Resilience & Sustainability Advisory Committee

Resiliency and Sustainability Advisory Committee Meeting February 13, 2020 Today’s Agenda 1. Welcome and Moment of Silence 2. Sustainability Next Steps a. Greenhouse Gas Inventory b. Green Plan Audit c. Climate Action Plan 3. SC Resilience Revolving Fund Act Update 4. Environmental Initiatives at the South Carolina Ports Authority 5. Earth Day 2020 Resolutions 6. Public Comment Period Sustainability Next Steps Greenhouse Gas Inventory Greenhouse Gas Inventory ● Started January 2020 ● Time length: 4-6 months GHG Data Inventories ● 2002 ● 2006 ● 2010 ● 2018 coming soon! Download at: https://www.charleston-sc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1462/Green-Plan-Inventory-and-Metrics?bidId= Sustainability Next Steps Green Plan Audit  Green Plan Audit Goal is to prioritize top initiatives from 2010 to consider for potential action Focus first on sectors showing highest GHG emissions,Bldgs + Transp. https://www.charleston-sc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/25231/Green-Plan-Audit Top Priorities from Green Plan Improved Transportation: ● Support employer-based programs that encourage alternative transportation ● Set high standards for the purchase, use, and maintenance of City vehicles ● Create education programs both internally and with the public Top Priorities from Green Plan Better Buildings: ● New City buildings and renovations to meet LEED certification ● Incentivize private development to meet LEED certification ● Require private development to meet LEED certification or adopt stronger energy codes Sustainability Next Steps C limate Action Plan Climate Action Planning Started January 2020 Currently: 80% emissions reduction by 2050 Will re -evaluate target Will draw inspiration from 2010 Charleston Green Plan Start CAP in quarter 2 Earth Day Resolutions  Celebrations last all month long! 50th ● West Ashley Farmers Market ● Downtown Farmers Market Anniversary of ● Tree Planting Event ● MUSC Local Food Fest Earth Day ● County Paper Shred Events ● C of C Street Fair & Events April 22 ● Community Cleanups & Events with Keep Charleston Beautiful, Surfrider, DNR, Waterkeeper Let’s Make Earth Day Resolutions! Past Resolutions to Update New Resolutions to Consider ● Recycling- blue bin items and printer ● Recycling bulk mattresses & hazardous cartridges materials like batteries, light bulbs ● Advertise CARTA routes on City ● Fleet electrification transition and events purchasing standards ● “Lights out in buildings at night” ● EV charging stations and EV ready campaign parking ● City construction meets LEED ● Climate action pledge certification ● Eliminating styrofoam ● Enforce the current idling ordinance ● Promoting reusable bags ● Purchasing recycled paper for copiers ● Energy efficiency month- October ● Printing 2-sided, scrap paper pile ● Electric vehicle awareness ● Decrease plastic bag use ALL IDEAS WELCOME and ENCOURAGED SC Resilience Revolving Fund Act Update B y: Jason C rowley, C oastal C onservation League  South Carolina Resilience Revolving Fund S.259 If enacted, the “South Carolina Resilience Revolving Fund Act” will advance the ability to leverage state and federal funding to provide low interest loans to perform flooded-home buyouts and floodplain restoration, and authorizes the Disaster Recovery Office within the Department of Administration to undertake certain actions to effectively operate the fund. Purpose and Need: • South Carolina has faced four major flooding events between 2015 and 2018, which caused over one billion dollars in total damages, required hundreds of millions of dollars in state spending, and flooded thousands of homes. • Flooding has affected all regions of South Carolina from the Upstate, to the Midlands, and throughout the Coastal Plain, and has harmed the property and health of residents in each of these regions. • Neighborhoods and homes have been constructed in floodplains, and when these homes are inevitably flooded there are limited resources available to relocate residents out of the floodplain afterward. • Many flooded homeowners are forced to rebuild in the same vulnerable location and are trapped in a cycle of repeated flooding and rebuilding. • Homeowners without flood insurance or financial assistance are unable to rebuild at all. • Federal funding to conduct flood mitigation typically requires a ratio match at the local level, and applications are more competitive when funding is available for this match, however, few local governments have the resources to readily provide funds for a match. • Moving citizens out of the floodplain lowers State and local spending on recovery after a flood emergency, allows for the water-absorbing benefits of the floodplain to be restored, and reduces the risk to the rest of the community. • There is a critical need for additional funds to buyout repeatedly flooded properties for homeowner voluntarily requesting assistance and restore the natural functions of the floodplain. • Both actions are essential to the resilience of the State to future flood events and necessary to maintain a high quality of life for its residents. • In order to carry out these purposes, the State must establish a funding source providing additional capital to execute buyouts of repeatedly flooded homes and ensure increased flood resilience in the State. Revolving Fund Authority: • The Department of Administration’s Disaster Recovery Office would be the primary authority responsible for administering the fund. An annual report will be submitted to the Governor, Lt. Governor, State Treasurer, and General Assembly. The State Fiscal Accountability Authority will have final approval over any loan decisions. • The authority is authorized to make and service below-market interest rate loans and grants as financial incentives to eligible fund recipients for the purchase of flooded properties and land to complete floodplain restorations. Eminent domain cannot be exercised. • To operate the Fund, the authority will: o Prioritize the buyout of blocks or groups of homes so that no more than 15% of the funds disbursed in a fiscal year go toward single home buyouts (this would not prevent the fund for being used for individual home buyouts); o Prioritize buyout of single-family primary residences and multi-family residences; o Consider availability of additional funding sources leveraged by a project; o Prevent the use of the fund for homes built after July 1, 2020. Loan Criteria and Conditions: • Loans can be disbursed for buyouts of repetitive loss properties, buyouts of repetitive loss properties with land intended for floodplain restoration, and floodplain restoration in connection with buyouts funded through other mechanisms. • Funds are prioritized for households making less than 125% of the median household income in an eligible fund recipient’s area. • Each recipient will be offered a package of grants and loans to fund the approved project which will carry a low overall effective interest rate— no higher than 40% of the market interest rate as defined by the 10-year US Treasury Yield Curve. • The percentage of grants as an optional funding incentive can be no less than 5% and no greater than 25% of the total sum, and the grant percentage will be increased to promote applicants to incorporate beneficial flood mitigation into each project, including: o ensuring residents relocate outside of the floodplain o aiding residents in relocating outside of the floodplain and within the tax base o aiding residents in relocating outside of the floodplain and within an area designated as an Opportunity Zone o conducting floodplain restoration after the property is converted to open space to reestablish the full water storing benefits of the floodplain o completing a buyout of an area larger than 10 acres • All acquired properties will be returned to open space and all future development on the parcel is prohibited in perpetuity through easement by requirement of the bill. • No more than $500,000 can be spent on each housing unit receiving loan funds. Qualification for a Loan, Minimum Criteria: • Any locality wishing to apply for this funding must submit a plan identifying the properties proposed for the project, how the properties qualify as repetitive loss properties, a plan outlining a timeline for returning the property to open space within 6 months following the completion of the buyout, a valid easement holder, an assessment showing the costs and benefits of the project, and any beneficial flood mitigation practices planned for the project. Environmental Initiatives at the South C arolina Ports Authority B y: M ark M essersmith, South C arolina Ports Authority  SOUTH CAROLINA PORTS AUTHORITY Environmental Initiatives Mark Messersmith Permitting Manager Presented To: City of Charleston Resilience & Sustainability Committee Meeting February 13, 2020  SC PORTS AUTHORITY VISION & VALUES TO BE THE PREFERRED PORT OF THE TOP 10 U. S. C ONTA INER PORTS 3  CHARLESTON HARBOR 4  TOP 10 U. S. C O N T A I N E R PORTS CONTAINER VOLUME TEUS IN MILLIONS LOS ANGELES 6.7 9.5 LONG BEACH 4.9 8.1 NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY 4.6 7.2 SAVANNAH 2.4 4.4 NWSA (SEA-TAC) 3.1 3.8 CY2009 NORFOLK 1.7 2.9 CY2018 2019 HOUSTON 1.8 2.7 OAKLAND 2.1 2.5 CHARLESTON 1.2 2.3 2.5 million TEU for 2019 JACKSONVILLE 0.8 1.3 0 2 4 6 8 10 4  SC PORTS OVERVIEW FASTEST GROWING  Best Performing Port on All Standard Industry TOP 10 US Metrics: - 45 Minute Gate Turn Times Including Queue - 35 Moves per Hour Crane Productivity - 100 Moves per Hour Berth Productivity CONTAINER PORT - Lowest Total Cost (stevedoring/terminal/assessments)  Wando Terminal Densification Leading to 2.4 million TEU Capacity by End 2020 2009-2019  52 Foot Harbor Deepening Fully Funded and Construction Ongoing  Phase 1 of Leatherman Terminal Opening 8% March, 2021  Significant Push into Retail Distribution and Export Resin Transloading = Cargo Base  Robust and Effective Inland Port Development CAGR and Increasing Rail Volume - 24% Intermodal Container Rail 5  OUTLINE • Air Emissions / Energy Consumption • New Marine Container Terminal Innovations • Inland Ports • Dominion Energy – LED retrofit • Air Emission Monitoring and Reduction Efforts • Habitat Creation Projects • Responsible Landscape Scale Mitigation  Mobile Sources Include  Ocean Going Vessels AIR EMISSIONS  Cargo Handling Equipment  Trucks  Rail  Harbor Craft (Tugs/Pilots/etc.) SCPA Air Emission Reduction Efforts  Inventories  Electrification  Repowers/upgrades  Monitoring  Clean Trucks  Affiliations/Memberships  Mitigation Efforts HUGH LEATHERMAN TERMINAL ENERGY INNOVATIONS Hybrid Rubber Tired Gantry cranes with battery – diesel electric engines resulting in approximately 85-98% emission reductions from traditional equipment  Before Upgrades SCPA LIGHTING UPGRADES • Dominion Energy’s EnergyWise program • ~$70,000 in lighting incentives from Dominion • New LED light fixtures • Reduces energy consumption by ~77% or about 826,000kWh/year • Delivers enhanced operations for customer After Upgrades  INLAND PORT GREER SOUTH CAROLINA INLAND PORTS INLAND PORT DILLON 10 CONTAINER BARGE OPERATION REDUCING EMISSIONS AND CONGESTION 12  SCPA AIR MONITORING  2017 SCPA Emissions Summary Source Category NOx CO PM10 PM2.5 HC SO2 Ocean Going Vessels 1,775.4 217.5 150.8 138.9 120.2 62.6 Tug Boats 94.0 18.7 1.9 1.9 5.9 1.8 Heavy Duty Vehicle - Trucks 633.1 173.3 32.1 29.5 37.2 1.1 Rail 37.6 6.1 0.8 0.8 2.1 0.0 Container Handling Equipment 119.7 41.0 5.3 5.2 7.9 0.2 Total 2,659.8 456.5 190.9 176.3 173.3 65.7  NOx emissions are the largest among the pollutants quantified.  Wando Welch Terminal accounts for the majority of the emissions.  Ocean Going Vessels account for the largest percentage of emissions.  Emissions Trends • 96% SO2 reduction (primarily from OGV) • 18% reduction in PM Tons • Significant overall reduction in emissions since 2005 inventory Year  2019 DIESEL EMISSION REDUCTION ACT GRANT FUNDING • Repowers 12 Tier 2, single speed diesel genset powered RTG’s • Provides 12 brand new EcoCrane Hybrid Systems • Tier 4 variable throttle hybrid battery/genset systems • Significant emission reduction (tons) • Annual – 0.987 HC ; 4.13 CO ; 21.43 Nox ; 0.856 PM2.5 • Lifetime – 9.87 HC ; 41.27 CO ; 214.28 NOx; 8.56 PM2.5 Daniel Island Saltwater Mitigation Bank Location Concept  Location Downtown Charleston DRUM ISLAND MARSH RESTORATION Charleston Construction Plans / Harbor Redesigns Atlantic  True saltwater tidal wetland Ocean restoration (22+ acres)  Part of the HLT mitigation Extensive Modeling package  110,519 CY soil removed  106,171 native plants  $3.4M construction cost DRUM ISLAND MARSH RESTORATION  LAND PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION More than 2250 acres of land preserved/restored since 2016  Fairlawn Plantation  Part of the Charleston Harbor deepening project mitigation  Preserves freshwater wetlands to mitigate for indirect wetland impacts associated with harbor deepening  Restoration of longleaf pine plantation  Conveyance to US Forest Service for inclusion in Francis Marion National Forest  Lowcountry Land Trust Partnership  Hyde Park Plantation  French Quarter Creek INLAND PORT DILLON WETLAND PRESERVATION •78 acres •Restored wetland connectivity •Long Term Stewardship – Pee Dee Land Trust  South Carolina’s Watershed Resources Registry STRIVING TO BE THE GREENEST PORT IN THE SOUTHEAST THANK YOU. Public Comment Period