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CityStories / City Profiles / Small Cities / Union City, California

City to Watch

Population: 66,869

 


Photo Credit: Waymond C/Flickr


Union City, California

Map showing this city's location

Union City's Tri-CED community recycling is the largest nonprofit recycler in California that is dedicated to employing needy adults and providing training for disadvantaged youth to prepare them for the workforce.

Since 1980, it has been forming partnerships with community organizations, schools and faith-based organizations. Each month, it recycles 1,200 tons of residential waste and 600 more of yard waste.

Union City, in Alameda County on the east side of the San Francisco Bay, has a Clean Water Protection program in order to keep stormwater clean, as it ultimately flows into the San Francisco Bay. The Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program offers education and outreach to the community on water issues in a number of ways, including issuing grants for community watershed cleanups and extending awareness programs to schools.

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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

SNVA landscaping information

 

NYC's Residential Recycling Program

Live in NYC and wonder what you can recycle and how? This guide will help.

NYC's Residential Recycling Program

Live in NYC and wonder what you can recycle and how? This guide will help.

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