Retooling traffic lights to save 220,000 gallons of gasoline a year, refitting local bridges with wind-powered LED lights, auditing city buildings to reduce energy costs and putting more city workers in high-mileage cars are ways the city is looking to save money, save energy and reduce carbon and ozone.
It will take all those things and more to cope with greater energy reductions and tighter air regulations of the future, city and county officials say.
"We've gotten all the low-lying fruit" to meet air pollution regulations, said Bob Colby, director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau. "As of right now, none of our monitors would meet EPA's new proposed ozone standards."
PDF: Chattanooga Climate Action Plan
The EPA standard that Chattanooga most recently met in order to be declared a Clean Air city is expected to lowered by 10 to 20 parts per billion later this year, Mr. Colby said.
But cleaner air is not the only goal.
David Crockett, the city's new environment sustainability czar, said the city could save more than $1 million a year in energy costs just by whittling down the power bills of street lights and the Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment plant.
"We're doing an energy audit right now of every single thing (gas, water and electricity) in the city and county," Mr. Crockett said.
Chattanooga pulled itself off the nation's dirtiest-air list in the 1960s to become a darling of the environment in the 1990s. That legacy makes the energy opportunities of the Obama administration a clear goal, Mr. Crockett said.
And now he hopes to leverage a $1.86 million federal energy stimulus grant into many different ways to meet some of the city's new challenges.
Looking for savings
Karen Hundt, director of planning and design at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, has worked with Mr. Crockett's Office of Sustainability and Mayor Ron Littlefield's Chattanooga Green Committee to create some proposals for savings.
Timing traffic lights could save 220,000 gallons of gasoline a year by improving traffic flow, estimated Gene Hyde, Green Committee chairman.
City traffic engineer John Van Winkle said the public sees some return on the dollar when traffic lights are timed.
"The 2007 National Traffic Signal Report Card found that improving traffic-signal timing has a 40-to-1 or better return on investment," he said. "And every $1 spent on technologies like synchronized and timed traffic signals returns $40 to the public in time and fuel savings."
But the biggest plus may be air quality.
"Any amount of improved signal timing will reduce delay," Mr. Van Winkle said. "If you stopped less and your car is not idling and letting fumes in the air, it will improve air quality. This is one thing (for air) that hasn't really been tapped over the years."
New LED streetlights on one side of the Veterans Bridge should save more than 41,000 kilowatt hours and more than $5,500 over three years, according to a study prepared by Ms. Hundt. Only one side will be done at a time to show the public how the new lights look and to get feedback, she said.
The wind-power option will be a demonstration project planned between the LED maker, Don Lepard's Global Green Lighting, and a San Diego wind turbine company, Mr. Lepard said Monday.
New LED streetlights on the Walnut Street Bridge are estimated to save about 435,000 kwh and more than $98,200, according to Ms. Hundt's analysis.
She also found that retooled lighting in city buildings - such as new compact fluorescent light bulbs and LED lighting - is estimated to cost about $304,730 and save about $530,000 over three years.
greening up
Green roofs on the Bessie Smith Hall trellises, the City Council building, the City Hall annex, the city's health and wellness center and the police precinct at the former Farmers Market site on 11th Street would have a different kind of savings.
The $286,000 cost would save up to 117 tons of greenhouse gases, nearly 175,000 kwh of electricity and more than $11,000 in power costs over three years, Ms. Hundt said.
A downtown bike share program, where people can check out a bike from an automated kiosk and use it around town, could help downtown workers save gas money and energy, she said. The city borrowed the idea from Europe, she said.
Brian Kiesche, the city's fleet manager, said Chattanooga also is moving to higher-mileage vehicles. He said about 60 detectives and 20 other inspectors and city administrators soon will be in diesel Jettas, hybrid Priuses and Ford Focuses. Such fuel-efficient cars also generally cost less than traditional city cars.
Mr. Kiesche said the city is experimenting with E85 ethanol and biodiesel. E85 is a blend of 85 percent denatured ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Biodiesel is a domestic, renewable fuel for diesel engines derived from natural products such as soybean oil.
He said the fleet efforts have no specific savings goal just yet, since it is early in the experiment.
The E85 ethanol savings is unclear. It costs about 40 cents a gallon less, but the vehicles get lower fuel mileage, so it may be a dollar wash.
"But it does save carbon," Mr. Kiesche said. "The goal for the fleet is to reduce fuel usage and reduce our carbon footprint. We just have to make sure it fits our needs. We're just one piece of this big old puzzle."