April 16, 2002

Environmental Watch: Habitat plan could cost PUD $260M

WENATCHEE -- Eight years in the making, the Chelan Public Utility District commissioners signed a habitat conservation plan last week, governing operations to improve fish survival over the next 50 years.

As part of the plan, construction will proceed on an $80 million project designed to get juvenile salmon and steelhead around Rocky Reach Dam.

The HCP also commits the utility to $36 million in habitat improvements in nearby tributaries and $60 million in hatchery projects. The PUD estimates spending could reach $260 million through the life of the 50-year agreement, including spill costs, turbine screens and testing. Chelan said it's already spent over $200 million for fish protection measures over the past 20 years.

The HCP is designed to assure 91 percent of adult and juvenile fish will survive passage through dams and reservoirs. A final Environmental Impact Statement must be completed before the documents are forwarded to Federal Electric Regulatory Commission as amendments to existing hydro licenses.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has assured the utility the plan will allow it to obtain permits under the Endangered Species Act to continue hydro operations in the future. Other parties to the HCP include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington state, the Colville and Umatilla tribes, and American Rivers. For more information go to www.chelanpud.org.

Study looks at drainage ditches and fish

PULLMAN -- The fish impacts of dredging drainage ditches and agricultural canals in King County to prevent flooding has been getting more attention.

Working with King County Department of Natural Resources, Washington State University researchers got a five-year grant to quantify and improve management of agricultural drainage ditches in the region.

The researchers are looking at stream bank design, vegetation buffer strips, where and when salmonids use the ditches, presence of large woody debris, and timing of dredging and fertilizing activities.

For more information contact Michael Barber at (509) 335-5531 or by e-mail at meb@wsu.edu.

$58M Nechako River work gets OK

PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia (AP) -- The British Columbia government has agreed to provide money to start preliminary work on a $58 million cold water release facility to improve the Nechako River's environment, including salmon protection.

The province is providing more than $60,000 in each of the next three years, with matching funding from aluminum firm Alcan, to start planning on the facility, which will be located on the Kenney Dam south of Fraser Lake.

The planning money will keep the project moving forward during difficult economic times, Henry Klassen, Nechako watershed council chairman, said.

The 120-mile-long Nechako originates south of Fraser Lake and empties into the Fraser River at Prince George, abut 475 miles north of Vancouver.

The facility will spill cold water from deep within the Nechako Reservoir and allow the river flows to return to a more natural state -- higher levels in the spring and lower levels in the summer.

That will help restore freshwater fish stocks, enhance the habitat of aquatic mammals and better protect salmon runs, Klassen said.

The spinoff benefits will be improved tourism opportunities and additional water for agriculture and power generation, because less water should be needed to cool the river in the summer, he said.

The establishment of a fund to enhance the river was part of 1997 deal that ended a dispute between Alcan and the provincial government over the government's scuttling of a $800-million hydroelectric project.

The Kemano completion project, on which Alcan had already spent $315 million, would have diverted more water from the Nechako River system west to power its aluminum smelters near Kitimat.

Hazmat inquiry at speedway site

BOARDMAN, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality says it will investigate claims that hazardous waste and live munitions are buried near the proposed site for a multimillion dollar speedway.

The property in question was once part of the U.S. Navy Bombing Range, and there still could be unexploded bombs and asbestos waste on the site, said John Dadoly, a DEQ hydrologist.

Racing Unlimited hopes to build a 160,000-seat speedway on 1,100 acres owned by the Port of Morrow about a mile from the former bombing range and dump site.

The complex would include a 1.95 mile oval track, a half-mile inside track, a gas station, restaurant, convenience store, medical facilities, gift shop and a 200-room motel near the Boardman Airport.

According to a survey conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1992, the former landfill was south of Tower Road, near the Boardman Airport.

At that time, EPA officials charged the state with monitoring the site for any live munitions or remaining asbestos from heating pipe insulation.

But a decade later, the state still hasn't determined if there is any asbestos or live munitions left on the property, McElligott said.

New waste cleanup hope: spinach

PULLMAN -- Can vegetables defuse explosives and clean up toxic waste? A Washington State University professor is trying to find out.

Working with the U.S. Army, Victor Medina is researching the use of pureed spinach plants to degrade explosive contaminants around munitions facilities.

An assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at WSU Tri-Cities, Medina has investigated the feasibility of enhancing phytotransformation of explosives, such as TNT, using physically broken plants, in this case by puréeing them.

The results indicate that the slurried plants allowed for more rapid degradation of explosives in most, but not all cases.

In another project, Medina is looking to use pureed tomato and spinach plants in the clean-up of heavy metals, such as arsenic and lead, from soil around munitions depots. For more information contact Medina at (509) 372-7376 or by e-mail at vmedina@tricity.wsu.edu.

Condor chick is making history

LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) -- Biologists are celebrating a milestone in the recovery of the once nearly extinct California condor, as a 4-day-old chick grows under its parents' zealous watch.

The chick in Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County is the first conceived, hatched and raised in the wild to survive more than a day, and a sign that North America's largest bird is setting roots once again in its California home.

Three eggs -- one in northern Arizona and two in Southern California -- have been laid in the wild, but two of them never hatched and the third was killed right after hatching last year by the very bird mothering the latest chick.

Condors, the largest birds in North America, nearly disappeared in the 1980s because of habitat loss and toxins. Breeding programs in Southern California and Idaho have helped its numbers rebound from 22 to 188; and about 60 of those birds are in the wild in Southern California and Arizona