Water Conservation
We received the city of Portland’s “BEST” award (Business for Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) in April 2000, for our water conservation accomplishments, and again in 2006 for our recycling program. Since 1982, Columbia Steel has reduced water consumption by 98%. That amounts to saving 500 million gallons per year. Our total water and sewer bills are about the same today as they were in 1978, despite a 300% increase in production and a 2300% increase in water/sewer rates in that same time.
Clean Air
The first dust collector we built as part of the new foundry was only the second one to be registered in the state. The EPA says that we are now the largest steel foundry west of the Mississippi. But, in the air pollution control arena, we are considered a ‘natural minor’ source, which is the lowest possible EPA category.
Electrical Energy Conservation
As one of PacifiCorp’s biggest customers, we are committed to purchase a portion of our electricity under their “Blue Sky” program. This portion of our power comes from clean, renewable, wind power generators, and helps promote more future renewable energy development. The 80,000 kilowatt hours per month that we obtain this way is the equivalent carbon offset of 170,000 car-miles not driven -- equal to the commute of all our Portland employees.
In years past, as lighting technology evolved, we converted the lights in our major buildings from 1000 W incandescent to 750 W mercury vapor, then to 400 W high pressure sodium lights. In 2001 we replaced most of the 400 W sodium lights with 250 W metal halides or fluorescent lights.
We have 24 major dust collectors, powered by fans totaling about 1500 HP. The dust collectors are interlocked with the machines and processes they serve, so the machines won’t start until the dust collector is running. We went a step further and added timers for automatic shutoff, so the collector won’t continue running just because the operator forgot to turn it off. The original fans have also been replaced with more energy efficient ones wherever possible.
In 2002 we completed a major overhaul of our compressed air system, installing three new 150 horsepower compressors and state of the art controls.
For another aspect of demand management, we are now participating whenever possible in PacifiCorp’s Demand Exchange program. We study our needs ahead, and try to schedule production so that we can offer sizeable blocks of electric power demand reduction back to the power company. This allows them to run their generation and supply system more efficiently when demands peak on their system, and in turn reduces our power bills.
Columbia Steel has a long history of being proactive about environmental affairs and conservation. When we built the present plant site in 1962, it included some wetlands and wildlife habitat adjacent to the Columbia Slough. As we began making plans for how to best utilize the land, nature preservation was part of it. In 1975, Governor Bob Straub presented Columbia Steel with a state award for environmental leadership.
