The greening of Stewart International

To the editor: Stewart International Airport’s expansion is Orange County’s opportunity to set an international example for environmental responsibility in designing a huge public project. Our local governments, agencies, authorities, unions and the voting citizens of this county, state and country should be calling the Stewart project “Big Green.” Start with passive solar orientation of the buildings. Transpired walls collecting energy during the day can be supplemented by heating and air conditioning provided with combined geothermal and solar thermal/solar hot water. Solar radiant heat and solar absorption chillers for AC yield enormous savings. Electricity can be substantially offset by using the latest generation of PV for solar electricity. Storm and wastewater can be recycled through gray water recovery systems curtailing runoff and unnecessary use and waste of our most limited resource. Solid waste during construction and after operations begin should go to our hometown biomass gasification plant to generate clean energy from garbage. Incorporating these available technologies now will save the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars over the useful life of the airport and flood our county with the emerging technologies and local technicians improving our local economies while saving our environment. These technologies yield a very high return on investment. Anyone from high school scientists to the most advanced physicist or engineer can model the savings with free software provided by a partnership that includes NASA, Natural Resources Canada and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project. See www.retscreen.net. Let’s get it right for once, set an example for our kids and grandkids. Patrick Gallagher Warwick