Welcome to the EAC home page
Current Events

Quick Tips

Fill an empty soda bottle (or two) with water and place it in the toilet tank away from the operating mechanisms. This will save water with every flush, by reducing the amount of water it takes to refill your tank. (This is meant for older toilets, not new high-efficiency ones.)

Connect your PC, monitor, fax machine, and computer peripherals to a single power strip that can be turned off when they're not in use. This will end "leakage" from devices that drain power even when they aren't turned on. This technique can also be used for your home entertainment components.

Still paying your bills the old-fashioned way? Consider switching to electronic statements. If all American households received and paid their bills online, it would eliminate more than 800,000 tons of waste each year.

If every U.S. household replaced one roll of regular paper towels with 100 percent recycled ones, we’d save 544,000 trees. Check out NRDC's shopping guide to find better brands.

Change a light, change the world: If every U.S. household replaced its most commonly used incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, we'd cut our electricity use for lighting in half -- and lower our annual CO2 emissions by about 62.5 million tons.

Just one small change can make a big difference !

Paper Recycling Program
Paper retrieval bins have been placed in the Saucon Valley area as a fundraiser for the Lower Saucon Township Historical Society. The bright yellow and green bins are located at:

Lower Saucon Township Municipal Complex (near the playground), behind Hellertown Borough Hall, all over the Saucon Valley School District Campus, at the Dewey Fire Company, at Socity Hill, at the loading dock at Iaccoca Hall at Lehigh University and at Hellertown's municipal parking lot (across from the post office).

New bins have been placed at the Hellertown Water Authority offices on Front Street in Hellertown.

Please Drop off ALL Your: Junk mail, Magazines, Shopping catalogs, Newspaper, Office and school papers.

Please do NOT include: Plastic, Glass, Metal, Cardboard Phone books, Trash

This is a great way to support your community and environment by reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill.

The different types of paper do not have to be separated and you do not even have to remove staples! You may collect and deposit your recyclables using paper or plastic grocery bags; however if you use plastic, please do not tie them shut as this causes problems with the shredding equipment.

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Studies have shown that preserving open space by purchasing conservation easement rights
costs less than the costs a community bears when a new home is built.
To learn more see our Conservation Page.

Our Open Space Committee is hard at work learning about the conservation easment process and coming up with a means to rank properties that the township could consider for preservation.

Who we are:The Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) of Lower Saucon Township is an official township and state entity that is comprised of an 11 person volunteer board, 7 of whom are voting members and 4 who are associate, or non-voting members. In addition, 1 high school student also serves as an associate member. We all share an interest in protecting our environment. Board members serve 3-year terms (except for our junior member who serves 1 year) and are appointed by the township manager and Council.

Current Lower Saucon Township EAC board:
Sandra Yerger, Chairman, Term Expires: 12/31/2008
Tom Maxfield, Vice Chairman, Term Expires: 12/31/2008
Laura Ray, Secretary, Term Expires: 12/31/2010
Dennis Aranyos, Term Expires: 12/31/2009
Hazem Hijazi, Term Expires: 12/31/2010
Allan Johnson, Term Expires: 12/31/2008
Ted Beardsley, Term Expires: 12/31/2009
Glen Kaye (non-voting), Term Expires: 12/31/2010
Bob Davis (non-voting), Term Expires: 12/31/2010
Tom McCormick (non-voting), Term Expires: 12/31/2009
Glenn Clouser (non-voting), Term Expires: 12/31/2008
Vacant, Junior EAC Member
Terry Boos, Hellertown Borough Liaison

Monthly meetings are usually held on the first Tuesday each month at 7:00 pm at the Lower Saucon Township Town Hall Building.The public is welcome to come share their ideas, concerns, etc.

Our 2008 schedule is:

Tuesday January 8, 2008 (2nd Tuesday due to holiday)
Tuesday February 5, 2008
Tuesday March 4, 2008
Tuesday April 1, 2008
Tuesday May 6, 2008
Tuesday June 3, 2008
Tuesday July 1, 2008
Tuesday August 5, 2008
Tuesday September 2, 2008
Tuesday October 7, 2008
Tuesday November 4, 2008 (2nd Tuesday due to election day)
Tuesday December 2, 2008

What we do:

The formation of the group came in response to directives contained in the 2000 update of Lower Saucon's Comprehensive Plan and the township's Natural Resource Inventory of the same year. Recognition of the need for environmental protections entered the public's consciousness shortly after residential development began to exert pressure on our community and our disappearing natural areas. This prompted public officials to work together with the public to institute programs and ordinances that would preserve our resources, our natural beauty and the rural character of large parts of our community.

The job of the EAC encompasses involvement in local and regional environmental issues on many levels. We meet monthly and discuss a variety of environmental issues facing the township and provide advice and recommendations to council. Regular duties include plan review, public education, research, promotion of programs such as preservation of natural areas and water quality, and planning for a viable approach to natural resource protection.

Meeting Minutes:
October 2007 Minutes
September 2007 Minutes
August 2007 Minutes
July 2007 Minutes
June 2007
May 2007 Minutes
April 2007 Minutes
March 2007 Minutes
February 2007 Minutes
January 2007 Minutes

More Information about EAC's

The following is a reprint of an article written by Jeanne Barrett Ortiz, which appeared in the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society's newsletter.

Our beautiful rural and wild landscapes of northeastern Pennsylvania are becoming increasingly fragmented by unplanned sprawl.  The Kittatinny Ridge, threatened by such development pressure, is a particularly important landscape and wildlife habitat area, which not only protects a major part of the Appalachian Trail through the state, but also is the source of drinking water for tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians.  People want their elected officials to do what they can to protect the beauty and health of their communities, but often, small - communities struggle to keep up with pressing issues and their day-to-day workload.  In response, Audubon Pennsylvania has teamed up with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) to help municipalities along the Kittatinny Ridge protect their natural resources.  One of our efforts is to promote the creation of municipal Environmental Advisory Councils (EAC).
 
Through the legislature, Pennsylvania has chosen to delegate much of its power to regulate land to the local government. As a result, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has 2,565 local governing bodies. The decisions these governing bodies make on a variety of issues, from land use designations to stream corridor protection, have direct impacts on natural resources within individual municipalities and beyond. EACs, as part of local government, work directly with municipal officials to help them make environmentally sound decisions - and protect the health and quality of life of our communities.
 
An EAC is a group of community residents appointed by elected officials to provide advice and assistance on matters dealing with the protection, management, and use of natural resources within the municipality.  An EAC is formed by local ordinance in accordance with Act 177 of 1996, originally Act 148 of 1973.  Under this legislation, EACs are authorized to:

• Identify environmental problems and recommend plans and programs to protect
   and improve the quality of the environment;
• Make recommendations about the use of open land;
• Promote a community environmental program;
• Keep an index of all open space areas to determine the proper use of such areas;
• Review plans, conduct site visits, and prepare reports for municipal officials; and
• Advise local government agencies about the acquisition of property.
 
EAC members are citizens who volunteer their time and energy to provide elected officials, the planning commission, and the park and recreation board with the information they need to make sound environmental decisions.  Members are typically environmental and other professionals and interested residents.  Projects that EACs undertake include natural resource inventories, natural resource ordinance development, determining the environmental impacts of land development, conserving water and open space resources, habitat protection and restoration, greenways and trails, promoting alternative energy, ag preservation, and many other activities.
 

• For more information, read the EAC Handbook available from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council or Contact the EAC Network.
• Attend one of the EAC meetings to get involved.
 
Each member of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society can help with this effort by contacting local elected officials and encouraging them to establish an EAC – and even more so – volunteer to become a member.  You can also recruit other people that you know would be a good representative on your local EAC.  Elected officials need to hear from us and be confident that they have a group of people ready to fill the positions. 
 
To learn more about EACs and how they can help improve the quality of life in your community, contact Jeanne Barrett Ortiz, Director, EAC Network, at 215-592-7020, extension 103 or email Jenne Barrett Ortiz. You can also visit EAC Network.org.