COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 13, 2008

QUESTION NO 5.

QUESTION: Councillor S. Crowe

To ask the Manager in view of South Dublin County Council's carbon footprint  and greater awareness and responsibities on  companies and corporate bodies will the manager outline what proposals this Council has to meet its footprint and does his proposals include the planting of  additional trees thoughout the county and how many will this entail?

REPLY:

(Environmental Services Department input)

The Council is currently developing a Climate Change Strategy for the County. A report on this matter was presented to the meeting of the Environmental SPC which was held n the 3rd of September last documentsview.  It is planned to present the final draft of the strategy to the February 09 meeting of the SPC following a period of Public consultation.

One of the key indicators in the proposed Climate Change Strategy will be the reduction of the Councils Carbon footprint. In this regard it is proposed that the Strategy will address the issue of Climate Change under the following five headings:

1.     Energy

2.     Planning

3.     Transport

4.     Waste Management

5.     Biodiversity

Proposed Terms of Reference

The proposed Terms of Reference for the Strategy are as follows;

It is proposed that the launch will be followed by the development of an Action Plan that will outline the progression of the Strategy. 

In addition to the above a report on Sustainable Energy was presented at the meeting of the Environment Strategic Policy Committee on the 6th September 2006.The report outlined various approaches which are being undertaken by a number of Council Departments. LINK  Policies are being pursued by the Council in a number of areas and ongoing assessment is taking place.

Vehicle Fuels.

The Mechanical Section initiated a project in the Summer of 2007 that explores the potential benefits and practicality of three different alternative fuels. These alternative fuels are:

 Ø       Rapeseed Oil – Two VW Transporter Pickups purchased for Esker Parks Depot.

Ø       Bio-Diesel - A Bio-Diesel tank (30% Bio-Diesel – 70% DERV mixture) has being installed in the Ballymount depot, and two Renault S180 Cleansing Section trucks are now running on Bio-Diesel.

Ø       Bio-Ethanol – A Ford Focus Bio-Ethanol car was recently purchased for use by the Council's Golf Course.

So far there has practically being no change in the smoke opacity results between the pickups using Diesel and Rapeseed Oil. In terms of servicing, the engine has to be serviced more regularly. Also, after some time it was noticed that the power of the vehicle reduced dramatically when constantly driven in heavy traffic. The same problem has been found with the Bio-Diesel vehicles.

It is still too early to say if either fuel has a future in terms of replacing DERV (standard Road Diesel) as the Council's main fuel for commercial vehicles. Other technologies are currently being developed by major car manufactures, such as Electric, Hydrid, Hydrogen and Compressed Air. These technologies could in the future render Bio-Fuels redundant.

There are currently international doubts regarding the sustainability of using Rapeseed Oil for vehicle fuel, as the land required for fuel production could vastly reduce the land available for food growth. The continuous year in, year out growing of Rapeseed Oil on the same land without crop rotation can also result in the determent of the land.

The outlook for Bio-Diesel on the other hand may be brighter as there are many companies now recycling waste oils, fats, greases, etc for vehicle fuel. Bio-Diesel fuel is actually a mixture of Bio-Diesel and DERV. Different manufactures standby different ratio’s of Bio-Diesel/DERV mixes. The vehicle tenders advertised this year by the Council have a section requiring the tenderer to state if the vehicle they have tendered will still be under guarantee if run on a 10%/90% Bio-Diesel/DERV mix. This ratio is far more common amongst vehicle manufactures than the one used for the Renault trucks mentioned above. 

This project has being in place since the summer of 2007. It is intended to continue with the project for a further year before deciding on which, if any of the above fuels are viable for use in the existing and future Council fleet. By that time, it should be clearer as to whether any of the fuels have long term adverse effects on engines and by then it may be possible to see whether other alternative means of fuelling vehicles (e.g. electric, compressed air, hybrid etc.) have come to the fore. 

 Pumping Stations.

The Mechanical Section is currently investigating the possibility of installing a small 6KW wind turbine at Belgard Reservoir subject to the necessary funding being available. This wind turbine would feed into the reservoirs current ESB mains power supply thereby reducing the running costs of the reservoirs storage heaters, actuated valves, telemetry and pumps. The reservoir is located at one of the highest points in the region and wind supply is always available.

The Mechanical Section has also recently commenced investigating the possibility of installing a small water driven turbine on the River Liffey to feed into Lucan Spa Drainage Pump Station power supply. This research is in its initial stages.

The Council will maintain ongoing liaison with the other Dublin Local Authorities to monitor progress made by them on the use of sustainable and renewable energy in carrying out their functions.

Waste - Arthurstown Landfill

The Council’s landfill at Arthurstown contains an energy recovery plant where landfill gases are diverted through an underground network system of pipes to a central collection point. From there they are fed into a gas turbine system for conversion to electricity. This electricity is fed into the national grid for onward distribution as green electricity and can supply electricity for approximately 5,000 houses.

In accordance with the wishes of the elected members the council has initiated a project to measure the Council’s carbon footprint and has a considerable amount of work completed in advance of publishing  a Sustainable Energy Strategy for the organization.   

An Interdepartmental Working Group established to develop the Strategy has been working with Sustainable Energy Ireland and have produced a number of working papers and the strategy will cover inter alia:

 The draft strategy is progressing well and will be put before the members in draft form for adoption at the November 2008 council meeting.

Tree planting

The Parks & Landscape Services Department, through its annual arboricultural programme, has an ongoing tree planting work schedule. Over 135,500 trees have been planted during the last five tree planting seasons (2002 – 2007) in public parks and open spaces and on streets and major roads throughout the county. This programme of planting will continue this year with the commencement of the 2008 tree planting season in late November/early December.

All of the above are currently contributing to a reduction in the Council’s footprint and as developments take place in relation to the implementation of the Climate Change Strategy etc will continue to do so into the future.