March 12, 2002

Environmental Watch: Munkberg joins Jones & Stokes

BELLEVUE -- Deborah Munkberg has joined the Bellevue office of environmental consulting firm Jones & Stokes as a senior environmental scientist. She will also serve as team leader of the office's environmental planning team.

Munkberg was previously with Huckell/Weinman and has over 15 years of planning and environmental review experience. Some of her work includes drafting and analysis of comprehensive plan elements under Washington's Growth Management Act.

Munkberg also is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a former chair of the Kirkland Planning Commission.

Strawbale construction presentation

SEATTLE -- The Seattle Chapter of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild is hosting a presentation on strawbale construction Wednesday, March 27, in the basement of the building behind the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N. The meeting begins at 6:30 and ends at 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:15 for sign-in. The event is free to EcoBuilding Guild members; a $5 donation is requested from non-members.

Strawbale practitioners will present regionally relevant approaches to strawbale design and construction. Topics include rain screening, construction details and code issues.

Yakima water outlook good

YAKIMA (AP) -- A year after the region was hit with its worst drought in decades, farmers and irrigators in the Yakima Valley are smiling at news that there will be no repeat of water shortages this summer.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation made the announcement Friday, saying there should be plenty of water for farmers and fish -- even if the weather turns dry.

Gov. Gary Locke declared a drought emergency last March 14 after minimal rainfall and snowpack left many rivers at their lowest levels since 1977.

Standing in a dry lakebed southeast of Olympia, Locke predicted the dry conditions would strike a huge blow to fish runs, the state's hydropower market and Eastern Washington farmers who rely on irrigation too keep their crops from dying.

The dire predictions were on target.

The drought killed young salmon, cut short the irrigation season in central Washington's orchard country, helped drive up the price of electricity and turned the state's forests into kindling.

The Roza Irrigation District had to spend $2 million last summer purchasing additional water and ended its season in August, a month earlier than usual.

In the 460,000-acre Yakima Irrigation Project, some farmers got only 37 percent of a full supply so that those with "senior" water rights could get their supply.

Currently, much of Washington has experienced wetter-than-normal weather since this "water year" began Oct. 1, 2001.

Olympic Pipe Line outlines park plan

BELLINGHAM (AP) -- The Olympic Pipe Line Co. has released a draft of its plan for restoring Whatcom Falls Park, which was seared by the June 1999 pipeline explosion and fire that killed three people.

The 166-page draft plan was released Thursday after two years of talks involving Olympic and representatives from the city, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nooksack Indian Tribe, the Lummi Nation and the state departments of Ecology, Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources.

Olympic will bear the full cost of the restoration work, as required by federal law. The plan commits the company to spending $500,000 to monitor and maintain vegetation restored to charred stream banks, but no other sums are spelled out. Company spokesman Dan Cummings said he could not elaborate on the costs.

Public comments on the proposal are due April 8.

The plan also calls for stream restoration projects to provide salmon with cooler water temperatures, off-channel sloughs and pools and gravel bars for spawning.

The stream work could begin this summer, unless public comments prompt major changes to the plan. The draft plan can be viewed electronically at http://www.darcnw.noaa.gov/whatcom.htm.

Globe 2002 begins this week

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The giant environmental conference, Globe 2002, is set to kick off this week, with representatives of business and government leaders from 80 nations confirmed to attend.

Over 2000 delegates are signed up to attend the bi-annual conference, the seventh in the GLOBE series, which began in Vancouver in 1990.

The conference will run from March 13 to 15 in Vancouver, Canada.

New to Globe 2002 are the Globe Awards for Environmental Excellence, which will be awarded to Canadian companies for outstanding achievements in the environmental business field. Also new are technical sessions, which offer a unique opportunity for researchers, students and others working in the fields of urban environmental management, energy efficiency and water to present new ideas and technologies.

There are also exhibits on the technology of new fuel cell-powered automobiles and environmental opportunities presented by the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Olympic bid.

Palouse aquifer still dropping

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) -- Even with conservation efforts taking place on both sides of the state line, the Grande Ronde aquifer is continuing to drop between 1 and 2 feet per year.

The aquifer is the only source of drinking water for 50,000 people in Moscow and Pullman, Wash. Conditions have gotten so bad, geologists have even proposed injecting surface water into the ground.

The water supply has been a concern in the Palouse Basin for generations. Water levels in the Grande Ronde aquifer began falling more than a century ago.

Scientists are unsure how much water continues to flow into the Grande Ronde. Recharge estimates from the 1980s appear to be overstated, committee members said, and pale in comparison with the porous Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, where 250 million to 650 million gallons of water arrive each day.

The shape and volume of the aquifer also remains unknown. But scientists fear that it could resemble a narrow bowl. If that is true, even if water consumption levels off, the declines could increase as the width of the aquifer decreases.

If the water levels don't stabilize, scientists are proposing drastic measures.

One idea is to artificially recharge the aquifer. Planners have suggested diverting spring runoff from Paradise Creek, the Palouse River and even treated wastewater to fill the aquifer