Claire Whitcomb Presents Environmental Potentials To Madison Council
By Tyler Barth for TAPintoMadison
Claire Whitcomb followed up Rachel Ehrlich’s climate action presentation with an environmental overview of her own at the Jan. 10 town meeting.
According to Whitcomb, the chair of the Environmental Commission, Madison had a fantastic 2021. Madison won an award at the annual Green Vision Forum, played host to the annual EV Expo for electric cars in conjunction with the Chathams, and has built up a successful swap & share program up to 2,400 members in the past 18 months. Additionally, Madison took part in a multi-town sale of native plants in April - where 14,000 native plants found homes - and garnered 190 registrants for an Eco Garden Tour in the autumn.
These native plants will help offset the damage caused by lawns, which are causing an “insect apocalypse underscored by a bird apocalypse” with pesticides, and even without pesticide use aren’t beneficial to the environment without clover or flowering plants, according to the Environmental Commission.
Lastly, the petition to Save the Drew Forest, aimed at stopping the possible sale and redevelopment of 53 acres of contiguous forest on the Drew University campus, has collected almost 11,000 signatures. The Madison council has explicitly given their support of the petition on several occasions.
“At the beginning of 2021, I was terrified for the future of Drew Forest,” said Christopher Coultas, a recently graduated Drew alum, “What started as a year full of gloom ended as a year full of hope”.
66% of Madison’s carbon footprint comes from the built environment, said Whitcomb, and any new construction will have to meet present energy efficiency standards. Any brand-new buildings will have to meet green infrastructure, green stormwater practices, additional landscaping measures and, most pressingly, impervious coverage.
Impervious coverage, which refers to roofs, sidewalks, concrete driveways, patios, and any surface in the landscape that cannot effectively absorb rainfall, is one of many environmental topics on Madison’s master plan. The plan, Whitcomb said, advocates for the use of previous coverage where possible for pedestrian walkways.
The impact of climate change means New Jersey will be dealing with rainier seasons, larger storms and harsher downpours, with a high potential for floods. This, said Whitcomb, makes previous coverage even more important and makes forests, which can disperse rainfall and purify runoff, again tying back to the Drew Forest.
According to Whitcomb, the area has already seen considerable success with previous paving, blue roofs to turn rainwater into drinking water, and rain gardens. Despite this, she emphasized the importance of water conservation to allow for water to be diverted to the aquifer.
Other environmental topics on the master plan include construction waste recycling, the infrastructure for a possible transition to full electric power in the future, new and more efficient lighting fixtures, high-performance building systems, and solar panel options.
Whitcomb stressed the importance of going all-electric in the near future, saying its alternative, natural gas, “is the worse the more you know about it”, leaking methane and causing emissions worse than those coming from coal. New Jersey’s Master Plan calls for 90% electrification by 2050 to help offset natural gas’s environmental problems. Several current construction projects in Madison, such as 14 Lincoln Place and 32-36 Elm Street, will rely on electric infrastructure.
“These two presentations have set a great tone for 2022”, Mayor Bob Conley said of Whitcomb’s and Ehrlich’s presentations.
