How One Community Removes Pollutants from Water for Recycling

Kiawah Island Community Association staff member Connie Samford was unhappy that chemicals from sprayer’s cleanouts could contaminate the ground. She was also concerned that waste water from the wash stand for association vehicles could end up in the community’s storm drainage system and, ultimately into association’s ponds. She is now recycling the water the association uses for washing its chemical tanks and its vehicles. 

Connie purchased a recycling water recycling system, which places water with oils, pollutants and pesticides-any carbon based compounds-into a tank that uses bio-organisms to consume them, break them down and excrete waste made of carbon dioxide and water. The resulting “clean” water, while not potable, is reused in chemical mix tanks and for washing vehicles on a special wash rack that captures all water (again for recycling, with nothing spilling upon the ground). 

For land and lake maintenance and overall management of the 10,000-acre community, Connie uses a 1,000 gallon, three-stage recycling system. The bio-organisms that are used for the process are replenished monthly, but she purchases a 12-month supply to receive a discount and, therefore, needs to keeps it refrigerated. You can learn more about the manufacturer at www.wmaze.com. 

Connie is feels that she has made a positive difference in her community that has helped everyone. You may reach her at Connie.Samford@kica.us

Man Versus Car–Property Management Takes on Traffic

Arlington-Potomac Yards

My name is Gabriel Ortiz, and I work for Legum & Norman, a professional management company based in Alexandria, Virginia. When it comes to associations and the environment, my job highlights the unique role associations, developers and management companies can play in working toward a more sustainable environment. 

The Washington, DC metropolitan area’s traffic is legendary. So, when the redevelopment of the old Potomac Rail Yards, a prime area of land just across the river from Washington, DC began, a transportation management plan was a required element of the development process. Arlington County, Virginia officials wanted to make sure that this massive project would not clog existing roadways and hamper the transportation infrastructure of their small but very populous urban County.  With more private office space than downtown Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Denver, Arlington County is a booming municipality.  However, as anyone knows, where there is office space there is bound to be parking, and where there is parking, there are going to be automobiles.  More automobiles translate to more traffic congestion and inevitably more pollution, smog and harmful greenhouse gases.  In an effort to be proactive against this inevitable influx of automobiles, Arlington County asked Potomac Yard developers of Potomac Yards to create a Transportation Management Association (TMA).

A TMA is a nonprofit organization formed by partnerships between the private and public sector to address collectively transportation issues. A number of TMAs have been very successful in implementing Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies.  One Department of Transportation official eloquently defined TDM as, “the art of influencing traveler behavior for the purpose of reducing or redistributing travel demand.” 

Transportation Demand Management Strategies

In basic terms, TDM is all about finding ways to get people to stop driving alone or to ditch their cars all together, and to switch to more sustainable forms of transportation to get from point A to point B. One example of a TDM strategy is a company creating a telework program for its employees to work from home. Another example of a TDM strategy is a company giving its employees incentives to live within walking distance of their office.

After establishing The Potomac Yard Transportation Management Plan Association (TMPA), the developers of this mixed-use development now needed someone to manage the day-to-day business of this Association. And that’s were I come in:  I work for Legum & Norman Reality, Inc. (L&N). L&N’s primary businesses are community association management, multi-family rental management, facility services, consulting, and brokerage. In other words, we work to build the human infrastructure that makes up a community. Our experience in managing communities has positioned us to bring together the many players it will require to make the Potomac Yards TMPA a success.

As new properties and community associations grow, municipalities are insisting that developers and homeowner associations find ways to make commuting more efficient and to decrease the impact their new communities will have on roadways and the local environment.  As the property management company for several of these newly developed associations, L&N has aided developers and associations to help them satisfy the stringent Transportation Demand Management mandates and requirements local governments have placed on them.

On the FAST Track

L&N is moving forward with implementing the TMPA through a program named FAST. FAST stands for Full Access Solutions in Transportation for Potomac Yards.

FAST is currently crafting strategies that would help attain our goal of reducing congestion, pollution and increasing transit options. Carpool, vanpool, and bus subsidy programs have been established to expand a commuter’s options.  Each program has built in incentives to help nudge commuters to start sharing rides or to use public transportation.  L&N is currently working on program for FAST to encourage Potomac Yards employees to walk to work.

The concept is fairly simple for this program – lease a unit in the nearby apartments located five minutes walking distance away from work, and FAST will pay for a month’s worth of rent.  The added bonus:  you get to walk to work!  FAST plans to start a telework program for employers and their workers.   With innovative programs supported by constant marketing and promotions, FAST hopes to deliver Potomac Yards employees and residents as much information and options as possible on how to live well without a car. 

In addition, by reducing vehicle trips in the area, FAST will also help Potomac Yards and Arlington become an even more livable, clean, and eco-friendly place to live, work, and play.

My Green Community

Marilyn Blizard and Passive Solar Design

To get the most from her Kiawah Island home, Marilyn Blizard thought “sun.” The bountiful sunlight on the island was used to heat and cool her home and reduce energy use. More importantly, the energy from the sun made her house comfort-able all year round.

There are two types of solar design systems – passive and active. Marilyn focused on passive solar design because the basic design principles and elements are easily incorporated into the Kiawah Island home site design process. In fact, many historic homes in nearby Charleston, South Carolina, use these concepts for cooling today.

Marilyn’s home uses the natural movement of heat and air to maintain comfortable temperatures, operating with little or no mechanical assistance, although she also has a closed loop geothermal system to heat and cool. This passive solar design of the home maximizes the benefits it receives from the sun with standard construction features. Passive solar also takes advantage of the island community’s breezes, and the island’s east-west orientation provides a number of home sites with southern exposures.

Landscape features on Marilyn’s lot, such as native shade trees and natural windbreaks, help to keep temperatures in the home moderate. In addition, passive solar uses a simple system to collect and store solar energy with no switches or controls.

Although building a passive solar home takes careful planning, Marilyn says it’s relatively simple if one uses the following principles and guidelines:

• Orientation – Because the sun rides lower in the southern sky in the cooler months, there is no substitute for a building site with a southern exposure to assist with heating. Studies have found that orienting a house within 20 degrees of the south can cut a home’s total energy use by 30 to 40%. It is important that the areas most frequently used in your home are included in this southern exposure. Still, the electric cost to cool a home in this southern community is much greater than the cost to heat the home. For that reason, Marilyn encourages geothermal as the smartest way to go green. The local electric cooperative here offered a program to help Marilyn establish a geothermal system as a major electric bill saver. While it cost more to install, it paid for itself in four years, which Marilyn says was one of her best investments. Her geothermal uses a closed loop to take full advantage of the natural earth temperature of 67 degrees, providing winter warming and summer cooling.
• Window Design – Windows (also called apertures) act as the solar collectors and let in breezes when cooling is required. Limiting the number of windows on the east, west and north sides helps to insulate Marilyn’s house against winter cold. Windows must also easily open and close to facilitate circulation of the island’s breezes, as needed.
• Overhangs and Shading – While we want the sun to enter the home in the cooler seasons, we must keep the hot Kiawah sun off the apertures during the summer. Overhangs are one of the best, and least costly, ways of achieving this goal. In the summer, when the sun is high in the southern sky, the overhangs in Marilyn’s home shade the room completely. Keep in mind that the best scheme to keep a house cool is to not let it get hot in the first place. Use cove panels over skylights, exterior shades and awnings, and properly placed trees and trellises on east, south and west sides of your home to shade windows.
• Insulation – A well-insulated, energy-efficient house helps maintain an even temperature all year round. Moreover, a well-insulated house enables the passive thermal-distribution system described below to work properly. Insulation also includes the types of windows used in your home.
• Thermal Mass – All of the principles listed above could be included in any well-designed Kiawah home. What sets a passive solar system apart is the thermal mass. Thermal mass, a solid or liquid material, absorbs and stores warmth and coolness until needed. Thermal mass is an owner’s choice and may take numerous forms such as brick, tile or thick concrete floors. It could also be a large brick or stone internal fireplace or an interior wall of adobe or brick.
• Distribution – In winter, the thermal mass absorbs heat during daylight. At night, the thermal mass distributes the warmth to the home by radiation, convection and conduction. For example, Marilyn’s fireplace flue is exposed to take advantage of warming her wintertime home. In the summer months, the thermal mass is shaded and draws the warmth from the surrounding air. At night, it again distributes coolness to the home through the aforementioned methods. Marilyn’s architect was working to assure her home was designed to maximize the distribution of warmth and coolness throughout, including the use of adjustable ceiling fans to move the warm air towards or away from human airspace depending on the season. Another simple step is to have interior doors installed with one-inch space at the bottom to allow cool air to flow easily to even the house temperature for comfort.

Building to take advantage of solar energy does not have to cost more than a conventional home. A properly oriented, well-insulated home with thermal mass and operable windows for air circulation will be both comfortable and relatively inexpensive. Using passive solar energy will also help to support our environment. Please visit the US Department of Energy website at http://www.eere.energy.gov/ for additional information about using passive solar design.

Marilyn’s other “green” accomplishments are many. A new clothes drying rack outdoors takes advantage of breezes and sunlight! Best of all, it uses no electricity and was purchased at the local hardware store [shop locally to save energy]. Her floors are a gorgeous recycled maple. And, pots on the patios-away from the reach of local wildlife-are appropriated for growing vegetables. Marilyn values her community, which as she puts it, “cares as much about the protection of the natural environment as it does about aesthetics issues.”

Back to Nature

By T. Peter Kristian

Hilton Head Plantation in Hilton Head, S.C., is graced with towering loblolly pines, century-old live oak trees and a thick forest understory. The backdrop that this natural beauty provides is breathtaking.

One of the consequences of living in such an environment is storm debris. When the wind blows, leaves, pine needles and tree branches all come down and cover streets, lawns and roofs. It’s a challenge for the Hilton Head Plantation Property Owners Association and residents to keep up with a seemingly never-ending supply of landscape debris. Hauling all this material away was costly. Dumping it in the local landfill also was expensive and took up valuable space unnecessarily. Burning the material was not safe and also placed pollutants into the environment.

The association board approved a two‑fold solution: provide residents with a central location to dump their yard waste and purchase a tub-grinder—a machine that processes the material into useable mulch.

All material is processed by association employees and turned into mulch, which is used throughout the association to dress flowerbeds, trees and many of the association’s nature trails.

The mulch keeps water consumption down by helping to retain moisture in the ground, and the association makes it available to association members at no charge. This service recycles more than 50 tons of landscape debris annually that would otherwise be dumped into the local landfill. The tub-grinder can handle a tree limb up to six inches in diameter.

Since the implementation of this initiative some 15 years ago, not one cubic yard of landscape debris has been dumped into the local landfill. This program has been a win-win solution for our property owners and the environment.

T. Peter Kristian, CMCA, LSM, PCAM, is general manager of Hilton Head Plantation Property Owners Association. He also is president of Community Associations Institute.