Kitsap County Announces Earth Day Award Winners 

(Port Orchard) — Each year Kitsap County recognizes individuals, organizations, and businesses for their notable contributions to the environment in Kitsap County. This year the Earth Day Awards presentation will take place at 7 pm on April 14 at the Board of County Commissioners regular televised meeting at the Kitsap County Administration Building in Port Orchard. 

(Photo Op)
There will be a reception immediately following the presentation in the Administration Building’s main lobby. The press is invited to meet this year’s winners.

Solid Waste Division 2008 Earth Day Awards

Outstanding Achievement in Sustainability: 
Grounds for Change
There is no doubt this coffee roasting company in Poulsbo emphasizes that all decisions of the company are made with environmental and social implications in mind. That is why they roast only shade grown Fair Trade organic coffee. They use only 100% recycled content paper, and recycle everything they can, even the burlap bags which are sewn into reusable totes and the chaff, which is composted. They also participate in Puget Sound Energy’s Green Power program to bring essential financing to wind farms and solar power projects---while offsetting their own carbon footprint. Co-founder Kelsey Marshall was recently a guest speaker at a regional business conference at the University of Puget Sound, helping other businesses and agencies learn how to become a more sustainable business.

Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Education: 
Bill McKinney
Bill McKinney is an employee of the City of Bremerton’s Forestry Division. We’d like to recognize Bill for his excellent work in providing community outreach about watersheds, in which he speaks passionately about sustainable forestry practices and biosolids recycling. In addition, he regularly provides information about watershed restoration and the salmon life cycle at Jarstad Park. In 2001 he was instrumental in replacing a 750 ft. concrete channel at Gorst Creek with a streambed that replicates a more natural system. 

Clean Kitsap Award: 
Hansville Community Center Volunteers 
Any time of year you can find up to 20 people cleaning the roads of litter in the Hansville area. These are the Hansville Community Center Volunteers; a group of folks who joined the Adopt A Road program and regularly organize group clean-ups to keep Hansville looking clean and green. 

Green Building—Construction: 
Kitsap Community Resources
This new 29,000 square foot building in downtown Bremerton serves as the new headquarters for the many services offered by KCR. This is actually a consolidation of two buildings and enabled KCR to conserve energy, water, and other resources. The building features permeable asphalt; restroom fixtures that reduce water usage by 20%, reflective roofing to avoid an “urban heat island”; native drought-tolerant landscaping to further reduce water usage, and walls, windows, lighting; and heating/cooling equipment that minimizes energy usage. The team also implemented a Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan to protect workers and prevent air quality problems when the tenants moved in, and the contractor recycled more than 90% of the construction waste from this project. The building has been awarded the Silver level in the LEED green building certification program.

Green Building—Education: 
Home Builders Association of Kitsap County
The Low Impact Development program is well known by now here in Kitsap County. The Home Builders Association not only developed a comprehensive educational campaign on stormwater management, they walked the talk by forming partnerships throughout the community to retrofit approximately 11,000 sq. ft. of their own grounds, turning it into a stunning demonstration project. While partially grant funded, this project required a huge commitment by the Home Builders Foundation and the building and development community. Their website, informational booths, presentations at association meetings and Earth Day events, classes at Olympic College, and articles have made a “huge impact” on low impact development awareness.

Best Hazardous Waste Reduction: 
Sabelhaus West
This 5-star EnviroStar business is a paint contractor whose extensive outreach, employee training and innovative waste management techniques has resulted in a comprehensive environmental program and made them an industry leader. All usable latex paints are used as primer and their extensive inventory checkout system enables them to reuse paints at different jobs, virtually eliminating waste. Their employees are rewarded for their efforts with a hazardous waste reduction award. Additionally, they have a patented process to filter lead based paint chips from water after power washing. All thinners are reused and any leftover sludge is properly disposed, and in fact they have set an example for other paint contractors by developing a written paint and thinner disposal policy. Their outreach efforts include performing presentations to industry trade associations, which has resulted in more stores carrying low emitting paints.

Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Leadership—Adult: Olympic Printer Resources
Olympic Printer Resources started in a Kingston basement as a business that remanufactures used toner cartridges. Since 1993, the company has grown to include selling or leasing remanufactured copiers and collecting electronic waste. In 2007 they held collections in Poulsbo and Silverdale that resulted in responsible recycling of 70 tons of computer equipment and televisions. Additional efforts include community education programs at local environmental events, participation in the Kitsap e3 education, environment, and economy Summit, and winning the Stillwaters Environmental Learning Center Sustainable Business of the Year award in 2005. They raise the bar modeling their leadership efforts and by offering green solutions to businesses, schools, government agencies, and residents in Kitsap County and beyond.

Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Leadership—Youth: Bainbridge High School Youth Service Corps
This is an example of what a group of high school students can do to make a difference in their school and the broader community. In addition to recycling at their school, they worked with the City of Bainbridge to ensure recycling at community events, were involved in the recycling of 50% of the construction waste when their cafeteria was built, and convinced the school administration to convert to reusable lunch trays. Their waste audit resulted in a grant from the Department of Ecology to purchase a 10-foot compost tub, which will help them raise money to fund other projects.

Waste Wi$e Kitsap
Each year the Waste Wi$e Kitsap program honors an employee or department for their leadership in reducing waste in County operations. This year we honor the Public Works Roads Division for their outstanding efforts.

Roads continued to reuse asphalt and road sand onsite, saving over $500,000 on disposal, transportation, and avoided purchasing costs for new materials.

In addition, even the smallest things were evaluated for reuse such as the retired blue lights from Sheriff’s cars. The North Road Shop replaced the blue lens with an amber lens and reused them on Public Works vehicles. The Roads Division also used brush chippers to chip vegetation generated while felling trees and performing overhead brushing, and then made them available to the citizens, saving disposal and transportation costs. 

The diesel furnaces at the Central Road Shop were replaced with a waste oil furnace, which reduced diesel fuel costs and allowed used oils to be reused onsite. Energy efficient HVAC systems were installed at the Road Shops, reducing expenditures on natural gas at North and South, and eliminating the old electric baseboard heaters at Central.


Surface and Stormwater Management Program 
2008 Clean Water Partner Awards 

The Kitsap County Clean Water Partner Awards are given to Kitsap citizens, community groups and businesses that have partnered with the Kitsap County Surface and Stormwater Management Program to improve local water quality. The four agencies funded through the program are Kitsap County Public Works, Kitsap County Department of Community Development, Kitsap County Health District, and Kitsap Conservation District. Each agency has chosen a recipient based on their participation and cooperation with that agency’s responsibilities in relation to water quality.

Stormwater: 
Express Car Wash 
There are many car washes within unincorporated Kitsap County that our staff inspects for stormwater compliance. Through our observations commercial car washes, on the whole, can contribute more pollutants to the stormwater system than most other types of businesses. The SSWM inspection staff has been inspecting Express Car Wash, owned by Jonathan Buesch, for several years now. Jonathan has been cooperative and has shown a sincere willingness to maintain his facility to a high degree. 

Whenever our inspection staff has brought a concern to his attention, Jonathan has taken action to correct the problem and has made changes to make sure the problem does not occur again. The Public Works SSWM Program would like to thank Jonathan and his staff for the great work in protecting our natural resources through their diligence in maintaining a clean stormwater system.

Agriculture: 
Butch and Myrna Ashby
William 'Butch' Ashby and Myrna Ashby are dedicated to responsible farming. The Ashbys have been on their farm in Port Orchard for 42 years and raise grass-fed beef cattle. The 47.5-acre farm has multiple tributaries to Salmonberry Creek. Butch and Myrna have installed countless best management practices to protect the environment. To date they have installed more than 2 miles of fencing along waterways to prevent livestock from entering the creek, watering facilities for the cattle, 2 bridges to cross cattle from paddocks to fields, replanted all the pastures with high quality grasses and practice rotational grazing techniques to prevent overloading the fields with waste. It's been a long process to reach their goals, but Butch and Myrna have been energetic and cooperative the entire journey! The Conservation District thanks them for their good stewardship and example to other farmers in their effort for sustainable livestock production and natural resource protection. 

Stream Team: 
Friends of Wilson Creek
It has been Kitsap County Stream Team’s utmost pleasure to work in cooperation with the Friends of Wilson Creek. This grassroots group has been motivated and dedicated to making a positive change to their watershed and Kitsap County through education and action in regards to water quality, habitat improvement and stormwater management. They have organized planting projects in their community, sent out regular mailers to local residents with educational material about reducing impacts on water quality, and most recently hosted a Watershed Academy for county residents in conjunction with WSU Extension Kitsap. The Friends of Wilson Creek serve as a model example of how a grass-roots neighborhood organization can make a big difference, even by taking the smallest of steps. 

Septic System Repair: 
Paula and Richard Chandler
Paula Chandler has owned a small home on the beach in Port Orchard for years. She struggled to keep the septic system working and put quite a bit of money and time into her system over the years—at one point making repairs that gave her two more years with this system. During these two years she married Richard Chandler and moved down the beach to a larger home, keeping the small house as a short-term weekly rental. During a shoreline survey it was found that not only was the small rental septic system failing for the second time, but the septic system in the larger home was failing as well. Both of the Chandler’s homes required a septic repair. The Chandlers hired a designer to repair the rental home’s system. This ended up being very expensive and a miscalculation in the design caused them to make several changes to the property to make the entry look good. They also did some work on the larger home to control the ground water as a temporary repair. A few weeks after the final approval of the rental home repair, the December 3 flood caused a landslide of the hillside at the larger home, forcing the Chandlers to move into the rental home. Paula and Richard have the unprecedented privilege of being the first property owners in recent Health District history to be given the news that septic systems on TWO of their properties were failing. They have felt the burden of septic issues more than most...and yet they have always been polite and kind to Health District staff. The staff would like to recognize them for their commitment and cooperation in keeping Kitsap County waters free of fecal contamination.

Kitsap County Public Works
The Open Line
(360) 337-5777 or (800) 825-4940
openline@co.kitsap.wa.us