August 28, 2001

Environmental Watch: Olympia roundup set for NEBC

SEATTLE -- The Northwest Environmental Business Council's Professional Marketing Committee will present its "Washington Legislative Update" next week, summarizing issues from the 2001 legislative session of interest to environmental firms.

The program will be presented by Dr. Jerry Smedes and Linda Dennis of Smedes & Associates. Discussion will include a review of last year and a preview of the 2002 session, as well as an assessment of the implications of the current legislative deadlock for the environmental business.

The event will be held Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the Harbor Side location of McCormick & Schmick's, 1200 Westlake Ave. North in Seattle beginning at 11:30 a.m. The program is $25 including lunch for NEBC members, $40 otherwise. For more information contact NEBC at (888) 609-NEBC or go to www.nebc.org.

`Talking circle' for Salmon Homecoming

SEATTLE -- The 2001 Salmon Homecoming Forum, entitled "Spawning Solutions Through Communication," will be held Wednesday, Sept. 12, at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center.

The program includes seminars on values in decision-making, strategies for sustainable development and a Native American-style talking circle of leaders representing a cross-section of Washington state tribes, government and business. Talking circle participants are scheduled to include lawyer Will Stelle of Preston Gates & Ellis, Terry Williams of the Tulalip Tribes, state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald and Bill Wilkerson of the Washington Forest Protection Association.

Richard West, director of the National Museum of the American Indian, will provide the luncheon address. Hattie Kauffman of CBS News and a member of the Nez Perce Tribe will speak in the morning.

Registration for the forum is $50, plus $25 for dinner at the Seattle Aquarium. Call (206) 386-4353 to register. The Salmon Homecoming is presented by the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, the Seattle Aquarium and the Tribal Communities of the Northwest.

Toilet Roundups flush with success

SEATTLE -- Puget Sound-area residents will stop flushing almost 40 million gallons of water per year down the drain, according to organizers of this summer's Toilet Roundup. The program was sponsored by the 2001 Water Conservation Partnership, a group of 26 regional water providers.

More than 3,000 water customers turned in more than 4,600 old toilets for recycling during two Toilet Roundup events on July 14 and Aug. 18. They presented receipts showing they had purchased new low-flow models to replace higher-flow models and received $40 rebate checks for each toilet replaced.

More than $182,000 in rebate checks was issued. The recycling of the toilets kept more than 400,000 pounds of waste out of landfills, organizers estimate.

During a recent roundup in Bellevue, customers turned in 3,459 toilets. That was 346 percent more than the original program goal for the day. On July 14 in Seattle, customers turned in more than one thousand old toilets for recycling.

"Many of the participating utilities sent staff to assist with this rebate event. The turnout was so huge that people had to wait a long time to turn in their toilets," said Debbie Rannfeldt, public information coordinator for the Woodinville Water District. "It is gratifying to see how the whole region pulls together in efforts to reduce water consumption."

EPA to buy green power for labs

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will power three of its research facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, with 100 percent renewable energy through an agreement with Community Energy, Inc., a renewable energy marketing company. By early 2002, EPA will be receiving 9 percent of its electricity from green sources, at facilities located in Richmond, Calif., Golden, Colo., Chelmsford, Mass., Manchester, Wash., and Cincinnati, Ohio.

The EPA Cincinnati facilities have committed to purchasing a total of 15,560,000 kilowatt hours of premium renewable energy annually for three years, with a three-year option to renew. Community Energy, Inc. will supply 778,000 kilowatt hours of New Wind Energy TM each year from the Exelon Power Team at Mill Run, Penn., which will make up 5 percent of EPA Cincinnati's estimated usage.

By purchasing wind and biomass energy, EPA can claim large reductions in emissions associated with the purchase of conventional energy. The emission benefits associated with this purchase are approximately 16,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 112,000 pounds of nitrous oxides and 246,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide each year.

MBTE threatens California's water

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The gasoline additive MTBE has leaked into 48 wells in public water systems serving hundreds of thousands of people throughout the state, state records show.

The San Francisco Chronicle analyzed data from the Water Resources Control Board and the Department of Health Services and found that leaks of the additive from nearly 1,200 underground tank sites threaten the drinking water supply of millions of Californians.

The data do not include tens of thousands of private wells in California and hundreds of thousands nationwide. Such water supplies are not regulated by public agencies and generally are not tested for MTBE unless holding tanks buried nearby cause concern.

"The regulators should use the data that's being collected to identify the sites that pose the greatest threat, those closest to drinking water wells," said Anne Happel, a member of the Environmental Protection Agency's blue ribbon panel on MTBE.

MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is added to gasoline to make it burn cleaner, but it has been linked to cancer. Oil companies have until the end of 2002 to phase out its use.

State records show the 1,189 underground tank sites leaking MTBE are within 1,000 feet of public supply wells or on vulnerable drinking water aquifers. An additional 1,729 leaking tank sites father away from drinking water wells also could be a threat.

More than 2,500 public drinking water systems that serve 30.5 million -- or 90 percent of the state's population -- have been sampled for the carcinogen. Of the 8,311 groundwater sources sampled, 48 contained MTBE.