February 12, 2002

Environmental Watch: Open houses set for habitat plans

SEATTLE -- Six open houses will be held around the region to solicit public comment on recommendations to improve salmon habitat in the Green/Duwamish and Lake Washington/Cedar Sammamish watersheds.

Both river systems harbor two threatened species, chinook salmon and bull trout. Together the watersheds also are home to 33 percent of the state's population.

The recommendations address habitat protection and restoration, regulatory changes, education and outreach and research. Implementation of the recommendations, developed by 39 cities and King and Snohomish counties, is voluntary.

The open houses will be held in Covington, Feb. 19, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m at the Covington Public Library; Renton, Feb. 21, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Renton City Hall and March 4, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Kohlwes Education Center; Mill Creek, March 11, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at Mill Creek City Hall; Seattle, March 14, 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at the University Heights Center in the University District; and Redmond, March 21, 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at the Redmond Public Library.

Corps begins cleanup at Bonneville

PORTLAND -- This week a team of divers will be in the Columbia River as part of an operation to remove 313 cubic yards of electrical equipment from the water near Bradford Island at Bonneville Lock and Dam.

Some of the equipment is believed to contain PCBs.

The divers, from Advanced American Diving Inc. of Portland, will help guide a crane operator to the equipment. Two barges will be used one with a crane and one for the material after it is removed from the water.

Turbidity screens will be used around the work area to reduce sediment disturbed. Monitors will regularly measure turbidity both upstream and downstream. Also, absorbent booms will be placed around the work area.

Some material, such as fencing and culverts, will be left in the water to minimize disturbed sediment.

The project is expected to be finished by early March. Because PCBs can enter the food chain, effects on fish, including those listed under the Endangered Species Act, and balds eagles are of concern.

Judge blocks dumping of sick salmon

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Environmentalists have won a temporary injunction preventing the dumping of some 1.6 million young salmon originating from Heritage Aquaculture fish farm on Vancouver Island.

The injunction, won by the David Suzuki Foundation and Musqueam band, strands several boats with their loads of diseased Atlantic salmon in the Fraser River.

The young fish carry infectious hematopoietic necrosis, commonly known as sockeye disease. The highly infectious virus attacks fish kidneys and spleens. It does not affect humans.

The virus flourishes in fresh water and could spread to chinook salmon and steelhead trout spawning in the Fraser River, David Suzuki Foundation spokesman Jim Fulton said.

"We're concerned the slime and the blood and the debris and the water will simply be pumped back into the Fraser River," Fulton said.

It would be better to unload the fish in a salt-water environment well away from any spawning fish, he said.

The injunction was granted late last week in British Columbia's Supreme Court. It expires on Wednesday.

Officials with Heritage Aquaculture could not be reached for comment.

Andrew Morgan, the regional aquaculture co-ordinator for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the disease is part of fish farming.

"It happens from time to time and it's not inconsistent with what we've seen in the past," said Morgan, adding the company is working with authorities to ensure there will be no disease transmission.

Colville Tribes will finish mill cleanup

OMAK (AP) -- The Colville Confederated Tribes will be responsible for much of the remaining cleanup work at the 386-acre wood-products mill site they recently purchased.

In an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the tribes will complete the 1998 cleanup order, said Kimberly Ogle, a spokeswoman for the EPA in Seattle.

The Colville Tribal Enterprises Corp. bough the old Quality Veneer and Lumber site last month in a sale approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and expects to resume production of green veneer next month.

Quality Veneer had cleaned up most of the chemicals, metals and oil at the site. The remainder of the work should be finished this summer, Ogle said.

The Colville Environmental Trust Department will do the work with technical assistance from the EPA. The project could include restoration of Omak Creek, which runs through the mill site.

Mary Queitzsch, an EPA lawyer, said total cleanup costs were estimated at $1 million.

Untreated wastewater pours into Potomac

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- A sewage treatment failure caused by a chemical leak sent millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Potomac River over the weekend, city and state officials said.

The failure at Hagerstown's municipal sewage treatment plant occurred gradually between late Friday and noon Saturday, according to Rich McIntire, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The river is a source of drinking water for the Washington area, but McIntire said there was no threat to the water supply because the polluted water would be diluted by the time it reached the area.

The sewage treatment system was corrupted by an unknown chemical that killed the microbes treating the water, said Rick Thomas, manager of Hagerstown's Water Pollution Control Department.

"We have a biological system here, with microbes that do the work of treating sewage," he said. "The microbes can not withstand the toxins from the chemicals."

Workers were trying to determine the type of chemical that got into the system and the source, Thomas said.

"We've been collecting samples all day and we'll be sending them to a private lab Monday for analysis," he said.

There was no immediate threat to public health, officials said.

The department notified water-intake plants downstream from Hagerstown and they were taking steps to protect their water supplies, McIntire said. He said signs would be posted near the river, warning of the danger.

There was little risk of people having contact with river water in February, due to cold, Thomas said. Officials said the system would flush itself out and replenish itself