November 23, 2009

MCCC Sustainable Buildling Advisor Program. In keeping with the growing demand for green building technology and practices, Montgomery County Community College is offering a nine-month Sustainable Building Advisor Program starting January 2010.
The new program will provide the training and information for participants to become leaders in their careers, organizations and communities in the sustainable building field. The program is beneficial for a wide-range of building professionals and interested others.
The non-profit organization National Sustainable Building Advisor Program develops the comprehensive criteria for the program, which is offered at the College’s West Campus in Pottstown as part of its Continuing Education offerings.
Watch this video from NSBAP on the program and what a Sustainable Building Advisor does. Click here for complete announcement.

November 11, 2009

Dimock, Pa Pays Price For Gas Drilling. In the Dimock area of Susquehanna County, the drinking water well of a 66-year-old retired nurse exploded earlier this year after methane seeped into her water supply and those of eight other homes.
Drillers in this area were fined $56,650 by the state in September after three spills of drilling chemicals into a stream caused a fish kill and damaged wetlands.
The drilling company "made us think we were all going to get rich," said the Dimock resident, Norma Fiorentino. "But they didn't say anything about our land being ruined or my water being ruined."
On November 4 DEP and Cabot reached agreement to prevent natural gas migration and restore water in over 9 square miles in the Dimock area. Click here for more on Marcellus Shale drilling from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

November 10, 2009

Transferable Development Rights (TDR) allow for communities to both preserve open space and meet the need for additional development. In most cases, the use of TDR benefits both the developer and the conservationist. This video was produced by the Montgomery County Lands Trust in Pennsylvania to describes how TDRs work from a variety of perspectives.

November 4, 2009

TreeVitalize Pittsburgh. The Western PA Conservancy, DCNR and other partners are encouraging Western PA residents to plant trees through the TreeVitalize Pittsburgh Program
The goal of the program is to plant 20,000 trees throughout the Pittsburgh region by 2012. This effort is part of the statewide TreeVitalize Program.