Cincinnati, Ohio

This facility features the following green attributes:
Green Power
Water Management Plan

Testing and Evaluation Center

Total Facility Area: 36,101 gross square feet (GSF)
Estimated Personnel: 27
Energy Consumption: 9,970,167,816 Btu per year
Btu per GSF per Year: 276,174
Total Water Consumption: 11,221,620 gallons per year
Gallons per GSF per year: 310.8

All energy and water data are reported as of FY 2008.

Description

EPA's Testing and Evaluation Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, conducts experimental research on new water and hazardous waste treatment technologies for many National Risk Management Research Laboratory divisions.

Unique Environmental Features

Energy Conservation

Under a "Power Share" agreement with the local utility provider, the laboratory voluntarily reduces its electrical consumption through the utilization of a nighttime setback mode for its heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, cutting its demand load in half.

Green Power

In late FY 2008, EPA finalized a contract for 17 million kilowatt hours (kWh) worth of renewable energy certificates (RECs), or "green tags," to offset electricity consumption at the Agency’s facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, including the Testing and Evaluation Center. This purchase partially offset these facilities' electricity consumption in FY 2008, offset 100 percent of their electricity consumption in FY 2009, and is projected to partially offset their electricity consumption in FY 2010. (The remainder was or will be offset through the Agency's blanket contracts.) Procured through the Defense Energy Support Center , this contract supports wind power generation in Texas.
EPA offsets the rest of the electricity consumption at the Agency’s facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, including the Testing and Evaluation Center, with renewable energy certificates (RECs) purchased through the Agency's current blanket green power contract. Learn more about EPA's current and past blanket green power contracts.
September 2007 marked the final month of a green power contract that had offset electricity consumption at EPA’s Cincinnati, Ohio, laboratories for the past six years. EPA then arranged for a 90-day extension of its Cincinnati green power contract to offset the electricity consumption of the entire Cincinnati campus through the first quarter of FY 2008. Through this contract, which began in October 2007, EPA purchased 4.2 million kWh of wind power, or three months of estimated annual electricity consumption at the Agency’s Cincinnati laboratories.

Water Conservation

In March 2009, EPA completed a water management plan for the Testing and Evaluation Center (PDF) (16 pp, 978K, About PDF).

For More Information

Shawn Lafferty (lafferty.shawn@epa.gov)
U.S. EPA
26 W. Martin Luther King Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Phone: (513) 569-7771

Web Site: www.epa.gov/oarmcinc/tour5.htm