Support of SacRT’s 2022 TIRCP application for zero emission buses

February 21, 2022

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) supports the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) application to the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) for the purchase of twenty-seven electric zero emission buses (ZEBs) and related charging infrastructure.

These new ZEBs, along with those already in use by SacRT, will reinforce the region’s commitment to greenhouse gas reduction and be a good example for others. Since the transportation sector is responsible for about half of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions, replacing gas powered buses with electric buses is a necessary and important climate action step. It will help improve the region’s air quality, reduce greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions, improve the health of residents and visitors, and demonstrate the effectiveness of clean transportation to the public.

Click here to read our letter in full.

Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch Project

On February 17, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Habitat 2020, the Sacramento Group of the Sierra Club, and Sacramento Audubon offered the comments with respect to the preparation of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch Project.

Below is an excerpt.

Our concern is that Blue Oak Woodland is an imperiled habitat in California, and it was recently highlighted as such in the draft “Pathways to 30 x 30” document. Such an important and imperiled habitat would not have necessarily been a top pick for constructing such a facility if the habitat values involved had been considered in the context of other potential locations in our region. We acknowledge that there are limited options for the placement of such a facility, but we are not aware of a comprehensive analysis and compendium of suitable locations for solar farms prepared by SMUD for the region, so there is no resource to compare and contrast the Coyote Creek project.

Click here to read the letter in full.

On February 21, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Habitat 2020, the Sacramento Group of the Sierra Club, and Sacramento Audubon sent an addendum to our previously sent Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Solar Project NOP comment letter.

Click here to read the addendum letter.

ECOS letter on Water Agencies’ Participation in Sacramento Area Turf Replacement Study

On February 14, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento submitted a letter to Sacramento Area Water Agencies regarding their participation in a Sacramento Area Turf Replacement Study. Below is the content of the letter.

To: Sacramento Area RWA Water Agencies
The Environmental Council of Sacramento’s Water Committee has begun a project to calculate the potential water savings from conversion of ornamental grasses (turf) to drought-tolerant landscaping in the American River water purveyor area (i.e. Regional Water Authority member agencies). We are interested in your input and participation in this study. This letter describes the study plan. For more information or to participate, please contact Katrina Harrison, PE, ECOS Water Committee member and Project Manager, at kandchf[at]gmail[dot]com or (408) 644-9108.
The Water Committee has met with representatives of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to share methodologies and inquire about data sources. DWR staff has been helpful but has suggested relying on publicly available datasets. Therefore, Water Committee plans to calculate the area of current ornamental grasses using 2019 or 2020 publicly available fine scale (~1 foot pixel size wherever possible) aerial and infrared imagery. Aerial images include National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), Bing imagery, Planet, and NearMap.
This imagery dataset will be analyzed using the machine learning, or neural net, algorithms of the software program eCognition to determine turf grass area. Land classifications will be digitized in several sample areas, and the computer model will be trained using those areas including calculating the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as well as a Tree Grass Difference Index. The aerial imagery processing will be validated manually to develop a calculation of the accuracy and estimated error bounds of the analysis.
Following calculation of the area of turf grass, ECOS Water Committee members plan to use California Native Plant Society information on the evapotranspiration and density of different plant palettes – lawn versus drought-tolerant landscaping – to determine the difference in water use. This difference will be multiplied by the area to determine potential water savings.
We appreciate any insight or methodology suggestions you may have. We would like to share our draft results with study participants and will make the final product available to the Water Forum for its consideration in the ongoing Water Forum 2 discussions. If you have an interest in participating, please contact Katrina Harrison at kandchf[at]gmail[dot]com or Ted Rauh at tnrauh[at]att[dot]net. We would appreciate hearing from you before the end of February so that your input can be included in the study.

Click here to view a PDF of the letter.

ECOS letter in advance of Sac City Council transportation workshop

On February 7, 2022, the Environmental Council submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento in regards to their transportation workshop, scheduled for February 8, 2022.

The Council has acknowledged the need to address the impacts of climate change by declaring a climate emergency in December 2019. However, we are far from meeting the City’s carbon neutrality goal – we need plans and funding. The City is making progress on building electrification, but the most important sector for meeting our climate neutrality goal is transportation, which accounts for over half of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Photo by Bruno Thethe from Pexels

ECOS letter to County Supervisors re Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force

On February 7, 2022, ECOS submitted a letter to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors regarding the County’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force. Below is an excerpt.

We will soon receive the next draft of the County’s Communitywide Climate Action Plan (CAP), and hope that it contains enforceable actions and does not rely on anticipated recommendations from the Task Force. We suggest that the Task Force be charged with developing ways to implement the CAP, including an emergency response plan. For the Task Force to succeed, we hope the County will budget funding for such items as additional staff, consultant studies that may be needed, and outreach/community engagement.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

Joint letter to SMUD re Sac County Climate Action Plan

This Jan. 24, 2022 letter from the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Sierra Club Sacramento Group, and 350 Sacramento, regarding the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan (CAP) requests that SMUD verify some of the SMUD-related information in the CAP, and also consider helping to increase standardization of CAP processes across the state.

Click here to read the letter.

Photo by Vincent M.A. Janssen from Pexels