March 16, 2004

Environmental Watch: State revives wetland bank with $120K

OLYMPIA -- Lawmakers have budgeted $120,000 for the Department of Ecology to revive a "wetland banking" regulation. Budget cuts meant the regulation couldn't go ahead when it was proposed two years ago.

The new funds allow Ecology to come up with strategies and start a pilot project.

Wetland banking lets local governments and developers earn "credits" by restoring, creating, enhancing or preserving wetlands before they take action that would damage an existing wetland. Credits can be used or sold.

Ecology will create an advisory committee of state agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers, businesses, mitigation-banking organizations and environmentalists for guidance on the pilot project and the new rule.

Gordon White, who manages Ecology's shorelands program, said three or four wetland banks will be developed and evaluated as part of the pilot project. Data will then be used to come up with a rule, but that rule will only be adopted if funds are set aside in the 2005-07 state budget.

Help make Northgate walkable March 25

SEATTLE -- The Seattle Planning Commission invites community members to a workshop to plan a walkable Northgate urban center. "Improving Pedestrian Connections at Northgate" will be held March 25 at 4 p.m. at the Verity Credit Union Conference Center at 11027 Meridian Ave. N.

Register at www.seattle.gov/planningcommission.

EcoBuild shows favorite green projects

SEATTLE -- Ten presenters will show slides of their favorite Seattle area green projects March 24 at 7 p.m. Some of the presenters are Mark Huppert of Catapult Community Developers, Terry Phelan of Living Shelter Design Architects, Jim Burton of Blip Designlab and Eric Jackson of Charter Construction.

Slides include a corporate headquarters, a straw-bale home and a kitchen remodel. The presentation takes place at Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N, in the Brick Building's community hall. Free to NW EcoBuilding Guild members, $5 non-members.

For more information contact: Thor Peterson 206-615-0731 or thor.peterson@seattle.gov.

Drainage fix works in Fall City

FALL CITY, King County -- A defective drainage pipe on Southeast 46th Street and runoff from the Mitchell Hill drainage basin caused flooding in Fall City, but a system installed last year has put a plug on the problem.

After storms, flooding would hinder emergency access, so Fall City was designated for one of King County's 26 drainage projects.

The county's water and land resources division created a new channel to improve drainage. A channel and pipes direct runoff to a stream and wetland area in Patterson Creek. King County also cleared invasive species and planted native vegetation at the wetland site.

Conference in Portland on agriculture rules

PORTLAND -- A conference on agriculture will be held March 29 and 30 at the Westin Portland Hotel. It will inform farmers, irrigators, landowners, Realtors and developers about how to deal with new agricultural regulations. Co-chairs are Tom Lindley and A. W. "Sandy" Mackie of Perkins Coie.

"Competing interests for water, concerns for animal feedlots and pesticide use, court decisions, mad cow disease and growth management regulations are driving major changes in farm economics," said conference organizers. "Recent cases ... place the courts at the forefront of farm management and regulation. The rules are changing and interpretations are changing even faster."

To register, e-mail registrar@lawseminars.com, mail to 800 Fifth Ave., Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98104, phone (206) 567-4490 or (800) 854-8009 or fax to (206) 567-5058.

Stormwater technology OK'd by Ecology

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- Vortechnics, a Maine-based supplier of stormwater treatment technology, said Washington State Department of Ecology has issued a general use level designation for its products in specific applications.

Vortechnics products clean stormwater runoff from parking lots, roads and other impervious surfaces. Units are engineered with a vortex concentration and flow control to help remove sediment, oil, pollutants and debris before water is released into surface waters. Such pollutants can damage ecosystems and plant, fish and bird habitats.

Vaikko Allen, technical manager for Vortechnics, said, "In order to achieve this designation, we submitted full scale laboratory testing, field testing and third-party studies."

Ore. residents may face fireproofing fines

RUCH, Ore. (AP) -- More than 12,000 suburban or rural homeowners in Jackson County are being asked to voluntarily fireproof their property as part of the Oregon Department of Forestry's new statewide program to reduce the wildfire risk to rural homes.

In addition, 30,000 Deschutes County property owners will be notified in April that their land has been classified as forestland-urban interface under a 1997 law that can make residents liable for $100,000 in firefighting costs if they fail to trim flammable grass, brush and trees.

State foresters estimate woodsy areas on the outskirts of towns contain 250,000 homes.

Homeowners will have two years to voluntarily certify that they've created a 30-foot firebreak around their homes.

Oregon's new rules follow the lead of California, which in 1982 began classifying fire hazard zones. Washington and Idaho stress public education about fireproofing, but legislators have failed to pass laws requiring homeowners to trim flammable vegetation.

New water quality standards in Oregon

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- New water-quality standards have been issued for every fish-bearing waterway in Oregon aimed at protecting endangered salmon and trout species from heat and pollution.

"We have essentially redesigned 30 years of water-quality standards," said Mark Charles of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The standards resulted from a lawsuit filed by Northwest Environmental Advocates of Portland that claimed the old standards did not meet requirements of the federal Endangered Species and Clean Water acts.

The standards are effective immediately. But cities and industrial sites only need to meet the new standards upon renewal of their water-quality permits about once every five years.

Critics, however, say the changes will not have a significant impact on fish that need cold water to thrive.

"Our belief is that this set of standards amounts to one gigantic loophole for industrial and municipal sources and land activities," said Nina Bell, executive director of the group that filed the lawsuit.

She said the state can "fudge" on where it will measure the temperature of discharge from a pipe.