the Morgantown Municipal Green Team

Green Morgantown

This page contains short articles about the City's green activities and events which are linked below. Articles are also available in Adobe Acrobat format (software to view Acrobat files may be downladed for free from here).

List of Articles:

Minutes in PDF format Morgantown Taking Steps to Decrease Energy Consumption

In 2008, the City of Morgantown issued a Request for Proposals for a company to perform an energy audit of city owned buildings and facilities. This audit would evaluate current energy consumption and determine how savings could be achieved through retrofitting buildings and replacing equipment. These measures would save the city money in the long term and would reduce their carbon emissions. Mitigation of carbon dioxide production is key to achieving the goals of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement of which Morgantown is a signatory. The proposal from CLT Efficient Technologies Group was ultimately accepted and they began performing the audit in late 2008. CLT is a Pennsylvania-based firm that specializes in energy performance. (CLT stands for Conserve. Leverage. Transform.) The audit was completed in April 2009 and a report containing all of the proposed Energy Conservation Measures was submitted to the City. A brief summary of these measures along with their costs and anticipated savings can be found in the table below.

Among the minor updates are the installation of programmable thermostats that can be set to a more moderate temperature at night when no one is in the building; light emitting diode (LED) traffic lights were also included. Two major renovations that will occur are the installation of a new HVAC system at the municipal airport and a new ice plant at the skating rink in White Park. The contract for CLT to proceed with these updates was approved unanimously by the City Council on May 25, 2009.

Once completed all of the renovations are expected to save the city a total of $184,181 annually in energy and operational costs. It is also expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 20%, which is a significant amount.

Building Energy Conservation Measure Cost Annual Savings Simple Payback (Years)
MGW Airport Lighting Upgrade $472,053 $35,957 13.1
Pipe Insulation
ATC Upgrades
HVAC Upgrade - Fl 1 South
City Hall Lighting Upgrade $91,380 $8,165 11.2
Pipe Insulation
ATC Upgrades
Southside Fire Station Lighting Upgrade $14,561 $1,490 9.8
Pipe Insulation
Maintenance Building Lighting Upgrade $422,853 $27,209 15.5
ATC Upgrades
New Metal Roof
New Garage Panel Doors
Public Safety Building Lighting Upgrade $244,427 $43,370 5.6
Pipe Insulation
ATC Upgrades
VFD Air Handling
Boiler Upgrade
Ice Rink Lighting Upgrade $993,939 $14,834 67.0
HHW Boiler & Fill Upgrades
Rouston Ice Plant
Public Safety Parking Lighting Upgrade $61,827 $6,419 9.6
Parking Garage (Chestnut) Lighting Upgrade $98,066 $9,882 9.9
Parking Garage (Wharf) Lighting Upgrade $57,473 $5,916 9.7
Parking Garage (D Parking) Lighting Upgrade $10,396 $2,018 5.2
Signs & Signals Building Lighting Upgrade $8,224 $1,838 4.5
Norwood Fire Station Lighting Upgrade $10,431 $1,597 6.5
Metropolitan Theatre Lighting Upgrade $20,325 $3,702 5.5
Garlow House Lighting Upgrade $1,027 $645 1.6
City Library Lighting Upgrade $44,559 $5,611 7.9
City Wide Traffic Signals $228,532 $15,528 14.7
PROJECT SUMMARY $2,780,073 $184,181 15.0

Minutes in PDF format Comprehensive Plan

Morgantown is preparing to rewrite its 10-year comprehensive plan, a process that will occur during Fall 2009 and Winter 2010. In this plan they will establish goals for the city and map out the methods for achieving them in the next ten years. The current plan can be found at http://www.morgantown.com/plan/toc.htm. To address the growing issues of a modern city the new plan will need to establish more specific goals and consider new topics in addition to what is already included.

One of the emerging issues that Morgantown wishes to address is that of energy and the environment. The country and the world are working to reduce carbon emissions, eliminate waste and grow in an environmentally sustainable way. To be at the forefront of this effort, Morgantown must take decisive action - actions that must be included in the comprehensive plan. To develop such a set of procedures, the City enlisted the help of the Morgantown City Green Team. The Team is composed of environmental experts and other interested parties who provide a keen view of the City's needs.

With the help of an intern, the Green Team put together a set of recommendations, under the categories of Greenspace, Green Architecture and Recycling. The goals under Greenspace are focused on acquiring more city owned parks and greenways to increase the amount of greenspace in Morgantown. Suggested methods for achieving this include examining paper streets, utility owned land and floodplains for greenway potential; establishing pocket parks in every neighborhood and planting shade trees in city parking lots.

To promote Green Architecture, the Team advocated building all city buildings and facilities to LEED standards as per the 2006 Green Building Municipal Leadership Initiative. All other city buildings should be brought up to LEED standards for existing buildings and should be surveyed for potential green roof installation. To encourage green building in the private sector, a Green Building Program could be established which would incentivize green building practices.

Recycling focuses on removing more items from the waste stream than is currently being done. Suggested expansion areas are apartment complexes which currently have no recycling pickup service. Acting as a liaison between Allied Waste and the complex owners could alleviate this. Enacting an ordinance that requires a certain percentage of construction and demolition waste to be recycled would also have a significant impact. Implementing a composting program would help to remove biodegradable items from the waste stream as well.

These recommendations are only the first step in a process that will continue for several months. Any questions or comments about these recommendations can be sent to sheila.westfall@gmail.com.