Kansas City, Kansas - Archive

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

Science and Technology Center

This page houses older environmental information about EPA's Science and Technology Center in Kansas City, Kansas. View the laboratory's current facility page.

On October 28, 2004, EPA's Kansas City Science and Technology Center was designated as a Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Energy Saver Showcase Facility. Developed on a former brownfield site, the facility was constructed to preserve natural resources, ensure occupancy health, and serve as a sustainable model for future laboratory design. As a result of the features described below, the Kansas City Science and Technology Center was 28 percent more energy-efficient than EPA's other comparable new laboratories in FY 2004. See DOE's Federal Showcase Award Winners for more information. This facility also garnered an honorable mention in 2004 in the Sustainable Design/Green Buildings category of the federal Closing the Circle Awards given by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive.

In November 2004, EPA entered into a three-year contract (procured by the Western Area Power Administration ), with Aquila, Inc. to purchase 3.85 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power annually in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs). This contract supported the generation of wind electricity from the Gray Country Wind Farm near Montezuma, Kansas. The purchase offset 100 percent of the electricity consumption at EPA's Science and Technology Center.

As part of the condensate recovery system, in FY 2006 the laboratory began collecting air handler condensate water to add to the rainwater storage tank for reuse throughout the building.

EPA's Region 7 laboratory in Kansas City, Kansas, was one of the projects featured at the Science Forum in Washington, DC, in May 2004. The Forum, sponsored by EPA's Office of Research and Development, highlighted cutting-edge technologies. View the Science and Technology Center Forum poster (PDF) (1 pg, 1.0MB).