April 23, 2002

Environmental Watch: Festival aims to re-open oyster beds

BLAINE -- A fund-raising effort to clean up Drayton Harbor will be held next month outside the Resort Semiahmoo.

The "First Annual Shuckin' on the Spit" will feature live music, tours of oyster beds and oyster eating. Proceeds from the event will go to the Drayton Harbor Community Oyster Farm Project, which hopes to re-open oyster beds in the harbor by 2004.

The beds were closed in 1995 when Drayton Harbor was deemed too polluted for a safe commercial harvest. Tribal harvesting was ended shortly thereafter as well.

The festival will be held Saturday, May 4, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The price is $15, and kids under 10 receive free admission. For more information contact Laura Zimmerman at Resort Semiahmoo, (360) 318-2000.

KEECO wins Commerce award

LYNNWOOOD -- Environmental technology firm KEECO has received a congressional Export Achievement Award for 2001 by the Trade and Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

KEECO received the award for export of the company's Silica Mircroencapsulation water treatment systems used in treating metals-contaminated soils and waters.

According to KEECO, the treatment approach is now being used or evaluated in Canada, China, the Philippines, Japan, the United Kingdom, Chile and Peru. Company President William Anderson also stated that KEECO, in conjunction with several of its partners, is now moving to close significant projects in China and Canada.

Anchor opens Portland office

PORTLAND -- Anchor Environmental has opened a new office in Portland.

The company will provide expertise in groundwater investigation and cleanup services, and brownfields development. John Edwards will head up Anchor's Portland operation.

Edwards founded Sweet-Edwards & Associates and has over 20 years of experience in groundwater consulting.

Also at the office will be chemical engineer Rick Schwarz, P.E.; geologist John Renda, R.G.; and natural resource specialist Libby Smith. Smith will serve as project coordinator for the Portland Harbor Superfund site.

Headquartered in Seattle, Anchor also has two offices in California and one in Texas.

Pygmy owl suit could slow development

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Environmentalists accuse two federal agencies of violating the law by continuing to approve permits for new developments on land suitable for the endangered pygmy owl.

A lawsuit by Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity seeks to toss out the national permitting systems used in the Tucson area for new subdivisions, shopping centers, riverbank stabilization, and road and utility wash crossings.

The lawsuit was filed last week against the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency.

A victory by environmentalists could slow development of such projects until new permitting systems go into place covering federally regulated discharges of storm water runoff.

The EPA requires permits to grade five or more acres, while the corps requires permits for projects that could affect a major wash.

The lawsuit comes after a five-year conflict that has pitted the EPA and the corps at times against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and at times against environmentalists over what kinds of projects need federal scrutiny to be built in or near owl habitat.

The conflict peaked last year when the two agencies allowed a 1,875-home development in Marana to go through because no owls or federal critical habitat existed on its property. Still, the Fish and Wildlife service had warned that the project deserved more study because it contained vegetation suitable for the bird.

Study: Worms cause frog deformities

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- After slogging through 101 ponds and wetlands in five western states, scientists on the trail of a mysterious outbreak of deformities in frogs have settled on a microscopic parasitic flatworm, not pesticides or ultraviolet light, as the prime suspect.

Linked with existing laboratory studies showing that the trematode known as Ribeiroia ondatrae can cause the frogs to sprout extra legs, the new field work closes the loop by showing a direct correlation between the prevalence of the parasite and the number of deformed frogs, scientists said.

The study was published in the latest issue Ecological Monographs, the journal of the Ecological Society of America.

The reason the deformities are becoming more common appears to be related to human changes to ecosystems, especially fertilizer and cow manure washing into the ponds, said Andrew Blaustein, professor of zoology at Oregon State University and one of the study's authors.

Aspen starts using biodiesel in Sno-Cats

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- In what it says is an industry first, Aspen Skiing Co. has begun powering its Sno-Cats with environmentally friendly biodiesel fuel.

The company will use biodiesel over the next two years at its four resorts, starting at Buttermilk. The mixture used to fuel the machines is 80 percent regular diesel and 20 percent biodiesel.

"I noticed the engines running smoother," said Auden Schendler, Skico's director of environmental affairs. "There also seemed to be less black smoke, but that's what you'd expect, too, from a cleaner fuel."

Skico announced the change in conjunction with Earth Day. The fuel, made with soybeans, is nontoxic, biodegradable and free of sulfur.

It's just the smell, similar to that of french fries, that has taken some getting used to, Schendler said. Some drivers have remarked that it's "kind of funny, but better than the smell of regular diesel fuel," he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has registered biodiesel as the only alternative fuel to have passed the health effects requirements of the Clean Air Act.

Schendler said the switch is a first in the industry. Skico tested the fuel the last week of Buttermilk's season, burning 1,000 gallons in its Sno-Cats.

Six months worth of research was done on the fuel before it was tested, to make sure the fuel doesn't harm Sno-Cat engines.

Cove, Ore., to get a new well

COVE, Ore. (AP) -- Residents have been advised to boil their drinking water because disease-causing organisms might have entered the city's water supply.

Unboiled water could result in nausea, cramps, diarrhea and associated headaches, a notice sent to residents said.

The eastern Oregon city routinely chlorinates its water supply to deactivate microbial organisms which might be present in the water. It also routinely monitors for coliform bacteria in the distribution system, city officials said.

Cove's water, which comes from a deep well, has shown turbidity recently and the city is planning to construct a new well.