The winter rains have transformed our hills to a beautiful green for us to enjoy. Hopefully, these storms will fill our lakes and reservoirs so we will have enough water for our homes next summer when our hills turn golden.

North of us, in rainy Oregon and Washington, hills and valleys are green year round. Builders and environmentalists are experimenting with a roof that has little runoff. Streets, highways, parking lots, sidewalks and paved back yards prevent water from soaking back into the soil and send it rushing toward storm drains.

In Portland, a youth hostel has a 650 square-foot garden of scrubby succulents and marigolds that grows right out of the roof. This new green space is not generally visible from street level but is taking the place of traditional shingles or tar roofs. Portland has emerged as an international leader in the budding ecoroof movement. The city has a financial commitment to these green roofs in the form of tax breaks and grants. They have changed some building codes so a range of buildings can sport rooftop gardens. They have made government incentives a priority because of the technology’s cost. Green roofs cost approximately two times more than regular roofs to install and require extensive research and planning.

Living roofs can reduce runoff after rainstorms by up to 90 percent, slash a building’s energy costs by 10 percent and reduce summer temperatures on scorching city rooftops. They also delay the runoff after a major storm by several hours, preventing flooding and sewage problems that occur when a city’s storm-water system overflows. An added bonus is that these roof gardens filter pollutants and heavy metals from rainwater.

A green roof is part of the renovation of the Ford Motor Company River Rouge factory. When the plant is finished, this roof will be capable of holding two inches of rainwater, and porous parking lots will absorb and store water. The water will seep into a constructed marsh for purification by plants where it will take three days to seep to the river instead of heading there in a torrent. A handful of other cities, including Chicago, Toronto and Seattle, have grown gardens on their city halls and courthouses. Rainy Atlanta now plans to follow suit.

Living roofs have long been common in Holland and Switzerland, Faced with growing urban population, runoff and pollution problems, some German cities require new flat roofs to be green roofs. Other German cities require residents to pay taxes based on the percentage of paved surface they own. As a result, one out of seven German roofs is green. In some cities, one-quarter of buildings have ecoroofs.

Green ecoroofs are not feasible in the Bay Area as we only have rain during the winter. However, there is an abundance of sunshine and solar panels are being installed on top of City Hall and the JFK Library. Vallejo’s police station has benefitted from solar power for more than six months.

PHONE BOOK RECYCLING
Approximately 90,000 new phone books have been delivered recently. It’s easy to recycle your old ones. Homeowners can place them in the blue curbside recycling containers. Commercial customers can place old books in their grey recycling toters. VALCORE is also accepting phone books. For more information you can call Vallejo’s recycling coordinator, Derek Crutchfield, at 648-5346 or the phone book recycling hotline at 1 800 953-4400.

I’d like to suggest that you hang onto one old phone book for craft projects. I keep one handy for dabbing paint brushes or catching glue.