?/EPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Office of
Administration
EPA202-N-97-003
Summer 1997
Conservation
News
Volume 3, Number 3
Conservation News is a quarterly publication ofEPA's Facilities Management and Services Division (FMSD) Conservation Information
Clearinghouse. FMSD established the Clearinghouse as a focal point for collecting anddisseminating information about pollution prevention
and energy and water conservation to serve all EPA facilities. The newsletter is intended to educate, inform, and help EPA staff involved in
these efforts at EPA-owned or-leasedfacilities. We welcome your comments and suggestions. To receive additional copies of 'this newsletter,
submit information for inclusion, orleammore, callthe Clearinghouse Hotlineat(202) 260-9803 ore-mailp2group@epamaiLepa.gov. You
can also access the newsletter through the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/consrv-news. /
A Note From the Agency
Conservation Coordinator
SAVE MONEY AND ENERGY BY
INTEGRATING UPGRADES
by Phil Wirdzek, FMSD
The federal government is facing increased demands for
infrastructure improvements. Funding is being requested
from facility managers for aging or failing equipment, from
energy managers pushing for legislated or mandated
reductions, and from environmental health and safety
managers looking to improve worker safety and
environmental compliance. The price tag for these needs is
staggering; estimates range into the billions of dollars.
EPA is not immune from this situation. The Agency has
been fortunate to be able to provide new space for most of
its laboratories and program and regional offices. However,
some of the Agency's facilities contain equipment and
systems that are nearing the end of their useful lives,
unacceptably inefficient, ripe for safety improvement, or
environmentally problematic. Incremental funding leaves
EPA with expensive maintenance costs and, oftentimes, less
efficient systems. Unfortunately, the costs for replacements
or upgrades are high, usually exceeding the annual building
and facility budgets.
Is there a solution to this dilemma? Something that allows
the Agency to "catch up," fund the big-ticket items that
together will meet these various needs and last long enough
so that the typical repair and improvement budget can carry
EPA for a decade or two? Is there a safety valve? The
answer to all of these questions is yes!
EPA's energy conservation philosophy is based on the
belief that the Agency can cluster necessary equipment
upgrades and match the service needs with advanced
energy-efficient and energy-capturing technologies that are
attractive for private investor financing. Under such a
scheme, a private investor bank-rolls the capital costs to
upgrade a facility, and the facility basically mortgages its
utility savings to incrementally pay back the investor.
By bundling inefficiencies found in daily operations of
aging equipment, more than enough utility savings will be
realized to produce investments capable of overhauling
most, if not all, heavy energy-using equipment in a
laboratory. (Watch Conservation News for updates on
investments in the 30-year-old Ann Arbor, Michigan,
laboratory.) While providing new equipment and systems,
these overhauls can reduce energy use and improve worker
safety and environmental compliance.
To document these and other improvements, EPA is
establishing a baseline set of activities within the site-
specific pollution prevention plans developed in 1995 (see
p. 4). The revised plans will show EPA's progress in
conserving energy and effectively managing chemicals,
solid waste, and hazardous waste to improve overall
operations, prevent pollution, and offset funding demands.
Learn more about integrating laboratory energy upgrades
and systems design through a training program, the first of
which is being offered this fall (p. 2), new energy
technology applications and partnerships (pp. 2-3), and
planned conferences (p. 5). The events and projects
highlighted in this newsletter show how energy
conservation measures can result in big savings. /
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 5, Library (PL-12J)
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Summer 1997
Opportunities for
Integration
LABORATORIES FOR THE 21st CENTURY
EPA's Office of Administration and the Department of
Energy's Office of Federal Energy Management Programs
(DOE's FEMP) are sponsoring a training program,
"Laboratories for the 21st Century," on September 3-5,
1997, in Washington, DC. This course, which is expected
to be offered regionally over the next year, will encourage
the use of cost-effective, energy-efficient, and renewable
design practices and principles for laboratory buildings.
As EPA and DOE have found, operating laboratories is
different from managing office buildings. Laboratory
management considers multi-faceted environmental
management scenarios that could dramatically affect the
integrity of critical tests and experiments. In striving to
meet energy-reduction goals while maintaining the mission
of the laboratory, EPA recommends an integrated systems
design approach that stresses correctly sizing equipment,
identifying and capturing waste energy streams,
implementing a full monitoring and control system, and
using free and renewable energy whenever possible. These
techniques have been successfully implemented at office
buildings, and some of them may be applied to laboratories.
The training program will explore technology system design
and management strategies to balance energy efficiency
with the ventilation, temperature, and humidity levels
necessary to support critical laboratory activities.
The integrated systems design approach also provides a
benefit in terms of streamlining funding requests. This
approach encourages identifying all the energy
improvement needs within the laboratory and addressing
them as a comprehensive system. Therefore, federal
laboratories faced with individual activities requiring funds,
such as improving health and safety, repairing or replacing
mechanical equipment, repairing facility envelopes, and
phasing out equipment containing CFCs, can present these
funding requests as a comprehensive energy-efficiency
upgrade rather than as individual requests.
The training concludes with a half-day session set aside for
consultations with the course instructors. The Agency
encourages participants to introduce actual projects to allow
for immediate application of course material. For further
information on upcoming courses, please contact Ms. Maya
Larson at (202) 737-1911. /
Spotlight on Energy
Efficiency
ENERGY UPGRADE AT KERR
LABORATORY, ADA, OKLAHOMA
The Robert S. Kerr Research Laboratory in Ada, Oklahoma,
will soon undergo a comprehensive energy-efficiency
upgrade, funded by an energy savings performance contract
(ESPC). This ESPC will be the first contract in which EPA
will participate in the area-wide service agreement between
Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) and the government.
Under this agreement, OG&E won the rights to provide
comprehensive energy services, including ESPCs, for
government facilities in their area. Because EPA was able
to include the Kerr laboratory in this agreement, the time-
consuming process of developing a request for proposals
and bidding out the contract was avoided.
The laboratory, constructed in 1965 with a small addition in
1994, needs updating. Two of the three chillers are over 15
years old, the original boilers are in constant need of repair,
and an old pneumatic controls system is now defunct. These
factors make the facility a perfect candidate for a large-scale
facility renovation and energy upgrade, the planned
cornerstones of which are a ground source heat pump
system and an integrated direct digital control (DDC)
system for energy, fire, and security management. Ground
source heat pumps use underground pipes to transfer heat
between circulation water and the naturally constant
temperature of the earth. The heat pump uses the pipes as a
heat sink in the summer to cool the building, and as a heat
source in the winter to heat the building. Ground source
heat pumps have the advantage of lower operating and
maintenance costs, and improved space conditioning
control.
As a first step in implementing the upgrade, dataloggers
were installed on August 13 at various locations in the
facility to record energy consumption, air temperatures,
humidity levels, boiler and chiller loads, and other
parameters which will help determine the energy baseline.
This information will assist EPA in evaluating the cost
effectiveness of the technologies. Once the baseline has
been determined, EPA will negotiate details with OG&E
and their subsidiary, Geothermal Design and Engineering.
The upgrade is expected to reduce the facility's energy
consumption by as much as 50 percent. For more
information on ground source heat pump technology, visit
the DOE FEMP geothermal web page at http://
www.eren.doe.gov/femp/geoheat.html, or the Geothermal
Heat Pump Consortium web page at http://www.ghpc.org/. /
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Summer 1997
REGION VI SAVES PRECIOUS
RESOURCES, WATER, MONEY, AND
TREATMENT CHEMICALS
byHadi Janbakhsh, FMSD
EPA's Region VI Laboratory located in Houston, Texas,
incorporated a cooling tower condensate return system to
reduce water consumption, reduce operating costs, and
enhance environmental conditions. The technology delivers
pure condensate water, generated from normal operations of
an air handling unit at the laboratory, into a 300-gallon
collection tank with a level control system, and then to the
cooling tower sump. The average rate of condensate
generated by the air handling unit is approximately 2.75
gallons per minute, 165 gallons per hour, 3,960 gallons per
day, 118,800 gallons per month, or 831,600 gallons a year
(rates assumed for typical weather conditions above 55
percent relative humidity, which occurs about seven months
a year). Without this cooling tower condensate return
system, these large volumes of water would have to be
supplied by the local water utility.
This technology saves money spent on city water. Because
the condensate is free of dissolved solids and minerals, the
system reduces cooling tower blowdown, curtailing water
treatment chemicals lost in this process as well as its
introduction to the sanitary sewer system. The condensate
also enters the cooling tower with heat already removed,
thus indirectly reducing the demand of the tower fan
operation.
This is a perfect example of a project that reaches across
several different programs: pollution prevention, water
conservation, and energy conservation. Congratulations to
the team at the Houston laboratory and Headquarters for
making this project happen! /
REMINDER!
NATIONWIDE OA CONFERENCE
PLANNED FOR SEPTEMBER 1997
The Office of Administration is planning a conference
to bring together EPA's managers and staff to discuss
issues of facility operations, including health and
safety, pollution prevention, energy and water
conservation, security, master planning, working
capital, telecommunications, transfer of property, and
much more.
Date: September 16, 17, and 18
Location: Denver, Colorado
QUARTERLY ENERGY AND WATER
CONSUMPTION REPORT
The Office of Administration and Resources Management
wants to thank the energy managers who have submitted
their quarterly consumption data. However, a number of
facilities still need to report their information. Remember
that September 30 marks the end of the fourth quarter for
FY97. With this date fast approaching, prompt and accurate
energy consumption reporting is needed so we can produce
EPA's Annual Report to the Department of Energy on the
progress of the energy and water conservation program.
The following table highlights the FY97 energy and water
consumption data that has been received to date. If you
believe there is an error in the table or want to submit data,
please call the Clearinghouse at (202) 260-9803. /
Facility
Ada.
Oklahoma
Ann Arbor,
Michigan
Athens,
Georgia
Cincinnati,
Ohio
Corvallis,
Oregon
Duluth,
Minnesota
Edison.
New Jersey
Gulf Breeze,
Florida
Houston,
Texas
Las Vegas,
Nevada
Manchester,
Washington
Montgomery,
Alabama
Narragansett,
Rhode Island
Newport,
Oregon
Richmond,
California
RTP.
North Carolina
1st Quarter
Energy Water
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ A
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
2nd Quarter
Energy Water
/ 4
/ 4
/• 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
3rd Quarter
Energy Water
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
/ 4
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Summer 1997
_vL
Pollution Prevention
Update
EPA TO UPDATE POLLUTION
PREVENTION PLANS
To document facilities' progress in preventing pollution,
OA's Pollution Prevention Steering Committee is revising
the site-specific plans developed in 1995 by collecting data
on a baseline set of activities and measuring pollution
reduction goals consistently across the Agency. The
baseline set of activities pertain to the most significant areas
of waste generation within typical EPA operations:
• Hazardous waste
• Solid waste
• Chemical management
• Energy conservation.
An easy-to-follow form will be used to update the pollution
prevention plans to include this baseline set of activities and
lead facilities through the data gathering process. For
example, under hazardous waste, several data points are
requested, such as the amount of solvents, paints, and
batteries procured, recycled, or disposed. Units, such as
gallons or pounds, are specified for each data element.
Some facilities may not have the information available the
first year. These facilities can establish appropriate tracking
systems to ensure that data is collected for future reports.
OA's Pollution Prevention Steering Committee is using
calendar year 1996 as a baseline year for gathering this data.
Similar data will be gathered annually to enable EPA to
quantify its pollution prevention successes relative to these
baseline activities, and to set reduction goals.
A training session on revising the pollution prevention plans
will be part of OA's September conference in Denver, CO.
Guidance materials on the
baseline set of activities and
one-on-one technical
support will be distributed
during and after the
conference. For more
information, e-mail OA's
Pollution Prevention
Steering Committee at
p2group@epamail.epa.gov. /
CALL FOR SUCCESS STORIES
In preparation for EPA's
FY 1997 Report to DOE
describing the progress
of the Agency's energy
and water conservation
program, we are
requesting that each
facility submit its energy
and water conservation
and pollution reduction success stories. These stories
are important in illustrating the Agency's efforts toward
reaching the 20 percent reduction goal.
You can find last year's annual report by pointing your
web browser to http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/intrnlp2/
energy/doe96.htm. As you will see, facility-specific
projects are a significant component of the report. To
ensure that the report is as complete and accurate as
possible, this year we would like you to submit
information about your energy conservation program.
Projects may range from simple measures that have
been implemented to complex mechanical system
upgrade projects (planned and actual) — all are
important to the success of the Agency's conservation
program.
Please submit all information to Phil Wirdzek by e-mail
(wirdzek.phil@epamail.epa.gov) or fax (202) 260-8234)
by October 1. Call the Clearinghouse at (202) 260-9803
if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing
from you!
Pollution
Prevention
Plan
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Summer 1997
Resources
If you come across an interesting or informative web site, let
us know the URL by e-mailingp2group@epamail.epa.gov.
FOUND IT ON THE WEB...
The National Park Service has developed a guidebook that
emphasizes environmental sensitivity when constructing
facilities. "Guiding Principles of Sustainable Design"
discusses the use of non-toxic materials, resource
conservation, recycling, and integration of tourism with
natural and cultural settings. Visit NPS's web site for
Facility Planning, Design and Construction at http://
www.nps.gov/dsc/dsgncnstr/ to access the guide.
FIND ENERGY STAR SITES EASIER
The Energy Star Home Page has made a few minor
revisions to make your browsing a little easier. The
following URLs have been established:
Energy Star home page
http://www.epa.gov/energystar
Green Lights home page
http://www.epa.gov/greenlights
Energy Star Homes
http://www.epa.gov/homes
Energy Star Buildings
http://www.epa.gov/buildings
Energy Star Office Equipment
http://www.epa.gov/office
http ://www .epa.gov/computers
http://www.epa.gov/printers
http ://w ww .epa.gov/faxes
http://www.epa.gov/monitors
http://www.epa.gov/copiers
Energy Star HVAC
http://www.epa.gov/homecooling
http://www.epa.gov/homeheating
\
EARTH'S 911
FOR THE
ENVIRONMENT
The Environmental/Recycling
Hotline, dubbed the "Earth's 911
for the Environment," is a public/private partnership
between EPA, the U.S. Postal Service, and several
private-sector businesses. A state-of-the-art
computerized, interactive phone and Internet system, the
Environmental/Recycling Hotline is expanding
nationwide to allow everyone in the U.S. to have access
to environmental and recycling information. The
Hotline's mission is to provide geographically specific
environmental and recycling information at no cost.
Through a single 800 number, callers can access several
sections of information, including the nearest recycling
center. By calling (800) CLEANUP or accessing the
Hotline's web site at http://www.1800cleanup.org and
entering a zip code, callers can determine the nearest
recycling center for up to 15 different types of
recyclable materials. Callers can also obtain other
environmental information, including educational
materials on reducing, reusing, recycling, managing
household hazardous waste, and buying recycled-content
products.
OCTOBER IS
ENERGY AWARENESS MONTH!
We are currently developing a package of energy awareness
information that will be sent to facility managers at the end
of September. This year we are compiling materials that
clearly show the environmental impact of energy
conservation and provide daily reminders of energy
conservation opportunities. These materials will assist
energy managers with their facility-specific conservation
programs. Facility managers are encouraged to identify an
employee or group of employees to help disseminate
information at the beginning of October, and to help
implement simple energy conservation measures throughout
the year. /
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Summer 1997
Conservation
Calendar
If you have questions about the activities below or want to
publicize an event, call the Clearinghouse at (202) 260-
9803.
SEPTEMBER
3-5 Laboratories for the 21st Century, Washington, DC1
9-10 Implementing Renewable Energy Projects,
Sacramento, CA2
16-18 Federal Relighting Initiative, Irwindale, CA2
23-24 Federal Energy Management Overview, Atlanta, GA2
25 Energy-Efficient Products, Atlanta, GA3
29-30 Fundamentals of Energy Management (Certified
Energy Manager (CEM) Seminar), Chicago, IL4
OCTOBER
1 CEM Exam, Chicago, IL5
1 Green Lights Lighting Upgrade Workshop, Houston
TX*
15 Green Lights Lighting Upgrade Workshop, White
Plains, NY*
TBD Green Lights Lighting Upgrade Workshop, San
Francisco, CA*
20-24 Training Program for Energy Managers (CEM
Seminar), Washington, DC4
24 CEM Exam, Washington, DC5
NOVEMBER
6-8 World Energy Engineering Congress Conference,
Atlanta, GA6
DECEMBER
8-12 Training Program for Energy Managers (CEM
Seminar), San Francisco, CA4
11-12 Energy Management Congress Conference,
Anaheim, CA6
11-12 Fundamentals of Energy Management (CEM
Seminar), Orlando, FL4
12 CEM Exam, San Francisco, CA5
13 CEM Exam, Orlando, FL5/
'MayaLarson (202) 628-8498
2 Karen Kimball (202)737-1991
3 Katie Kroehle (202)586-1677
"Association of Energy Engineers, Seminar Registration
(770)925-9633
5 Association of Energy Engineers, CEM Exam Registration
(770) 447-5083 ext. 218
6Ted Collins (202) 586-8017
* These are the last Lighting Upgrade Workshops that will
be offered. For more information please call the Green
Lights and Energy Star Buildings Hotline at
1-888-STAR-YES.
ALSO COMING UP...
-» OA's Pollution Prevention Steering Committee is
hosting a benchmarking conference in
Washington, DC, on November 5-6 to share
success stories and exchange information. Several
private laboratories and academic experts have
expressed interest in attending, and an invitation to
potential benchmarking partners is expected to be
sent in the near future. For more information,
please contact the committee at
p2group@epamail.epa.gov, or call Steve Zeigler at
(202) 260-2030.
•-» New pollution prevention opportunity
pamphlets on chemical management, solvents,
and environmentally preferable cleaning products
will be distributed at the upcoming OA
Conference in Denver. The pamphlets present
how EPA facilities can implement projects on
these topics. If you would like copies, please
contact us at p2group@epamail.epa.gov or point
your web browser to http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/.
—» The National Marketplace for the Environment, a
major conference and trade show to be held in
Washington, DC, on November 18-20, will give
acquisition professionals an opportunity to see
how environmentally preferable procurement can
increase efficiency, lower costs, and prevent
pollution. It will showcase key government
programs in transportation, energy, agriculture,
renewable resources, pollution prevention, and
environmental exports. The event is sponsored by
the Departments of Energy and Agriculture, the
Association of Counties, and the U.S. Conference
of Mayors. Also participating are the General
Services Administration, EPA, and the
Departments of Defense and Commerce. For
more information, call (818) 906-2700 or (800)
334-EXPO, ore-mail ecoexpo@aol.com or check
out the web site, http://www.ecoexpo.com.
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