Few more weeds OK by Albemarle

An Albemarle County governmental “green” policy has weeds growing up around the fences of ball fields and county employees thinking outside the box.

In June 2008, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Safer Chemical Management Procedure, a department-level program that promotes using non-chemical methods to handle day-to-day county operations such as clearing parks and cleaning bathrooms.

The program, which took effect last summer, has been very effective, said Sarah Temple, environmental compliance manager for the county.

“[The board] was responding to concerns communicated to them by some of their constituents related to the types of chemicals used in and around county facilities and parks,” Temple said.

In a report to the board last week, county employees said the parks and recreation and custodial departments now use chemical-free materials when cleaning and have found non-chemical ways to manage county grounds.

It has meant that the grounds don’t look as neat and tidy as they used to, said Matthew Smith, park superintendent for the county. County workers still use pesticides and herbicides as needed, he said.

“We still use Round Up when necessary,” Smith said. “We use it when we have poison ivy or something that needs to be taken care of right away. We don’t want children playing around in something like that.”

The county’s new policy has employees pulling weeds and weed-eating sections of land they used to treat with chemicals, he said. They are still trying to come up with the best ways to handle some maintenance issues.

Although Temple estimated it has cost the county between $24,572 and $49,398 to switch to “greener” methods, she said the long-term benefits are worth it. She said they have not calculated the cost for the program from this year’s budget.

“We have received very few, if any, complaints from employees,” Temple said. “Some of the park sites haven’t appeared to be as neat or trim as in the past, but we are trying to utilize volunteer groups for manual weeding, and we are continually researching alternative bio-based products that might be more effective.”

The policy came at a time when the department was looking at cost-saving measures because of budget constraints, Smith said. He said county workers were already limiting use of chemicals in parks when the policy went into effect.

“We’ve got a tool box of tools and we have to use them all,” Smith said. “The parks staff has had some challenges, but we’ve tried to meet them all and will continue to do so.”

Supervisor David Slutzky, who sat on the county’s safer chemical

committee last year and helped draft the policy, said the county has also used volunteers to help stay within the terms of the policy.

Slutzky, who considers himself an environmentalist, said the county’s use of chemicals was unhealthy and inappropriate. He said the new policy has allowed custodial employees to go from using eight cleaning chemicals to one.

“It’s not like the county buildings look like dumps,” Slutzky said. “I’ve been impressed with how the county employees have embraced this policy.”

But not everyone agrees with the county’s stiff stance on the use of chemicals in day-to-day operations.

Kevin Connelly, vice president of Landscape Supply Inc., was one of several people who urged the board last year to learn more about chemicals before passing the policy. Connelly’s business, which is based in Roanoke and has a store in Charlottesville, sells to municipalities and businesses as well as homeowners.

“We want to protect the environment,” Connelly said. “We’re not out there peddling pesticides that aren’t certified.”

Connelly’s business has been affected by the county’s new policy because Albemarle no longer buys as many supplies, but he said that isn’t why he continues to speak out.

“My message to the community is that we need to educate each other,” Connelly said. “[The county] needs to tell us what they need and we need to educate them on the proper use of chemicals. There needs to be open-mindedness on both sides.”

Temple said the county has other environmentally friendly programs in the works and has reached the halfway point on reducing energy consumption by 30 percent by 2012.

“We are continuing to implement a county-wide environmental management system to ensure the county meets or exceeds all environmental regulations, but also goes above and beyond what is required by law into the realm of pollution prevention and waste minimization,” Temple said.