Environmental Watch: Adopt-A-Stream workshop to be held

EVERETT -- The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation will hold a workshop next month outlining the process for adopting a stream.

Tom Murdoch, author of "The Streamkeepers Field Guide," will focus on stream investigation, finding allies, establishing goals for streams and devising action plans to attain those goals.

The three hour event is designed for adults, mature youth and community groups with an interest in salmon recovery.

It will be held Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Northwest Stream Center, 600 128th St. Southeast in south Everett from 7 to 10 p.m. Advance reservations are required. Call 425-316-8592 for tickets and information.

Cascades increases ridership

SEATTLE -- Ridership on Amtrak's Cascades train route from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C. via Portland and Seattle increased 16 percent this year compared to 1999.

According to Amtrak, 525,000 trips were made on the route in 2000. Amtrak attributes the growth to the addition of a new daily Eugene-Portland round trip, worsening traffic congestion and higher gas prices.

Currently, three daily round trip trains serve Seattle and Portland with two extending to Eugene.

Estimates by the states of Washington and Oregon calculate that this year's patronage of Cascades came in lieu of 40 million vehicle miles that would have been traveled on regional roadways. The states also say that these vehicle miles would have generated more than 900 tons of air pollution.

Squirrel protection could stop new highway

TACOMA (AP) -- Environmentalists are trying to prevent the western gray squirrel from becoming road kill on a new highway planned in Pierce County.

The Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and the Tahoma Audubon Society have filed a petition under the federal Endangered Species Act, seeking emergency protection for the squirrel on the Fort Lewis Army base south of Tacoma.

The immediate effect of the petition could be to delay plans for a 6-mile-long Cross Base Highway that would connect the Parkland-Spanaway area to Interstate 5 by running across McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis.

The Audubon Society said just six of the squirrels were found in a search of Fort Lewis in 1998-99, down from 81 in 1991-92.

The squirrel is classified by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife as "threatened," while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers it a "species of concern" and the U.S. Forest Service classifies it as a "sensitive" species.

If federal Fish and Wildlife officials declare the squirrel at risk of extinction, the Endangered Species Act would make it illegal to harm it or its habitat without special exemption.

The law gives wildlife officials 90 days to decide whether to consider the petition. If they choose to study it, they have a year to make a determination.

Besides squirrels, highway planners have other problems. A Federal Highway Administration analysis concludes the highway would produce more traffic in 2025 than Interstate 5 could handle, Pierce County engineer Pat Baughman said.

That means engineers must rework the design to diffuse the traffic, and that the final publication of an environmental impact statement, scheduled for early next year, will be delayed indefinitely, he said.

Neighbors may buy golf course to stop feds

NESKOWIN, Ore. (AP) -- A coalition of homeowners say they may buy a golf course to block the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from purchasing the property and converting it to a wetland.

The Committee to Save Neskowin Beach Golf Course considers the 52-acre course the cornerstone of their quiet coastal community and fear its inclusion in a nearby national wildlife refuge would decrease property values.

The coalition also says including the course in the 3,435-acre refuge offers no substantial benefits.

The golf course is part of the 375-acre Neskowin Marsh that the Fish and Wildlife Service recently added to the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Tillamook County. The marsh's inclusion allows the federal agency to buy property within the privately owned marsh, provided landowners are willing to sell.

The agency, however, can only pay as much as the appraised value, according to Roy Lowe, a biologist with the service.

The committee wants the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the golf course from the refuge. If it won't, several homeowners are willing to outbid the agency, according to Hal Schick, committee spokesman.

"Some of these people are perfectly willing to put up a lot of money," Schick said. "We've got some big heavies, both politically and financially."

LA air quality improving, tough job remains

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Southern California has made significant progress fighting air pollution, but while environmental officials are heartened by how far the area has come, they feel it has an even longer way to go.

In 1995, air in Los Angeles County was rated unhealthy 28 percent of the time under the Pollution Standards Index. That fell to 5 percent last year.

Gains have been made throughout the South Coast air basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange County and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The number of days with ozone pollution readings above the federal standard fell sharply in the region -- from 130 in 1990 to 41 last year.

"The decline has been very abrupt," said Dave Jesson, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's liaison to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. "I don't think any area has shown such a completely dramatic reduction."

One reason is that no area of the nation has had as far to go as Los Angeles in cutting pollution. The air basin is still years away from losing its federal designation as the nation's only "extreme non-attainment area" for ozone pollution, which triggers respiratory problems as it fouls city skylines.

The South Coast Air Quality District and its statewide counterpart, the Air Resources Board, have created a host of rules over the years mandating reformulated gasoline, cleaner-burning motor vehicles and industrial facilities and water-based paints and solvents, among other things.

Their rules have been the strictest in the country, and have led to the Los Angeles area giving up the title of the nation's smoggiest city to Houston for the last two years. But both cities' ozone levels remain far ahead of the rest of the country.

$100M to clean up landmark dump

SMITHFIELD, R.I. (AP) -- The last of the rubber has hit the road.

A truck removed the last of an estimated 6 million tires that once formed a pile so big that pilots flying into Providence used it as a landmark.

At one point, the mountain covered 14 acres, and some heaps reached as high as 25 feet. It was believed to be the second-largest tire pile in the nation, behind one in Westley, Calif.

State officials feared that the heap, situated on the site of a toxic waste dump, would catch fire and burn for months, polluting the air and water. And so they embarked on what turned out to be a 3.5-year cleanup.

Authorities said lax regulations allowed property owner Billy Davis to begin operating a chemical and used-tire dump on the site in the 1970s. He said he thought the tires would be a source of fuel and income someday.

Davis, known for ridiculing regulators as morons and patrolling the dump with a gun, had said nature would clean up the site over time.

The chemicals on the site compounded the problem. The Environmental Protection Agency had to build a $2 million water line for neighbors because the chemicals contaminated groundwater.

Contractors are still cleaning up the property. So far, they have removed 1,000 drums of chemicals and "cooked" 43,000 tons of soil to remove pollutants. The cleaned soil is being spread back over the ground. The cleanup is expected to be finished next summer.

The cost of the entire cleanup -- shared by the state, the EPA, Davis and the companies responsible for the chemical dumping -- is estimated at $100 million. But exactly how much of the cost Davis will ultimately have to bear still has to be worked out.

Environmental Watch: AMEC opens Olympia office, wins Russia contract

KIRKLAND -- Engineering and environmental services firm AMEC is opening an office in Olympia to address rising demand for natural resource consulting.

The office will be headed by Neil Amondson, a former Washington state senator and representative. Amondson is the founding director of the Lower Columbia River Fish Recovery Board.

Marine scientist William Brewer will also be located at the new office.

From Olympia, AMEC will offer Endangered Species Act compliance, watershed planning and management, wetland delineation and management, fisheries management, habitat restoration, ecological risk assessment, marine and aquatic surveys and stormwater facilities planning.

AMEC says that its capabilities in Olympia will be enhanced by its bioassay laboratory, located relatively nearby in Fife. The lab specializes in testing the toxicity of industrial, municipal and agricultural discharges and their impacts on plants, fish and other creatures.

In other AMEC news, the firm has won a major engineering contract for two new oil and gas platforms in the Russian Far East's Sakhalin Island territory.

The Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. -- controlled by Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui -- awarded the work, which will entail the preparation of specifications and studies to gain approval for the project.

The development costs for the two platforms are expected to be approximately $3 billion. The engineering challenges of the project are substantial, owing to the island's sub-zero winter temperatures and the tumultuous Sea of Okhotsk. The 602-mile long Sakhalin Island is located 24 miles north of Japan and east of the Russian mainland.

AMEC employs over 50,000 people worldwide in 40 countries with annualized revenue in excess of $8 billion.

NEBC hosts environmental dot.com lunch

SEATTLE -- The Professional Marketing Committee of the Northwest Environmental Business Council will host a lunch looking at the intersection of the Internet and the environmental industry.

Speaking will be Irvine Alpert, president and CEO of ProjectGuides.com. He'll discuss Internet tools like project management sites, exchanges and auction site, how they work and how they can improve businesses bottom line.

The lunch will be held Wednesday, Jan. 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rock Salt Steakhouse, 1232 Westlake Ave. N. in Seattle. The program is $25 for NEBC members and guests and $45 for non-members. For more information call NEBC at (888) 609-6322 or go to www.nebc.org.

Tire fee proposed to help recycling

PORTLAND (AP) -- Trying to restore Oregon's former place as a national leader for recycling old tires, a citizen's advisory group and others are asking the Legislature to step in and help create new markets for used rubber.

It could mean that consumers will be asked to pay a state-imposed fee, from $1 to $3, on each new tire they buy.

The plan stops short of recommending a specific fee, but it does emphasize that any dollars spent on improving the state's tire recycling rate come from somewhere other than the general tax fund.

Metro, the regional government overseeing the three counties in the metro area, also is mulling over legislative proposals aimed at improving the statewide tire recycling rate.

Last month the Association of Oregon Recyclers -- whose members include garbage haulers, local government officials and nonprofit recycling groups -- also endorsed a legislative proposal calling for a $2 to $3 fee on each new tire sold. Under its plan, the money would be used to establish a scrap tire fund providing seed money and other financial incentives to businesses that turn old tires into new products.

Nationally, about 70 percent of discarded tires are recycled into playground surfaces, rubber mats and other products. In other states, tires are also used in roadbeds and burned to generate electricity for manufacturing plants. But in Oregon, which has seen a decline in the number of manufacturing plants that rely on tires as an energy resource, seven out of every 10 tires discarded are chopped into pieces and sent to landfills.

Glacier calving 100 feet per day

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The Columbia Glacier near Valdez is retreating so quickly that tour boats should be able to work their way up to its face within the next decade or so, a scientist says.

The glacier is shrinking as much as 100 feet per day. "That's really ripping along," said Tad Pfeffer, a University of Colorado researcher.

The Columbia Glacier is a massive river of ice flowing from the Chugach Mountains into a side channel of Prince William Sound. It has been rapidly sliding on its bed. The front of the glacier is breaking off icebergs, which can pose a threat in shipping lanes.

The glacier most likely will make a hasty retreat up the fjord or thin quickly and disintegrate abruptly, Pfeffer said. He is the chief author of a paper about the glacier that was published recently in Eos, an international scientific newsletter of the American Geophysical Union.

When it does disintegrate, "it should be quite a spectacular sight," he said. Tour boats -- in 10 to 50 years by the best calculations -- should be floating where the glacier is sitting today.

The scientist doesn't blame global warming, however, because other nearby glaciers aren't doing a similar disappearing act. Instead, Pfeffer thinks something complex is going on inside the glacier that's causing it to calve icebergs at an impressive rate.

"The loss of ice primarily is due to calving rather than to thermal reasons," he said.

"Green Cab" starts rolling in Boulder County

BROOMFIELD, Colo. (AP) -- You've heard of Yellow Cab. Now there's "Green Cab."

The taxis are fueled by natural gas and tracked by a high-tech system to offer an alternative in parts of Boulder County.

The six-car fleet of Ford Crown Victorias and Honda Accords, called EarthCab, started rolling earlier this month. It will pick up or drop off customers within a 6-mile radius of the company's home base in Broomfield.

Jim Merlino, EarthCab president, said fares are 4 percent lower than the competition because the company can get natural gas for only $1.15 a gallon and pass the savings on to passengers.

The company focuses on the growing U.S. 36 corridor between Denver and Boulder and plans to expand the fleet to 12 cars.

"It's amazing how much people are investing in the area," Merlino said.

Traffic along U.S. 36 grew from 45,000 vehicles a day to 76,000 between 1988 and 1998. And the demand for transportation is increasing every day with expanding office parks, new hotels and more retail centers, Merlino said.

Internal EPA critic reassigned

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency has reassigned an investigator who criticized decisions on toxic waste sites in Colorado, Idaho, Florida and elsewhere, prompting protests from several members of Congress.

Hugh Kaufman, a longtime gadfly within the EPA, had been the lead investigator in the EPA ombudsman's office until he was reassigned last week to an analyst's job. Kaufman and his congressional supporters say the move was retaliation for Kaufman's criticism of the EPA, an allegation denied by the official who made the job decision.

Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who have praised Kaufman's work on investigations they requested, criticized Kaufman's reassignment in recent letters to Fields.

Crapo has praised Kaufman's work in an investigation of the EPA's plans to invoke the Superfund toxic waste law to force a cleanup of mining wastes in the Idaho Panhandle. Kaufman has said Superfund should not apply because lead contamination, for example, was less than at another industrial site in Pennsylvania where the EPA did not invoke Superfund.

The mining industry is worried that using the Superfund law -- which requires polluters to pay for at least part of cleanup costs -- would hurt their business.

Tim Fields, the EPA official who reassigned Kaufman last week, said Kaufman's claims of political retaliation were "pure fabrication" and "another of his shams he's trying to pull." Fields said he reassigned Kaufman "based on some performance issues that occurred over the last two years."

Environmental Watch: Rayburn rejoins Harding ESE

BELLEVUE -- Ryan Rayburn has returned to environmental and construction firm Harding ESE after a stint with the Port of Seattle.

Rayburn had left the firm to take an appointment as a consultant program manager for the port's hazardous materials and abatement program at Sea-Tac International Airport.

Among Rayburn's areas of expertise are environmental auditing, and the development of health and safety programs for landfills, Superfund sites and hazardous waste remediation projects.

Harding ESE is a part of MACTEC, an environmental, infrastructure and construction services firm with 78 offices around the country and 2,300 employees.

Forest Service makes $8.6M Cascades buy

SEATTLE (AP) -- The U.S. Forest Service has bought 4,712 acres of forest in the Cascade Mountains and is committed to protecting it, the Cascades Conservation Partnership announced Monday.

The Forest Service paid Plum Creek Timber Co. $8.6 million for the land, the first acquisition in the partnership's three-year effort to protect 75,000 acres of forests. The federal Land and Water Conservation Fund appropriated money for the purchase after lobbying by the partnership, a coalition of more than two dozen Northwest environmental groups.

The partnership's three-year goal is to raise $125 million -- $100 million in public funds and $25 million in private donations -- to maintain and enhance critical wilderness and wildlife corridors linking the north and south Cascades.

Raedeke adds two biologists

SEATTLE -- Environmental consulting firm Raedeke Associates has added two biologists to its staff.

Kristin Fredericks joins the firm from the U.S. Forest Service. A fisheries biologist, she has four years of experience in the field, including stream habitat assessment and stream morphology.

Dawn Garcia joins Raedeke as a wildlife and wetland biologist. She has 12 years of experience in the field.

Raedeke, founded in 1979, specializes in environmental analysis, sensitive areas and wetlands identification, plant and animal studies and mitigation. The firm has 13 employees and is headquartered near Sand Point.

LinkUp adds new firm to roster

SEATTLE -- King County's LinkUp program has added another partner, Y.K. Products.

LinkUp provides businesses that use recycled materials with marketing assistance and technical expertise.

Y.K. Products, based in Everett, manufactures U.S. Cold Patch, a more environmentally friendly substance for pothole repair. U.S. Cold Patch uses compaction rather than evaporation to harden, thus reducing the release of common cold asphalt ingredients like kerosene, naphtha and jet fuel.

Additionally, U.S. Cold Patch contains up to 70 percent recycled asphalt.

Normally pot hole repair involves adding a solvent to cold asphalt so that it will not harden. These solvents in the roadway can easily runoff into neighboring streams.

LinkUp began in April of this year. With the addition of Y.K. Products, the program now has five participating companies. For more information go to http://dnr.metrokc.gov/market/linkup.

Forest stewardship funds available

OLYMPIA -- Special funding is available for Washington landowners with at least 20 acres of forested property to develop stewardship plans.

Administered by the state Department of Natural Resources, the Forest Stewardship Plan Reimbursement Program covers up to 90 percent of the cost of hiring a private consulting forester to develop a stewardship plan for the management and protection of non-industrial forests.

Typical elements of a forest stewardship plan include recommendations for improving forest health and fish and wildlife habitat.

Funding is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Call DNR's 24-hour hotline at (888) 783-9548.

More sockeyes on Fraser tributaries

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- The recovery of sockeye salmon runs on two streams in the Fraser River drainage basin has been hailed as "miraculous."

Nearly 70,000 sockeye returned to the Upper Adams River east of Kamloops to spawn, compared with a previous high in modern years of 25,000 in 1996, according to a Canadian Fisheries Department news release.

"This is a miraculous recovery as the Upper Adams River early summer sockeye run, historically among the largest in the Fraser River, was driven to extinction in the early part of the 20th century," the statement said.

Logging and railroad construction between 1911 and 1913 in the Fraser River culminated in the Hell's Gate landslide near Hope at the head of the Fraser Valley, devastating salmon runs throughout the most productive river system for sockeye in North America.

The slide also had slashed salmon runs on the Nadina River north of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, but less severely. More than 194,000 sockeye returned to the Nadina to spawn this year, compared with 40,000 in 1996.

Sockeye runs this year represent fish that were hatched from the spawning runs in 1996.

"In both of these areas, stock rebuilding success has been the result of many decades of dedicated enhancement, combined with a precautionary management approach that sets harvest rates at a level that permits the spawners to return to their natal areas," the department said.

Concerns about Fraser River sockeye runs, as well as other stocks, has prompted the Canadian Fisheries Department to drastically reduce catches in recent years.

Cutbacks also have hit Washington state tribal and commercial fisheries based on Fraser River sockeye that return through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the San Juan Islands.

Rent increase rocks earthquake center

GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) -- A national earthquake agency that operates and supports a network of more than 150 seismograph stations around the world is homeless.

The Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory, part of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, has been forced to leave an ideal site within the Isleta Pueblo, 13 miles south of Albuquerque, because the pueblo increased the lab's lease fee 14-fold.

The remote site near the adjacent Manzano Mountains was picked in 1959 because it was one of the nation's most seismologically quiet spots, with very low background noise that could disturb sensitive equipment used to measure earth movements.

Isleta Pueblo increased the five-year lease from $215,500 to $3.1 million after having the 674-acre site appraised. Isleta Governor Alvino Lucero would not discuss the increase.

The lab's 37 scientists and technicians are temporarily crowded into a 6,000-square-foot building at nearby Kirtland Air Force Base, where they've been since October.

'Earth Heroes' named

SEATTLE -- The Puget Sound Car Wash Association, Carol James and Clare Henson have been named as King County's "Earth Heroes" for November and December 2000.

Additionally, Ursula Judkins was posthumously named Earth Hero of the Year.

Judkins had long been active in the Magnolia neighborhood, especially during the expansion of the West Point Sewage Treatment Plant. She was also integral to the creation of the Shoreline Parks Improvement Fund, which allocated $25 million toward Seattle's waterfront parks.

The Puget Sound Car Wash Association was cited for its efforts to help reduce runoff into Puget Sound. One way the association does this is by sponsoring coupons redeemable for carwashes that can be used by charitable organizations in lieu of the traditional parking lot charity car wash. Over 60 car washes participate in the Charity Car Wash Program, and over 120 groups have taken advantage of it.

Carol James is the president of the board of the Cascade Land Conservancy. She has also worked with the Mountains to Sound Greenway. She began her environmental work in 1977 with Save Our Local Farmlands, leading the charge for a $50 million development rights purchase by the county.

Clare Henson of Boulevard Park is active in the Adopt-a-Stop, Adopt-a-Road and Adopt-a-Park programs. She maintains 14 bus stops, picks up litter along several miles of roadway and serves as a steward to Hill Top Park.

Environmental Watch: Kent firm wins DOE contract

KENT -- ARI Technologies of Kent has won a $225,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Energy to destroy asbestos-containing materials originally from the agency's Savannah River weapons operation in South Carolina.

ARI will destroy the asbestos in February 2001 at its Tacoma test site, using thermochemical conversion technology. The process uses high temperatures to create a final product that is inert and non-toxic.

The technology has also been approved for the destruction of PCBs.

The Department of Energy expects to decommission more than 7,000 surplus facilities constructed during the 1940s and 1950s when asbestos was used throughout new buildings. It's estimated 4 million cubic feet of asbestos-containing materials will need to be abated as part of the decommissioning process.

California firm buys Earth Consultants

SAN DIEGO -- Earth Consultants Inc. of Seattle has been acquired by U.S. Laboratories Inc. of San Diego for $1.6 million in cash and stock.

ECI, with 30 employees, is a geotechnical and construction services firm with 30 employees. It has performed over 5,000 projects in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Alaska since it was founded in 1975.

U.S. Laboratories had been targeting the Pacific Northwest for expansion.

U.S. Laboratories provides quality control services to the construction, manufacturing, architecture and engineering industries. Clients in the past have included Wal-Mart and Disney.

County moves environmental services office

SEATTLE -- The King County Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Services has opened a new downtown office. The new office replaces the North Environmental Office on Meridian Avenue North and the Central Environmental Health Office on 20th Avenue.

On-site sewage systems are now available only at the Eastgate office in Bellevue. Also, permits for plumbing and gas piping can be obtained at the Eastgate office or at the Dexter Horton Building, 710 Second Ave.

The new office at 2124 Fourth Ave., fourth floor, will offer food, meat and aquatic permits. For more information call (206) 296-4632.

Ecology ordered to enforce metering

KENNEWICK (AP) -- A judge has ordered the state Department of Ecology to make water metering the primary focus of its enforcement staff of six employees.

Environmentalists claimed the ruling is a victory in their bid to improve water management, while the Ecology Department chafed at being told by a court how to set its priorities.

Eventually, the ruling by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks likely will force thousands of Washington ground water and surface water users to meter their withdrawals and report to the state.

Hicks directed special attention toward the Walla Walla, Snake and Yakima river basins, where salmon are most severely limited by lack of water.

Hicks gave the state three months to develop a plan for metering in those areas.

Both sides in the dispute noted the Legislature hasn't provided enough money for Ecology to keep up with water metering mandates since at least 1994.

"Water is a public resource and water metering is the key to knowing how much of that public resource people are using," said Todd True, attorney for EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund, which represented environmental and fishing groups in the case. "The court has now done the right thing by directing Ecology to follow the law."

$7.8B Everglades restoration signed

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Clinton signed a bill Monday authorizing a $7.8 billion project to restore the Everglades, which have been drained and rechanneled for decades to promote development and agriculture.

The 25-year project to restore the natural flow of water to the River of Grass was the key environmental project passed by Congress this year.

The federal government will play half the cost; the state of Florida will pick up the cost of the other half.

"President Clinton has officially ended the era of Everglades destruction and begun a new era of allowing the River of Grass to flow anew," said Stuart D. Strahl, vice president of the National Audubon Society and president of Audubon of Florida.

The restoration of the Everglades, a mix of sawgrass prairies, hardwood hammocks, cypress swamps and mangrove shorelines, became urgent after 40 years of drainage by the Army Corps of Engineeers, which built canals and waterways to develop farms and urban areas and to divert floodwaters.

Over the years, indigenous plants and wildlife, including the Florida panther, have become endangered or have disappeared.

Gov. Jeb Bush, at the White House to witness Clinton's signing of the bill, said the Everglades are ensured new life.

"It was dying and a whole lot of people here have worked very hard for most of their lives," Bush said. "We've made a huge financial commitment for our state and the federal government is responding in a true partnership."

Arco agrees on Superfund cleanup

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) --Atlantic Richfield Co. formally has agreed to a federal Environmental Protection Agency demand to help clean up the old Leviathan Mine, leaking a stew of toxic materials for decades.

The mine was designated a Superfund environmental site last May. Arco is a former owner of Leviathan, about 45 miles south of here in Alpine County, Calif.

Leviathan is among thousands of abandoned mines -- many dating back to the Gold Rush days -- that continue to pollute 15 Western states, prompting local residents to press for cleanup efforts.

Even though relieved of liability when it turned the mine over to the state of California in the 1980s, Arco will have part of the responsibility in the Superfund cleanup. Costs eventually could run into the tens of millions of dollars.

For years Leviathan has been leaking a mixture of acids and dissolved metals into creeks that drain into the Carson River, discoloring the streams and making portions of them incapable of sustaining life.

Arco said it will spend around $1 million next year, adding that a pilot project will attempt to funnel some still-untreated pollution sources into the Water Quality Control Board's existing cleanup system.

While there's a legal argument that Leviathan is a state of California problem, Arco officials agreed months ago to help out.

Workshops cover new solid waste rules

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology is planning a series of workshops to explain proposed new rules for solid waste. The new rules cover non-municipal landfills, recycling and compost facilities, surface impoundments and lagoons, waste tire storage and storage of household hazardous waste.

Municipal landfills are not included.

In 1998, the legislature directed Ecology to review solid waste rules to make recycling easier and to streamline the permit process. Formal public comment on the rules will begin in February 2001.

The workshops are scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at all locations: Dec. 12 in Pasco at the Public Utility District Auditorium, 1411 West Clark; Dec. 14 in Renton at the Renton Community Center, 1715 Maple Valley Highway; and Dec. 19 in Lacey at the Worthington Conference Center, 5300 Pacific Ave. S.E.

Sci-fi scribe is monorail fan

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ray Bradbury, the author of such science fiction classics as "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles," turned his imagination loose on a more mundane topic last week -- traffic.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority invited Bradbury to weigh in at a symposium on regional transit problems. Bradbury, 80, who has lived in the city without a car for most of his life, was happy to oblige.

His first comment: The $500 million MTA headquarters has to go.

"It's ridiculous, this building," he said. "You could build a transit system for the cost of putting this place up."

Bradbury said he called for a monorail 40 years ago at a public meeting. He said he was thrown out of the meeting, and Los Angeles got buses.

"There was no rapid transit. There was no improvement," the author said. "In fact, there was a failure of imagination and a failure of transportation."

Environmental Watch: Jones & Stokes names president

SACRAMENTO -- Environmental consulting firm Jones & Stokes has named John Cowdery as the firm's new president.

He most recently was senior vice president for ATC Group's western region. ATC is a provider of hazardous materials services and regulatory compliance consulting. In his role with ATC, Cowdery supervised 325 employees in 16 offices from the Rocky Mountains to the West Coast.

"John brings years of experience managing and leading a firm with multiple offices across a large geographic area," said Mike Rushton, chairman of the Jones & Stokes board of directors.

Jones & Stokes, founded in 1970, provides natural resource consulting and environmental planning services throughout the west. In addition to its Sacramento headquarters, the firm has offices in Bellevue; Ashland, Ore.; Phoenix, and San Jose, Bakersfield and Irvine, Calif.

BPA in geothermal deal

PORTLAND -- The Bonneville Power Administration has entered into a deal with the Calpine Corporation to purchase of up to 49.9 megawatts of geothermally generated electricity from the firm's Fourmile Hill project in Northern California.

The contract is contingent upon Calpine developing a source of steam at Fourmile Hill.

Calpine has received a $20 million award from the California Energy Commission to develop the project.

If a commercial steam source is found, the BPA will pay about $57 a megawatt hour over the 20-year life of the contract.

"Geothermal energy is very clean compared to burning fossil fuels," said Steve Wright, acting BPA administrator, "Along with wind, solar and other renewable resources, it's a promising source of natural energy here in the West and elsewhere in the country."

Heron habitat destroyed

TACOMA (AP) -- Some 20-30 alder trees, which served as the nesting area for a large colony of great blue herons, have been cut down.

State and Pierce County wildlife agents were investigating whether laws protecting wildlife habitat were violated.

The rookery was one of four known to be active in Pierce County.

The trees stood on land owned by a trout hatchery near the Puyallup River. Harlan McCord, who lives behind the Trout Lodge fish hatchery, called the state Department of Fish and Wildlife on Nov. 9 after he saw the trees being cut.

"At first when I heard the chain saws, I thought they were just clearing brush," he said. "But within an hour and 20 minutes, all the trees with the herons' nests were down."

Steve Brown, a lawyer for Trout Lodge, said the company didn't know who was responsible.

"Possibly someone was hired to cut them," he said. "All the trees that were cut were dead or dying."

Wildlife agents are trying to determine whether cutting the trees violated a state law that protects the nest, eggs and nest trees of wildlife from malicious destruction.

Great blue herons are not an endangered species, but habitat destruction is a growing concern, said Donald Norman, an independent biologist who studies the 3-foot-tall birds.

"There are fewer and fewer places for herons to nest because of development," he said. "That's why cutting down the trees is such an issue."

Once the herons return in early spring and find their nests are gone, it could affect their breeding, said Rocky Beach, state Fish and Wildlife diversity division manager.

"They'll have to look for another area, which may cause them to expend more energy, and they might not find as good of a site," he said.

Green groups grade ski resorts

DURANGO, Colo. -- A coalition of conservation groups has issued an environmental report card for 51 large ski resorts in the West.

The Ski Area Citizen's Coalition graded the resorts on 12 criteria, including expansion, sensitivity to wetlands and old-growth forest and environmentally responsible snowmaking,

The Sundance Resort in Utah was the top scorer in the report. 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort near Spokane also received an "A." Closer to Seattle, Stevens Pass received a "C" and The Summit at Snoqualmie scored a "D." Crystal Mountain Ski Area was the lone Washington resort receiving an "F."

The purpose of awarding the grades, said the coalition, is to encourage patronage of the resorts that are practicing responsible stewardship of their mountain lands.

Conversely, the group urges skiers to contact the poor scoring resorts to express their environmental concerns. Only nine resorts received "A's."

Ski resort officials have said that the report is biased because of the composition of the coalition, which includes some vehement critics of ski area expansion.

The report can be viewed on line at http://www.skiareacitizens.com

Hanford to start moving spent nuclear fuel

YAKIMA (AP) -- Contractors at Hanford nuclear reservation expect to start removing spent nuclear fuel from the leaky K Basins, just 400 yards from the Columbia River, this week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced late last week.

"It's a top priority because it's so close to the river and also a priority because the basins are very old, essentially past their useable life," said Doug Sherwood, Hanford project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Also, "roughly a third of the radioactivity at Hanford is in those basins," he said.

The K Basins are two decaying indoor pools filled with 2,300 tons of corroded, irradiated fuel.

The Energy Department was doing a final readiness review for the K Basins project on Thursday. Once it's complete, contractor Fluor Hanford will make any changes needed, and the goal is to start moving the fuel by the middle of this week, said Erik Olds, a DOE spokesman in Richland.

Olds said crews have been working 24 hours a day, including through the Thanksgiving weekend, to prepare to start moving fuel.

The effort expended to get the project going timely was recognized by the EPA, Sherwood said.

"They don't need a slap in the face from a regulator today," he said.

The legal deadline to finish moving the fuel is July 31, 2004.

Olds said six baskets of fuel are loaded and sitting under water ready to go. The canisters will be moved to a vacuum drying facility, where moisture is removed and replaced with inert helium gas.

Then the containers will be moved to the canister storage building in the 200 West Area, in the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation.

The fuel would be stored at Hanford until a national repository site is built, possibly at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Texas farmers agree to aquifer rules

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- After four hot summers that seared crops and wilted lawns across Texas, farmers and ranchers are softening their opposition to groundwater regulations.

Rural communities are afraid their aquifers will slowly be depleted by San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and other drought-stricken cities recently forced to seek water sources outside their areas.

At the 67th annual convention of the Texas Farm Bureau this week, members changed their position that underground water on privately owned land should be controlled solely by the landowner.

The state's largest farm organization voted to support creating groundwater conservation districts to protect aquifers by regulating well drilling and pumping. A few such districts already exist in West Texas.

Local residents would decide whether to create a district and, if so, set its boundaries and elect board members. The organization still does not want the state to control groundwater as it does rivers and lakes.

Environmental Watch: Stormwater Management adds two

PORTLAND -- Stormwater Management Inc. has announced the hiring of George Rudolph as director of sales and distribution and Brendan Fitzpatrick as regional manager for Oregon and Southern Idaho.

Rudolph, a University of Georgia graduate, comes to Stormwater Management from Coca Cola USA. He will be responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the sales staff, as well as management of distribution channels.

Fitzpatrick, a West Point engineering graduate, joins SMI from motion controls manufacturer Parker Hannifin.

Stormwater Management Inc. specializes in custom-designed stormwater filtration solutions using a variety of filter media. In addition to Portland, the firm has offices in Lynnwood, Maryland, Northern and Southern California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Forest road projects named

OLYMPIA -- As part of the deal signed between the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Forest Service to prioritize the repair, maintenance and closure of forest roads, seven projects were announced.

The projects, designed to improve water quality by decreasing runoff from forest roads, include the following: removal and stabilization of fill on the 2860 road in Olympic National Forest, closure of 50 miles of roads in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, reconstruction and drainage improvements on 35.5 miles of Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest roads, erosion control and road closure on the Upper Canyon Road in Wenatchee National Forest, road closure on Cub Creek in the Okanogan National Forest, closure of 29 miles of roads in the Lone Deer Creek watershed of the Colville National Forest, and closure of 18 miles of road near Kelly Camp in the Umatilla National Forest.

Pending environmental analysis, the specific scope of the projects remains to be determined. According to a Forest Service spokesman, larger scale projects, such as road obliteration, will be contracted out. The spokesman recommends contacting the contracting and procurement office of the relevant forest to be added to the bid list.

Over the next 15 years, all National Forest roads in Washington state are slated to be stabilized under the agreement. Currently, the Forest Service has a national backlog of $8.4 billion in road maintenance and reconstruction. In Olympic National Forest alone, $50 million worth of work remains uncompleted.

Skagit flow hearing set

BELLEVUE -- A public hearing will be held tomorrow on establishing minimum flows for the Skagit River.

Minimum flows are typically set by the state Department of Ecology to assure that adequate water remains in rivers and streams for fish and other needs. If adopted, the minimum flows would be used in deciding all pending and new water rights applications.

The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at the Skagit Valley Community College in Ford Hall, 2405 E. College Way, in Mount Vernon.

ULI smart growth conference next week

ATLANTA -- The Urban Land Institute's fourth annual Partners for Smart Growth Conference opens Monday, Dec. 4, and continues through Dec. 6. The theme of the conference is public-private partnership and collaboration to achieve smart growth goals.

Speakers include Govs. Parris Glendening of Maryland and Roy Barnes of Georgia, who will discuss their respective states' growth policies. Also on tap are forums on financing smart growth development and the information economy and land use.

For more information, call (202) 624-7000 or visit www.uli.org.

Wetlands banking workshops announced

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology will hold four workshops to explain "wetland mitigation banking" next week.

Mitigation banking is a program that generates credits for landowners engaging in wetland restoration, enhancement and preservation. These credits can then be used to satisfy certain environmental requirements or sold to another party to compensate for land-use activities that damage existing wetlands. By banking the credits, the hope is that larger, more significant wetlands restorations can take place.

The workshops will be held in Lacey on Tuesday, Dec. 5, from 1 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Ecology's headquarters, 300 Desmond Drive.

On Dec. 8, two more workshops will be held in Everett at the Lions Hall in Forest Park, 802 Mukilteo Blvd. Those will also run from 1 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

For more information contact Lauren Driscoll at (360) 407-6861 or go to www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/wetmitig/index.html.

Recycled building home to green studies

SALISBURY, N.C. (AP) -- The new home for Catawba College's Center for the Environment will be a model of green-friendly design featuring conference room tabletops made of crushed sunflower seed hulls and some floors of bamboo.

The 20,000-square-foot building of classrooms and laboratories has walls of glass to take advantage of the sun's heating powers. Photovoltaic cells will capture more sunlight to produce electricity. Water running through underground wells will collect geothermal energy to heat and cool the building.

The $5.6 million price tag comes from a private donor, said John Wear Jr., the center's director. That's somewhat more than using conventional construction methods, but operating costs will be much lower thanks to the energy-saving features, Wear said.

"In many ways what we've tried to do with this program is essentially bring together people with our environment to teach them how to be better stewards," Wear said. "I think we need to start that at home, with our building."

Students recommended that the floors be made of bamboo, which environmentalists like because bamboo trees grow back quickly. They helped choose environmentally friendly desks made of compressed straw, with thick cardboard legs.

John Gust and Ben Prater, both 20, saved hundreds of dollars by discovering it was cheaper to recycle drywall than to dump it in the county landfill. They also found ways to recycle steel, cardboard, plastic and other materials -- in all, 98 percent of the construction debris from the project.

North Carolina environmental officials say they know of no other structure like it in the state. It will open in January.

Southeast wind turbines start up for commercial use

OLIVER SPRINGS, Tenn. (AP) -- More than 400 homes a year will be powered by three giant turbines atop Buffalo Mountain in the Southeast's first commercial-scale use of wind power to generate electricity.

The 200-foot-tall white spires topped with 75-foot-long rotors were installed in September in Anderson County. The $3.4 million turbines were hooked to the power grid and became fully operational in October and were formally dedicated by the Tennessee Valley Authority earlier this month. They will provide about 2 megawatts of electricity.

The power is sold through TVA's Green Power Switch, a one-year pilot program that allows customers in a dozen of the provider's 158 local distributors to choose electricity generated by wind, sunlight and landfill gas.

Four solar collectors are up and running in Nashville, Pigeon Forge, Gibson County and Knoxville. Eight more solar sites and a landfill gas-to-energy facility in Middle Tennessee are slated to be working by early next year.

The amount of electricity generated by the wind turbines is not enough to fill TVA's systemwide demand of about 28,000 megawatts, but TVA chairman Craven Crowell said providing electricity through alternative methods is worthwhile.

"Through this effort we learned that valley consumers prefer wind, solar and landfill gas as renewable energy resources, and that TVA should take a leadership role in developing the use of wind in the Southeast."

Environmental Watch: USFS, state OK forest road deal

OLYMPIA -- Washington state and the U.S Forest Service will sign a memorandum of agreement today that sets priorities for the monitoring, repair and closing of national forest roads.

Runoff from poorly planned and maintained forest roads is thought to significantly impact water quality in mountain streams. Sediment-laden waters are particularly harmful to fish, including the threatened Puget Sound chinook salmon.

Tom Fitzsimmons, director of the state Department of Ecology, and Harv Forsgren, regional forester for the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Region, will sign the agreement at the Snoqualmie Ranger District building in North Bend.

The initial term of the agreement is 15 years.

Quadrant wants to become "green" giant

BELLEVUE -- Beginning in December, Quadrant Homes, the state's largest homebuilder, will construct all of its houses to "green" standards.

Specifically, Quadrant will be following the guidelines of the Built Green program, a joint effort of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties and the county governments. The goals of the program are fourfold: protect salmon, conserve energy, improve air quality and preserve natural resources.

"As a local homebuilder, we have great respect for our Puget Sound heritage," said Peter Orser, senior vice president of Quadrant, "We believe it is our responsibility to be proactive in our commitment to the environment."

Orser noted that its "Built Green" houses will cost no more than similar houses not built to the same standards and will, in the long term, save money on energy costs.

Quadrant expects to build more than 500 homes in 2001.

Maring, Smith join Camp, Dresser

BELLEVUE -- Camp, Dresser & McKee has hired two new geotechnical engineers for its Bellevue office.

Matthew Maring, P.E., has worked extensively with municipal water supply and treatment issues as well as in capital improvement planning and construction management. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington and is a registered professional engineer in Washington state.

Richard Smith, P.E., has worked on geotechnical studies for highways, railroads, residences and dams. In addition, he has designed landslide stabilization systems and deep and shallow foundations. He holds a master's degree in geotechnical engineering from Virginia Tech and a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. Smith is a registered professional engineer in Oregon and Washington.

Oregon salmon plan lacks regional support

PORTLAND (AP) -- Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber hoped his proposal to save salmon in the Columbia River Basin would end the squabbling over the issue among the four Northwest states. Instead, the plan faced serious obstacles even before it was officially unveiled.

Republican Marc Racicot of Montana is the only other Northwest governor to support the plan, which he helped draft.

The governors of Washington and Idaho and officials of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission are opposed.

A hearing on the plan was scheduled Monday, but was canceled Monday morning because Racicot, a friend and adviser to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, was in Florida working on election issues.

Legislation affecting the region would have little chance of making it through Congress without the backing of all four states and the Northwest tribes.

Kitzhaber's plan would amend the 1980 federal legislation that created the Northwest Power Planning Council, whose duty is to balance energy planning with fish and wildlife conservation in the four states.

It calls for creating a new fish and wildlife advisory board to the council with six members: four representing each of the states; one representing the federal government; and one representing tribes.

The commission would be charged with creating a single salmon recovery plan that would comply with the federal Endangered Species Act and other federal environmental laws while also meeting all the federal government's tribal treaty obligations.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke thinks it's risky to expand the power council's authority, said Sandi Snell, a spokeswoman for Locke's salmon recovery office.

What do you think of Seattle's tree plan?

SEATTLE -- The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation will hold three meetings to solicit public comment on a proposed forest and trees management plan for the city's parks.

When adopted the new plan will guide Parks and Recreation on all tree issues, including public and private views, tree pruning and maintenance, hazardous trees, tree protection during construction, vegetation plans and tree permits.

The proposed plan would eliminate the topping of trees because of the adverse impacts on tree heath.

The meetings, all running from 7 to 9 p.m., will be held as follows: Thursday, Nov. 30 at the Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. East; Thursday, Dec. 7 at the Delridge Community Center, 4501 Delridge Way Southwest; and Monday Dec. 11 at the Woodland Park Zoo ARC Building, 5500 Phinney Ave. North.

To obtain a copy of the draft tree plan call (206) 684-7241 or go to http://www.cityofseattle.parks/environment/ParksTreePolicy.htm. Comments will be accepted until January 25 when the Seattle Board of Parks Commissioners will hold a hearing on the plan and make its recommendations.

Ecology fines Kimberly-Clark $20,000

BELLEVUE -- The state Department of Ecology has fined papermaker Kimberly-Clark $20,000 for water quality violations at its Everett sulfite mill.

According to Ecology, the consumer paper facility exceeded the amount of suspended solids it is allowed to discharge into Port Gardner Bay on two days, one in August and one in September.

"We hope that this penalty will serve as a deterrent against additional permit violations," said Ecology's Carol Kraege.

Kraege did note, however, that Kimberly-Clark has made a series of recent upgrades to equipment and processes that should help prevent future problems.

Kimberly-Clark has 15 days to apply for relief from the penalty from Ecology, or an appeal may be made to the Pollution Control Hearings Board.

NW prepares for power shortage

PORTLAND (AP) -- This winter, Northwest energy officials may face an agonizing decision: whether to turn off power to portions of the state as severe power shortages loom.

Last-ditch rolling blackouts aren't likely to happen, but other aggressive measures may be needed to fuel the region during its greatest shortage threat in more than a decade.

If the Northwest experiences a period of unusually cold weather and energy use spikes, utilities will have a hard time providing enough electricity to heat and light the region.

Utility executives and public officials are scrambling to finish a regional emergency plan for such an occasion. The Northwest Power Planning Council, a four-state agency that works to balance wildlife protection with electricity production, has predicted that the energy crisis will last through 2003. Then additional generating plants, some already under construction, will come on line and ease the supply crunch.

The possibility of a serious energy shortage in the West has been building for years. Population growth and an economic expansion pushed demand up while generating capacity remained virtually flat.

In 2003, the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana will have almost a one-in-four chance of winter supply interruptions, the report found. This year, the probability of a shortfall stands between 6 percent to 14 percent. But early cold weather and less rain than usual to power hydroelectric dams has made officials nervous.

Electricity supply is most unpredictable in the Northwest because the region relies so heavily on hydro-generation and the dams in the Columbia-Snake River Basin for its power supply. This winter, if the Northwest needs additional power, a major north-south transmission line can carry as much as 3,100 megawatts into the region at any given time, said Philip Mesa, who monitors the reliability of the power system for the Bonneville Power Administration.

Environmental Watch: Water storage group still at work

BELLEVUE (AP) -- A task force is trying to find a way to minimize the effects of the feast-or-famine cycle of rainfall in the Evergreen State, where an increasing number of people are competing with farms and fish for water.

The water storage task force, which must have its recommendations ready for the Legislature by Dec. 31, was appointed earlier this year to look for the best ways to ensure a dependable water supply for the state.

"The biggest step we've taken is we've gotten the state to recognize that there is a need for storage capacity," state Rep. Gary Chandler, R-Moses Lake, said at a recent task force meeting.

The group has looked at a variety of means of storing water, both above and underground.

There are currently more than 1,100 dams in the state, with 380 used primarily for water storage. But most are small, and only 80 of those dams are over 50 feet high.

The state Department of Ecology has said that due to environmental regulations it is unlikely that any big new dams on rivers would be built, but enlarging some could be an option. So are off-channel dams, which are sited on intermittent streams or dry land and filled with water, usually by gravity or pumping from a larger basin.

There are other means of water storage as well. In aquifer storage and recovery, excess surface water, stormwater runoff and reclaimed water can be stored underground, by piping or in wells.

Late last week, the group had a draft report in its hands and was hashing out the details of its recommendations. "Providing adequate water at the right time for the diverse needs of the state -- people, fish and farms -- should be a high priority. Properly designed and sited storage is a significant tool toward .. that goal," the report says.

How best to do it will be up to the Legislature.

Salmon Day this Friday

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Gary Locke has proclaimed Friday, Nov. 17 "Salmon Day in the Pacific Northwest." The event will be celebrated with the dedication of the new Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail in Mason County, near Olympia.

The trail includes a footbridge, boardwalks, interpretive viewing areas and parking. The trail winds through land owned by the Taylor Shellfish family, who agreed to a 20-year license agreement with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group to allow for its development.

Other project contributors include the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Simpson Fund, People for Salmon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Olympia chapter of Trout Unlimited and many others.

Salmon Day was proclaimed by Locke at the request of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and People For Salmon.

NEBC and PEMA merge

PORTLAND -- The Professional Environmental Marketing Association will become part of the Northwest Environmental Business Council next year.

Under the merger, the PEMA board of directors and other interested NEBC members will become the professional environmental marketing committee of the NEBC effective Jan. 1, 2001. The new committee "will work within NEBC in the Seattle area to continue the monthly luncheon program maintained for so many years under the PEMA name," said NEBC executive director David Welsh.

The announcement came following the annual Northwest Environmental Conference and Tradeshow, held this year at the Double Tree Jantzen Beach in Portland.

Former PEMA members who are not NEBC members may join before January at a 10 percent discount. Contact the NEBC at (503) 227-6361 or go to www.nebc.org for more information.

Water rights search steams Twisp mayor

TWISP, Wash. (AP) -- An offer by the state Department of Ecology to buy or lease water rights has Twisp Mayor Mike Price steaming, since the Methow Valley town is having problems finding enough water for itself.

Ecology expects to spend $1 million in the state to buy or lease water rights to leave more water in streams for fish. At least half that money is expected to be spent on water rights in north central Washington's Methow Valley.

Price said he's worried the ready state money will jeopardize the town's chance of making water deals, or force it to pay more.

"We support the work Twisp has been doing, and we certainly hope any purchases we make do not cause a conflict with negotiations Twisp has under way," said Mary Getchell, an Ecology spokeswoman.

The town lost two-thirds of its water rights in a state Supreme Court ruling in 1997, and has been unable to accommodate even modest growth since then. It is trying to lease 200 acre-feet of water to supplement the 224 acre-feet it has.

An angry Price worked to block a workshop Ecology scheduled here today to explain its water rights acquisition program.

He got the Methow Valley Senior Center to renege on use of its facilities and sought support in blocking the meeting from other community locations.

Ecology moved the meeting to the Methow Valley Ranger District offices in Twisp.

The workshops are aimed at explaining to landowners how they might benefit from the purchase program and what is involved, Getchell said.

Offers will be made based on the market and how beneficial the return will be to endangered fish, Getchell said.

WEC "Heroes" named

SEATTLE -- The Washington Environmental Council will present its 2000 Environmental Heroes awards Friday, Nov. 16 at a dinner at the West Coast Grand Hotel.

According to the WEC announcement, the annual awards are given to "citizens who have acted, often at great personal sacrifice, to protect the environment for all of us."

This year's winners are Bruce Barnbaum, for protection of the Mountain Loop National Scenic Byway outside Granite Falls; Elane Hellmuth, for work on Bainbridge Island; Robert Vreeland, for his efforts to "daylight" Thornton Creek; Dean and Diane Schwickerath, for protecting wetlands in Grays Harbor County; and Rick Leaumont, for his efforts to protect the Hanford Reach.

The Washington Environmental Council has named "Heroes" since 1995. The statewide group has more than 3,000 household members and 90 organizational members.

FishPro wins award for aquatic facility

PORT ORCHARD -- FishPro Inc. has won the Association of Conservation Engineers 2000 Award of Merit for its design of a specialized Colorado hatchery.

The Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility, designed for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, will provide refuge, species augmentation and broodstock holding for native fish, amphibians and mollusks that are declining in population.

The facility will be able to focus on 10 to 12 species at a time out of the 43 listed by the state as threatened, endangered or of special concern. The $6 million project is located in southern Colorado near Alamosa in the San Luis Valley. The site was chosen because of year-round availability of warm and cool water.

FishPro provided the conceptual design, final design and construction and startup assistance for the facility. FishPro specializes in aquaculture facilities planning, design and construction. In addition its Port Orchard headquarters, the firm has an office in Portland, Ore., and an affiliation with Cochran and Wilken of Springfield, Ill.

County stops flooding, saves beaver habitat

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- The beaver dams along Spada Creek were a problem at first, blocking the flow of water and flooding a nearby road last summer.

But the Snohomish County Public Works Department engineered a solution to the flooding that didn't disturb the furry, flat-tailed mammals.

With a permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Public Works watershed steward Jake Jacobson recently notched the dam by hand, lowering the water level. Then he and his crew of helpers installed a pond leveler -- a 10-inch diameter, 120-foot-long pipe that they ran under the road and through a culvert. Then they rebuilt the beaver dams.

Ever since the $800 repair, pond levels have dropped and the road has stayed dry.

"Our goal was to keep the habitat, and we did that," Jacobson said. "We didn't harm any beaver and we didn't import any non-native materials."

Such flooding will become more common as residential development encroaches on beaver habitat, he said.

Environmental Watch: AMEC adds environmental offices, services

PHOENIX -- AMEC, an engineering and environmental services firm, has acquired Ogden Environmental and Energy Services Co. for $17.5 million, more that doubling its geotechnical and environmental services capacity in the U.S.

The acquisition will add 27 new offices and 650 staff positions to AMEC that generate annual revenues of approximately $80 million. All of the acquired offices will operate under the AMEC name.

Prior to the acquisition, AMEC operated 19 earth and environmental offices in the western U.S. and 41 in Canada. The Ogden purchase will significantly enhance the firm’s profile in the eastern U.S.

Locally, AMEC has locations in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Richland.

Hart Crowser forms new division

SEATTLE -- Hart Crowser has formed a natural resources division in Washington state. Headed up by Carl Einberger, a senior associate hydrologist, the division was formed to "meet rising demands for a steady repertoire of natural resource management services."

Among the division's contracts are on-call Endangered Species Act compliance consulting for the Oregon Department of Transportation and technical support for water resources and rights management for the Washington Department of Ecology.

To support the division, Hart Crowser has recently hired four fisheries biologists: Frank Leonetti, Jim Starkes, Eric Hagen and Robert Complita. Project hydrogeologist Robert Middour has joined the firm along with water resources engineer Owen Reese.

Matthew Schultz, P.E., has been named a principal of the firm. As a remediation engineer, Schultz has been with Hart Crowser for three years, serving as manager of the environmental services division. Schultz helped the firm successfully bid for the U.S. Coast Guard’s $6 million, four-year architect and environmental services contract at the Integrated Support Center in Kodiak, Alaska. Schultz will play an active role in executing the work for the Coast Guard.

Dairy farms win clean water awards

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology is honoring 10 diary farms for their efforts to keep manure and other runoff out of streams, lakes and groundwater. The 10 dairies will receive Contribution to Clean Water awards at public meetings around the state.

A 1998 state law mandated that Ecology inspect every dairy farm in the state for runoff problems. The awards were started in 1999 to recognize farmers who took extra care to keep pollution out of surface and groundwater.

The dairies being honored are Dairy Barnes and the Lindale Dairy in Stevens County, DeHoog Dairy in Grant County, Bill and Jan Mulder Dairy in Skagit County, Pete DeJager and the Arnold Folkertsma Dairy in Whatcom County, Reynolds Dairy in Stevens County, Elida Smith Dairy in Clallam County, Hlede Farms Dairy in Pierce County and Jim and Andy Werkhoven Dairy in Snohomish County.

Green-timber conference Thursday

SEATTLE --The University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources will hold a symposium addressing "green" certification for state timber sales.

Outgoing state Lands Commissioner Jennifer Belcher has pursued a "green" marketing strategy for state timber to increase sales revenue and demand. On hand will be the dean of the College of Forest Resources, Kristiina Vogt, the state forester of Pennsylvania (where timber is certified) and an independent analyst of sustainable and profitable forestry.

The conference will be held this Thursday, Nov. 9, from noon to 5 p.m. at the UW’s Center for Urban Horticulture. Call (206) 543-0867 to register or go to http://www.cfr.washington.edu/outreach/symposia/symposia.html.

Snohomish marks America Recycles Day

EVERETT -- Snohomish County will celebrate America Recycles Day with two "buy recycled" educational displays at Home Depot, 11915 Highway 99, and Sno-Isle Natural Foods Co-op, 2804 Grand Ave. in Everett.

In addition to learning about various recycled products and their benefits, two random contests are being held in conjunction with America Recycles Day. Adults can win an "American Green Dream House" and kids will vie for a trip to Disney World. Entry forms are available at Snohomish County libraries, the in-store displays and on the Web at www.americarecyclesday.org .

State trust lands confab Nov. 14

SEATTLE --The Washington State Trust Lands Conference will be held next Tuesday, Nov. 14, at Town Hall in Seattle, 1119 Eighth Ave. The conference will address current issues in the management of Washington’s trust lands including public use, timber harvest and habitat and watershed protections.

Speakers include Commissioner of Public Lands Jennifer Belcher, University of California professor Dr. Sally Fairfax, University of Oregon professor and ECONorthwest President Dr. Ed Whitelaw.

A group including the League of Women Voters of Washington, the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, the Washington state Department of Natural Resources, the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and the Washington Environmental Council, planned the conference.

To register, call (360) 671-9950 or e-mail craschke@ecosystem.org. For details on the Web go to www.ecosystem.org/conference.html .

Ecology wants to buy Methow water

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology will hold two workshops for Methow Valley landowners who have water rights to sell. Earlier this year, the state legislature directed Ecology to spend half of a $1 million appropriation for water rights acquisitions in the Methow Valley.

"These workshops will give people a chance to see what we're looking for and how they may benefit from the opportunity to lease or sell their water," said Joe Williams, special assistant to Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons.

Water flows in the Methow River have recently been low enough to jeopardize fish runs. By purchasing or leasing water rights the state hopes to keep water in streams and rivers to aid salmon.

The two workshops will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the Twisp Senior Center, 215 Highway 20 in Twisp. The first workshop will run from 2-4 p.m. and the second from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Already this fall Ecology has committed to $420,000 of water rights transactions for the Methow and Walla Walla rivers.

Feds to study coal ponds

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Federal regulators plan to examine coal slurry impoundments across Appalachia in an effort to avoid future spills like the one that unleashed 250 million gallons of sludge in Kentucky.

Al Klein, director of the Appalachian region of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, said the program would study the safety of coal sludge impoundments that sit above or adjacent to underground mines.

A mine gave way under an impoundment at the Martin County Coal Corp. near Inez, Ky., Oct. 11, emptying the 72-acre pond into tributaries that feed the Tug Fork and Big Sandy rivers. Officials say it could take at least five months to clean up the molasses-like sludge.

Preliminary information shows there are 60 similar impoundments in Kentucky, 97 in West Virginia and 15 in Virginia. Numbers for Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee were not available.

The West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection announced Friday it had cited Martin County Coal for eight separate violations of the state's water quality law. The violations were issued on Oct. 26 and each carries a penalty of up to $10,000 a day.

The company still is mining coal, but has stopped using its preparation plant which generates the waste that goes into the slurry ponds. About 40 percent of mined coal is waste.

No one was injured in last month's spill, but it temporarily interrupted water service to thousands of residents who depend on the Tug Fork and Big Sandy.

The long-term effect on aquatic life in the streams is not yet known.

"Right now it's a complete kill," said Fred Stroud, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's on-scene coordinator. "It will come back, but we need to enhance that return to normal."

Environmental Watch: Kleinfelder makes two hires

SEATTLE --Ted Sykes, environmental scientist, and Stephen Evans, geologist, have joined Kleinfelder, Inc.'s Seattle office.

Sykes has extensive experience in asbestos surveying and is a California-certified environmental assessor. In his role at Kleinfelder, Sykes will be managing environmental projects throughout central Washington as well as coordinating the environmental field staff out of the Seattle office.

Evans has over 20 years of environmental and geotechnical engineering experience. His past work includes watershed analysis, pipeline and road alignment evaluations, and landslide evaluation and mitigation. At Kleinfelder he will be a senior geologist.

Kleinfelder, based in San Diego, is an employee-owned, $110 million environmental and geotechnical engineering firm with offices in 10 Western states.

MacPherson joins HWA

LYNNWOOD -- John MacPherson has joined the Lynnwood office of HWA Geosciences Inc, as a senior water quality specialist. With 22 years in the field, including the last 10 specializing in stormwater management and erosion control, MacPherson will consult on projects throughout Washington.

MacPherson will also offer professional training courses at HWA in erosion and sediment control, stormwater pollution plans, construction site water treatment and construction spill prevention.

In addition to Lynnwood, HWA Geosciences has offices in Everett and Lake Oswego, Ore.

Feds to buy key Nisqually land

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government plans to purchase two key parcels of land near Washington state's Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge as part of a six-year land conservation initiative recently approved by Congress.

The land, near Olympia, is crucial to maintaining a healthy habitat in the refuge for coho and chinook salmon, migratory birds and various other species, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said last week.

The government has $5 million to spend on the two purchases, Dicks said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is negotiating with landowners to buy 500 acres along the Black River that are threatened by potential development.

The other piece of land, bluffs on the eastern boundary of the refuge, will be bought from the Weyerhaeuser Co. to maintain wildlife corridors and protect water and habitat quality.

President Clinton signed a bill earlier this month earmarking $12 billion for land acquisition, conservation, historic preservation, coastal fisheries and urban parks.

In addition to the Nisqually Refuge parcels, three other Washington state land purchases were approved as part of the land conservation initiative. They include $10.7 million in additional funding for the Cascades Conservation Partnership acquisitions along Interstate 90, $1 million for threatened habitat along the Skagit River and $2 million for further Mountains to Sound Greenway property acquisitions in King County.

PEMA luncheon tomorrow

SEATTLE -- The Professional Environmental Marketing Association's monthly lunch will be held tomorrow at the Rock Salt Steakhouse at 1232 Westlake Ave.

Christine Gover and Scott Missall will speak about land use controls. Gover is a consultant specializing in public involvement in hazardous waste and natural resource issues. She has particular experience with contaminated federal facilities in Kitsap County. Missall is an attorney with Short Cressman and Burgess, P.L.L.C. and chairs the firm's land use and administrative practice group.

Land use controls are increasingly being used for contaminated properties where remediation is impracticable. There are two types of controls, institutional and engineered. Institutional controls include zoning, deed restrictions and restrictive covenants. Engineered controls include fencing, signs and containment caps. The state Department of Ecology has been studying land use controls for use in Washington.

The luncheon is $20 in advance for PEMA and Northwest Environmental Business Council members, or $25 at the door. To register call James Lockhart at (206) 382-5555 x255.

Meth lab dumped waste into river

GERVAIS, Ore. (AP) -- Some of the toxic chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine near Gervais were dumped into the Willamette River during the past year, Salem Police Lt. Ed Boyd said.

The effect that has had on the environment wasn't immediately known.

"When you finish a meth cook, everything you have left over is extremely toxic and poisonous, so people dispose of it, generally out in the wilderness or some farmland," Boyd said.

Narcotics officers and SWAT teams last week raided the methamphetamine lab set up in a barn and arrested seven people, police said.

It may have been the largest working methamphetamine lab ever seized in the mid-Willamette Valley.

Six people were "cooking" a batch of the drug when officers raided the barn, said Salem Police Lt. Ed Boyd of the new Marion County Area Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team (MAGNET).

Forty grams of the drug were seized in the raid, along with cash and packing material.

The lab was capable of producing 10 pounds of meth at one time, Boyd said.

"That type of lab is called a super lab by national standards," Boyd said. "That's based on the chemicals there and the types of equipment used in the manufacturing process."

Officers suspected the lab had been in operation about a year. Boyd didn't know how much the lab has produced during that time.

Typically a lab will cook a batch every three to four weeks. That type of activity could generate millions of dollars of meth for distribution.

At least four disposal sites for toxic by-products were discovered within about five miles of the farm property where the lab was located.

Narcotics officers learned after the farm raid that sometimes the leftovers were dumped in the river, Boyd said.

The five-week investigation that led to the raid was the first big operation of the new task force.

Water marketing topic of AWRA meeting

SEATTLE -- The annual fall conference of the Washington section of the American Water Resources Association will be held Nov. 15 at the Seattle Art Museum.

The daylong program, entitled "Water Marketing in Washington: Negotiating for the Future" will focus on water markets in both rural and urban settings. Speakers include representatives from the state Department of Ecology, Indian tribes, utilities and bureaus of reclamation. The keynote address will be delivered by Larry MacDonnell, former director of the Natural Resources Law Center in Boulder, Colo., and an expert on water policy and marketing.

Registration, $100 or $25 for students, should be sent by Nov. 8 to AWRA. Washington Section, c/o Ingrid Wertz, Taylor Associates, 3917 Ashworth Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103. For more information go to http://earth.golder.com/waawra/.

Open house on Fremont Cut tree plan

SEATTLE -- The Army Corps of Engineers is soliciting comments for its plan to manage the colonnade of poplar trees and other vegetation lining the banks of the Fremont Cut.

On Nov. 16 the Corps will hold an open house beginning at 6 p.m. at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks visitor center, 3015 N.W. 54th St. in Seattle. The Corps' horticulturist, historical landscape architect and park manager will be on hand and available for questions.

The Lake Washington Ship Canal Historic District, which includes the Fremont Cut, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Corps' management plan aims to restore the colonnade in a "historically appropriate manner and to replant shrubs and ground cover that has been lost over time."

In addition to the open house, the plan is also available for review at the Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne and downtown Seattle libraries, as well as at the Chittenden Locks administration building.

Comments may be sent to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 3015 N.W. 54th St., Seattle WA 98107-4299.

Environmental Watch: 4 state projects win brownfields funds

SEATTLE -- The federal Environmental Protection Agency has announced its latest round of funding for the national "brownfields" redevelopment initiative. Among the awardees were four Washington state pilot projects.

Kitsap County will receive $250,000 for a pilot project on economic diversification and a study of a greenspace proposal that would build a trail between ferry dock sites to tell the story of the Mosquito Fleet that once was the economic lifeblood of the Puget Sound.

The city of Everett will get $100,000 toward the redesign of a 220-acre stream corridor that includes a railroad right-of-way, a former landfill and a former mill.

Seattle and King County were awarded $200,000 for continuing efforts to assess properties in industrial and manufacturing areas and to address the Endangered Species Act.

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will receive $200,000 for investigate some potentially hazardous sites on the reservation.

For more information on the EPA's brownfields program go to www.epa.gov/brownfields.

Green ammo contract awarded

WASHINGTON -- Minnesota-based ATK (Alliant Techsystems) has been awarded a $13.5 million contract to produce green, lead-free ammunition by the U.S. Army's Operations Support Command.

ATK will manufacture the 5.56 mm training ammunition at its Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo. Instead of lead, the core of the rounds is made from a blend of tungsten and tin or tungsten and nylon.

The pollution of military firing ranges due to spent and unexploded rounds has been a substantial problem, with hefty cleanup costs across the country.

Final meetings on water funds this week

OLYMPIA --The state Department of Ecology will hold its final three meetings this week on draft rules that direct the management of two key funding programs for water protection and water pollution control.

Comments will be accepted at the hearings on how Centennial Clean Water Funds and the Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund can be used. The agency says that more clear direction on these programs is needed because requests for the funds often outstrip their availability.

The meetings begin tomorrow in Yakima at the Yakima Valley Museum, 2105 Tieton Rd. at 1:30 p.m.; followed by a Spokane meeting Thursday Oct. 26 at the West Central Community Center, 1603 North Belt, at 9:30 a.m.; and Friday Oct. 27 at Ecology's Bellevue office, 3190 160th Ave. Southeast at 1:30 p.m.

Different emissions for cross-border plants

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- A power plant due to open next month in Campbell River on Vancouver Island will emit 10 times as much carbon monoxide as one proposed for Sumas, Wash., on the Canadian border.

For that reason, the Campbell River plant will have a tough time competing, Canadian officials fear.

"The province is allowing a dirtier plant to be built with fewer pollution controls," said Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly Barry Penner.

The Campbell River plant will discharge almost three times as much nitrous oxide as Sumas, says a report by the Greater Vancouver Regional District, provincial and federal governments.

The Campbell River plant is a third the size of the proposed 660-megawatt Sumas plant, but will not have devices to reduce carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides.

Hu Wallis of the Environment Ministry said approval was granted several years ago when technology was less advanced.

The Sumas Energy 2 plant, which still requires approval by Washington state, is opposed by Fraser Valley residents who say the natural-gas-fired generator would add to the already-polluted air. The plant would be built one-third of a mile south of the Canada-U.S. border.

Penner said proponents of the Sumas plant are using Campbell River statistics to bolster their case in Washington.

Columbia fish and wildlife plan completed

PORTLAND -- The Northwest Power Planning Council has completed its major revision of the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program.

Annually about $130 million is spent in Columbia Basin by the program to mitigate the effects of hydropower generation. It is the largest regional effort to protect fish and wildlife in the nation.

The 2000 program is a "four H-based" one, focusing on habitat, hydropower, hatcheries and harvest. Examples of the program's projects include new types of fish hatchery raceways at the Yakama Nation's Cle Elum facility, a prototype surface juvenile fish collector at the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River and a habitat restoration effort on the lower Red River in Idaho.

In revising the program, the Power Planning Council received recommendations from over 50 agencies, tribes and other stakeholders.

Funds for the program come from the sale of Bonneville Power Administration electricity from 29 federal dams and one non-federal nuclear power plant. The Council expects to have the full 2000 plan on its Web site, http://www.nwppc.org, by the end of this week.

California state fleet to go green

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The state's 10,000-vehicle fleet will be exchanged for low-polluting or nonpolluting cars beginning next year, officials said.

"Smog caused by tailpipe emissions combined with recent heat storms throughout the state has made the air we breathe sickening to children, seniors and people with respiratory problems," said Barry D. Keene, director of the Department of General Services.

Under the move, 2,500 of the state's fleet will convert to gasoline-powered cars that release up to 90 percent fewer pollutants. The other 7,500 vehicles are already required by a federal law to be powered by alternative fuels, including nonpolluting electric cars, said department spokesman Ken Hunt.

An average of 1,400 vehicles will be replaced each year.

Last year, Houston overtook Los Angeles as the nation's smoggiest city. Houston had 52 days in which ground-level ozone, the main ingredient of smog, was above the maximum set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Los Angeles had 43 such days.

Pollution Prevention Center has moved

SEATTLE -- The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center has moved from downtown to the lower Queen Anne Area. The new address is 513 First Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98119.

The new phone number is (206) 352-2050 and fax at (206) 352-2049. E-mail and web addresses remain the same.

County experiment cuts grass without gas

RENTON (AP) --Residents of 17 homes on Renton Hill did all the right things to take care of their lawns last summer.

They avoided harmful pesticides, pulling weeds by hand.

They watered little or not at all.

And they used electric mower or push mowers, rather than exhaust-belching gas mowers, to cut and mulch their grass. The mowers were provided free under a pilot program sponsored by Seattle Public Utilities and King County to demonstrate the value of natural lawn care.

And the 17 households have agreed to keep it up, said Annette Frahm, manager of King County's Household Hazardous Waste program. One man wants to resume using his gas mower, but at least it's a mulching mower, Frahm said.

The county decided a year ago to try to reduce use of pesticides on its own properties, "to maintain the property in a more holistic way," she said.

"Basically we're asking people to do what we're trying to do."

That means using organic fertilizers and taking other steps to reduce environmental damage, Frahm said. The Renton Hill residents, enlisted for a county experiment in April, also were provided with corn gluten, which prevents weeds from germinating though it does not kill existing weeds.

"This is about salmon," Frahm said. "It's about protecting water quality in our streams and lakes to help salmon that are threatened to come back.

"It's also about protecting human health."

The county will provide speakers and assistance to community groups interested in learning about natural lawn care, Frahm said.

"We think behavioral change happens when people talk to each other," she said.

For more information call toll-free 1-888-860-LAWN, or go to www.metrokc.gov/hazwaste/house.