July 30, 2002

Environmental Watch: Michael Blumen forms consulting business

BELLEVUE -- Michael Blumen has formed Blumen Consulting Group Inc., specializing in land use entitlement, environmental compliance and project management services.

Blumen, president of the new firm, is joined by Richard Schipanski, vice president, and Gretchen Brunner, senior associate.

Current clients include Boeing Realty, Glacier Northwest, Kemper Development Co., Cadman Inc., Quadrant Corp. and the Sumner School District.

Duwamish Superfund update Aug. 6

SEATTLE -- A review of work on the Duwamish Superfund site will be held next week.

A discussion of the nature and type of contamination found in the waterway, risks to human and animal health, and proposed sites for early cleanup action is planned.

The public meeting will be held Aug. 6 beginning with an open house at 6:30 p.m. followed by presentations at 7 p.m. It will be held at the South Park Community Center, 8319 Eighth Ave. S. For more information contact Cindy Colgate, community involvement coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at (206) 553-1815.

Wetland, stream ecology seminars offered

EVERETT -- The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation is offering two all-day seminars on the basic ecology of streams and wetlands.

Among the topics to be covered are regulations, stream buffers, scientific terminology and habitat function and relationships. The course qualifies for real estate agent and appraiser clock hours. It also can be taken for teacher clock hours.

The fee is $75 and includes the text book "Adopting a Wetland: a Northwest Guide" as well as morning refreshments. Participants are asked to bring lunch and dress for the weather.

The classes will be held on Aug. 22 and Sept. 19 beginning at 8:30 a.m. For more information or a registration form call (425) 316-8592.

Everett man wants to move water by rail

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- An insurance salesman from Everett is proposing to bring water from the Pacific Northwest to New Mexico's water-starved capital via rail.

Michael Chapman has been talking to city public utilities director Jerry Lowance about regular runs of millions of gallons of water from north of Seattle to Santa Fe.

Lowance said the idea is intriguing, but he wants details.

"We're still waiting on the railroad to see what the cost would be to transport here," he said. "It might not be anything worth trying."

Chapman said he was still working out details -- including whether the venture would be legal under Washington state law.

He said the water he would sell to Santa Fe would be purchased from the city of Everett. Tom Thetford, public works director for Everett, said he was waiting for details of the project as well.

He said Chapman has not bought a drop of water.

Everett would charge Chapman about $5,300 for 5 million gallons of water a day, Thetford said. That price, along with transportation and other costs, could make for expensive water by the time it gets to Santa Fe, he said.

GM to sell fuel cell generators by 2005

HONEOYE FALLS, N.Y. (AP) -- General Motors Corp. plans to have fuel cell powered electric generators commercially available by 2005, a move that could provide it with the revenue and technology for meeting its goal of widely available fuel cell vehicles by the end of the decade.

"If we're producing hydrogen for a fuel cell that's producing power ... we have the power to produce a fueling station," Tim Vail, director of distributive generation solutions, told reporters at the GM's new fuel cell research facility Monday.

Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research, development and planning said it's possible that hundreds of thousands of hydrogen fuel cell-power vehicles could be on the road by 2010.

GM wouldn't produce the generators, but would provide the fuel cell technology through partnerships with other companies.

GM plans to announce its partnerships later this year, produce prototype units by late 2003 or 2004 and sell the technology in 2005 or 2006, Vail said.

The automaker wants to tap the lucrative "premium power" market, such as data communications companies and hospitals that are willing to pay as much as $1,000 per kilowatt hour for reliable power.

Native groups join Alaska fish study

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- Native Alaskans are joining with biologists to study fish in cooperative agreements extending from Southeast Alaska to the Yukon.

The projects, which range from radio tagging to fish counting, are expected to give biologists a better understanding of Alaska salmon runs.

"Our salmon assessment on the Kuskokwim is better this year than it has ever been in the past," said Doug Molyneaux, a research biologist in the Bethel office of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Wayne Morgan of the Kuskokwim Native Association said the new kind of relationship between area residents and fishery managers is giving Alaska Natives more of a say when fisheries decision are made that affect them.

"We want to be more involved with management decisions," Morgan said. "Anything that has to do with salmon, we need to be more involved."

State biologists have conducted research on many salmon streams around Alaska for years. But that hasn't been the case in much of Western Alaska, where research dollars have been scarce because most rivers lack the commercial value of the Kenai or Copper rivers.

Big Corps projects may get outside review

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Army Corps of Engineers planners should seek an independent review for each of their large-scale engineering projects, the National Academy of Sciences said in a report.

The academy's report to Congress advised the secretary of the Army to create an administrative group that could decide whether the Army Corps planning studies should be reviewed internally or externally. It also said any planning studies involving high costs, controversy, a broad area or large environmental risk should be sent for an external review.

"The highest degree of credibility will be achieved if responsibility for external review is given to an organization that is independent of the Corps," said James Mitchell, a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech who chaired the academy committee that wrote the report.

Congress asked for the report in the wake of whistle-blowers' allegations that Army Corps officials manufactured a case for spending $1 billion to enlarge barge locks on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

The report was seen by environmental groups as confirming their belief the Army Corps has an institutional bias toward building huge dams and other projects.