April 30, 2002

Environmental Watch: NEBC forum Wednesday on partnering

SEATTLE -- Steve Dubiel, executive director of Earth Corps, will be the speaker at the Northwest Environmental Business Council's monthly Seattle lunch tomorrow.

Earth Corps is a non-profit group working with young people to learn about and restore the environment. The group specializes in habitat restoration and wetlands creation, and contracts directly with environmental consultants for its projects.

The lunch will be held at McCormick & Schmick's Harborside, 1200 Westlake Ave. N., from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. For NEBC members the cost is $30; others pay $45. Call (888) 609-NEBC for more information.

A look at Idaho contracting opportunities

COEUR D'ALENE -- The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Northwest Environmental Business Council will host a lunch focusing on contracting opportunities.

The speakers will be Bruce Howard, relicensing manager of Avista Utilities' Spokane River project, and Luke Russell, project manager for the Coeur d'Alene Basin for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

The event will be held Wednesday, May 30, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Coeur d'Alene Inn, 414 West Appleway in Coeur d'Alene. NEBC members pay $25; others pay $40. Call (888) 609-NEBC for more information.

CDM wins award for Bremerton CSO

BREMERTON -- Camp Dresser & McKee has been awarded the American Academy of Environmental Engineers Excellence in Engineering Award for design of Bremerton's Eastside Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Plant. The award goes to the design project under $5 million that best demonstrates an integrated environmental approach and originality, among other criteria.

Bremerton has been implementing an aggressive CSO reduction plan since 1992. This facility serves as the backbone for treatment of CSOs in East Bremerton.

Design work is underway for a similar wet-weather facility to be incorporated later this year in the city's Charleston Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The eastside project was funded by a low-interest loan from the Washington State Public Works Trust Fund, with help from Department of Ecology low-interest loans and EPA grants.

An open house of the plant will be held Wednesday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2475 Stephenson Ave., in Bremerton.

KEECO joins Baltimore dredge project

LYNNWOOD -- The Klean Earth Environmental Co., known as KEECO, will participate in a pilot program to reuse dredged material from Baltimore Harbor under the auspices of the Maryland Port Authority.

KEECO will participate as a prime subcontractor to EA Engineering, Science and Technology of Sparks, Md. This is the second phase of a multi-phased contract for the treatment and reuse of contaminated marine sediments from Baltimore Harbor. The project is being funded by the Maryland Port Authority to demonstrate that contaminated and clean dredged materials from the Baltimore Harbor, after treatment, could produce marketable or suitable end-use materials.

Lynnwood-based KEECO is an environmental technology firm providing silica microencapsulation treatment technologies that are used for the permanent control of heavy metals in water and soils.

Pollution prevention nominations sought

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology is accepting applications for the 2002 Governor's Award for Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Practices.

Any Washington business, association, government agency, non-profit or school is eligible. Last year's winners included A-1 Builders Inc., the Navy submarine base at Bangor and Siemens Solar Industries.

For more information and an application form, go to www.ecy.wa.gov/sustainability. The deadline for applications is June 7.

GeoEngineers wins Pacific refuge job

HONOLULU (AP) -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has selected GeoEngineers to operate and maintain facilities and equipment at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, officials said.

The Interior Department announced that a six-month contract that went to GeoEngineers Inc. of Portland is designed to keep the atoll's infrastructure operational while the service evaluates long-term options for operating the refuge.

Ecotourism at Midway Atoll, located 1,200 miles northwest of Hawaii, came to a halt this year when the service and Midway Phoenix Corp. of Georgia dissolved their cooperative agreement that had been in effect since 1996.

Midway Phoenix has said it lost at least $15 million while operating the atoll.

"Although we are not in a position at this time to reopen our doors to visitors, we hope to be able to do so in the future," said Craig Manson, assistant secretary of interior for fish and wildlife and parks.

"We are working with the U.S. Navy and will host an event on Midway to honor the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Midway in early June, but the terms of this short-term contract are fairly basic," Manson said.

"The next six months will allow us to inventory and evaluate the infrastructure to clarify our future options," he said.

Beginning May 1, GeoEngineers will provide operations staff, inventory functional equipment and facilities, and determine operational costs of the island infrastructure, the department said. The airfield will be open for Fish and Wildlife Service charter flights and for emergency use by the military, U.S. Coast Guard and private aircraft, it said.

Heavy snow changes smelter options

MONTREAL (AP) -- Alcan Inc. may restart potlines at its large aluminum smelter in northern British Columbia because of heavy snowfall in its hydroelectric reservoir, chief executive Travis Engen says.

After several years of low water levels which forced the partial closure of the smelter in Kitimat last year, snow levels in the Kemano reservoir are abnormally high this year, Engen said at the company's annual meeting.

The reservoir level at the Alcan-owned hydroelectric complex won't be clear until late June, but "we have already begun our evaluation of the alternatives," Engen said

Besides restarting potlines, alternatives include storing the water for future use and selling surplus electricity power to British Columbia Hydro, the provincially owned electric utility.

Because of the water shortage last year, Alcan cut production in half to meet its obligation to provide power to the province and sell additional electricity to energy-starved states in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

The smelter in Kitimat, about 470 miles north of Vancouver, has an annual capacity of 275,000 metric tons.

He said Thursday that with the recovering U.S. economy, demand for aluminum is now expected to grow by about 4 percent during 2002