environment

Group Offering Free Solar Water Heater Installation

By ARLnow.com

In an effort to promote the use of energy-saving solar water heaters, Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment is launching a new initiative this fall. The group will organize volunteers to install solar water heaters for Arlington residents willing to shell out the cash to purchase the systems.

ACE is calling it their “Solar Raisers Program” — a take-off on Amish barn raisings. They’ve started recruiting members to volunteer on weekends for the day-long installations. They’re also looking for homeowners who are interested in the solar systems.

Homeowners who participate in the program will save $3,500 in labor costs, ACE says. They will still have to purchase the water heating system itself — which should cost about $2,300 after tax rebates. And they will have to provide food and drink to the volunteers.

“With the reduced labor costs, the system typically pays for itself in less than four years,” ACE noted in an email to supporters. “This compares to a seven to nine year period payback a full-priced installation.”

Arlington homeowners interested in participating (and anyone who wants to volunteer) should contact Dan Conant at conantd [at] gmail.com or 571-243-0745.

Conant says he’s received 15 applications from homeowners and has about 30 volunteers who have expressed interest in helping out.

Photo via Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment

Goat’s Head Among Weird Things Found in Barcroft Park

By ARLnow.com

A group of 20 volunteers conducted one of the more eventful clean-ups of Four Mile Run over the weekend.

The group, which cleaned up the portion of the stream that runs through Barcroft Park, filled 28 trash bags with items found in or around the water. Among the items they found were a bicycle, a computer, a 70 pound metal beam and — most amazingly — the severed head of a goat, horns and all.

“I have no clue what it was doing down there amongst the plastic bottles, pens, styrofoam cups, baseballs, etc… but it smelled quite foul and we bagged it with all the other garbage,” Dan Bronson of Arlington’s Community Volunteer Network wrote in an email. “It still had the skin on it so it hadn’t been there too long.”

Bronson said “everyone was mystified” as to how the goat’s head got here in the first place. One theory was that it washed downstream during Thursday’s storm.

“Who knows!” Bronson wrote. “In my experience Four Mile Run stream clean-ups tend to have at least one quite unusual object.”

To say the least.

Saturday’s stream clean-up was a joint effort of several volunteer organizations. There were six wounded warriors on hand from the veteran groups Team River Runner and The Mission Continues. Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment and the Community Volunteer Network sent volunteers and helped to organize the event. A couple of Lockheed Martin employees also joined the clean-up.

In addition to the stream clean-up, volunteers also pulled and threw away a number of invasive plants found around the park.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Dangerous Curve Near Roosevelt Island? — Bicyclists on the Bike Arlington forum say that a sharp curve on the Mt. Vernon Trail near Roosevelt Island has been the site of numerous wipe-outs, at least one of which resulted in broken bones. The main problem with “Deadman’s Curve” seems to be that the painted wooden surface gets extremely slippery after it rains or even when it’s humid. Posters are calling on the National Park Service to make the surface more abrasive to prevent further accidents.

Arlington Caterer Ditches Plastic Bottles — Shirlington-based Main Event Caterers has done away with bottled water — at least the kind that’s plastic and disposable — in favor of a reusable glass bottle system. The company, which is already 100 percent wind-powered and carbon-neutral, says the move will significantly cut down on waste. “We believe that businesses have a responsibility to not only protect but also improve our natural environment,” a company rep said in a press release.

Smart Growth Advocate Criticizes Northrop Grumman Move — Northrop Grumman’s decision to move its headquarters to the Falls Church section of Fairfax County instead of a Metro-accessible site in Arlington has attracted some criticism. Stuart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, told the Falls Church News-Press that the decision “is disappointing” due to the new headquarters’ distance from Metrorail. An off-the-record source tells ARLnow.com that proximity to transit wasn’t much of a concern to the 300 or so executives who will be the primary tenants of the office. What was more important? Proximity to certain country clubs.

Flickr pool photo by ddimick.

Local Eco Heartthrob Spearheading Cleanup Efforts in the Gulf

By ARLnow.com

Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the legendary ocean explorer, has been making headlines lately for his efforts to help spearhead a cleanup of the Gulf oil spill.

If you’ve been watching TV coverage of the spill, there’s a decent chance you may have seen Cousteau talking about the disaster.

“This is a catastrophe beyond imagination,” he has said.

But what you might not know is that Cousteau lives in a well-decorated but relatively humble apartment in Pentagon City.

With a resume that includes television host, CEO of his own environmental charity, co-founder of an environmental marketing and design firm, prodigious world traveler and all-around dreamy do-gooder, you might think Cousteau would be living in a trendy loft somewhere in the District. But, for now, he’s chosen practical, unassuming Pentagon City instead.

Here’s hoping he makes a difference down in the Gulf.

Photo via Facebook.

Arlington to Hold “Green Office Challenge”

By ARLnow.com

From a county press release:

Arlington County has been selected as one of four U.S. local governments to receive assistance to create a Green Office Challenge program. The Green Office Challenge is an innovative program that engages property managers and office tenants in a friendly competition to save money and reduce energy use in their buildings, as well as reduce waste, save water, and reach other environmental goals.