove global warming than to say Vancouver’s unusual warmth at the start of the Olympics proves it.
People who make those kinds of leaps are confusing weather — what’s happening outside — with climate, which is average conditions over a long time, the experts said.
If anything, Kinter said, global warming might — and he emphasized “might” — have contributed to this year’s snows.
Here’s how:
To get snow, you need a collision of warm, moist air with cold, dry air. Global warming might have helped produce extra moisture, and that could have resulted in extra snow, Kinter said.
But the main culprits behind this winter’s snows, Kinter said, are two well-known meteorological phenomena: the Arctic Oscillation, an expansion and contraction of cold air over the North Pole, and El Niño, a warming every few years of the tropical Pacific Ocean.
This winter, the Arctic Oscillation has sent cold air down from the north, particularly in December and February, and El Niño has increased the likelihood of severe coastal storms from Virginia through New England, Kinter said.
“To use the trite phrase, it’s the perfect storm for getting blizzards on the East Coast,” Kinter said. He is director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, a Calverton, Md., nonprofit dedicated to climate research.
Stenger said: “When we look at global climate change, one of the things we look at is globally average temperatures. When you’re looking at your backyard, that’s not the globe.”
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Are you Participating in Earth Hour?
On March 27, millions of people will turn off their lights for an hour at 8:30 p.m. 
It’s a worldwide effort focused on improving the climate and reducing our carbon footprints. And hey, you might actually see a few more stars with the lights off.
Check out an interactive map to see which state governments are participating. So far, North Carolina isn’t on the list, but in its newsletter, the city of Fayetteville said officials will use timers turning off government building lights.
From the Fayetteville newsletter: “We are committed to doing everything we can to helping our environment and this is an easy way to send that message,” said Jerry Dietzen, the City’s Environmental Services director and local Earth Hour coordinator. “We need citizens’ assistance with Earth Hour and urge them to participate. And we hope that more people are educated by this event, so that they will turn their lights off when they can throughout the year in order to have a cleaner climate.
Sustainable Sandhills will be at Fourth Friday signing people up for its Conservation Assistance Project, which helps low-income and elderly residents with measures like installing energy efficient light bulbs and low-flow showerheads and replacing air filters.
Learn More About Earth Hour.
Steel Recycling
Raleigh
Sam’s Wholesale Club
Location – 2537 South Saunders Street Raleigh, North Carolina
Zip code 27603
Raleigh Metal Recycling
Location – 2310 Garner Rd Raleigh, NC Zip code 27610
Phone. 919 614 5426
Jaycee Park Recycling Drop-Off Center
Location – 2405 Wade Ave Raleigh, NC Zip code 27607
Phone. 919 831 6522
Durham
S. Swartz and Son, Inc
Location – 217 South Holman St Durham, NC Zip code 27701
Phone. 919 682 0429
City of Durham Waste Disposal and Recycling Center
Location – 2115 E Club Blvd Durham, North Carolina Zip code 27704
Phone. 919 560 4611
Raleigh Residents Reminded To Recycle
Landfill
The City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services Department wants to remind Capital City residents that North Carolina state law prohibits the disposal of aluminum cans and plastic bottles in all landfills in North Carolina.
Cash for Clunky Appliances
Soon, you can trade in your old dryer for a more efficient model, and get money back from the government.
From April 22, which is Earth Day, through April 25, individuals replacing an old appliance with a new Energy Star-rated refrigerator, freezer, clothes washer or dishwasher will receive an instant 15 percent rebate in addition to any store, manufacturer or other discounts. People may receive more than one rebate if they buy different appliances.
The U.S. Department of Energy is financing state appliance-rebate programs with $300 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Each state receives an amount proportionate to its population; North Carolina’s share is $8.8 million.
The N.C. Energy Office is working with the N.C. Retail Merchants Association, and most major retail chains and independent appliance dealers are expected to participate in the program.
If all the money is not used in April, the state plans to offer a 15 percent mail-in rebate in June for the same kinds of appliances. 
In addition, people who buy Energy Star residential gas-storage water heaters, gas tankless water heaters, electric heat-pump water heaters, solar water heaters with gas or electric backup, central air conditioners, air-source heat pumps and gas furnaces to replace older items will also be eligible for a mail-in rebate. The planned amounts of those rebates are $200 for water heaters and $300 for gas furnaces, air-source heat pumps and central air conditioners.
Retailers are required to recycle old appliances in accordance with state laws, according to the federal Energy Department.
Raleigh Reminds: Recycle
Did you know that North Carolina state law prohibits the disposal of aluminum cans and plastic bottles in all landfills in the state? 
Raleigh officials sent out a press release today to remind people to recycle instead of tossing those cans and bottles.
If you live in the city, you can drop those pieces in a green bin at your curb.
Starting Friday, Feb. 26, “Recycle Instead!” decals will start appearing on the lids of the garbage carts around Raleigh. City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services collection crews will apply the decals to the lids of garbage carts so that every time they open the lid to toss something in they will be reminded to recycle bottles and cans.
The crews will apply the decals during regular collection days. It will take several months to get labels on the garbage carts for more than 114,000 households.
Funding for the decals was provided by a a partnership sponsored by the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (NCDPPEA), the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers, Duke Energy and cities and counties. participating in the promotion.
Report: Coal Ash Fouling N.C. Waters
By Lisa O’Donnell.
Media General News Service
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Coal ash from Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County and five other places in North Carolina is contaminating the state’s rivers, wetlands, creeks and groundwater, according to an analysis released yesterday by two nonprofit environmental organizations.
The six are among 31 waste sites in 14 states that Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project identified as causing coal-ash contamination.
Officials with the two groups said during a teleconference that these sites should be added to a list of 70 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has already identified as part of a process to define coal ash as a hazardous material.
If a definition is established, federal regulations on its disposal will follow. However, that process is tied up in the Office of Management and Budget, according to Jeff Stant, who works for the Environmental Integrity Project.
“This problem needs an immediate national solution in the form of federally enforceable standards that protect every community near coal-ash dump sites,” Stant said. “The data are overwhelming, and these 31 sites sound a clear warning that the EPA must heed before much more damage is done.”
Coal ash is a powdery substance that is the byproduct of burning coal for energy. It contains such metals and chemicals as arsenic, mercury and selenium.
Using data submitted by Duke Energy Corp. to the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, the report found coal-combustion waste in the Belews Creek plant’s two landfills – the now-closed Pine Hall Road landfill and the newly permitted Craig Road landfill. Both landfills are about a mile from the plant.
Contamination was also found in the wells at the plant’s flue-gas desulfurization residue landfill, which stores the waste produced by scrubbers, according to the report. Scrubbers help control air pollution. Duke Energy added two scrubbers in 2008 to reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions.
Andy Thompson, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said that the company did exceed state groundwater standards at the Pine Hall landfill, and in response, worked with the state to place a synthetic cap over the landfill.
He said he did not know about the findings at the two other landfills.
“We’ll have to look into that,” he said. “I’m not sure where they were getting their data. We need to do more investigation on that.”
The other North Carolina sites listed in the report are:
• The Asheville Steam Electric Plant in Buncombe County.
• The Sutton Steam Plant in Wilmington.
• The Lee Steam Plant in Goldsboro.
• The Cape Fear Steam Plant in Moncure.
• A landfill in Rocky Mount.
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