“Besides public transportation that gives Whidbey residents a friendly, free ride, Island Transit has become more environmentally friendly.Everyone here is into reducing cars on the road. We’re all really into the environment, said Martha Rose, Island Transit director, who has been with Island Transit since its inception in December 1987. Since then she has continued to look for ways to maintain operations efficiently and with the environment in mind.About 20 buses a day, six days a week must be washed nightly. Rose had a water reclaiming and recycling unit installed, which gathers used water from the bus-washing garage into a 1,000-gallon storage tank. The water goes through a filtration system and is once again ready for washing buses. Rose and her staff tracked their water usage over a year and found that the entire Island Transit location south of Coupeville – which includes offices, maintenance garages, and the bus-washing garage – consumed water equal to that of a family of four.Disposal of used motor oil from the buses was another concern for Rose. Island Transit used to have to pay a special disposal service to cart the oil to Oregon, where it was buried in the ground. The cost of the disposal was an added expense for Island Transit, and Rose didn’t like the idea of the old oil being put into the ground.Rose and her staff conducted research, which included the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA released a study concluding that the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of used motor oil was to burn it, Rose said. She then had a special oil-burning furnace installed at the transit offices. Now, the used motor oil is burned in the furnace that heats the building. This has eliminated the cost of having the oil hauled off, and has reduced the former $1,800 per month electric bill to just $300.It feels so good to know that we’re providing a good, effective, efficient system, Rose said. We use tax dollars efficiently and provide a good product for that.Island Transit has 73 employees and about 35 buses. In addition it runs a fleet of about 60 vans that private individuals operate for van pools. There is a second base office on the Camano Islands. “