November 27, 2001

Environmental Watch: Oliver to speak to hazmat group

SEATTLE -- The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Academy of Hazardous Materials Management will meet Wednesday, Dec. 5 at the Rock Salt Steak House, 1232 Westlake Ave. N. in Seattle.

Debra Oliver of the King County Interagency Regulatory Advisory Committee will speak about the committee's role in coordinating county rules across agency lines.

Social hour begins at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and the program at 8 p.m. For more information, call Joe Grojean at (206) 285-3373.

Cutthroat comment period reopened

PORTLAND -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reopened public comment on whether to list Southwest Washington/Columbia River coastal cutthroat as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

According to the agency, the coastal cutthroat was proposed for listing because of population declines due to habitat loss. The range of the coastal cutthroat under consideration for listing extends from Grays Harbor and the Chehalis River basin south to the Columbia River and east to The Dalles and Willamette Falls on the Willamette River.

The comment period is being reopened for 30 days. Comments must be received by Dec. 24. They can be e-mailed to coastal_cutthroat@fws.gov or mailed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 Southeast 98th Ave., suite 100, Portland, Ore. 97266.

King County adopts green building guide

SEATTLE -- King County Executive Ron Sims signed a "Green Building Initiative" yesterday adopting the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental and Design) rating system for the county's construction methods and techniques.

The initiative also promotes the use of environmentally friendly construction practices for all county projects.

The initiative was prompted by the success of the county's King Street Center office building near the King Street Station downtown. According to the county, since the 1999 opening of the building the county has saved $100,000 in energy costs. The building's on-site water reclamation system saves an estimated 1.4 million gallons of water per year by using storm runoff for flushing toilets.

The building is home to the county's transportation, natural resources and parks departments.

Aquatic reserve meetings set

OLYMPIA -- The Washington Department of Natural Resources will hold seven workshops statewide, to develop criteria for designating aquatic reserves on state-owned aquatic lands.

The aquatic reserve designation will try to maintain natural biodiversity, protect and restore ecosystem functions and maintain appropriate public access for scientific, recreational and educational purposes.

The Department of Natural Resources is responsible for 2.5 million acres of aquatic lands.

Following these meetings the agency will consider options as part of draft environmental impact statement. The meetings begin tonight at 7 p.m. in Moses Lake at Big Bend Community College's auditorium. A Seattle meeting will be held on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Seattle Vocational Institute, 2120 S. Jackson St.

Go to http://www.wa.gov/dnr/htdocs/aqr/scopemeetings.htm for a complete list of all meetings.

OSU receives $5.5 million grant for hazmat center

CORVALLIS (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a $5.5 million grant to Oregon State University to manage a hazardous materials research and training center that has played a key role in cleaning up toxic waste across the West.

The Western Region Hazardous Substance Research Center had been based at Stanford University since 1989. But the center director retired, and the EPA opened its management to bids from other universities, officials said.

Christine Todd Whitman, the EPA administrator, announced last week the center would move to Oregon State after the federal agency received 27 proposals from more than 60 universities.

The hazardous materials center represents two regions of the EPA, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.

The Oregon State and Stanford environmental engineering programs already have developed research into chlorinated solvents that can contaminate soil and underground aquifers, he said.

Researchers have focused on trichloroethyline, or TCE, a suspected carcinogen that was widely used as a degreaser in the 1950s and 1960s at sites ranging from dry cleaning stores to private industry and military bases.

Cleaning up a single pound of TCE from underground aquifers can cost up to $10,000, and a single 50-gallon barrel can generate a plume that can contaminate 10 billion gallons of water with enough TCE to violate drinking water standards.

Lew Semprini, an OSU engineering professor and director of the new center, said Oregon State and Stanford already have developed innovative techniques to degrade and detoxify such compounds on site, reducing cleanup costs and recovery time.

"OSU and Stanford have a track record of getting technologies out of the laboratory and into the field," Semprini said. "We'll now have a new funding base to perform basic research on innovative treatment processes."

The five-year grant also will support a multistate program to help communities understand pollution problems and cleanup solutions, officials said.

In addition, the grant will aid the research of more than 15 OSU faculty members and researchers in the colleges of engineering, science and agricultural sciences.

Skagit County's buffer plan tossed

MOUNT VERNON (AP) -- A judge has thrown out Skagit County's plan to require 75-foot buffer zones along salmon streams that run through farmland, saying the proposal may not adequately protect fish.

The county's Managed Agriculture Riparian Plan was rejected by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Pomeroy in Olympia, who ruled on an appeal from the Swinomish Tribe and the Washington Environmental Council.

Today was the Skagit County deadline for signing up for one of several buffer plans. Non-exempted farmers who don't sign up by then will be required to install the county's default buffers -- up to 200 feet wide, with no compensation.

"If there's a way for the county to extend the deadline, we will do that," said Ric Boge, the county's natural resources program coordinator.

The county plan exempted farmers in the Skagit River delta, and those whose streams are behind dikes or run through pumping stations or floodgates.

The court found the exemptions too broad and numerous to provide adequate protection for fish.

The appeal from the tribe and environmental council challenged a February decision from the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, which allowed the county program to stand but requested improvements.

The judge sent the case back to the board with instructions to get more scientific backup for the plan from the county within 120 days. If the hearings board decides there is not enough science to support the proposal, it could require wider buffers.