Large rolls of black tubing sat like super-sized balls of yarn next to the playground outside Weller Elementary School Wednesday. The sun shined brightly on the south-facing hillside, where a bulldozer carved out a 12-foot hole.

The balls, which are actually polyethylene ground loops, were then rolled out and buried in the ditch, where they will harvest heat from underground to use in the school during the winter. In the summer, six solar thermal panels soon to be mounted on the school will replenish heat to the earth through the same tubes. The system will not only reap savings on heat for the school district but also will test a technology that is young in Fairbanks.

“I would like to see a system that would work well in the Interior and that the public can utilize and save dollars,” said Larry Morris, projects manager for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

The project is an experiment to see how well the systems work in tandem and to collect data on ground source heat pumps, which are common in the Lower 48 but rare in Fairbanks.

“What we’re trying to do here is pair that system with a solar system that will recharge the heat you take out of the ground. In warmer climates, the sun can recharge how much you take out,” said Aaron Sirois, an engineer for PDC Engineering. “We were trying to come up with a solution that’s kind of adapted to Fairbanks.”

The entrance of the garden at the Tanana Valley fairgrounds smelled like a minty fusion as about a dozen students harvested crops Tuesday afternoon.

“The spearmint needs to be weighed. The kale needs to be weighed,” said Sheryl Meirerotto, who teaches the eighth-grade class from Effie Kokrine that was busy digging, plucking and weighing vegetables.

The class will prepare a portion of the produce for a potlatch dinner during the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in October.

The garden, which has existed for many years and has been managed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks for the last two years, demonstrates how much can be grown in the Interior.

“The purpose of the garden is to represent the crops grown in the Tanana Valley. People don’t know we can grow things like corn,” said Jeff Werner, a UAF researcher and Alaska Future Farmers of America adviser.

The Fairbanks Rescue Mission celebrates the first anniversary of its recycling center today with a barbecue and open house starting at noon.

Executive director Rodney Gaskins will be available to guide things along. Visitors might get to check out the baler that compacts the cardboard, mixed papers and aluminum the center receives. One bale of cardboard can weigh 800 pounds, while a bale of mixed paper can weigh about 1,700 pounds.

“It’s a mark of success,” Gaskins said of reaching the one-year mark.

The center surpassed its millionth pound of recycled materials in July and expects to hit 1.5 million pounds by the end of this month. The recycled paper is sent to Anchorage to become insulation, and the aluminum stays in Fairbanks where it’s sold to C&R Pipe and Steel Inc.

So far, the program is paying for itself. “A nonprofit is mission-driven,” he said, “we’re successful whether we’re making money or not.”

The plan was for the Rescue Mission to take baby steps at least until it had one year under its belt. Now he believes the recycling center can take the next big step.

“We really wanted to start small,” Gaskins said.

As he put it: “Don’t start a restaurant until you have the capability of managing a hot dog stand really well.”

The center plans to expand in the near future by adding plastics to the list of materials that can be recycled but that can’t now because of insufficient storage space.

“For us, it means that we have been able to build a sustainable recycle program,” said John Lofquist, who works at the center. “It’s allowed Fairbanks to have a recycle option.”

The center will operate at its regular hours during today’s celebration; it will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Hospital visits for heart disease, stroke and lung afflictions in Fairbanks rise as the air quality deteriorates, according to new study by the state of Alaska.

A researcher with the state Section of Epidemiology combed over five years of records at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. She found that for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase of a harmful pollutant known as PM2.5:

• a 7 percent increased risk that someone under age 65 will visit the hospital because of stroke symptoms,

• a 6 percent increased risk for people over age 65,

• a 6 percent increased risk that someone under 65 will visit the hospital for a respiratory illness.

The examination of hospital visits is the first study looking at air quality health impacts in Fairbanks.

Other studies show that wood smoke is a major contributor to PM2.5.

“Basically, this study reaffirms what has already been demonstrated in similar studies performed outside of Alaska,” the study’s author, epidemiologist Rachel Kossover, said in a written statement. “People with heart and lung problems need to take air quality warnings seriously and follow the advice of local officials.”

The borough began taking applications last week for its wood stove repair and replacement program.

“The program is up and operational,” air quality director Glenn Miller said.

Applications are available at the borough air quality office on Peger Road.

The program is still evolving, and applications won’t be available on the borough website until final modifications are made, Miller said.

Qualifying residents will receive government assistance replacing outdoor wood boilers and old wood stoves for cleaner-burning models approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Cash payouts and tax credits are available to those who switch to gas or oil heat.

The program is part of a larger endeavor to improve the air in Fairbanks.

The Borough Clerk last week compiled ballot language for the home heating initiative.

Fairbanks North Star Borough voters on Oct. 5 will be asked to vote yes or no on the following statement: “The borough shall not ban, prohibit, or fine residents for the use of home heating devices.”

If the ballot measure passes, the outcome is a matter of debate.

The Borough Attorney said she won’t issue a legal opinion on the measure unless the voters approve it.

Sponsors say their goal is to repeal regulations on home heating devices, but some local leaders think approval of the ballot measure effectively would turn over air quality enforcement to the state.

The Borough Assembly passed a resolution approving the port authority’s plan to purchase Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC and launch a natural gas trucking operation.

A separate measure calling for a public vote on the plan narrowly failed.

The $250 million project now goes before the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

“People are waiting for energy relief,” Assemblywoman Kelly Brown said. “I don’t believe they need to wait anymore.”

Architects of the plan include municipal officials who belong to the Alaska Gasline Port Authority’s board of directors. The agency is backed by the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the city of Valdez.

They say the trucking operation will result in a 25 percent drop in natural gas prices in Fairbanks and a 6 percent drop in electric bills.

Continue reading: Fairbanks Borough Assembly gives it approval to plan to truck liquefied gas

A plan to transfer Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC from private to public ownership and truck liquefied natural gas to Fairbanks from the North Slope is doomed, according to an Alaska Gasline Port Authority board member.

Board member Merrick Peirce wrote in an e-mail that the assumption behind the $250 million business deal — that crude oil prices will continue to rise — is flawed because more crude oil production is coming online in Iraq, increasing the world’s supply.

In interviews, other port authority board members defended the plan and refuted Peirce’s claims. They said the proposal, to be financed with bonds, provides the best possibility of quickly lowering energy prices in Fairbanks.

Decades of talk about building a natural gas pipeline have yet to produce results. “We have not given up on the pipeline,” said Dave Cobb, Valdez Councilman and vice chairman of the port authority governing board. “That is still our No. 1 priority, but you have to do something in the interim.”

The port authority is a partnership between the Fairbanks borough and the city of Valdez that was created to build a gas pipeline to Valdez. Peirce offered his criticism in an e-mail to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, which tonight considers a resolution to accept the authority’s proposed purchase of Fairbanks Natural Gas. The assembly also will consider an ordinance that would require a public vote to broaden the port authority’s mission statement before it goes ahead with the trucking plan.

Continue reading: Criticism mounts for call to truck liquefied natural gas to Fairbanks

The number of people who heat with wood in the Fairbanks North Star Borough is slowly rising, a new study shows.

Researchers called 300 area households last winter and asked a series of questions, mostly regarding home heating habits.

They found the number of borough households using wood heat has gone up about 7 percent since 2006.

A breakdown by area shows wood heat is more popular in North Pole than any other ZIP code.

Borough administrators are using the survey results to help decide where to steer funding for a wood stove replacement program. Future studies will be used to gauge whether the local air pollution control program is working.

Continue reading: Study finds more Fairbanks borough homes keep warm by burning wood than in 2006

Assemblyman Guy Sattley has drafted an ordinance requiring a public vote on the plan to truck liquefied natural gas to Fairbanks, but Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins said delaying the $250 million project is risky.

“If we stretch this timeline out,” Hopkins said Thursday at a Borough Assembly work session, “basically, the project is going to be very difficult to be financed in the way the port authority wants it to be.”

Hopkins, who belongs to the governing board of the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, said the main problem with delaying the project for a public vote is an expected rise in interest rates.

“As financing money begins to cost more, it could cost the project greater and greater amounts,” Hopkins said. “That would take away from the revenue stream.”