August 12, 2003

Environmental Watch: Aspect Consulting adds staff

Heffner

SEATTLE -- The Seattle office of Aspect Consulting -- a specialty earth science and engineering services firm -- added two remediation engineers with backgrounds in chemical fate and transport, remedial design, cleanup and property redevelopment.

Associate remediation engineer Dave Heffner has more than 20 years' experience managing environmental restoration projects, evaluating remedial technologies, developing and implementing remedial designs and providing post-construction support.

Project remediation engineer Jeremy Porter has five years of local remediation experience, mostly on active properties requiring minimal interruption of routine business activities.

Aspect specializes in water resources, groundwater hydrology, contaminant assessment, environmental restoration and geotechnical and geological engineering. It has offices in Seattle and Bainbridge Island.

Huckell/Weinman Associates adds staff

KIRKLAND -- Huckell/Weinman Associates, an environmental and economics planning firm, added three employees to its Kirkland headquarters.

Nikki Parrott, formerly principal and co-owner of Pacific Development Concepts, has 26 years of experience in housing, community development and planning for local government, nonprofits and private developers.

Jacquelyn Stoner has nine years of public- and private-sector experience in land use, community planning, watershed and resource planning, SEPA compliance, public outreach and consensus building.

Alex Warshall Cohen has masters degrees in biology and urban planning and has done recreation studies for hydro relicensing, regulatory research for critical area ordinances, and environmental analysis for a wind-energy facility. Huckell/Weinman specializes in land use, regulatory compliance, environmental planning and economics.

Landfill may require extra treatment

KENT -- Chemical concentrations in the Kent Highlands Landfill Superfund site don't present an health or environmental emergency, but the landfill may require more treatment to comply with state standards.

The state Department of Ecology recently completed its second five-year review of the Kent Highlands Landfill, a former Seattle municipal waste site at 23076 Military Rd. S.. According to the review, the site's chloride and manganese exceed state standards, and the city of Seattle, which is monitoring the landfill, may need to raise dissolved oxygen levels and lower ammonia concentration levels.

Jeff Neuner, of Seattle Public Utilities' Solid Waste program, disagreed. He said the site is complying with state standards and disagreed with Ecology's interpretation of landfill monitoring rules. Parametrix is SPU's consulting engineer, and CH2M Hill did prior work on the landfill. "We're in discussion with Ecology, and we'll sort this out," he said. "We're going to consider additional measures."

Submit comments on the five-year review by Sept. 4. to David South, site manager, Department of Ecology, Toxics Cleanup Program, 3190 160th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98008 or email to dsou461@ecy.wa.gov. For more information, visit www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/sites_information.html.

Eastern Washington stormwater plan

OLYMPIA -- Just because parts of the Puget Sound get 60 inches of rain a year and the Tri-Cities area gets six doesn't mean eastern Washington doesn't have stormwater problems.

Jurisdictions east of the Cascades still need strategies to meet the state Department of Ecology's goal of treating 90 percent of annual stormwater runoff, said Karen Dinicola, program manager and technical lead for the eastern Washington stormwater manual.

After working with eastern Washington communities and government agencies since June 2001 to tailor a manual and model municipal program for dry climate and soils, the Ecology is accepting comments on a final stormwater manual for the region. "We have a lot of different ways to get at the goal," she said.

Ecology expects the model program to be ready this month and the manual by this fall or early next year. Mail comments by Aug. 18 to Department of Ecology, Water Quality Program, PO Box 47696, Olympia, WA 98504-7696 or email to Karen Dinicola at kdin461@ecy.wa.gov.

Help restore Sammamish shoreline

KENMORE -- The city of Kenmore and Wildcliffe Shores Condominium are looking for volunteers to help restore nearly 2,400 linear feet of the Sammamish River shoreline to shade the river and improve salmon habitat.

A $50,000 grant from the Community Salmon Fund -- a partnership between King County and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation -- is paying for the restoration, which started last week and ends Aug. 22.

Volunteers are doing most of the work, which involves removing invasive vegetation and planting dense native vegetation. For information, call Kenmore's Department of Community Development at (425) 398-8900.

Wastewater utility earns awards

SEATTLE -- The King County Wastewater Treatment Division earned three national awards from the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.

Renton's South Wastewater Treatment Plant received a Platinum Peak Performance Award for five consecutive years of compliance with effluent quality requirements. Northwest Seattle's West Point Treatment Plant received a Gold Peak Performance Award for compliance with its NPDES permit in 2002 and an environmental achievement award for public information and education.

The West Point and South plants discharge treated wastewater deep into Puget Sound. To meet federal discharge permit requirements, treatment plants must meet biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, fecal coliform counts and total residual chlorine limits in removing pollutants from wastewater.

Technology targets arsenic, phosphorous levels

MOSCOW, Idaho -- A Coeur d'Alene firm plans to market a University of Idaho technology the company says efficiently reduces arsenic in drinking water and phosphorous in wastewater.

Blue Water Technologies this month signed a licensing agreement with the Idaho Research Foundation to market the Vandal-Ion process. In a university news release, company co-founder and chief executive officer John Shovic said Vandal-Ion is "the most cost-effective process available for removing these contaminants from water."

The technology was developed by Greg Möller, an associate professor of environmental chemistry and toxicology in the university's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences who receives funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture.

The company says the Vandal-Ion process can be adapted to reduce arsenic and phosphorous to trace levels. "Built-in-place" water-treatment plants and mobile plants will offer the technology next year, Shovic said.