December 18, 2001

Environmental Watch: Ahern named SPU deputy director

SEATTLE -- Nancy Ahern has been named deputy director of resource management at Seattle Public Utilities.

The Resource Management Division provides planning, capital project development and community programs for drainage and wastewater, solid waste and drinking water services. The division is also responsible for managing the Cedar River watershed.

Ahern has more than 15 years of public sector experience with Seattle Public Utilities and other agencies, including a stint as manager of the Water and Land Resources Division of the King County Department of Natural Resources. She has also worked for the city of Bellevue and the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority.

31 groups apply for watershed funding

OLYMPIA -- Groups representing half of the watershed basins in Washington state have applied for funding from the Department of Ecology to make stream-flow recommendations for rivers and creeks in their watershed areas.

In the last legislative session, grants of up to $100,000 were authorized for watershed-planning groups to help set stream-flows. Ecology says that setting stream-flows is important to ensure enough water is maintained in rivers and creeks to protect fish and support other uses.

Among the watershed groups applying for funds were the Lower Skagit, Nooksack, Upper Skagit, Deschutes, Kennedy-Goldsborough, Kitsap and Nisqually.

BPA OKs record wind energy deal

PORTLAND (AP) -- PacifiCorp Power Marketing said the Bonneville Power Administration will buy 90 megawatts of wind power, the largest purchase of wind-generated electricity in BPA history.

The electricity would be enough to power 18,000 Northwest homes for the next 25 years, said Jan Johnson, a spokeswoman for PacifiCorp Power Marketing, or PPM.

The power will come from the Stateline Wind Project near Walla Walla, where 450 wind turbines generate enough power for 70,000 homes in 11 Western states. It is the largest wind farm in the world.

The turbines began producing power for PPM in July and will pump out 264 megawatts of electricity by Dec. 31, Johnson said.

BPA will have access to the power Dec. 29, but the terms of the deal were confidential, Johnson said.

BPA had previously purchased 80 megawatts of wind power from turbines in Foote Creek, Wyo., and the Condon Wind Project near Prineville, said Bill Murlin, a Bonneville spokesman.

Murlin said the Portland-based federal power marketing agency is studying up to eight wind projects for future purchases, including several in the windy Columbia River Gorge.

BPA provides power for utilities and cooperatives in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and parts of Wyoming and California.

The Stateline Wind Project sits on land along the Washington-Oregon border owned by farmers, while the turbines are owned by FPL Energy of Florida, the largest developer and operator of wind energy facilities in the nation. It is a branch of the Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL Group, whose largest subsidiary is Florida Power & Light Co.

Whirling disease found in Clackamas

PORTLAND (AP) -- Whirling disease has been detected in the Clackamas River drainage, the first time the parasitic disease has been discovered in the lower Columbia River since 1987.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which routinely monitors private and public hatcheries for whirling disease, discovered its spores in trout from the Clear Creek Rainbow Ranch. Clear Creek is a tributary of the Clackamas River and supplies water to the trout farm.

Bob Hooton, a fish biologist, told the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday that no one knows how whirling disease spores got into the ranch's trout, but they are suspected to have come from stray steelhead bound for the Snake River.

All public hatcheries and some private trout operations on the Clackamas are clear of the disease, he said. The department is testing for whirling disease in all 40 of Oregon's privately operated trout hatcheries.

The disease has decimated trout populations in Montana and Colorado and is common in Idaho. It is caused by a parasite that can live for years in its spore form. For reasons still unclear, but probably related to stress, the spore erupts into an adult stage that can attack cartilage and cause spinal deformities that make fish spin and whirl while swimming.

Hooton said the Clear Creek fish had only spores, not behavioral symptoms.

Salmon and steelhead from the Snake River carry the disease, but aren't affected by it, Hooton said.

Coho re-listed by appeals court

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court has nullified a federal judge's ruling that took Oregon coastal coho salmon off the threatened species list.

The two-sentence decision from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stops any logging along the salmon's habitat that was authorized under U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan's ruling in September. The circuit's decision will remain in place until it makes a final ruling, which could be months or years.

Hogan's ruling opened the door to thousands of acres to be logged in the Umpqua National Forest and the Siskiyou National Forest. Other areas that were opened to harvest included Roseburg, Coos Bay and Medford, Goldman said.

Hogan issued the delisting order in September after concluding that it made no sense for the government to declare wild coho salmon threatened under the Endangered Species Act while not granting the same status to hatchery born salmon.

Environmentalists appealed. Among other things, the Endangered Species Act demands that endangered or threatened species' habitats be protected.

After Hogan's ruling and decision against an appeal, the National Marine Fisheries Service said it would review whether 23 of the 25 groups of Pacific salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act should keep their listings.

The fisheries service said it would also review the role hatcheries play in restoring dwindling salmon populations. Current federal policy considers hatchery fish a threat to the survival of wild fish because they compete for limited food and habitat, carry disease, and are less successful at survival in the wild.

The case is Alsea Valley Alliance v. Donald L. Evans, 01-36071.

Indians key players in environmental policy

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- American Indians are emerging as key players in environmental policies after watching outsiders plunder their natural resources for decades, Indian leaders said at a recent conference.

Since the 1950s, Indians have made significant progress in gaining control over their resources and lives, said keynote speaker Charles Wilkinson, a University of Colorado law professor.

Bolstered by federal court rulings that were favorable until recently and helped by congressional allies, Indians have benefited from hundreds of new laws, many related to the environment, he said.

Indian land has increased from 48 million acres in the 1950s to 65 million acres today. And while environmental agencies on Indian reservations were rare 25 years ago, Wilkinson said they now are common.

Indian leaders said a reservation's ecology usually fares best when managed by local Indians.

Joseph Kalt, co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, said when tribes sell their own timber, he said, they get 11 percent more for the logs than when it was managed by the federal government.

The conference on native nations' environmental policies is sponsored by the University of Arizona's Udall Center and the Morris K. Udall Foundation.