Edelson Notes Environmental Initiatives in Southbury

This week is the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day, a day that marks the country’s progress to improve the environment.

In recognition of Earth Day 2013, the town will be holding a Hazardous Waste Recycling event at Town Hall and a Prescription Drug Take Back event at the Police Department.  

“Many younger residents of Southbury do not remember how bad the air was in our major cities or how dangerous our rivers were due to pollution back in the 1960’s,” said Southbury First Selectman. “The progress has been significant yet the challenges from our life styles and population density continue to escalate.”

Edelson took the chance this week to list the several environmental accomplishments the town has made in the past year. The list, according to Edelson, is as follows:

• Purchase of nearly 19 acres of new open space at what is known as the Benti property.
• Conversion of over 51 acres of town land to permanent open space at the Shortt Property adjacent to the beautiful Janie Pierce Park
• Extensive clean-up efforts on the Pomperaug River at Platt Park and more recently at Cedarland Park
• Established the Pomperaug Greenway
• Enabled a Connecticut Business Income Tax Credit for contributions to the Southbury Land Trust
• Continued success of our Tree program and celebration of Arbor Day (to be done again on Friday, April 26th at Grace Meadows)
• Signed the Municipal Clean Energy Pledge that has now made the town eligible for Bright Idea Grants and for 2 KW of Solar Electric Panels
• Established Southbury’s first Energy Task Force
• Converted from fuel oil to cleaner and more efficient natural gas at Town Hall, the Library and the Community Building
• Completion of the 2013 Plan of Conservation and Development
• Review of Inland Wetlands ordinances to provide better enforcement for flagrant violators
• Experimentation with a new form of salt for snow and ice clearing – the results of which will be reviewed with the Board of Selectmen in May

There are still more areas that need to be addressed.  Many have been started, including:

• Discontinue expensive chemical treatment for aquatic invasive plants at Transylvania Pond (aka Janie Pierce Pond) and begin using a special kind of fish (grassy carp) that eats a lot but does not reproduce
• Distribution of recycle containers at all Town parks to improve recycling
• A marketing campaign to increase recycling in order to reach the target of a 5% improvement built into our town’s budget – good environmental policies are also good long-term economic policies.
• Development of water use conservation ordinances in coordination with other surrounding towns 
• Establish double-sided printing as the default for the Town of Southbury