April 2, 2002

Environmental Watch: Environmental Sciences Associates

SEATTLE -- Jan Mulder has joined Environmental Sciences Associates as director of energy and utilities for its Northwest region. Mulder previously was the natural resources and environmental planning manager for Seattle's City Light. She has over 24 years of experience in regulatory compliance, environmental planning and land use and natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

Environmental Sciences Associates is an environmental consulting firm with offices in California, Seattle and Florida.

EnvironDesign conference this week

SEATTLE -- Environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy, Jr., Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and author Peter Senge will deliver keynote speeches at the upcoming EnvironDesign6 conference, scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, at the Washington State Trade & Convention Center.

The sustainable design and business conference has grown substantially since its inception in 1997, with an anticipated attendance of 1,200 at this year's event. The conference offers speeches, workshops and site tours, as well as a product learning center that will showcase the pro-environmental initiatives of nearly 60 manufacturers from a broad range of industries.

EnvironDesign6 is produced by Interiors & Sources and green@work magazines. For information, including a schedule, visit www.environdesign.com or call (561) 627-3393.

Robinson rejoins White Shield

KENNEWICK -- Charles Robinson has returned to White Shield, Inc., an environmental consulting and engineering firm based in the Tri-Cities.

Robinson, a natural resource and environmental consultant, has extensive expertise in site assessment, forest management and site remediation.

White Shield, founded in 1978, has a staff of 50 located in offices around the Northwest including Bellevue, Portland and the Tri-Cities. The firm is Native American-owned and certified by the Small Business Administration for assistance in competing for federal contracts.

Portland Meadows settles runoff suit

PORTLAND (AP) -- Portland Meadows, the city's thoroughbred racetrack, and two environmental groups settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit Thursday over manure runoff from the track into the Columbia River.

The groups had sued after Portland Meadows and the Environmental Protection Agency were already in talks about solving the surface water runoff problem created by about 900 horses typically stabled at the site.

Heavy rains had leached manure into the Columbia Slough, an area already heavily polluted from the Port of Portland and other sources.

Wastewater typically escaped the track grounds and flowed into the river several times a year.

In a consent agreement with the EPA, the track agreed to divert its storm drains to the city of Portland's sewage system at a cost of $750,000, said Arthur McFadden, president of Magna Entertainment Corp., the company that owns Portland Meadows.

The company also agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to the U.S. Treasury in a civil penalty.

The Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Columbia Riverkeeper filed the suit.

The consent agreement that settled the lawsuit allows Portland Meadows to remain open until 2005. After that, the track will have to move or close, McFadden said.

Natural Yard Days this weekend

SEATTLE -- Northwest Natural Yard Days will kick off Saturday, April 6, at Seattle Center's Fifth Avenue parking lot from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The event focuses on environmentally friendly lawn care practices like mulching, water conservation and the use of insecticidal soaps. Discounts will be offered on a number of natural lawn care products, including electric mulching mowers. Parking is free and loading assistance will be provided.

New habitat for salmon-loving terns

SEATTLE (AP) -- Salmon-loving Caspian terns will be chased away from Rice Island again this spring, but the government will create more habitat for them on another Columbia River island under a settlement proposed to resolve a federal lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein, who barred federal efforts to drive the birds to another island in 2000, was expected to review the agreement this week. The National Audubon Society and other conservation groups have agreed to drop their lawsuit if she signs off on it.

"We're embarking on a course that will keep both birds and fish in the river for generations to come," said Alex Morgan, conservation coordinator for the Seattle Audubon Society.

The conservationists contended terns were being made a scapegoat for declines in Columbia Basin salmon runs, which they attribute to federal dams and loss of habitat.

The proposed settlement would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to chase terns away from Rice Island, a 230-acre manmade mound of dredged material about 20 miles upriver near Astoria, Ore. That's where the 16,000 terns -- about two-thirds of the West Coast population of the 21-inch gray birds with black caps and pointed beaks -- have been feasting on young ocean-bound salmon and steelhead.

Workers will be allowed to drive off the birds until they start laying eggs, which could begin as soon as two weeks after nesting. At that point, the crews will have to stay away lest they violate the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by stumbling across the eggs.

The corps also agreed to create 6 acres of habitat for the terns on East Sand Island, about 14 miles west near the river's mouth at Chinook, where the terns' diet contains a higher proportion of smelt, surf perch and sculpin.

This could include creating habitat for them in their historic range in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, north of the Columbia on the Washington state coast, an idea that has drawn resistance from Washington state officials in the past.

Scientists estimate the tern colony on Rice Island devoured about 12 percent of the 95 million salmon smolts that reached the river's estuary in 1998.

Forest projects get $900,000 from feds

VANCOUVER (AP) -- Job-creating forest projects in Skamania, Klickitat and Cowlitz counties will receive $900,000 this year from a federal rural assistance program.

By summer, Skamania County officials hope to see workers resurfacing roads, removing poorly designed culverts, clearing trails, sprucing up campgrounds and pulling noxious weeds.

The money also will support a Skamania County emergency search and rescue operation, a minimum-security forest work camp, and a summer jobs program for about 40 kids in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

The program was created by the Secure Rural Schools and County Self-Determination Act of 2000, which gives rural counties in the Pacific Northwest annual payments to help offset what they have lost in federal timber sales.

Under the law, counties receive an amount equal to the average of the three highest federal timber payments they received between 1986 and 1999. The program will expire in 2006 unless Congress reauthorizes it