A curious group of residents attended the city of Durango’s bimonthly Engage Durango public forum this week where the theme of the evening was sustainability.
Residents pitched questions about solar production caps, how the city will reduce its carbon footprint while simultaneously increasing its workforce housing supply, and what regulations of “forever chemicals” mean for local businesses.
Marty Pool, sustainability manager for the city, fielded the questions after a brief presentation about sustainability efforts being undertaken by the city.
He said the city’s sustainability plan, first put into action in 2022, contains five major focus areas: 1) energy, 2) transportation and development plans, 3) consumption and waste, 4) water, and 5) natural systems and ecology.
The city of Durango will launch a thermostat replacement program in 2025, and its e-bike rebate program proved to be a success again in its second consecutive year, and water consumption and the amount of city waste being dumped in the landfill are on a slightly downward trend, Pool said.
He said the city’s $7 million energy performance contract, a tax-exempt lease purchase agreement for nearly 30 energy, water and solar efficiency projects and upgrades in city buildings, has been completed.
The energy performance contract was approved by Durango City Council last year. Pool said then the contract was designed to offset the costs of sustainability projects with utility cost savings.
Durango resident Carolyn Hunter asked about La Plata Electric Association’s solar production capacities and whether caps on personal solar production are still in place.
“They didn’t want more than 5% of the energy coming from personal solar panels,” she said.
Pool said production caps were a part of LPEA’s contract with wholesale energy provider Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. In two years’ time, LPEA will have exited its contract with Tri-State. But caps were related to utility-scale solar power production, not onsite solar production.
“We are actually hitting a point on some of our zones within the electrical grid in our community where daytime solar production for onsite solar is more than (substations are) using, and so we're actually hitting 100% daytime solar in some zones in the city of Durango,” Pool said.
In February, LPEA announced it was pausing applications for new solar systems in parts of Durango, the Animas Valley, Florida Mesa and Durango West developments because more power was being generated than there were buildings and infrastructure to make use of it.
LPEA said in a news release at the time it was working toward ways to allow more local solar power production. Per its Tri-State contract, it pays annual fees for power production exceeding the 5% cap.
“LPEA is currently investigating various solutions with experts across the country to address the growing demand for solar energy, including homeowner-installed batteries, substation batteries, adoption of advanced technologies for energy management, and the establishment of Community Solar Gardens,” the release said.
Another resident said she heard that products containing PFAS – perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as forever chemicals – are being banned, and she asked Pool to weigh in.
Pool said he doesn’t see anything about Colorado’s May legislation, Senate Bill 24-081, regulating forever chemicals that would impact city code or waste management practices.
Durango resident Sweetie Marbury said many restaurants don’t compost food waste because it is too expensive to hire a dedicated employee for that, but if the city rolled out some sort of composting and recycling incentives program, restaurants would change their practices.
Pool said he agrees and highlighted the city’s Green Durango Grants program, which encourages businesses and nonprofits to play into the city’s sustainability efforts in creative ways.
Restaurants are likely the highest commercial producers of food waste, he said, and Carver Brewing Co. was recently recognized for its full-scale restaurant composting in front- and back-of-house operations.
Resident Werner Heiber asked how the city reconciles its dire need for more workforce housing with its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and by 100% by 2050.
Pool said it is a challenge to balance greenhouse gas reduction goals with the need for more affordable housing – everyone needs somewhere to live, after all. But, “exclusionary sustainability is not equitable sustainability,” he said.
The city simply has to be more aggressive in its tactics for reducing its carbon footprint, he said. Durango wants to be a carbon-neutral community, but communities naturally grow. The city is obligated to tackle both the housing crisis and sustainability efforts simultaneously.
cburney@durangoherald.com
