Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon
When Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847, he saw was a vast panorama of open space.
Today that vast panorama of open space is filled with people and buildings.
Salt Lake County is home to more than 1 million people, and is one of three counties in Utah that fails to attain federal air quality standards. Salt Lake County has worked hard to improve our air quality and environment, and we will keep doing more.
Our plan began to take shape in 2006 when I issued an executive order that county agencies and contractors operate in environmentally responsible ways, including energy conservation, waste reduction and recycling. We now consider vendors' environmental practices and responsibility when evaluating and awarding contracts.
We installed a watering system mainframe designed to cut the water usage (and bills) at our facilities by 20 percent. Automatic lights have been installed in county buildings. Motion sensors control the lights. All county-owned traffic signal lights were replaced by more efficient LED bulbs. Our fleet consists of hybrid cars and right sized and downsized pickup trucks and SUVs. Our county landfill now has a methane gas generation plant that provides electric power instead of green house gas emissions.
In addition, we completed a study on how much money and power Salt Lake County would save by installing solar panels on key government facilities. We installed solar panels on our Clark Planetarium. We expect the Calvin Rampton-Salt Palace Convention Center will become the largest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building in the state and, when completed, the solar panel installation on the convention center will be one of the largest in the nation.
All newly open Salt Lake County facilities are LEED certified. Those under construction are being built to LEED standards, including:
Public Works Administration Building: Completed April 19, 2010 and submitted to United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for LEED Platinum Certification.
Northwest Recreation Center: Completed summer 2010 and approved for LEED Gold Certification.
Magna Senior Center: Completed summer 2010 and certified this year as LEED Gold Certified.
Herriman Library: Completed last year. Submitted to USGBC for LEED Platinum Certification.
Sorenson Recreation Center: Completed March 2011 and will be submitted to USGBC for LEED Platinum Certification.
Riverton Senior Center: Opened two months ago, the Senior Center application is being submitted to the U.S. Green Building Council for LEED Gold Certification.
Millcreek Community Center (Library, Senior Center & Recreation Center): This center is under construction and expected to be completed late this year. Its application will be submitted for LEED Gold Certification.
West Jordan Library Complex: The complex is currently under construction and expected to be completed in less than a year. It is being designed to LEED Gold standards.
Draper Senior Center: Design of this senior center is completed. When opened, the center project will be submitted to USGBC for LEED Gold Certification.
District Attorney Building (Salt Lake City & West Jordan City): The plan is to design and construct the buildings to LEED Gold Certification (with NETZERO for energy usage). Construction for both buildings should commence in early 2012 with completion in 2013.
At the same time, Salt Lake County and a consortium of Wasatch Front agencies have been awarded a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant is designed to develop strategies and tools to implement long-term sustainable growth – to help build more livable, walkable, environmentally-sustainable communities along the Wasatch Front.
The grant will fund the creation of an affordable housing plan, the study of six transit-oriented development sites, and the creation of sustainability blueprints that can be used locally, regionally and nationally.
