CityStories / City Profiles / Small Cities / Sarasota, Florida
Population: 52,715
- Environmental education
- Water conservation
- Native species promotion
- Official City of Sarasota Website
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Sarasota, Florida
A vacation town on the Gulf of Mexico, Sarasota has a transient population that can be challenging to rally for the city's green plans. But the city has involved the public through environmental education at schools, community groups including the local women's club and Boys & Girls Club, and outreach programs like Sustainability Advocacy Volunteer Educators, which provides opportunities for green internships for high school and college-age residents.
The citizen group Sarasota Network for Climate Action encourages residents to take action on global warming by working through local government.
To increase public awareness of water conservation and protection, in 1989 the City of Sarasota helped found the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, a group dedicated to protecting the bay and its connecting waterways. The city's water system reclaims 70 percent of wastewater annually. Conservation pricing encourages consumers to use less, and commercial and residential lawn watering is limited to one day a week. The city started a rain-barrel demonstration project at City Hall for watering flower beds without sprinklers, and created a rain-barrel brochure and how-to guide for residents to use at home. To protect the landscape and irrigate efficiently—as well as promote native growth and wildlife, the city encourages Florida-friendly landscaping through tools like www.floridayards.org.
The city's Environmental Management Task Force was formed in 2007 and is currently drafting a Local Climate Action Plan, and in April 2008, the city created a full-time Environmental Services position.
Lighter colored strata revealed by the decline in Lake Mead's water levels. For more on Las Vegas, read the city profile. Credit: Loop_oh/FlickrFor recent visitors to...
Flooding and sewer overflow in West Haven, Connecticut. Credit: Christopher ZurcherThe impervious paving with which we are so familiar—the asphalt and concrete that...
Porous Paving
The EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System site provides information about applicability, siting and design criteria.
Georgia's Department of Community Affairs has a page on best practices for porous paving.
Portland, Oregon's Bureau of Environmental Service pervious paving projects page.
City of Chicago's permeable paving site with many local examples.
San Francisco Parks Trust permeable landscape page.
Environmental Health Perspectives provides a good overview in "Paving Paradise: The Peril of Impermeable Surfaces."
NRDC's report Stormwater Strategies: Community Responses to Runoff Pollution considers a variety of responses implemented across the country.
Water Conservation
US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation: with a mission to "manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public" the bureau provides information about water levels in reservoirs throughout the West, updates on dams, powerplants and related projects and a library of water reclamation materials.
Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART program: Information on WaterSMART grants for water and energy conservation projects, basin studies with integrated management plans and water supply reviews and details on the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the Southwest.
In Hot Water: Water Management Strategies to Weather the Effects of Global Warming (NRDC report)
Water Efficiency Saves Energy (NRDC report)
Las Vegas Water District conservation pages
Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNVA) conservation and rebates
Learn More
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Comments
This is a wonderful city/county to live in. It is truely PROGRESSIVE. The coverage in this material doesn't begin to communicate or demonstrate the dynamicness of the policy makers or citizens. We pioneered fertilizer policy, have mandatory recycling, excellent CODE ENFORCMENT, wide spread ARTS programs, childrens programs, a class A school system, etc....... 4 LEED registered major buildings.
I am truely happy that I live here and I have lived in 15 other countries.
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