September 24, 2002

Environmental Watch: Hart Crowser names COO

Ashman

Ashman has been a member of Hart Crowser’s board of directors for the last 10 years. Over the last four years, he was CEO of Advance Online, an Internet-based training company that began as a subsidiary of Hart Crowser.

Ashman holds an International Business Degree from the Nederlands Opleiding Instituut Voor Het Buitenland (NOIB) in Breukelen, Holland, as well as business administration degrees from the University of Oregon.

Hart Crowser is a 230-person environmental and engineering consulting firm headquartered in Seattle, with offices located in Portland; Anchorage; Fortuna and Long Beach, Calif.; Denver; Jersey City, N.J.; and Boston.

Meyer to head state salmon office

OLYMPIA -- Steve Meyer has been named director of the state Salmon Recovery Office. Meyer previously served nine years as executive director of the State Conservation Commission and six years as director of governmental affairs for the National Association of Conservation Districts in Washington, D.C.

In a statement, Gov. Gary Locke said, "Steve knows the state salmon programs and individuals involved, and he is the right person for this job. Steve knows that I want on-the-ground results, and I want accountability for the money we are spending on salmon."

Locke said developing salmon recovery plans at the local and regional watershed levels will remain key, as will partnering with tribes and other state and federal agencies.

Meyer will also work with other state natural resource agencies on securing federal funding for salmon recovery.

Waste management conference Nov. 5-8

TACOMA -- The Pacific Northwest International Section of the Air & Waste Management Association will host its 42nd annual technical conference, Nov. 5-8, at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Tacoma.

Entitled "Environmental Solutions in a Changing World," the conference will focus on current and emerging environmental issues.

Go to the Web site http://www.pnwis.org for complete information on registration, call for abstracts, technical sessions, sponsorship, exhibition and social events. A gala banquet evening at the new Museum of Glass is also on the agenda.

If you have questions or would like to participate, contact Dave Dornbush, chair, Pacific Northwest International Section 2002, at (206) 544-0399 or by e-mail at david.j.dornbush<@>boeing.com.

Santa Monica polluters face $10,000 fine

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- State officials approved a regulation that would fine local governments up to $10,000 a day if they fail to improve water quality in the Santa Monica Bay during the dry months.

The State Water Resources Control Board voted Thursday to uphold a requirement severely limiting bacterial pollution in the waters from the Ventura County line to Palos Verdes by 2005.

Los Angeles County and area cities that do not comply could be fined up to $10,000 a day.

The regulation, first approved by the Los Angeles Regional Water Board, awaits final approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Throughout the state, local governments must post warning signs at polluted beaches, but in many cases they have not been required to fix the problems.

"This is the strongest regulation to protect beachgoers in the country," said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay.

The regional water board will discuss next week whether to limit bacteria pollution levels during the rainy season.

Feds consider listing California state fish

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The federal government has determined California's state fish, the golden trout, may need to be listed as an endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday there's substantial evidence to support listing the trout. The finding comes almost a year after the conservation group Trout Unlimited sued the agency to force it to consider such a move.

The fish's population has declined because of habitat loss, hybridization, competition with non-native trout, and even overgrazing by livestock. At one time, the fish were found in 450 miles of streams in the Southern Sierra Nevada, but over the past 100 years that has dwindled to just over 80 miles.

The service now will begin a 12-month review to determine if a listing is warranted and, if it is, whether that listing will be as a threatened species or as an endangered one. A threatened species is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future, and an endangered one faces the threat of extinction throughout part or all of the range where it lives.

Native populations of the fish now are found only in the Golden Trout Creek and South Fork of the Kern River. The rivers are both in the Golden Trout Wilderness in Inyo National Forest.

Conservation group Trout Unlimited sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in November 2001, and this June a federal judge gave the service three months to start the process of listing the fish.

The Fish and Wildlife Service faces a backlog of other endangered species requests and lawsuits.

Contaminated fridge given to college

PASCO (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory mistakenly gave a surplus refrigerator contaminated with beryllium to Columbia Basin College.

The lab gave the fridge to the college in May for chemical storage but didn't discover the error until last week. The fridge was tracked to a trailer at the college.

Beryllium is an exotic metal that has been linked to chronic and sometimes fatal lung disease.

No students were believed to have come in contact with the refrigerator, said CBC spokesman Frank Murray. School and lab representatives were meeting Wednesday to discuss the incident and any possible contamination of college staff.

The level of contamination is low enough that lab workers would not have been required to wear protective face masks or gloves around the refrigerator.

Old growth poachers to pay

MONTESANO (AP) -- A judge has ordered that two Grays Harbor area men must pay restitution of $290,955 for illegally cutting down seven old-growth cedar trees in the Olympic National Forest.

Judge David Foscue of Grays Harbor Superior Court ruled that Daniel Hughes and Sean Chavez must pay more than market value for killing the trees, some of which were more than 700 years old. Hughes will also serve four in jail and Chavez three months.

Foscue said it's difficult to put a monetary value on life, including plant life.

Forestry technician Ray Hershey had testified earlier that the market value of the wood in the trees would be $28,455, but noted the trees that were destroyed would have been too old for harvest.

Jan Henderson, an ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service, said the worth of trees can be determined by the "trunk formula method" -- based on the cost of the largest transplantable tree with adjustments for the species, condition and location.

Under that formula, the trees would be worth $290,955 -- the amount the judge used.