Residents of the East Bay have exhibited their willingness to conserve resources and protect our region’s environment through a variety of water, waste and energy conservation behaviors. A robust cluster of environmental businesses currently exists in the region and is poised to grow. Local utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), East Bay Municipal Utility District, as well as our regional parks district and local governments have consistently been on the forefront as “early adopters” of new technologies and conservation programs and have been leaders in the environmental education of consumers and residents.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
In the East Bay and throughout California, residents and businesses have implemented energy saving practices and technology aimed at reducing electricity use. As a result, electricity consumption has remained flat over the last decade despite significant population growth in many of the region’s outlying areas. As the Bay Area and other California regions move toward an electricity grid powered by renewable sources of energy, PG&E obtained 14 percent of its electricity from renewables such as biomass, solar and geothermal in 2008, compared to 10 percent for the State as a whole, and 16 percent in the Los Angeles area. PG&E will need to source an additional 6 percent of its electricity from renewables to meet California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires 20 percent generation from renewable sources by the year 2010.
AIR QUALITY
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Spare the Air program began in 1991 and encourages Bay Area residents to use alternate modes of transportation and forego pollution-causing activities when ozone concentrations are forecasted to exceed the state and federal health-based air quality standards. Though Spare the Air days have decreased significantly since the early 1990s, the 2006, 2008, and 2009 year-to-date figures exceed the low figures seen at the beginning of the decade. The number of days on which the National 8-hour Ozone Standard1 was exceeded has also decreased overall but rose in 2006 and 2008. The California 1-hour Ozone Standard2, which is more stringent than the Federal standard, also decreased significantly in the past 10 years, falling from a high of 29 days in 1998 to 9 days in 2008.
Due in part to the East Bay’s central location, extensive transportation network, and concentration of various industries, both Alameda and Contra Costa counties ranked in the top 3 Bay Area counties in emissions of pollutants such as PM 10, PM 2.5, Sulfur Dioxide and Oxides of Nitrogen3.
WATER USE BY CATEGORY, EBMUD
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TOTAL RESIDENTIAL WASTE BY PERSON
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1 The National 8-hour Standard for ozone is set at 75 parts per billion of ozone in the ambient air, averaged over 8 hours.
2 The California 1-hour Standard for ozone is set at 90 parts per billion of ozone in the ambient air, averaged over 1 hour.
3
Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Base Year 2005 Emissions Inventory Summary Report, December 2008.