The Hard Look

Time for Connolly Leadership in Huntington

The election is over and it is now time for candidates to get back to governing.  As we reported 10 months ago, Fairfax County has the money to fix the flooding problem in Huntington.  Now is the time to spend it.  Now is not the time to ignore the fact that this problem arose because of development allowed by Northern Virginia boards of supervisors.  Now is not the time to ask Uncle Sam to fix a local problem unrelated to national defense, national maritime interests, interstate navigation or any other such canard typically used to get Corp of Engineers money to pay for local projects.  The reality is, the Corp isn't going to pay for this local need.  See the Examiner article here, explaining that the benefits just don't justify the costs. 

This is a local matter.  We pay a penny tax for the express purpose of having the money we need to deal with storm water problems.  The Huntington flooding is precisely a storm water problem.  We either buy out the homes and turn the area into a park and occasional wetland, or we dredge the waterway (the least cost solution).  It will cost $17 million to dredge Cameron Run and this will prevent flooding of 150 homes.  That works out to slightly less than $114,000 per house.  That is more than the cost of flood damage to these homes, unless they flood more than three times over about 10 years.  But dredging is less expensive than buying out these homes, so the time has come to do the dredging.

Fairfax County is a wealthy county, perhaps the most wealthy in the nation and certainly the most wealthy in the Commonwealth.  Each year we spend large quantities of stormwater funds on important projects that protect our waters.  But each year we also spend stormwater funds on turning drainage ditches into meandering streams that never existed in the first place.  Because we tax ourselves about $20 million each year for storm water projects, it's time to take $17 million of that money and fix the problem in Huntington.  Let's face it, we can do without some of the fluff in the stormwater budget for a couple of years.

Notably, Chairman Connolly was the one who demanded the stormwater program rank its projects to ensure the worst problems got attention first.  Time for him to admit Huntington is our worst stormwater problem right now, and time for him to once again stand-up and show the leadership he has on so many other environmental issues.  Afterall, it's not like we don't have the money.

The Staff Got it Right - Dump Cool Counties Goal

The 2007 Annual Report on the Environment, prepared by the County's Environmental Quality Advisory Council, states that the county staff recommended against participation in the Cool Cities program.  In part, this was because of the silly goal of trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an unreachable amount.  Even today, after all the hoopla about the replacement program ("cool counties"), the staff remains unpersuaded that the goal is within reasonable reach or a meaningful part of the program.

The staff was (and is) correct in not serioiusly embracing this silly goal.  The fact is, the goal doesn't matter.  Here's why. 

Solar Radiation Management & Global Warming

The Virginia Military Institute asked me to present a paper at their recent Conference on Virginia Energy (COVE) dealing with the implications of assuming that the only way to deal with global warming is to reduce greenhouse gases, and what alternatives could be used besides these extremely high cost approaches. 

I ended up making two presentations.  Both explain why it is too late to rely exclusively on greenhouse gas reduction, even if we could afford it.  One discusses the non-regulatory approach that would rely on solar radiation management - essentially a sunscreen to be used over the polar regions to prevent melting of the ice sheets.  This approach would prevent the catastrophy of 23 foot ocean rises at a cost so small, it is considered "costless".  You can find that presentation here:  Download schnare_nonreg_alternatives.ppt

The second paper explains why reliance on, and vigorous implementation of greenhouse gas reduction is basically a racist approach with progressive tax-like implications that will further divide the rich from the poor.  It also shows that the Virginia Energy Plan is sensible, non-racist and not progressive, at least as it stands today.  You can find that presentation here: Download schnare_environmental_justice.ppt