Dear Roundup,
It’s very reassuring to me that the Roundup has chosen to focus attention on the environmental and construction challenges we face at Pierce. I agree that “It’s not easy being green,” but I’d like to point out our great progress toward this goal.
After growing from a small agricultural campus 60 years ago into today’s large, complex and multifaceted college, Pierce faces many challenges in our efforts to turn expediency into environmentalism. Thankfully, the massive efforts throughout the campus, funded by the passage of Propositions A and AA, are doing just that.
With nearly $100 million of construction underway, and millions more being staged for construction, Pierce is well on the way to becoming “green.”
For example, the large storm drain project that is nearly finished on campus will take water from our 400+ acre campus and channel it into a large basin (our soccer pit) where it will be contained, allowing materials to settle so only small, regulated amounts of clean water are dispersed into the city’s storm drain system.
This effort to mitigate the polluting effects of heavy rains on farm fields and parking lots is long overdue, and will be a reality before the next rainy season.
Similarly, each building we build and each project we undertake are integrated with this same environmental commitment.
However, the complex process of staging utilities, buildings and new parking lots forces us to be patient for long-awaited changes.
One change that will occur shortly is the renovation of the campus mall. This project, the first half which should be completed in Fall 2009, will replace the mall’s broken concrete and asphalt patches, with new pavers lined with additional trees, benches and student areas.
We are also proud of our newly completed 80,300 square foot botanical garden in the middle of campus, which replaced high-maintenance lawns with drought-resistant, low water plants and serves as an outdoor laboratory for students to learn these valuable techniques.
In 2003, Pierce launched the largest community college solar-powered system in the nation, with an innovative solar-panel carport structure over student vehicles and micro-turbines that reduced our outsourced energy use by 25 percent.
In 2005, we facilitated getting even more cars off the road by agreeing to lease land to the Metro Orange Line to complete their bus route, by adding two Pierce College stops along Victory Boulevard.
Finally, I agree that the process of construction is messy, noisy and potentially polluting, but the short-term pain will be replaced with a long-term gain for all of us who call Pierce home.
And, while the District insists on our contractors using union labor pools and meeting all existing environmental standards, the construction industry still depends on diesel-powered equipment driving the construction process.
Hopefully as we progress into new stages of rebuilding Pierce, construction technology will develop as well and, in the future; the smell of diesel exhaust will be replaced by the more pleasing aroma of biodiesel and French fries.
Thank you again for raising environmental awareness. I believe that Pierce is on the right track toward becoming the “green” campus that we all desire, and by working together, we’ll definitely get there sooner.
Respectfully,
Robert Garberpresident, Pierce College