January 22, 2002

Environmental Watch: Water rights changes flow faster

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology says it is moving faster on water rights changes. The agency says it processed 262 applications to change or transfer existing water rights in 2001. That total doesn't include 172 temporary changes due to last year's drought.

Over the past five years, Ecology averaged about 120 actions on water rights changes every year. When the last session of the legislature approved changes to the water rights process along with new funding, the backlog for change actions was about 2,000 applications.

Under the current system applications for new water rights and changes to existing rights are administered separately. Last year, 100 applications for new water rights were processed, and about 40 were approved.

Of the 262 applications for changes in existing water rights last year, 150 were approved, 41 denied and 71 were withdrawn by the applicants.

Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons said the agency hopes to improve its performance with the absence of a drought in 2002.

Environmental center adds staff

SEATTLE -- The Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center, scheduled to open this fall, is beefing up its staff to get ready for the influx of curious kids.

Joining the center as arts coordinator is Lee Ann Woolery.

Woolery will oversee all aspects of the organization’s arts programs, including curriculum for school-age children, adults and families, the graduate program, artist-in-residence programs, and outreach and partnerships with regional and national arts organizations and individuals. Woolery holds a master's degree in art therapy from the Art Institute of Chicago and has developed her own environmental arts curriculum.

Ann Coombes-New has been hired as community programs coordinator. Coombes-New will oversee all aspects of the organization’s summer and weekend community-based programs for adults, families and children. New comes to the center from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she was director of summer programs in the preparatory dance division.

Paul Bannick will be the center's major gifts manager. He will play a role in building the center itself, currently under construction on 225 acres on Bainbridge Island. To date, $40 million of the total $52 million project cost has been raised.

Bannick has worked in sales and marketing at Aldus Corp., Adobe Systems and Microsoft, among others.

Brien Lautman has been named director of marketing for the center. Most recently, Lautman worked as vice president of corporate communications at Getty Images, and vice president of corporate communications for the Regence Group of health plans. In addition, he has worked on the boards of the Children’s Resource Center in Bellevue and the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center in Renton.

The Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center, founded in 1998, will provide hands-on learning for school-aged children on the sustainably designed campus.

Hoffman rejoins Seattle Public Utilities

SEATTLE -- Ray Hoffman has joined Seattle Public Utilities as director of its Strategic Planning Division.

Hoffman formerly served as an advisor to former Mayor Paul Schell on environmental and utility issues. Previously he served as director of regional affairs for the utility. He also has experience with the Seattle Solid Waste Utility, now part of SPU, and served as executive director of Washington Citizens for Recycling.

Over the years, Hoffman has played key roles in the city's water conservation and greenhouse gas reduction programs.

Best Awards honor green businesses

SEATTLE -- The Business and Industry Resource Venture has established the Best Awards to honor notable "green" achievements by Seattle-area companies in waste prevention and recycling, water conservation, energy conservation, stormwater pollution prevention and sustainable building. The acronym stands for Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow.

Deadline for the awards is Feb. 22.

Winners will be honored at a public ceremony in the spring as well as promoted in the media. The Business and Industry Resource Venture is a partnership of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Seattle Public Utilities.

Weedall rejoins BPA as VP

PORTLAND -- The Bonneville Power Administration has named Michael Weedall vice president for energy efficiency in the agency's power business line.

A former BPA employee, Weedall founded Pacific Energy Associates in 1985 to assist utilities and governments in planning, developing and implementing demand-side management, energy efficiency programs and customer service products. In 1990, he went on to serve as director of Energy Management Services at Green Mountain Power, an investor-owned utility in Vermont. He also managed Sacramento Municipal Utility District's energy efficiency effort beginning in 1993.

Most recently, he was at the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority where he headed its energy efficiency and distributed generation efforts.

Weedall is from southeastern Massachusetts and holds degrees from Northeastern University and the University of Arizona.

The Bonneville Power Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, markets electric power throughout the Northwest primarily generated by federal hydroelectric dams.

Kyoto advocate to speak at Globe 2002

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Globe 2002 conference, billed as the world's largest environmental business summit, has added British Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State John Prescott to its roster of scheduled speakers.

Known as a vocal advocate of the Kyoto Treaty on global climate conditions and global warming, Prescott has been outspoken about the need for countries to live up to the conditions and goals of the 1992 agreement. He has been particularly critical of the United States abandoning the Kyoto agreement entirely.

As part of the closing plenary at Globe 2002, Prescott will present his views on what will dominate the Johannesburg Earth Summit agenda. The Johannesburg summit is scheduled for Aug. 26 through Sept. 4.

The gathering is held biannually in Vancouver. Globe 2002 is the seventh in the series, and represents one of the largest gathering of corporate leaders, policy makers and scientists in the business of the environment.