Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan took sideways jabs at Gov. Robert Ehrlich and the president during an Earth Day presentation Friday.
“With the lack of leadership at the federal and state levels, we have to do more and more here to protect our environment,” Duncan said at an Earth Day celebration in Silver Spring. “Last year we saved $10 million” through more energy-efficient buses and environmentally friendly construction in county facilities.
County officials committed to passing legislation that would require doubling the purchases of wind-generated power to 10 percent.
They also offered tours of the first of five hybrid electric/diesel Ride On buses.
The new buses bring the county’s alternative-fuel fleet to 175 vehicles.
“We need to use less energy, use less water, use our resources wisely,” said Council President George Leventhal, who announced the legislative proposal.
They wrapped up the event by helping students from Northwood High School plant water-loving plants in the drainage ponds off the parking lot, and released fish to help repopulate Sligo Creek.
Eric Cisneros, 15, a student in Northwood’s Environmental Science Program, said what looks like a dry runoff pond is actually a sophisticated water garden, with layers of sand and gravel underground to filter pollutants out of the runoff before it flows into the Creek.
“Otherwise oil and antifreeze from the cars in the lot would just pile up,” he said.
36 years of Earth Day
» In 1970 when the nation celebrated the first Earth Day, many environmental protections we take for granted didn’t exist, said Montgomery County Environmental Director Jim Caldwell. DDT was still widely used as a pesticide. Automobile catalytic converters did not exist. Informal un-regulated dumps preceded modern landfill construction.
