Four the Future - September 6

Today: Using the aquifer to keep the aquifer full, and transportation investments (or not)

• Obama to Call for $50 Billion Spending on Public Works
  Source: New York Times; September 6, 2010
  Summary: Today, President Obama will propose spending $50 billion to improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure. The plan will fund 15,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of rail, and 150 miles of airport runways. Every few years, Congress passes its multi-year transportation bill. Prospects are dim for this year.
  Opinion: The general public doesn’t know that Congress is habitually late with its transportation bills. It’s operating under a continuing resolution now. These funds are intended to "frontload" the 6-year plan, hopefully to increase the number of construction jobs available. These kinds of infrastructure jobs pay dividends for a generation, and it’s so much better than make-work.
  Since we’re talking about the transportation bill, I want to make my ongoing pitch. For me, the most controversial part of the transportation bill is that it is only for the construction of new roads, not for maintenance. This means that there is incentive for states to expand a road system which is already too big for them to maintain. It also encourages sprawl because the only place to build new roads is where they don’t already exist. The feds should supply only maintenance money for roads, and let the local governments decide whether it’s worth it to tax their citizens for sprawl.
• U.S. Plays Catch-Up on High-Speed Rail
  Source: New York Times; September 5, 2010
  Summary: The Unites States is far behind other nations in high-speed rail systems. While the United States is struggling, China is booming. The only nominally high-speed route in the US is the Acela between Boston and Washington, DC, but it’s a stretch to call it high-speed. Foreign companies are interested in helping build systems. Currently, potential development is focused on San Francisco to Los Angeles and Orlando to Tampa Bay. The California system could cost as much as $40 billion. However, federal funding is only around $8 billion.
  Opinion: There has been talk about a trans-Cascadian line to link eastern and western Washington. However, the most rational funding stream, the gasoline tax, is overburdened as it is, and constitutionally (Article II, Section 40) limited to highway spending. My opinion on that? That’s legislation, not the fundamental law of the land. Whether it's the right thing to do or not, it doesn’t belong there.
• Medical building taps into concept of 'going green'
  Source: Spokesman-Review; September 5, 2010
  Summary: The Fourth and University Medical Building uses a geothermal heat exchange to reduce energy costs. Utility bills were reduced from $4,000 per month to $1,200 per month. Return on investment is 20%, which means that that is all money in their pocket starting in 5 years.
  Opinion: The first building in the county which uses the aquifer to reduce energy usage is the Saranac Building in downtown Spokane. But, there’s more to share....
• TierPoint facility uses unique system to chill building
  Source: Spokesman-Review; September 5, 2010
  Summary: TierPoint, a server farm in Liberty Lake, has an underground closed-loop heat exchange thereby cooling year-round by pumping the heat into the aquifer. The Spokane aquifer is fast moving, so calculations showed that the heat from the building was dissipated within 10 to 15 feet of the heat exchange. This improvement will reduce TierPoint’s water usage by 6 million gallon per year.
  Opinion: Full disclosure: I am friends with one of the owners, Greg Zemp. This is another case where the efforts of local environmental and community building legend Jim Sheehan are paying off. He worked hard to convince the Department of Ecology to permit the use of the aquifer for these purposes. Personally, I’d like to see the calculations on how much water could be saved from being pulled out and boiled away versus the higher temperature the water would be when still in the ground. After all, that’s 6 million gallons is for just one building and the sewer system would welcome a reduction in diluting water from its system.