Green sewers, or just a green bandwagon?

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post It seems every politician is jumping on the green bandwagon these days. And why not? Who wants to be on record as being against helping the environment? But in their fervor to be on the side of righteousness, some politicos fail to educate themselves on what green solutions really are. Last month eight members of the City Council drafted and signed a letter to the City Manager calling for $500 million worth of green solutions to be included in the upcoming EPA mandated combined sewer remediation plan. The eight self-anointed environmental stewards complain that their consciences cannot withstand a sewer plan that only contains $30 million in green solutions. With an EPA deadline looming in July, it seems foolish to come in at the last minute with grandiose suggestions of environmentally friendly sewage treatment techniques. The time for that was months before the final project plans began taking shape. Massive civil engineering projects cannot be changed at the last minute like the wall color in your new kitchen. Where were councilmembers Ed Ford, Cindy Circo, Terry Riley, Beth Gottstein, Melba Curls, John Sharp, Cathy Jolly and Sharon Sanders Brooks months ago during the planning process? Certainly not studying sewage treatment techniques. Now in the eleventh hour they draft a letter asking for a half billion dollars for solutions of which they have no concept, only that they're green and that sounds really neat! At this stage the only goal should be satisfying the EPA so we don't end up in federal court. We have enough legal issues at City Hall right now. As far as "green solutions" I'm all for them. But isn't preventing raw sewage from flowing into open waters by definition "green?" It would seem we can always go back and install another rain garden or two after we stop dumping raw sewage. I'm certainly not against passive treatment techniques, but I'm more against flushing our toilets directly into Brush Creek. I also understand that even the current plan doesn't completely eliminate sewage overflow. If any extra money needs to be spent, it needs to be spent on a more sanitary plan, not a more trendy one. There are plenty of environmental issues for the newly minted environmentalists on the city council to pursue. Certainly most of them don't have a July deadline. What about clean air? We need look no further than our own back yards to find a major environmental hazard. According to the EPA, using a gas-powered lawnmowers for an hour generates as many volatile organic compounds—dangerous airborne pollutants as driving a typical car for 350 miles. With 54 million Americans mowing their lawns on a weekly basis, gas lawnmower emissions account for as much as five percent of the nation’s total air pollution. Beyond that, homeowners spill some 17 million gallons of gasoline every year just refueling their lawnmowers. Factor in gas-powered string trimmers and leaf blowers and those disturbing numbers continue to climb. Why not promote green initiatives for lawn care in Kansas City? And I don't mean drafting a letter to the City Manager asking him to "fix the air." Come up with the plan yourselves. You weren't elected to write position papers. I met most of you on the campaign trail and I don't recall "I'll write a memo" being an answer any of you gave at the campaign forums.

Regional Transit Needs A Regional Leader

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post A few weeks ago I attended a Mayor's Town Hall meeting in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The Mayor made some opening remarks during which he talked about his campaign rhetoric that "the first TIF plan that comes across my desk better be for the East side." He then went on to admit that he now realizes it was foolish to make such proclamations without being fully educated on the minutia of economic development in Kansas City. He explained that he did not realize that current economic development tools do not lend themselves to small-scale development. Was Mark Funkhouser actually admitting he was wrong? Perhaps there was hope after all. Of course within a few minutes he turned to the topic of light rail and made the definitive statement "any light rail plan has to go down Troost." So much for learning from your mistakes. Despite my skepticism about the Mayor's specific plan, a regional transit plan may actually be a possibility. With gasoline prices continuing their upward climb, people are starting to feel the pinch of commuting across our sprawling metro. Commuter bus routes are becoming overwhelmed with new riders and suburban municipalities are left scrambling to find funding to add capacity. Perhaps the concept of a true regional transit authority and funding mechanism finally makes sense to even the most obstinate of metro suburbanites. All things considered (my apologies to NPR) Mark Funkhouser is not the right leader for this initiative. Sometimes in order to lead you have to know when to step aside and I believe with all his troubles; a pending civil lawsuit alleging discrimination and retaliation, a pending lawsuit against the City Council regarding the City Manager contract, an openly hostile relationship with certain City Councilpersons and a growing number of Kansas City voters with buyer's remorse the mayor of Kansas City is not the leader we need for a regional cooperative. Steel plates still appear throughout the city improperly installed in direct defiance of the Mayor's own ordinance. It's impossible to put faith in someone to construct a multi-billion dollar transit system when he can't even oversee a simple street maintenance policy. A regional transit plan needs a regional leader. I believe the Jackson County Executive to be a far more logical choice to promote solutions to our transit woes. Two of the most transit hungry suburban municipalities (Blue Springs and Lee's Summit) lie within Jackson County. Mike Sanders may not want to step in and garner the appearance that he's trying to steal the Mayor's thunder, but I think now is the time to put the welfare of our citizenry above the possible hurt feelings of one (or two) individual(s) who most likely will be a private citizen by May of 2011. What say ye Mike Sanders? Your county needs you.