May 21, 2002

Environmental Watch: Windpower 2002 in Portland June 2

PORTLAND -- Windpower 2002, the annual conference and exhibition of the wind energy industry, opens June 2 in Portland.

The four-day event features exhibits of the latest technology, a field trip to the Stateline wind farm, and government and industry speakers.

Among the scheduled speakers are Pat Wood III, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber; David Garman, Department of Energy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy; Stephen Wright, Bonneville Power Administration administrator; and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith.

Exhibitors include G.E. Wind Energy, ABB, The Wind Turbine Co. and Vestas American Wind Technology, Inc.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, sponsor of the event, the U.S. wind energy market expanded by 66 percent last year, much of that in the Northwest.

For more information or to register for the conference call (202) 383-2518 or go to http://www.awea.org.

SPU Cedar watershed tours on tap

SEATTLE -- Seattle Public Utilities will offer tours this summer of the 90,546-acre Cedar River watershed that provides almost 70 percent of the drinking water SPU delivers to 1.3 million people throughout King County.

Reservations are now being accepted for tours on Saturdays, Sundays and selected weekdays between June 29 and Sept. 1. The tour costs $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and children. They are open to anyone six years or older.

The tour begins at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center, which opened last fall. The watershed is located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, northeast of North Bend.

For more information or to reserve a spot, call the SPU public programs information line at (206) 233-1515 or e-mail celese.brune@ci.seattle.wa.us.

June 3-4 seminar on brownfields law

SEATTLE -- Changes in federal brownfields and Superfund law will be topic of a seminar at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center June 3 and 4.

The new law changes rules on cleanup liability, impacting how contaminated properties are bought and sold.

Bradley Marten of the Marten Law Group and Charles Wolfe of Foster Pepper & Shefelman are co-chairs. Other participants include John Iani, regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Peter Jewett of Farallon Consulting; and James Pendowski of the state Department of Ecology.

Sessions on insuring brownfields properties and on the situation in Oregon will be held as well.

Conference tuition is $595 per person. Discounts are available for government and students. The seminar has been approved for 11 continuing legal education credits.

Columbia terns settle into new home

PORTLAND (AP) -- The world's largest Caspian tern colony is settling into a new home, created so that young salmon would have a better chance of making it to the sea.

Over the past six weeks, more than 13,000 of the fish-eating birds have arrived from Mexico and set down on a sandy patch of East Sand Island, near the mouth of the Columbia River.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started looking into whether it could relocate the colony from Rice Island, about 20 miles to the east, six years ago.

To entice the flock to move from Rice Island, vegetation was cleared out to create an open sandy beach; terns lay eggs in depressions they scrape in the sand, helping them spy approaching predators. To keep them away from their old home, wood-slat fences that impede sightlines were built to spook the terns into "worrying" about predators on the other side.

The relocation was put in question, however, when the National Audubon Society and three other groups sued the corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the terns. They argued that the federal government was harassing the birds in violation of the Migratory Bird Act.

Officials reported last week that not a single Caspian tern was roaming about Rice Island, where salmon fingerlings and young adults gather before striking out into the ocean.

The corps has spent about $100,000 since 1999 on the relocation, mostly on removing vegetation from East Sand Island.

Low lakes dry up tourism

CONCONULLY, Okanogan County (AP) -- The spring tourist season may be drying up for this visitor-dependent town in Okanogan County, where low lake levels seem to be keeping anglers and boaters away.

"We've got plenty of fish," said acting Mayor Dale Brown, "But unless we have water in the lakes, people won't come. If we don't do something, seriously, the town of Conconully is going to fade away."

The tourist action in Conconully, population 200, usually begins with the start of fishing season in mid-April.

Lake Conconully and Conconully Reservoir were built in the 1920s for the Okanogan Irrigation District. But they were also stocked with fish and used to promote recreation, which is Conconully's only source of income, said Town Councilwoman Shelley Robideau.

Both are nationally recognized fishing destinations.

This year, the two bodies of water -- both reservoirs -- are less than one-third full. Water levels dropped during last year's drought and haven't yet filled up with spring runoff because of dry conditions and unusually cold weather in the mountains.

Scott Pattee, a water supply specialist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service, said even with winter snowpack in the Conconully basin at 93 percent of normal, as much as 30 percent of that will soak right into the bone-dry ground rather than run off into rivers and streams when the snow melts.

Actor urges wetlands preservation

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Actor Beau Bridges wants to preserve the sandy fringe of a wetland in southern California.

Bridges, who is president of an environmental group called Ventura Coast Keeper, urged the state Coastal Conservancy to buy 265 acres of land near Oxnard that is being sought by a petroleum company.

"This wetland extended for miles," Bridges said. "It would really be a shame to lose what little we have left."

His plea came less than a week before the Coastal Conservancy is to decide whether to acquire the land that also is being sought by the Occidental Petroleum Corp. for the West Coast's first liquefied natural gas receiving terminal.

Occidental's plant would provide some of the natural gas that runs the machinery producing the state's electricity.

The site would offer proximity to the port, high-voltage lines from an adjacent power plant and an existing network of underground pipes, said Occidental spokeswoman Jan Sieving. Bridges' group argues the plant would degrade a fragile environment