THOUSAND OAKS LIVES GREEN OFFICIALS DRIVE THAT WAY, TOO.Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer THOUSAND OAKS Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. -- On its own, the city of Thousand Oaks perpetuates green living. Nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. and surrounded by more than 14,800 acres of open space, the city of 127,000 boasts 75 miles of trails for hiking, biking and walking. But officials are also working to drive green, replacing their fleet of gasoline-powered cars and buses with those that run on alternative fuels. "We're what we call 'fuel neutral' here," said Grahame Watts, the city's special projects manager. "Our fleet ranges from natural gas to electric to hybrids." Roughly 80 of the city's 242 vehicles run on alternative fuels -- 50 on natural gas, plus a dozen hybrids and two forklifts that use propane propane, CH3CH2CH3, colorless, gaseous alkane. It is readily liquefied by compression and cooling. It melts at −189.9°C; and boils at −42.2°C;. . In addition, the city uses solar power to generate 500 kilowatts of power that help run the wastewater treatment plant Wastewater treatment plant also called wastewater treatment works
"It's incredibly elegant," said Chuck Rogers, the city's wastewater superintendent. "It's got a coolness factor up the Richter scale Richter scale (rĭk`tər), measure of the magnitude of seismic waves from an earthquake, devised in 1935 by the American seismologist Charles F. Richter (1900–1985). . "We're blessed here to have a smart City Council that is very environmentally minded," Rogers added. "We have some technology out here that is awesome." susan.abram(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3664 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Grahame Watts, Thousand Oaks' special project manager, drives a Toyota Prius The Toyota Prius is a hybrid electric vehicle developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation, and one of the first such vehicles to be mass-produced and marketed. The Prius first went on sale in Japan in 1997, and worldwide in 2001. hybrid that's part of the city's green fleet. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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