The Pollution Prevention Outreach Team (P2O) wishes to acknowledge and congratulate Salem-Keizer School District’s Bus Maintenance Facility as a certified Eco-Logical Business auto shop. As of April 23, 2003, the Salem-Keizer School District’s Bus Facility was officially granted their certification and can state they are achieving pollution prevention excellence.

The Salem-Keizer School District operates a full service motor vehicle repair and maintenance facility responsible for 205 buses, and 182 vans and other vehicles. They contract mechanical services for seven school departments within the district, and several school districts outside the Salem district. Looking to improve their environmental practices and economic costs, service department manager Mike Burton approached DEQ for assistance. Mr. Burton takes the approach that “it takes all of us working together to make a difference.” He believes that it makes good sense to save resources and reduce wastes, especially when doing so also saves money. By working with DEQ’s pollution prevention specialist Terry Obeshka, “we were able to do it all.” By developing and implementing a comprehensive pollution prevention strategy into practice the maintenance facility was able to achieve numerous and measurable environmental efficiencies, while saving money at the same time.

To reduce toxic air emissions the facility changed from solvent based parts cleaning to 80% of parts cleaning with water. The remaining 20% moved to a solvent substitute which if free of regulated volatile organic compounds and hazardous pollution constituents. By making this switch they were able to reduce their annual solvent usage by 330 gallons and decrease labor costs by approximately 10 hours per day ($5300 per year savings). The facility also purchased a floor scrubbing machine to ensure that hosing and wet mopping of work areas would be discontinued. In doing so they were able to reduce their water usage and waste water discharge by 7,176 gallons per year. The scrubbing machine saves 567 labor hours per year, the savings more than offset the purchase price of the equipment within 3-4 months. Approximately $17,000 per year will be saved in water, soap, and labor costs.

Salem-Keizer School District was also able to initiate several easy changes to improve the overall efficiency and safety of their facility. Incandescent lighting was replaced with metal halide lights inside, and fluorescent lights outdoors. This change has lowered their energy consumption and increased visibility providing additional safety and enhanced security. The shop moved to double walled storage tanks for many of their liquid containment and implemented a container labeling program. A secondary containment barrier was installed in their oil room, and they plugged the rooms floor drain to ensure that any spills will not escape and mix with water discharge. Further, an additional number of spill kits were added and strategically placed in spill prone areas to increase their preparedness for any emergency spill situations.

Traditional vehicle maintenance has presented difficult environmental challenges. By working with DEQ and the Eco-logical Business Program, Mike Burton and the Salem-Keizer School District has been able to meet those challenges and make numerous environmentally friendly improvements to their facility. As seen here, by “working together” we can save our resources, reduce waste, and save money at the same time.

ECO-LOGICAL BUSINESS PROGRAM

The Eco-Logical Business/ Automotive Services Program is a joint project of the Automotive Service Association, the Pacific Automotive Trades Association, AAA of Oregon/Idaho and the Pollution Prevention Outreach Team (Portland, Gresham, Clackamas and Washington counties, United Sewerage Agency, Metro and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality). This program recognizes businesses that reach the highest standards in minimizing their environmental impact.

BENEFITS TO CUSTOMERS AND THE COMMUNITY

• Certified Eco-Logical Business exceeds local environmental requirements and insures that Best Management Practices are followed.
  
• Certification assures customers that the business has taken the necessary steps to reduce water and air pollution, hazardous and solid waste.
  
• Certification of Excellence Award for responsible environmental management notifies the community that shops care about the
• environment.
  

BECOME OR FIND A CERTIFIED ECO-LOGICAL BUSINESS

Automotive Shops

For an Eco-Logical Business Keep Your Shop In Tune manual or to schedule a certification visit to learn about ways to reduce pollution and cut costs, call 503.823.7807.

Auto Shop Customers

For a list of certified Eco-Logical Program auto shops, visit www.ecobiz.org/autolist.htm