August 21, 2001

Environmental Watch: Ridolfi Engineers adds four

SEATTLE -- Environmental consulting and civil engineering firm Ridolfi Engineers Inc. has added four new employees.

Andy Nicholls joins the company as a hydrogeologist with two years experience. Previously, he had worked in Michigan. For Ridolfi he's working on a water resources project in Port Angeles and a Department of Defense site in southeast Alaska.

Hazel Galang, formerly an intern with Ridolfi, has been hired as technical information manager and ArcView/AutoCAD specialist. She has a degree in forest engineering from the University of Washington.

Named as field coordinator of Ridolfi's southeast Alaska operations is Jeff Simbahon. He has over 12 years of experience in site cleanup, remediation and developing and improving hazardous waster containment facilities.

In Idaho, Dan Morris has joined the firm's Coeur d'Alene office as field coordinator. He is primarily responsible for the Rails-to-Trails project, converting Union Pacific right-of-way in northern Idaho to recreational use.

Additionally, longtime Ridolfi staffer Kathryn Foster has earned her P.E. certification in civil engineering. She has been with the firm since 1991, acting as computer specialist.

Ridolfi Engineers provides natural resource restoration and evaluation, environmental protection, waste management and scientific consulting services. Headquartered in Seattle, the firm has other offices in Port Angeles, Coeur d'Alene and southeast Alaska.

Solar project begins on Bainbridge

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND -- Installation of what the Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center is calling the largest array of photovoltaic panels in the state began yesterday on the center's 255-acre south Bainbridge Island campus.

The panels will provide up to 21.7 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power 50 percent of the center's Learning Studios.

The Environmental Learning Center has already installed solar hot water panels on top of the facility's three sleeping lodges and dining hall.

Mike Nelson of Washington State University provided project consultation. Mithun Architects performed overall design coordination.

Schott Applied Power Corp. of Lacey designed the photovoltaic design, and Cross Engineers did the electrical engineering work. Rafn Co. of Bellevue is the lead contractor on the installation.

Hanford eyed for clean coal demo

RICHLAND -- Composite Power Corp. of Richland has received U.S. Department of Energy approval to begin studying the possibility of using two retired facilities at the Hanford Site for a clean coal technology demonstration project.

Initially, Composite Power will work with the Department of Energy's Richland office to assess two mothballed steam plants in Hanford's East Area are suitable for the project. The two plants have been shut down for five years.

Composite Power's project would demonstrate coal-fired electricity fuel generation using an advanced process to reduce flue gas emissions. Current emissions standards frequently prevent coal-fired plants from running at full capacity.

The assessment is expected to take about 30 days.

Low-cost lighting program going private

WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced yesterday that a department program to manufacture low-cost light bulbs is being turned over to the private sector.

The program was incubated at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

At the lab specifications for what are termed lower-cost subcompact fluorescent lamps were developed. Four companies -- Lights of America, Sunpark, JKRL and Surya -- were selected to participate.

Three million of the bulbs, using 25 percent less energy and lasting 10 times longer than regular light bulbs, have already been sold, saving an estimated $22 million annually in electricity costs.

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance -- a consortium of electric utilities, state governments and industry representatives -- will now take over the program and launch a private venture to continue producing the bulbs.

The first step in that direction is the launch of a Web site (www.betterbulbsdirect.com) for sales and promotion.

Plum Creek clearcut along historic trail

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co. refused to sell a section of land along the Lewis and Clark Trail to the U.S. Forest Service, instead selling the government a 15-foot easement allowing public access and then clearcutting the property.

Critics say the logging of the lodgepole pine forest sheltering a portion of the trail near Lolo Pass stripped the land of its historic setting. It occurred at a time when the national spotlight is beginning to shine in anticipation of the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's journey.

The trail gave the explorers passage through the Bitterroot Mountains in 1805 and 1806.

For centuries, Salish Indians traveled west over the trail to dig camas roots at Lolo Pass and fish for salmon and steelhead on the Clearwater and Snake rivers. And from the plateaus of central Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe used the trail to travel east onto the plains to hunt buffalo.

"My company and our predecessors have managed this area for many decades as part of our working forest," said Jerry Sorensen, a land-use manager for Plum Creek. "And for as long a time, we have recognized the special importance of this area and have protected the integrity and the character of the Lolo Trail."

Plum Creek never hid that the timber would be harvested, he said.

The Forest Service paid $4,600 for trail easements on two sections of Plum Creek land, one of which was the recently clearcut Lee Creek section.

Landlords fined $300,000 for toxic mess

HERMISTON, Ore. (AP) -- Bill and Bonnie Kik say they are being hit with a $300,000 bill to clean up half of a ton of hazardous chemical waste left behind after the death of a man who operated a metals recycling business.

The man who died, Earl Myers, ran his business out of a building he rented from the Kiks.

Myers used chemicals to extract gold, mercury and other precious metals from discarded computer parts.

After Myers died, his sister continued to pay the rent, while she found someone to clean the property, Kik said. But the man hired to do the cleanup didn't have any idea of how to get rid of the various chemicals and chemical waste he found, so he called the state Department of Environmental Quality.

At the DEQ's request, the Hermiston Fire Department's hazardous materials team investigated.

They discovered more than 800 pounds of potassium cyanide, eight 55-gallon drums of hydrochloric acid mixture, 16 five-gallon buckets of acid sludge, 21 gallons of hydrochloric acid, 31 gallons of sulfuric acid and 200 small bottles of various chemicals.

The Environmental Protection Agency put a 24-hour security guard at the site and called in experts to make a plan to remove the chemicals.

The Kiks don't believe they should be held financially responsible for the mess Myers left behind.

But Bill Dunbar, EPA spokesman, said that's they way the laws are written.

"The landlords are always responsible," Dunbar said. "And the Superfund law gives the EPA the authority for emergency removal."