March 9, 2004

Environmental Watch: Two meetings on green forestry plan

OLYMPIA -- The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has scheduled two public meetings to review its preferred approach to sustainable forestry. Meetings will be held on March 10 at 6 p.m. in Chehalis and March 11 at 6 p.m. at the King County Library Service Center, 960 Newport Way N.W., Issaquah.

The preferred alternative will be analyzed in a final EIS and the board will make a final decision in June that will guide stewardship of 1.4 million acres of state trust forests in Western Washington. For more information, see www.dnr.wa.gov.

Workshops for small forest landowners

OLYMPIA -- Small forest landowners are invited to attend April and May workshops sponsored by Department of Natural Resources, Washington Farm Forestry Association, Washington State University and the University of Washington.

Workshops will help landowners understand changes to forest practice rules involving fish, wildlife and water quality. Workshops will cover road maintenance standards and how to use road engineering strategies to minimize stream impacts.

They will be held in Sedro Woolley April 1, Chehalis April 15 and Colville May 6. No fee, but pre-registration is required. Contact the Small Forest Landowner Office at (360) 902-1122 or sflo@wadnr.gov.

WWU dean and professor recognized

BELLINGHAM -- Dean Bradley Smith of Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment recently received two new appointments: president of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, and the university liaison for the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Smith serves as co-chair of Gov. Gary Locke's Sustainable Washington Advisory Panel.

The state House of Representatives recognized WWU professor Michael Seal for his contributions to automobile innovation. Seal is founder and director of the university's Vehicle Research Institute. He has overseen production of 36 fuel-efficient cars, which have won awards in events around the world.

David Evans names power director

PORTLAND -- The consulting firm of David Evans and Associates appointed Michael P. Elliott director of power generation and transmission. Elliott will direct staff in electrical design, natural resource studies, permitting and right-of-way services.

He comes to DEA from Ida-West Energy Co. Elliott was project manager for development of the Garnet Energy Facility, a power plant near Middleton, Idaho, and for development of the Hermiston Power Project, an electrical generation facility in Oregon.

Nominations due for green road awards

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The American Road and Transportation Builders Association's transportation development foundation is accepting nominations for 2004 Globe Awards, which recognize exceptional projects and processes in U.S. transportation construction, environmental protection and mitigation.

Completed surface transportation projects or organizations may be nominated. Applications must be received by June 30. Contact Rhonda Haskins at (202) 289-4434 or see www.artba.org.

Bitterroot wins Montana contract

BUTTE, Mont. -- Bitterroot Restoration Inc. has been awarded a four-year contract to revegetate mining-impacted areas around Silver Bow Creek near Butte.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte was listed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1983 as one of several Superfund sites in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin. In 1999, Arco agreed to pay $215 million to the state of Montana to resolve claims and $80 million was set aside for Silver Bow Creek.

Bitterroot is an ecological restoration company based in Corvallis, Mont., with an office near Seattle. This is the fourth contract the firm has received for Silver Bow work.

Asarco may haul more soil to Ruston

TACOMA (AP) -- If the Everett Housing Authority agrees to buy an Asarco smelter site there, the company plans to send three times as much contaminated soil as previously estimated to its former copper smelter site in Ruston, just north of Tacoma.

David South, state Department of Ecology site manager, told The News Tribune that Asarco's final design report for the Everett cleanup calls for as much as 63,660 cubic yards of poisoned soil to be buried in Ruston. Past estimates ranged between 20,000 and 25,000 cubic yards -- enough to fill 2,500 dump trucks.

The most dangerous waste in Everett -- about 2,250 cubic yards of arsenic blobs -- will be hauled to a hazardous waste disposal facility in Idaho or Arlington, Ore., South said.

Asarco is under a court order to clean up the 4.7-acre site of a former lead smelter in northeast Everett by Oct. 31. In Ruston, Asarco is part way through a massive Superfund cleanup that includes removal of contaminated residential soils in north Tacoma neighborhoods within a mile of its former copper smelter.

To help Asarco reduce cleanup expenses at its Everett and Ruston sites, federal officials have approved Asarco's plan to dump polluted dirt in Ruston.

The soils destined for Ruston will be hidden either beneath the surface of the 60-acre smelter site or discarded inside the so-called onsite disposal facility, a huge pit built to hold 250,000 cubic yards of smelter waste.

The cleanup plan has the support of Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma and Ruston town officials.

Asarco could save $3 million on the cost of the Everett cleanup by hauling contaminated soils to Ruston.

$25M forest center eyed for Oregon

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Ron Wyden is pushing a new bill to locate a federal research center in central Oregon to evaluate forests throughout the West, as officials move to implement a landmark forest-health law approved by Congress last fall.

The $25 million center, to be built in Prineville at the Ochoco National Forest headquarters, was included in a Senate version of the forest bill, but was stripped out during final negotiations between House and Senate leaders.

Wyden called the center an important tool to evaluate the effects of insects, disease, fire and weather on Western forests.

Parkland project needs volunteers

PARKLAND, Pierce County -- Volunteers are needed to plant 2,500 willow and dogwood stakes and wetland plants next to the west tributary of the North Fork of Clover Creek on March 13 and April 10.

Planting will take place between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. on both days and will be led by the Pierce Conservation District's Stream Team and the Water Programs Division of Pierce County Public Works and Utilities Department.

For project information, call Janine Redmond, water programs senior planner, at (253) 798-7569.