October 29, 2002

Environmental Watch: Hartung joins Adolfson Associates

Hartung

Hartung has more than 10 years of experience in ecological and wildlife studies, including work with songbirds, raptors and amphibians.

With Adolfson's natural sciences group she will work on the firm's specialties of natural resource management, planning, environmental impact analysis and Endangered Species Act compliance.

Water quality workshop in Seattle

SEATTLE -- The Advanced Water Quality Permitting Workshop will be Dec. 3 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The program will discuss the complexities of water-quality permitting and will explain how various water-quality permits and certifications fit together.

Law Seminars International is presenting the workshop. For registration or more information, telephone (206) 621-1938 or (800) 854-8009. The fax is (206) 567-5058, and the email is registrar@lawseminars.com.

International green building confab in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas -- The first International Green Building Conference and Expo will be at the Austin Convention Center from Nov. 13 through Nov. 15.

Conference speakers include David Suzuki, author of "The Sacred Balance"; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and M. Arthur Gensler Jr. of Gensler Architecture San Francisco.

Topics of the conference include sustainability, productivity, green building scoring, LEED applications, brownfields and retrofits, incentives and regulatory issues, commercial and residential case studies, HVAC, lighting, and renewable systems, interiors, regional planning and urban design, education and training, indoor environmental quality, materials and waste reduction, international and regional initiatives and other options.

Also the first Green Building Leadership Awards will be presented at a gala dinner.

"This conference is designed to meet widespread interest for an annual 'meeting place' for the diverse and rapidly expanding green building industry," said Ross Spiegel, chair of the Conference Steering Committee and president of the 18,000-member Construction Specifications Institute.

BLM issues new wind power rules

WASHINGTON -- The nation's biggest landowner, the federal Bureau of Land Management, has issued new guidelines for wind energy development on public lands under its control.

The guidelines for the 262 million acres of BLM land cover the processing of right-of-way applications for wind energy site testing and monitoring facilities, as well as applications for commercial wind energy development projects.

The guidelines are designed to aid in the timely processing of wind-rights applications. Issues covered include land-use plan requirements for wind energy development, establishment of rental fees for site testing and monitoring authorizations and minimum rental fees for commercial development, due diligence requirements and requirements for environmental review of wind energy activities.

The BLM currently administers 25 wind energy right-of-way authorizations on public lands in California and Wyoming. The sites cover approximately 5,000 acres and generate about 500 megawatts of electrical power per year. The BLM has recently received some 30 new applications for projects in Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, California, Wyoming and Washington.

The guidelines can be found at http://www.blm.gov/nhp/efoia/wo/fy03/im2003-020.htm.

SoCal diesel ban for public fleets upheld

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Government agencies in Southern California can be forced to use cars, trucks and buses with cleaner emissions, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ban on diesel vehicles in public fleets imposed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Two groups had challenged the agency's rules, which also forced public entities with fleets of 15 or more vehicles to purchase alternative-fuel vehicles when expanding or replacing vehicles.

The regulation covers government agencies from the city to federal levels, school districts, universities and transit districts in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Engine Manufacturers Association and the Western States Petroleum Association claimed the rules violated the federal Clean Air Act, which generally prohibits state or local governments from imposing standards relating to controlling emissions from new vehicles. Messages left at the offices of the two groups were not immediately returned.

"This is a big win for us," said Barbara Baird, a lawyer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. "This decision clears the way for the district's fleet rules to help attack the problem of diesel pollution."

Diesel fumes are the greatest contributor to cancer-causing airborne pollution and also contribute substantially to smog, Baird said.

Federal agencies skip Klamath kill hearing

EUREKA, Calif. (AP) -- Federal agencies responsible for balancing water between farms and fish declined to attend a California legislative committee hearing Monday looking into the massive kill of salmon in the Klamath River.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said the Bush Administration decided it had nothing to add to the hearing until a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation was completed.

The U.S. Department of Interior did not immediately return a telephone call for comment.

Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, chairman of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, called the hearing after an estimated 33,000 salmon died in the lower 30 miles of the Klamath River.

The fish began dying in September from gill rot diseases that spread rapidly when fish are crowded together in warm water. It appears most of the dead fish were headed back to the Trinity River, the largest tributary of the Klamath.

The kill has focused new attention on the Bush Administration's efforts to balance water from the Klamath Reclamation Project between fish and farms. The federal irrigation system run by the Bureau of Reclamation serves 235,000 acres of farmland straddling the Oregon-California border east of the Cascade Range.