PORT ANGELES — If you follow Clallam County government’s carbon footprints, you’ll find three sizes of tracks.
Which of these three sectors do you think produces the most CO2?
• Buildings, including the courthouse at 233 E. Fourth St. and the Juvenile and Family Services building at 1912 W. 18th St., both in Port Angeles.
• Transportation, including the road department’s heavy vehicles, sheriff’s cruisers and employees’ personal cars.
• Other, including the Clallam Bay/Sekiu sewer system and solid waste.
You guessed transportation, right?
Eventually, you might be right, but for now the county’s buildings use the most CO2 equivalent, or CO2e, according to the county Climate Action Group.
The breakdown in tons of CO2e, followed by the percentage of county government emissions:
• Buildings: 3,409 tons, including 1,910 tons for the courthouse, 538 for juvenile/family services; 53 percent.
• Transportation: 2,873 tons, including 1,684 for the county fleet, 1,189 for commuters; 45 percent.
• Other: 173 tons for the sewer system and an unknown amount from solid waste, 3 percent.
The order might shift in favor of transportation once the courthouse is recalculated using hydropower. It initially was figured with software that assumed 40 percent of its electricity was generated by coal-fired plants.
“This total will change somewhat as we refine the conversion factors to reflect our energy providers, but the pattern should remain the same,” said Sam Fox, associate planner and a member of the county’s Climate Action Group.
The commuter share of the transportation sector was calculated from a sample of 156 employees of the county’s 422 workers.
“Less [sic] than 10 respondents exclusively utilized bicycles, buses or walking for commuting purposes,” Fox said.
Otherwise, the estimate was computed using mid-size gasoline-burning cars and full-size diesel vehicles.
Miles based on 2006
Employees furnished the one-way distances of their daily commutes.
“The distances were totaled by vehicle and fuel type, which resulted in an estimated distance of commute per day by vehicle and fuel type for the entire county,” Fox said.
“These one-way totals were doubled to create a round trip distance and then multiplied by the estimated 235 workdays for [the base year of] 2006.
“The resultant total was then divided by 0.37 to result in miles per year for all employees.”
Fox said Clallam’s figures jibed with those from Jefferson County, which also is keeping tabs on its CO2e.
In addition, the Climate Action Group produced some pilot ideas:
• Using more and smaller electric meters throughout the courthouse, not just one, to pinpoint use and misuse.
• Making the county parks division especially “green,” which might produce a low impact but would raise awareness.
• Figuring how to make the Clallam Bay/Sekiu sewage plant a cogenerator of electricity.
A draft action plan will be available by Thanksgiving, Fox said, the same time a state-level panel is due to report to what he called “the returning or outgoing governor.”
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@ peninsuladailynews.com.
