DES MOINES, Iowa, February 20, 2009 (ENS) – Iowa Governor Chet Culver and Congressman Bruce Braley today announced that more than $5.1 million in federal and state funds has been identified and is in the final approval stage for two conservation related flood recovery projects in Iowa. These funds are part of the effort to help rebuild infrastructure following the historic floods of spring and summer 2008.

“Repairing our infrastructure after last years natural disasters means more than just roads and bridges. We must rebuild every facet of our state’s infrastructure, such as our conservation trails and bridges. These are essential to our state’s full recovery,” Governor Culver said. “I will continue to work with federal partners to ensure Iowans are aided in all aspects of the recovery effort.”

“I’m happy that northeast Iowa is receiving the resources needed to continue recovering from last year’s floods and tornados,” said Braley. “During these tough economic times, rebuilding Iowa’s infrastructure will save and create jobs right here in Iowa.”

One funding package would provide the Dubuque County Conservation Board with $2,957,400 to repair washouts to the Heritage trail surface between Cedar Ridge and Girl Scout Road.

Because of the governor’s actions to have FEMA fund 90 percent rather than the standard 75 percent of all recovery projects, the Board will save the 15 percent local match of $443,600. The remaining 10 percent of the project will come from state dollars.

The other funding package would provide the Black Hawk County Conservation Board with $2,230,000 to replace the Evansdale Bridge on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. The 90 percent arrangement will save the agency $334,500.

These projects are part of an expected 10,600 projects that will be identified under the State and Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Assistance program designed to help public and some nonprofit agencies rebuild Iowa infrastructure and pay for response efforts.

Eligible entities in 84 counties qualify for public assistance under the state and FEMA program. To date, the state and FEMA have obligated more than $580 million in federal funds for public assistance for flood recovery projects in Iowa.

 Cedar Rapids resident stands before his flooded home. June 13, 2008. (Photo courtesy American Red Cross)

The state has allocated $20 million for recovery and reinvestment in the city of Cedar Rapids, which was hard hit by the 2008 floods. On February 2, Governor Culver signed the $56 million Rebuild Iowa Bill that expands the Jumpstart Housing Program, provides individual disaster grants and creates a community disaster grant program.

The bill earmarks $9.5 million for the Jumpstart Housing Program and sets aside $10.5 million for the other Cedar Rapids programs. Community Disaster Grant Funds can be used for land acquisition, public infrastruction repair and replacement, replacement housing, and assistance to small businesses and nonprofits.

The state is currently creating an application process, and the funds will not be available until after April 2009.

A different kind of flood cleanup help also is coming to the city of Cedar Rapids. The University of Iowa is organizing an alternative spring break service project to do post-flood cleanup in Cedar Rapids, joining hundreds of volunteers from high schools, colleges and church groups across Iowa and the nation.

Hundreds of homes in Cedar Rapids remain in poor condition after the floods so the volunteers will clean and refurbish these structures over spring break next month.

Volunteers will be assigned to work in groups of up to 10 in flood-affected areas of Cedar Rapids, said Sue Driscoll of the United Way of Eastern Iowa, who is coordinating several of the flood clean-up projects.

Driscoll said she expects help from the UI College of Law, Iowa State University, and Grinnell High School in Iowa, as well as groups from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Stout, Wisconsin.

Among those planning to assist in the cleanup are University of Iowa President Sally Mason and her husband, Ken, as well as Tom Rocklin, interim vice president for student services and dean of students.

Mason said, “My husband Ken and I very much look forward to helping our neighbors in Cedar Rapids who were affected by last year’s flood. I encourage members of the UI community to spend a little or a lot of time over spring break helping people get back on their feet in this important way.”

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa, August 6, 2008 (ENS) – The past week has ushered in the summer’s most sultry weather to date, but in our household, we like basic fresh air, unconditioned. So we use windows and fans when necessary.

In 2007, our heat pump ran a total of 10 days the entire summer. Our total cooling cost for 2007: $20. Cool.

Our primary strategy is windows management. When we know it is going to be a hot day, we close our windows by 9 am to keep in the cool air from the night before and use fans if we need to. When outside goes from 65 to 87, the inside of our house goes from 67 to 78. Very pleasant.

Kamyar Enshayan (Photo
courtesy Cedar Falls
City Council)

A residential central-air system uses roughly 3,560 kilowatt hours per season.

Assuming seven cents per kwh and 13,000 households in Cedar Falls, if everyone used their central air, residents of Cedar Falls would spend $3.2 million to keep cool.

In contrast, if everyone cooled with fresh-air technology – in our case, 284 kwh per season for fans – the electric-cooling bill for the whole town would be $258,440. Nearly $3 million per year in savings for Cedar Falls.

And if you extend the same ballpark calculation to Black Hawk County, the savings would be $11.5 million per year; for the Des Moines metro area, $42 million; and for the whole state of Iowa, $267 million.

It takes a ton of coal to produce 2,343 kwh of electricity. An average household burns 1.5 tons of coal per season for cooling. A 3,000-pound air conditioner!

Burning 1.5 tons of coal to cool just one house for one summer emits roughly 12 milligrams of mercury. Assuming 12 weeks of cooling, that amounts to one milligram of mercury per week, either here or near whichever power plant that produced our electricity. And that is just for one household.

The Food and Drug Administration’s limit on mercury ingestion for a 45 pound child is 0.056 milligrams per week.

A residential street in Cedar
Falls, Iowa (Photo courtesy
Cedar Falls Real Estate Co.)

Our household also uses another well-proven cutting-edge technology – the linear evaporative solar-drying system – as environmental activist and author Bill McKibben calls it – otherwise known as the clothesline.

Do we really need clothes dryers? They consume 1,440 kwh per year.

Cedar Falls spends $1.3 million on clothes drying every year; Black Hawk County, $5 million; Des Moines metro area, $19 million; and the whole state of Iowa, $117 million, to dry our clothes while warming the planet.

We have a set of clotheslines outside for fresh air to do the work. In winter, we use clotheslines set up in the basement, plus clothes racks.

Adding things up, Cedar Falls residents spend $4.5 million on cooling and clothes drying every year. What would be the community economic impact of retaining a significant portion of that $4.5 million locally?

After looking at actual electricity and natural gas use of numerous homes in my community, I discovered that some homes use eight times more electricity than my household and four times more natural gas. The potential to trim energy waste is tremendous. Acting on that potential will add self-reliance and resilience to our economic vitality.

This is not a technological issue; it is a cultural one. It is a matter of commitment and public policies that encourage massive reduction in energy use.

And that – aggressive energy conservation in homes, businesses, schools, churches, government buildings and transportation – should be the highest priority for local and state government policies. We already know everything we need to know to cut our energy consumption by half, if not more.

By Kamyar Enshayan

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.