Supervsors to Vote on CECAP at the September 14 Hearing
The August 9 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released the first part of its sixth Assessment Report (AR-6) and it has confirmed the critical nature of the Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) report. It is important that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ (BOS) approve it and exhibiting leadership beyond it. The group of Sierra Club members from the Great Falls Group who participated in the CECAP process is pulling together a guidance document for the BOS to direct county government on the critical changes that need to occur to meet the Green House Gas reduction goals set forth in the CECAP.
Contact your County Supervisor before September 14 and encourage them to 1.) Approve CECAP, and 2.) Exhibit leadership to make the needed changes to the County government to meet CECAP’s stated Green House Gas emission reduction goals.
On Tuesday, September 14th there is an important Board of Supervisors meeting and your voice needs to be heard!
Please sign up to testify in support of the plastic bag fee at Fairfax County Board of Supervisors hearing on Tuesday, September 14 at 4:30pm.
Richmond passed enabling legislation last year to allow for a fee for single-use plastic bags. Now the county can pass an ordinance to collect money and to reduce single-use plastic bags/waste.
The plastic bag fee has been effective in other jurisdictions to limit the use of plastic bags and the pollution caused by them. You can submit testimony in writing, by video, by phone or in person: Click here for more information on how to testify.
Volunteer Action for the Environment - Zero Waste Initiative
Virtual Meeting WHEN: Monday, Sept 13; 7-8:00 pm WHERE: Zoom link sent after RSVP DETAILS: For our Zero Waste Initiative, we are focusing on three topics:
Promoting composting
Supporting a plastic bag tax implementation
Improving recycling
We will have a guest speaker from Fairfax County Solid Waste Management and the Virginia Recycling Association who will discuss recycling initiatives. We also will share updates about actions in the three zero waste topic areas. New and experienced participants are all welcome. Come be part of the solution! CONTACTS: Evelina Hobson or Haiping Luo at zerowastesierra@gmail.com SPONSOR: Sierra Club/Great Falls Group
Power for the People Virginia
Recent posts from Ivy Main's blog on energy-related matters in Virginia.
Ivy Main, Conservation Co-Chair and Renewable Energy Chair
Justice for Justice Park and Fairfax County Park Authority Reauthorization for 30 years
Sierra Club testified on July 13th to oppose the length of the park authority reauthorization and to press for reforms. The experience with considering paving of the park for the sake of school parking has brought to the fore a series of problems and transparency issues that we hope the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will address. Fairfax County has the only remaining park authority in the state and its current chair has been at the helm for 13 years. After this hearing, the Park Authority did step back and say that it would no longer support the current proposal with the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). The Justice for Justice Park coalition is waiting to hear from FCPS on a new parking proposal, but it is unknown whether it will be markedly different. https://annandaleva.blogspot.com/2021/07/board-of-supervisors-reauthorizes-park.html#more
Fairfax County Schools to Consider Purchasing Electric Equipment
Quiet Clean NOVA, a grassroots group in Northern Virginia formed early this year to combat the noise, pollution, environmental injustices, and ecological degradation associated with gas-powered leaf blowers, met with Fairfax County School Board Member Elaine Tholen and a member of the school system’s facilities staff in August. The staff told us that the school system anticipates launching a pilot project soon to test the effectiveness of less noisy, emission-free battery-powered lawn and garden equipment (mowers, blowers, edgers, trimmers).
The five-year regional Plant NOVA Tree campaign, which is a project of the collaborative effort known as Plant NOVA Natives, will launch with a region-wide Celebration of Trees, September through November. Anyone can help get it started by reaching out to folks in all kinds of settings: neighborhoods, workplaces, faith communities, nature centers, etc. Some ideas for events include:
Tree walks
Tree plantings
Removing invasives that threaten trees
The Sierra Club Great Falls Group is participating in the Plant NOVA Trees campaign by helping to fund some of the costs associated with it. Sierra Club members are encouraged to assist with the campaign. If you do have an activity or put on an event and it is open to the public, or have any questions please let us know by contacting plantnovanatives@gmail.com.
Beautiful Accotink Gorge is Infested with Chinese Wisteria
Few people have heard of the Accotink Gorge, in Springfield. That's because it's one of the few natural areas in Fairfax County with no roads, parking lots, playing fields, maintenance buildings, bathrooms, benches set in asphalt aprons, picnic tables, garbage cans, or other accoutrements of development save Dominion's power lines. Its only paths are those made by deer or foxes. Its wooded slopes, broad sunlit meadow, and creek are home to an astonishing variety of flowering plants. Accotink Gorge Images 2015
Call it a mini-wilderness in the heart of Fairfax County.
If all that sounds too good to be true, it is. Alas, Chinese wisteria infests much of the gorge and is spreading fast.
GFG is part of a new campaign working to stop the siting of data centers adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park and Prince William Forest Park, both national parks. These data centers are being proposed outside the Data Center Overlay District and will have severely negative aesthetic and other impacts on the parks. This would never be permitted in any of our western national parks.
New Data Center Campus Proposed in Gainesville
Developments surrounding the rural crescent and Prince William County’s eagerness to expand the data center footprint outside of the overlay district have continued to garner a large amount of attention. At the same time, a new and very large data center campus has been proposed in Gainesville. Gainesville has had its share of controversy with the expansion of data centers when Amazon Web Services requested direct lines from substations built across private residential property circumventing a more expensive route along I-66. In the end the residents of Gainesville were successful in their attempts to thwart the lines through residential properties.
Usually proposed data center campuses don’t garner so much attention but this proposal, dubbed the I-66 and U.S 29 Technology Park, posits a much larger campus than average on a102-acre property.
