Today, Alexandria sees an average of between 37 and 70 overflows at each of its four combined sewer outfalls annually. Under the new system, those numbers are expected to drop to anywhere between less than one and 2.3 annually.
See the full story at Inside Climate News
More DMV News
UPDATED: ACPS Faces Unexpected $1.4 Million Solar Connection Cost
Alexandria Times
Alexandria City Public Schools has learned that activation of the solar power installations at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School, which opened last year, and the Minnie Howard Campus of Alexandria City High School, which opens this month, will cost $1.4 million.
Outdated EV Charger On Benning Road Gets a Makeover at Groundbreaking Event
WTOP News
It will be the first charging station in the country to be rehabbed using funding from a federal grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s Electric Vehicle Charging Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator, which was passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.
An Air Conditioning Law, the First in Its Region, Changed Tenants’ Rights in This Maryland County
Smart Cities Dive
Montgomery County began requiring landlords to provide AC in 2020 amid climate concerns and renter complaints. Despite a shaky start, officials say things are going smoothly now.
What It’s Like to Live in Curtis Bay, Baltimore’s Pollution Epicenter
Baltimore Banner
Research shows that Curtis Bay residents are at higher risk of health problems like heart disease and cancer from long-term exposure to pollution. It also takes a mental toll. Flooding has been reported in Baltimore, Annapolis, and other areas as the remnants of Hurricane Debby pass over Maryland.
National and International News
‘Nobody Ever Saw Anything Like This Before’: How Methane Emissions are Pushing the Amazon Towards Environmental Catastrophe
The Guardian
Controlling methane provides our best, and perhaps only, lever for shaving peak global temperatures over the next few decades. This is because it’s cleansed from the air naturally only a decade or so after release. Therefore, if we eliminate all methane emissions from human activities, the concentration of methane would quickly return to pre-industrial levels. Humans have released in excess of 3bn tons of methane into the atmosphere in the past 20 years. Quashing those emissions within a decade or two would save us 0.5C of warming. No other greenhouse gas gives us this much power to slow the climate crisis.
NREL Advances Method for Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades
CleanTechnica
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) see a realistic path forward to the manufacture of bio-derivable wind blades that can be chemically recycled and the components reused, ending the practice of old blades winding up in landfills at the end of their useful life.
Heat-Based Batteries Are a Surprisingly Versatile Tool
Canary Media
Over the past 12 years, the Israel-based manufacturer of thermal energy storage systems has evolved from producing heat batteries for a specific purpose — solar-thermal power plants — to heat batteries for a much wider range of applications.
Scientists May Have Found a Radical Solution For Making Your Hamburger Less Bad For the Planet
Washington Post
Sushi, a four-week-old Holstein calf, was lying in a pen under the hum of a metal fan when a group of professors and graduate students arrived to sample his stomach. The male calf greeted the researchers with a friendly nibble of their clothing, then flopped back down lazily on a bed of rice hulls.
What Climate Policies Work Best? A New Study Has Answers.
Grist
According to a new study in the journal Science, countries have managed to slash emissions by putting a price on carbon, but the biggest cuts came from adopting a combination of policies. Seventy percent of the instances where countries saw big results were tied to multiple actions that generated “synergy.”