Breathing, not so easy here

New ozone requirements will mean big changes

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 8:35 p.m. (0)

Spartanburg officials expect the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for ozone to tighten considerably soon, a change that is bound to have profound influence on how the Upstate does business and on overall health of residents.

In 2008 EPA set the primary acceptable ozone level at 0.075 parts per million (PPM). This year they are expected to lower that limit to between 0.060 to 0.070 PPM.

Data from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control shows Spartanburg County was significantly out of compliance with the existing ozone standard in the Aug. 13 and 14 time period with the ozone monitor in the northern part of the county recording a level of more than 0.080 PPM.  Continue reading...

 

Growing Green

Eco-Mow forges ahead in tough market

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010 9:18 p.m. (0)

It’s not easy being green, and, as Chad Lane knows painfully well, it’s even harder if the green you need are dollars to bring an environmentally friendly riding mower to a market wedded to fossil fuels.

It’s been a tough 18 months for Lane’s Eco-Mow, the fledging Spartanburg company he and his wife Janice formed to build battery operated-riding mowers designed, engineered and built by Lane.  Continue reading...

 

Start-up delayed

Electric car company pushes launch to December

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 2:20 p.m. (0)

The delay in startup of electric cars in Duncan will not affect the company’s state and local incentives package, but it will push back hiring at the facility, a company spokesman said this week.

If there are no more delays, the plant could be up and running in three to six months.

Curt Westlake, spokesman for CT&T in the company’s Atlanta office, said the delay was caused by the need to complete the distribution network.  Continue reading...

 

Landfull

Waste management may request an expansion at a westside dump

OCTOBER 14, 2010 10:38 a.m. (0)

Data from the U.S. Environmental Protection agency appear to contradict claims by Waste Management that the Palmetto Landfill’s ability to produce methane gas for use by BMW is poised to decline.

A possible decline is a reason Waste Management might give for seeking to expand the landfill. The company won’t decide whether to seek permission to expand before Jan. 1, an official with Waste Management, owners of the private dump, told the Journal last week.

The nation’s largest commercial trash disposal company approached BMW recently with the idea of expanding the landfill with an eye toward extending the dump’s capacity to produce methane.  Continue reading...

 

The nature of writing

Hub City Press publishes book on all that’s great about the great outdoors

NOVEMBER 4, 2010 11:50 a.m. (0)

People almost always hurry though the woods as if keeping the very schedules they fled to the wilderness to escape.

In that disconnect lies the heart of great nature writing. With each passing year there is less of nature and more civilization. Somewhere, deep inside, most people feel a longing to get closer to nature, but don’t have a clue as to how.

That’s why they go to the ever dwindling woods in ever increasing numbers and almost always come back feeling vaguely dissatisfied.  Continue reading...

 

Reclamation

The Old Union Bleachery has earned Superfund status

NOVEMBER 18, 2010 2:03 p.m. (1)

Federal officials plan to list the Old Union Bleachery as a Superfund site this spring, officials with the Atlanta office of the Environmental Protection agency have confirmed.

“The major pollutants at the site are chromium and heavy metals,” said Jennifer Wendel, National Priority List co-coordinator for Region 4 of EPA, which includes most of the Southeast.

“The site scores out high enough (on EPA’s evaluation listing) to be a Superfund site and we have placed it on the NPL (National Priorities List),” she said. “The size and complexity of this site makes it something we take an interest in.”  Continue reading...

 

Powered up

Upstate now home to new electric vehicle charging stations

DECEMBER 9, 2010 12:18 p.m. (0)

Come spring more than 100 public electric vehicle charging stations will be online giving drivers across the state a low cost fuel-efficient option to traditional gasoline internal combustion engines.

Just this week, more than 80 stations opened statewide, including stations located in public spaces in Greenville, Spartanburg, Rock Hill and Union, said James Poch of Plug in Carolina, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the state make the transition to a new way of traveling.

The up-front costs of installing a charging station are pretty high, Poch said, running into thousands of dollars per station. The public stations are being installed through a $480,000 federal grant.  Continue reading...

 

The lure of cold-weather

For fishermen, temperature is a relative thing

JANUARY 6, 2011 1:59 p.m. (0)

Ice is the defining line between those who want to fish and those who do.

When the air temperature is hovering in the upper teens and the stream is just above the freezing mark most people are home snug in their beds; most people with common sense, at any rate.

But fly fishermen have never been known for their superabundance of sense, or caution. And the idea of catching a fish is actually gravy with those fishermen of the die-hard variety and for those who want to be that way.  Continue reading...

 

More green, coming soon

GE and others begin work on energy efficiency program

FEBRUARY 28, 2011 9:46 p.m. (0)

Commercial buildings in the heart of Greenville’s downtown could get energy efficient makeovers paid for through the money saved in heating, cooling and power costs.

A block of Main Street could get LED lights that are as much as 90 percent more efficient and create uniform lighting with no shadows.

City residents could get incentives to replace their power-hogging electric water heaters with new hybrid models.  Continue reading...

 

Bleachery decision nears

Buncombe Road site closer to being added to Superfund list

MARCH 10, 2011 2:21 p.m. (0)

The Old Union Bleachery at 3555 Buncombe Road about 3 miles north of downtown Greenville moved a step closer to listing as a Superfund site when the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the site for the National Priorities List, officials with EPA said this week.

“What it means is that the site isn’t on the Superfund list yet, but we at DHEC are no longer responsible,” said Thom Berry, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

James Pinckney, a spokesman for EPA, said the proposed listing means the mill site is on track for Superfund listing.  Continue reading...

 

Where the wild blooms are

MARCH 13, 2011 3:31 p.m. (0)

Spring wildflowers are nature’s gift, a reward for surviving the stark gray days of winter. Starting with the emergence of spring ephemerals beginning around mid-March, moving to showy flowering trees and shrubs in May and June and ending with a wash of goldenrods and asters in September and October, wildflowers paint the landscape of the Upstate and the Carolinas. Here are some spots to consider.

   Continue reading...

 

BMW studies use of landfill gas

Technology converts methane to hydrogen to power vehicles

JULY 28, 2011 11:09 a.m. (0)

BMW and the South Carolina Research Authority have begun the first phase of determining the technical and economic feasibility of converting methane gas from a landfill into hydrogen fuel to power the automaker’s entire fleet of material-handling vehicles at its Spartanburg plant.

“This landfill gas-to-hydrogen project at BMW will seek to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind solution that will serve as model for other private sector companies,” said Bill Mahoney, chief executive officer of SCRA, which is funding the first stage at an estimated cost of $1 million.

In later stages, the company and collaborative private and public partners will assist in creating the infrastructure necessary to store the hydrogen, create fuel stations and equip vehicles with systems to use it.  Continue reading...

 

The bus stops here

Proterra makes plans to move its headquarters to the Upstate

JULY 28, 2011 11:11 a.m. (0)

Proterra, which has a bus assembly facility in Greenville, headquarters in Golden, Colo., and offices in California and Colorado, inevitably will centralize operations in Greenville, according to a ranking officer.

“I have no doubt Greenville will be in very short order the center of everything,” said Marc Gottschalk, chief counsel and business development director.

“For a company in the early stages, it is really helpful to have all the key people in one place, so I think it is pretty inevitable” that place will be Greenville, he said.  Continue reading...

 

CCES earns green kudos

DHEC awards school the 2011 Protecting School of the year

AUGUST 18, 2011 11:05 a.m. (0)

Christ Church Episcopal School’s environmental program has garnered the Cavaliers the 2011 Protecting School of the Year award from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The award was given for the school’s work in protecting the environment at all three school levels – elementary, middle and high school.

Greenville County Schools’ Taylors Elementary was named the Restore school of the year for its programs dealing with recycling.  Continue reading...

 

A wing, a prayer and some human intervention

Raptor center takes in hundreds of birds each year, from hawks to owls

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011 1:08 p.m. (0)

Ruth Pollow was looking for a group of cyclists to join when she registered for Ride for Raptors some 13 years ago.

At her first ride, Carolina Raptor Center exhibited birds like golden eagle Zlaty, which Pollow now cares for. For the past seven years, she drives weekly to the center to clean Zlaty’s enclosure, weigh the bird and help with his training.

Pollow, one of 35 resident bird care volunteers in the Carolinas who volunteer at Carolina Raptor Center, participated three years in Ride for Raptors before visiting the non-profit raptor rehabilitation center and zoo in Huntersville, N.C. where all the proceeds from the ride are donated. “All it took was seeing the rescue work that keeps raptors alive and healthy,” said Pollow, “and I signed up right then for training to be a volunteer.”  Continue reading...

 

Proterra moves here officially

Battery-powered bus manufacturer gets contract with Florida transit agency

OCTOBER 7, 2011 10:48 a.m. (0)

Proterra, the manufacturer of battery-powered buses, has moved headquarters to Greenville, hired a new chief executive officer, won a contract for three buses and has a “strong belief” of more sales to come.

The announcement of the sale of buses and a charging station to StarMetro, the Tallahassee, Fla., transit agency, was made Monday at the American Public Transportation Association EXPO in New Orleans. The deal has been anticipated since mid-summer.

At that meeting, Proterra introduced its new CEO, David Bennett, 50, a former Eaton Corp. vice president.  Continue reading...

 

Website promotes green

New directory connects sustainable companies with consumers

JANUARY 12, 2012 12:19 p.m. (0)

There are companies in the Upstate that embrace sustainability.

There are consumers who want to support them.

Often times, the problem comes with hooking the two up together.  Continue reading...

 

Giants on the horizon

Nearly extinct for more than 50 years, the American chestnut tree is blooming again in the Carolinas

JUNE 21, 2012 10:01 a.m. (1)

Judy Coker remembers the forest giants that once cloaked her father’s mile-high guest ranch above Maggie Valley in North Carolina.

“I was too young back then to think or know much about what was happening to the (American) chestnuts,” the 78-year-old Coker said. “It wasn’t until I was in my 60s that the impact of it all hit me.”  Continue reading...