DORMODY

A high school science program that has grown into something affecting much of the town of Scituate is one of the four top winners of the Environment Council of Rhode Island’s annual John H. Chafee Conservation Leadership Awards.

The award is going to Scituate High School’s Community Energy Education Project — an initiative launched several years ago by science teacher Shannon Donovan with her freshman physical science students.

The project this year includes 65 students who each do a major research paper on reducing energy waste or making renewable energy. They share their work at a community “Energy Night,” where invited guests give the students feedback on their presentations and communication skills.

The project now involves students throughout the high school and involves partnerships with Peoples Power & Light and the state Energy Office.

The award will be presented Friday, May 9, at the Marriott Hotel on Orms Street in Providence.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse will be the keynote speaker. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zechariah Chafee will present the awards.

Other Chafee award winners this year are:

• The Little Compton Agricultural Conservation Trust, which preserved more than 300 acres last year, including the 95-acre Sakonnet Vineyards. The purchases preserved farmlands and protected watersheds for Newport’s drinking water supplies and two pristine salt ponds.

• Amgen Resource Conservation Program, which has reduced water consumption by 150,000 gallons a day and electricity consumption by 2.2 million kilowatt hours per year while increasing the recycling rate from 33 percent to 55 percent at the pharmaceutical company’s plant in West Greenwich.

• Fidelity Investments’ “Wildlife at Work” project, which enlisted volunteer employees to create a bluebird trail, a butterfly garden and a bat house around the company campus in Smithfield.

Tickets to the dinner are $60 each. Before dinner there will be a reception and exhibits by the award winners. For information or reservations, call (401) 621-8048.

EPA honors Rhode Islanders

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave its 2008 Environmental Merit Awards to four individuals and two groups in Rhode Island during ceremonies on Earth Day last week at Faneuil Hall, in Boston.

The EPA’s Lifetime Achievement Awards went to former state Rep. Peter T. Ginaitt and to Lori Urso, former executive director of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association.

Ginaitt served for 16 years in the state House of Representatives and worked much of that time as chairman of the Joint Committee on Environment and Energy and later the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. He worked on legislation aimed at curbing mercury in the environment, diesel pollution, open space, Narragansett Bay and septic wastes. Ginaitt was nominated by W. Michael Sullivan, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, who described Ginaitt as “one of the state’s most influential environmental leaders and natural resources advocates.”

Urso served for 15 years as head of the watershed association. Under her leadership, it grew from 300 members with an endowment of $8,000 to more than 1,000 members with an endowment of $500,000. During her first year she raised the money to buy the group’s current headquarters on the Wood River and to hire staff. The group now owns five parcels of land and has a staff of five. Today the association is recognized in Southern New England as a leader in watershed management.

Individual awards went to Sheila Dormody, director of the Rhode Island Office of Clean Water Action, and to Steven P. Hamburg, an associate professor of environmental studies at Brown University.

Dormody also chairs the Coalition for Water Security, 11 environmental and economic development organizations working to improve Rhode Island’s water supplies. She led a successful effort to create legislation banning mercury in landfills, worked with auto dealers and auto-salvage companies to negotiate legislation requiring the replacement and recycling of car switches containing mercury, and chaired the state’s Mercury Reduction Group, which removed mercury switches from state vehicles and required mercury separators in dental offices.

Hamburg has been recognized for persuading the CEO of Wal-Mart to commit to selling compact fluorescent light bulbs to help reduce the country’s carbon emissions. “Steven’s unique combination of insight and persuasiveness convinced company executives that they could have more impact on the environment by promoting energy-efficient bulbs than by simply reducing their own buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions,” the EPA said. “Steven also had a great impact in his own community when he and some students founded Project 20/20, which promotes the value of CFL (compact fluorescent) lighting in low-income neighborhoods.”

Awards also went to two organizations: the Rhode Island Chemical Safe Schools Committee and the Salt Ponds Coalition.

The school group has trained school employees to minimize chemical hazards in schools, encouraged the use of less dangerous chemicals and created a Web site for educators.

The Salt Ponds Coalition has collected data about sources of pollution in the state’s coastal ponds, educated the public and lobbied against potentially damaging development.

Finally, the business and professional organization award went to the Rhode Island Water and Wastewater Agency Response Networks, which exchange information during local utility emergencies.

Conference to address lead

Patrick MacRoy, who studied Rhode Island’s lead-poisoning data as a student at Brown University several years ago, returns to Rhode Island this week as executive director of the Alliance for Healthy Homes, a national public health advocacy group.

MacRoy will be the keynote speaker at the state Health Department’s annual lead-poisoning prevention conference on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Quidnessett Country Club, in North Kingstown. There will also be a panel discussion, presentation of awards, remarks by state Health Director David Gifford and a networking lunch.

Registration can be done online at http://www.ri.gov/survey/survey.php?sid=66 or by contacting Tammie Smith at (401) 222-5945 or Tammie.Smith@health.ri.gov.

MacRoy graduated from Brown with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental studies. He worked for the Rhode Island Health Department before becoming director of Chicago’s childhood lead-poisoning prevention program, where he helped win passage of a Lead Poisoning Prevention Act for the State of Illinois.

A chance to try some local food

A free seminar and opportunity to sample local food is offered Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Local 121 restaurant on Washington Street in Providence.

Local food producers such as Carpenter’s Grist Mill, Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Narragansett Creamery, Olga’s Cup and Saucer, Matunuck Oyster Farm, Red Planet Vegetables, Sosnowski Farms, Southside Community Land Trust, Urban Greens Food Coop and Whole Foods Market are expected to take part.

The program, Real Meals from Local Fields, will show the links connecting obesity, family farms, food safety, food access, peak oil, global warming and world hunger.

4 farm markets to begin season

Four weekly farmers’ markets are scheduled to open soon, initially offering primarily bedding plants, hanging plants, cut flowers, early vegetable crops, honey and maple syrup. The markets are:

• Goddard Memorial State Park Farmers’ Market in Warwick will be open Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting May 2.

• Colt State Park Farmers’ Market in Bristol will operate Fridays, from 2 to 6 p.m., beginning May 2.

• Fishermen’s Memorial State Park Farmers’ Market in Narragansett will operate Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting May 4.

• Haines Memorial State Park Farmers’ Market on Route 103 at the East Providence/Barrington line will be open Wednesdays, from 2 to 6 p.m., beginning May 7.

Grow SmartRI summit is Friday

There is a deadline of noon Tuesday for registering for the annual The Power of Place Summit sponsored by Grow SmartRI. The summit is on Friday at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Speakers will include Bruce Katz, founder and director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program; Patrick MacRoy, executive director of the Alliance for healthy Homes, and Richard Seline, who recently completed a study on how to grow the local “knowledge” economy.

Registration fees range from $40 for students to $125 for those who sign up late. To register, go to www.growsmartri.com.

The Environmental Journal is a listing of brief news items about the actions of individuals, organizations and businesses that affect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the landscape that surrounds us. If you have suggestions, please contact Peter B. Lord at (401) 277-8036, or by e-mail at plord@projo.com or by writing him, care of The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902.