September 3, 2002

Environmental Watch: Aquifer storage rules

OLYMPIA -- Only about a week remains to comment on new state Department of Ecology rules that would allow reservoir permits to be issued for underground water storage projects.

The process, known as aquifer storage and recovery, injects water into natural geologic formations for withdrawal later. Locally, the Lakehaven Utility District in Federal Way has been studying a pilot project since 1991 and hopes to expand its aquifer storage.

Elsewhere, Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities are studying large scale aquifer storage projects.

Among the issues associated with aquifer storage are water quality -- the water must meet state groundwater standards -- water rights, geotechnical impacts both above and below ground and the actual operation of the system, how the water is injected and removed.

Ecology is accepting comments on the proposed rules through Sept. 9. To make comments write to Kathleen Ensenat, Dept. of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504. To comment electronically, go to the aquifer storage Web site at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/asr/asr-home.html.

AG to speak at whistleblower gathering

SEATTLE -- The Government Accountability Project, formed by defenders and advocates for whistleblowers at Hanford, is having its 10th anniversary party on Thursday, Sept. 5 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The event is free and not a fund-raiser.

Washington State Attorney General Christine Gregoire will be the keynote speaker. Some of the original whistleblowers will be there.

The event's happening at the NW Horticultural Society Hall at the UW's Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st St. To attend, email beths@whistleblower.org, or by call 292-2850.

ChveronTexaco donates to Yosemite project

SAN FRANCISCO -- ChevronTexaco has contributed $1 million to Yosemite National Park to improve the area around Yosemite Falls.

The money will go to a two-year, $12.5 million project to restore natural habitat and improve the visitor experience in the 56-acre area leading up to Lower Yosemite Fall. The area hosts about one million of Yosemite's four million annual visitors.

The project will remove a large parking lot and replace it with a more natural setting, protect stream banks, improve viewing areas, footbridges and trails, add educational, directional signage, and disabled access.

The project will be performed by a partnership of the Yosemite Fund, a non-profit park support organization, and the National Park Service.

For more information go to www.yosemitefund.org.

Leadership of aquifer study in dispute

SPOKANE (AP) -- Who will lead a $3.5 million study of an aquifer shared by Washington and Idaho has become a sticky point between the states, public officials and environmental groups.

Environmental groups want federal control of the Rathdrum Prairie-Spokane Valley Aquifer study, which will help determine who gets how much of the shared water supply, which straddles the state line.

The three-year study was proposed after power companies applied to withdraw millions of gallons of water from the aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people.

Idaho proposes state control of the study, saying it will avoid potential conflicts of interest. Washington says it's not ready to agree to that.

The states' aquifer coalition has already secured $500,000 from the Interior Department's budget. But the budget contains no language specifying where the money will go.

Idaho proposes that the states split the money, giving less control to the U.S. Geological Survey, which has conducted several groundwater studies in Washington state.

Environmental groups have concerns about Idaho's plan, in part because it was prepared by university professors who testified on behalf of power companies proposing to take millions of gallons of water from the aquifer.

Recall on natural gas-powered Fords

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. is recalling 598 Crown Victoria cars powered by natural gas because fuel could leak and possibly start a fire.

The recall involves 2002 model year fleet cars, such as those sold to government, taxi services and law enforcement. At least 81 are police cars, mostly in Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz.

More than half of the recalled vehicles were sold in California.

Ford spokesman Todd Nissen said natural gas can leak from a connector between two of the five fuel tanks. If the gas were exposed to a spark, it could start a fire. "It's a pretty remote set of circumstances where this would occur, and it never has resulted in a fire that has been reported to us," Nissen said.

Mudsnail spotted in Oregon

PORTLAND (AP) -- The New Zealand mudsnail -- a wanted criminal in several states -- has been sighted in Oregon.

Under its harmless-looking exterior are the reproductive organs of a true stealth killer.

First detected in Idaho in 1997, the mudsnail reproduces at an exponential rate, creating a veritable carpet of snails that blankets the bottom of rivers and lakes, consuming food needed by fish.

Each self-cloning snail can make up to 38 miniature versions of itself twice a year, enough to account for 3.7 million offspring in two years.

The mudsnail has been fingered for the ruination of several of the best trout streams in Yellowstone National Park. Scientists say the tiny mollusk has been putting down roots in at least three Oregon sites: in the Columbia River at Young's Bay and Kalama, and in the Snake River on the state's eastern boundary.

Streams blanketed with mudsnails have a marked decrease in species diversity, a key measure used by ecologists to gauge the health of a waterway.

Raptors dying from drought

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Four straight years of drought are beginning to diminish the number of birds of prey seen along migration routes, with satellite tracking surveys suggesting that raptors choosing hunting territories in Utah and other parched regions are dying.

HawkWatch International conducts some of the most extensive counts of raptors in the West. Across the Northwest and intermountain West birds such as osprey, sharp-shinned hawks and peregrine falcons had been showing steady population increases since the 1980s.

That began to change with the uncommonly dry weather in 1998.

HawkWatch's Jeff Smith compares a map, showing patches of extreme drought in the West, with the results of a recent satellite tracking study of nine red-tailed hawks. The birds wintered in Mexico.

The four that flew north to Idaho, Washington and Canada, where the weather has been wetter, were all found alive. Three that stopped in the Four Corners region were dead within weeks.