August 10, 2010

Our speaker was Rick Roenbeck, UC Grad and admin person in charge of the environment
at Golden Gate Fields in Albany. This was an interesting presentation on this large local business, which is home for 1200 horses during the racing season. Those horses need to be taken care of, so there are thousands of people working there- but only a few of the (10%) are GGF employees. The race track considers itself an entertainment venue as well as an agricultural site. It has been in operation since 1941 (time out for World War II) and is always open. They are very serious about their location on the Bay, and nothing is permitted to flow into it. No waste, no run-off from giving Dobbin his bath, nothing. They recycle just about everything, including the straw used in the stables and all the other by-products one would associate with stables.

Thank you Rick and Mike LaFranco for an interesting program.

Submitted by Todd Armstrong