Encinitas group demands report on environmental progress

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Sunday, April 15, 2007 12:41 AM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS -- Some residents are demanding that Encinitas reveal its environmental score card and heed the advice of a city-commissioned report.

Five years ago the city empaneled a Blue Ribbon Environmental Committee, which published a 169-page report containing 112 actions the city could take to improve air and water quality, reduce waste output and consume less energy and water.

The committee disbanded after releasing its report.

The extent to which Encinitas has implemented its recommendations is unclear, in part because the city has issued only one of the annual, follow-up reports the committee had suggested.

City officials last week acknowledged that some of the recommendations have gone unaddressed, often because of cost, they said.

Within the next few months, City Manager Phil Cotton said, the city will release a review of its environmental accomplishments.

Meanwhile, a homespun environmental group has formed.

Since January, members of the new group GreEncinitas have pressured officials to explain how the city has acted upon the 5-year-old report.

"We would appreciate having a good understanding of what has already been done, so we can build upon the city's progress," the group's Lisa Shaffer told the City Council last Wednesday.

Mayor James Bond responded that city staffers would provide the information Shaffer had requested.

One of the founders of GreEncinitas -- pronounced Green'cinitas -- is Marilyn Mitchell, a registered nurse and artist. She said the group has met about a dozen times and has about that many members.

GreEncinitas has explored local ways to combat global warming and discovered many remedies contained right in the environmental committee's report, Mitchell said.

Also pushing for a fresh look at the old report is Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan.

The city has taken some steps to improve its environmental standing but could do much more, Houlihan said last week.

"We have picked the fruit that is laying on the ground," she said. "It isn't that we're not doing anything."

In one of her first acts as a newly elected council member, Houlihan in 2001 lobbied for the environmental panel's formation.

In its report, the committee recommends establishing a permanent environmental commission, although officials say that consensus now is lacking to form such a panel.

The report suggests adopting a management system to promote operational efficiency, but that hasn't happened.

Nor have annual energy audits of city facilities or the adoption of an environmentally preferable purchasing policy. Such a policy would favor buying recycled or energy-efficient materials and equipment.

The report's key recommendations include: guidelines for "green" buildings; minimizing waste output; restricting non-native plants on city property; reducing or eliminating pesticide use; habitat-conservation and beach-restoration plans; conserving water and managing urban runoff.

Encinitas has put some, but not all, of the report's recommendations into effect, said Cotton, the city manager.

Recycling has increased throughout Encinitas because residents recently began placing all curbside recycling materials into a single, wheeled container, Cotton said. At city facilities, recycling programs have reduced waste output by 50 percent. For a $10 fee, a hauler will collect household hazard waste, and senior citizens can receive the service free of charge.

He said the city Public Works Department is drafting an ordinance to mandate the recycling of construction waste.

The city buys some recycled paper, but a purchasing policy for such products does not exist, Cotton said, adding that recycled products tend to be more expensive.

City policies discourage the city's use of chemicals to control pests, he said.

Beach-restoration studies are under way, and the city is pursuing sources of sand to replenish its 6.1-mile shoreline.

More and more, Cotton said, the city uses reclaimed water for irrigation, maintains sewer lines to avoid spills and polices storm drains for pollution.

Houlihan said the clean-water program is effective, but Encinitas can and should do much more to promote environmentalism in other areas.

"We are a very green-oriented citizenry," she said. "Folks are saying we have opportunities to do it better. We're lagging."

Since the energy crisis of 2000, City Hall has been closed every other Friday to conserve electricity. Houlihan said she's worried that energy use has crept back up since then.

Critics say the city could do more to promote energy and water efficiency at its $20 million library, which is under construction, at three planned fire stations and at the public works center, where a remodeling program is planned.

Officials have responded that solar energy systems present higher upfront costs.

The Encinitas Union School District, meanwhile, is planning to replace the lighting systems with more efficient models at its nine schools and district office to cut energy costs and qualify for state grants. The district also may replace the roofs at two or three schools with materials that contain solar-voltaic cells that will generate up to 70 percent of the schools' energy needs, said Superintendent Lean King.

"We're going to have significant savings," he said.

Dadla Ponizil, a 20-year resident and a member of GreEncinitas, said the city and its residents could realize similar savings.

He said the city should expedite permit processing and offer other incentives for builders who propose energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive designs.

"There is a higher upfront cost to do these things, and that's where you need government to make up that difference in terms of regulations," Ponizil said. "It's not possible for a weak government alongside a very strong building industry to make that kind of progress."

-- Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.