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 100 percent of the electricity consumption at all of the Agency’s facilities in Cincinnati, including the Testing and Evaluation Center. EPA is purchasing 17 million kilowatt hours (kWh) worth of renewable energy certificates (RECs) annually for two years under this new contract. Procured through the Defense Energy Support Center , this contract supports wind power generation in Texas.
In FY 2008, EPA continued to support the renewable energy market by purchasing more than 212 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power through two separate Agencywide blanket contracts for renewable energy certificates (RECs), or “green tags,” from Sterling Planet, Luminant Energy Company, and FPL Energy . These purchases allowed EPA to offset 100 percent of electricity consumption for FY 2008 at the Agency’s Cincinnati facilities, including the Testing and Evaluation Center, for the first six months of FY 2008, as well as at many other EPA facilities across the Agency for FY 2008. Procured through the Defense Energy Support Center, these contracts support renewable energy generation from wind, biomass, and landfill gas resources in nine states.
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