“I’ve watched enough Star Trek movies to know what a ‘mothership’ is but I recently heard about something called an ‘earthship.’ Is this for real?” No need to beam anyone up here, Scotty! For true and honest the Earthship project is up and running and utilizing all possible means to build green buildings that can be used in all parts of the world and which provide electricity, potable water, and contained sewage treatment and sustainable food production. One such project is located in Taos County, N.M., and the potential for using the county’s used tires, bottles and cans to good use, thereby saving landfill tipping fees and the amount of time and cost of having to slit and bale tires, is one which is currently under review by county officials. Under the proposed project, county solid waste employees would take used tires from its collection sites and deliver them directly to the Earthship community. The process involves crews using sledgehammers to ram dirt into used tires, which are stacked in staggered rows to form walls. It takes between 500 and 1,000 tires to build the averagesized Earthship. The earth-filled tires provide thermal mass, which keeps indoor temperatures steady and essentially eliminates the need 50 APWA Reporter
November 2012
for heating or cooling. The sticking point appears to be gaining approval to adopt a contract with violating the State of New Mexico’s antidonation clause. A few acres at the Earthship community have been designated as a “sustainable building test site”—a place for experimental building techniques to be tested, and possibly, adopted into standard building codes. It’s an interesting concept and would appear to be beneficial to the environment, agencies, and mankind if all goes as planned. For more information visit the Earthship website at www. earthship.com. “Our water system is in dire need of replacement. We only have about 500 connections. Naturally, we don’t have the funds to replace it and we don’t have any staff who can undertake such a project. Are there till grants available to help with these necessary projects?” Small cities and small systems, as well as private well owners, compose the overwhelming majority of the nation’s public water system. Water quality standards continue to change in an effort to provide clean water to communities. But, you’re right. It is a major commitment for these same entities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently announced
an award of nearly $15 million in funding to provide training and technical assistance to small drinking and wastewater systems— those which serve fewer than 10,000 people—and to private well owners. Grants have been made to the National Rural Water Association and the Texas Engineering Extension Service, which together, will provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems across the country to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The New Mexico Environmental Finance Center has been awarded funding to help small systems improve their financial and managerial capabilities that will enable them to effectively provide safe drinking water for the long term; the Rural Community Assistance Partnership will work with small publicly-owned wastewater systems on treatment and operations issues and to help private well owners; and the Rural Community Assistance Partnership will work to provide training and technical assistance to triballyowned and operated public water systems. For more information on EPA’s programs and tools to help small water systems, visit: http:// water.epa.gov/grants_funding. “What in the world are ‘CAFÉ Standards’ and what should I know about them in relation to our city’s fleet?”
