November 26, 2002

Environmental Watch: Herres is new CEO for WebPE

EDMONDS -- WebPE has appointed Phil Herres CEO and announced that Fred Illich, the company cofounder, will assume the duties of president and represent the company to the environmental engineering market.

Herres' previous experience includes positions at Nortel and Aldus.

The company also announced that it won a three-year, $3 million contract along with BHE Environmental of Cincinnati to perform automation projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Edmonds-based WebPE provides software products that collect, manage and communicate environmental compliance, prevention and restoration information for government and industry.

Mactec now has 2 operating units

BELLEVUE -- Mactec Inc. has a new organizational structure and two operating units: Mactec Engineering and Consulting Inc. and Mactec Development Corp.

In 1975, Mactec started providing services to the electric utility and nuclear power plant construction industries, and in the 1980s, expanded into nuclear site remediation. Five years ago, Mactec began a series of strategic acquisitions of design/build and environmental services companies.

With the 2000 merger of Harding Lawson Associates and Environmental Science & Engineering (formerly Harding ESE), Mactec expanded into the oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, consumer product, chemical and pharmaceutical, aerospace, transportation, telecommunications and waste management industries.

In 2000, Pacific Environmental Services brought Department of Defense contracts and value engineering, occupational health and safety, water/wastewater management and pollution-prevention expertise to Mactec.

The acquisition of Law Engineering and Environmental Services earlier this year nearly doubled Mactec's size and revenues, and added geotechnical engineering, construction, quality assurance, facilities engineering and industrial risk management expertise, while increasing the geographic coverage of environmental capabilities.

Mactec, a $524 million company, has more than 4,000 employees and more than 100 offices nationwide, including Bellevue and Richland.

Dodge now senior scientist for Intertox

SEATTLE -- David Dodge has joined Intertox Inc., a scientific consulting and research firm, as a senior scientist. His professional focus is on assessment of human exposure and toxicity associated with chemicals in products and the environment.

His responsibilities with Intertox will include project management and the analysis of complex risk problems in human health and the environment.

Founded in 1995, Intertox is a scientific consulting and research firm that specializes in assessing the impact of chemicals and microbes on public health and the environment.

MID honored for urban stewardship

SEATTLE -- The Metropolitan Improvement District was recognized during the Sunday Seahawks game for being one of the city's Urban Stewards by promoting recycling and conservation.

The MID's Downtown Ambassadors annually remove more than 8 tons of leaves from city sidewalks, and since May of this year, removed more than 5,000 cubic yards of trash and 26,000 graffiti tags. The Downtown Seattle Association provides oversight for the MID.

Groups fear BPA cuts in fish programs

SEATTLE -- A coalition of organizations fears the Bonneville Power Administration will cut more than $300 million from its expenses through 2006 and up to another $200 million from salmon restoration programs.

"We’ve heard from BPA and federal sources that BPA is planning to cut $150 (million) to $200 million from salmon over the next four years," says Pat Ford, executive director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition. Ford wants to know where the cuts will be made.

BPA spokesman Bill Murlin said some cuts are necessary. The agency's financial picture is in "dire straits" as a result of the drought, the high cost of energy during the drought and the current low price for energy it has to sell. "We're $1.2 billion short over the next four years."

But, he said, the BPA is not unilaterally planning to cut fish programs. The agency works with the Northwest Power Planning Council, tribes and, according to Murlin, some of the groups questioning the BPA's plans.

No decisions have been made, he said, adding the agency will ensure federal mandates for fish protection will be met.

Save Our Wild Salmon, along with Friends of the Earth, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the NW Energy Coalition say the cuts will further weaken what they call an already failing federal salmon plan.

Irrigators, state settle water rights case

KENNEWICK (AP) -- The state and Columbia Basin irrigators have ended years of conflict by accepting a historic water rights agreement that ensures water during drought years in exchange for payments to mitigate fish losses.

The mediated agreement, reached after two days of talks last week, ends litigation over irrigator demands that the state Department of Ecology issue permits to withdraw Columbia River water without conditions.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association feared Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons would buckle to federal demands that no more water be taken from the river to protect salmon runs.

The parties called the agreement progressive, because it supports irrigation efficiency and a program to give irrigators certainty that water supplies won't be interrupted in drought years.

Details still have to be worked out, but the money essentially will buy "replacement" water in years when permits would have been interrupted.

Irrigation leaders don't expect trouble selling farmers on the minimal fee, which is substantially less than the market rate for water.

Groups oppose Snake River dredging

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) -- Environmental groups are forming organized opposition to a 20-year federal plan to dredge the lower Snake River that would begin this winter.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to deepen the shipping channel and remove sediment from ports and recreation areas.

But the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition says the plan will harm salmon and steelhead, is based on faulty economics and ignores alternatives.

"Numerous agencies and tribes have urged them not to do it and as usual, you have the corps barreling ahead with their preferred approach," said Jan Hasselman of the National Wildlife Federation at Portland.

Hasselman said the corps used economic analysis that is outdated and has been discredited and removed from other corps documents.

A corps spokeswoman said the figures were updated with newer figures and run again and still showed dredging will have a positive economic impact.

Hasselman would not say whether the coalition will file a lawsuit to try to stop the dredging plan but hinted the group was leaning in that direction.

Dredging in the Lower Granite Pool is to begin this winter. The draft plan covers the Snake River from the Port of Lewiston on the Clearwater River to McNary Dam on the Columbia River.