March 26, 2002

Environmental Watch: Jones & Stokes promotes two

BELLEVUE -- Grant Bailey has been named vice president of expansion and planning for Sacramento-based Jones & Stokes. In his new role, Bailey will be responsible for expanding markets for the firm's environmental services in the Pacific Northwest and nationally.

Bailey joined Jones & Stokes in 1993, managing the Bellevue office, currently with 45 employees and $5 million in revenue.

Amy Rucker becomes the branch leader of the Bellevue office. Rucker, a principal at Jones & Stokes, is a natural resource planner with expertise in landscape architecture and landscape restoration.

Jones & Stokes, founded in 1970, has offices in Portland and Ashland, Ore., Arizona and four California cities, in addition to Sacramento.

'Doing Business in Salmon-land' April 25-26

SEATTLE -- Compliance with the myriad state, federal and local environmental regulations on development due to threatened fish will be the topic of an upcoming legal seminar at the Hilton Seattle.

Speakers include Will Stelle of Preston Gates & Ellis, James Buchal of the Pacific Legal Foundation and Kristen Boyles of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.

Other segments will focus on salmon and the Superfund, power generation and local response to the Endangered Species Act.

"Doing Business in Salmon-land" will be held April 25 and 26. The conference fee is $595, $515 for government participants. Continuing legal education credits in Washington and Oregon are pending. For more information call (800) 574-4852.

Ecology hosts clean water conference

SPOKANE -- The state Department of Ecology is sponsoring its fourth conference on polluted runoff and water quality. The agency estimates 60 percent of water pollution comes from non-point sources, such as roadways and agricultural runoff.

The conference will be held April 9 through 11. On April 10, Dr. Patrick Condon, professor of landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia, will deliver a keynote address on sustainable communities.

The fee for the entire "Achieving Cleaner Water" conference is $100. Reduced fees are available for partial participation. For more information call Gina Mulderig at (253) 843-9268.

Chambers Creek land to become public

TACOMA -- The city of University Place has teamed up with the Cascade Land Conservancy to keep 5.5 acres on Chambers Creek off limits to development.

Because of a tight timeframe to close the deal, the city asked the conservancy to purchase the $500,000 property until the city could raise the finds. The land had been identified by the city and Pierce County as a high priority for acquisition.

The property is a steep-sloped site forested with Douglas fir and containing good salmon habitat. It also has a building that will eventually be used for University Place community events.

ECO-3 offers stormwater training online

KENT -- With new stormwater requirements from the state Department of Ecology looming, Kent-based ECO-3, an erosion and sediment-control consulting company, has developed a Web-based training program developers and contractors can take at home.

One new requirement for phase one cities and counties, jurisdictions with over 100,000 people, mandates every construction site larger than one acre have a certified erosion and sediment control supervisor on-site or on-call 24 hours a day.

ECO-3 has submitted its training program to King County and Ecology for review. ECO-3 owner Phil Fortunado says by putting the material on the Web, contractors will not have to lose time in the field and on the jobsite.

The program will debut April 1 on the ECO-3 site, www.eco-3.com. Materials for city and county inspectors is expected to be made available shortly afterward.

Rimrock eyed for $14M hydro project

YAKIMA (AP) -- An Idaho company hopes to build the first hydroelectric plant in the Yakima River Basin in almost 20 years.

American Energy of Idaho Falls is pursuing state and federal approval to build the 13.7-megawatt power plant at Rimrock Lake, 30 miles west of Yakima, in 2004.

The plant would use water releases from the lake behind the Tieton Dam on the Tieton River that are managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The power from the proposed $14 million plant already is under contract for 25 years to the Eugene Water and Electric Board, the municipal utility serving the city of Eugene, Ore.

In addition to the plant, a 20-mile-long, 115-kilovolt power line would be built, mostly on federal land, to carry electricity to a substation in Tieton.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to review the plan and what affect it might have on bull trout, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Biologist Jeff Thomas said the agency is concerned about fish losses from the lake during high flows in September.

American Energy also needs a conditional-use permit from Yakima County as well as a critical areas permit because the line will cross several streams and the Tieton River.

Some mitigating measures such as planting trees may be required, said Mike Kerins, the county's lead planner on the project. American Energy already has the required federal license, obtained through a transfer from the Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District six months ago.

Snakes stall Wisconsin civic center

NEW BERLIN, Wis. (AP) -- Garter snakes are choking the city's plans to build a $40 million civic center.

The city and the state Department of Natural Resources have been sparring over how to proceed since last summer, when state officials discovered garter snakes in an area where a road would be built to the center. The state classifies the species as threatened.

The state wants the city to alter the road plan to save the snake habitat, but New Berlin officials say the road extension is critical for developers to solidify deals with potential tenants.

After a meeting Friday, New Berlin Mayor Ted Wysocki agreed to submit a list of the city's objections and offered a plan to move the snakes about 600 yards to the Deer Creek Preserve.

"I just can't believe there isn't some element of common sense here," Wysocki said. "We would dedicate our work force and find every snake that's out there, seriously."

Gloria McCutcheon, the southeastern district chief of the Department of Natural Resources said her agency didn't discover the snakes until eight months after the city filed its road extension application.

"It may not have been everyone's first solution, but it was a compromise," she said