July 13, 2004

Environmental Watch: Recycle that old TV for $10

SEATTLE -- For $10, area residents now can recycle televisions at Good Guys retail stores in Bellevue, Tukwila, Lynnwood and Puyallup. A drive to recycle old sets through Aug. 7 is supported by King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg said illegally dumped televisions on private properties next to fish habitats have become a problem. Televisions contain lead, cadmium and mercury, and can contaminate air, land and water.

Current recycling programs, which reclaim resources such as copper and lead, cost up to $50 per unit.

Next year, northwest Washington residents are forecast to generate more than 1 million units of obsolete electronics. For more information, visit http://dnr.metrokc.gov/swd/takeitback or http://www.piercecountywa.org/recycle.

WWU prof on POP panel in Beijing

BELLINGHAM -- Wayne G. Landis, professor and director of the Institute of Environmental Toxicology at Western Washington University, moderated panel discussions at an environmental workshop last month in Beijing.

Sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the workshop addressed the need for science-based decision making in order to reduce risks of persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. Landis' panel considered risk assessment and adding new substances to the list of chemicals specified by the Stockholm Convention.

Landis chairs the department of environmental science at Huxley College of the Environment, has two patents, and is a board member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

New satellite to track pollution

PULLMAN -- Environmental scientists will soon be able to more clearly see air pollution in the earth's atmosphere, thanks to the upcoming launch of NASA's Earth Observing System Aura satellite.

Four high-tech instruments on board will collect data on the upper and lower atmospheres. An ozone monitoring instrument, constructed and largely funded by the Dutch, uses U.S. measuring and analysis expertise. With funding from NASA, Washington State University's George Mount, a geophysicist and engineering professor, has worked on the project since it started nearly eight years ago.

"We're interested in urban air pollution," said Mount, "which is a very, very hard problem to do from space." Mount was part of a team selected by NASA in 1997 to design, test and calibrate the ozone monitoring equipment.

Most pollution chemistry occurs in the lowest atmosphere. The ozone monitor is expected to supply what will be the best available satellite-gathered data on formation and dispersion of weather-borne pollutants in the troposphere, which extends to an altitude of 14 kilometers.

EOS Aura will study the earth's ozone, air quality and climate from a near-polar orbit every 100 minutes. A five-year mission will capture images from almost every point of the globe, tracking airborne transport of aerosols and chemical pollution.

Scientists can then measure and map pollutants in 64-square-mile segments, covering 1,600-mile geographical areas the size of the Pacific Northwest. Earlier satellite imaging could not give scientists true high-resolution views.

Bush plan would OK more logging

BOISE (AP) -- The Bush administration on Monday proposed a new plan to open up national forests to more logging, confirming a draft plan published two weeks ago.

Under the plan, announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman at the state Capitol, governors would have to petition the federal government to block road-building needed for logging in remote areas of national forests.

The rule replaces one adopted by the Clinton administration and still under challenge in federal court. It covers about 58 million of the 191 million acres of national forest nationwide.

Vestas supplying wind mills to TVA

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- Railroad cars loaded with 135-foot-long windmill blades bound for the Southeast's largest wind farm on Buffalo Mountain are arriving.

The $30 million, privately financed project will add 15 turbines by year's end to the Tennessee Valley Authority wind farm, increasing its capacity more than tenfold.

Invenergy LLC, a Chicago-based energy development company, will own and operate the windmills under a 20-year deal supplying TVA's successful Green Power Switch alternative energy program.

In 2001, TVA built and continues to operate three smaller windmills on the former strip mine, about 30 miles west of Knoxville. Together they generate about 2 megawatts, enough to power 400 homes.

The Invenergy units, rising more than 360 feet in the air and expected to be on line by December, will generate 27 megawatts.

TVA, the nation's largest public utility, has more than 7,200 residential customers and 300 businesses in the Green Power Switch program. They pay a few dollars extra each month for clean renewable energy.

Foundations 30 feet deep are being prepared for each windmill, while their foreign-made bases, each weighing 95,000 pounds, are en route by train from Longview, Wash. Vestas Americas of Portland, is supplying and installing the windmills.

Some worried that hauling the windmill parts up the steep, rutted mountain road would be impossible. But the 5-mile route has been reworked. Curves were widened, switchbacks eliminated and portions repaved.

Weed Mapper helps fight invasive plants

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Dozens of undesirable weeds have displaced native plants throughout Oregon, threatening ecosystems and forcing wildlife to search out new areas for food.

Weeds can be costly for the agriculture and horticulture industries, and can also blight recreation opportunities, officials said.

Now, members of a variety of agencies, nonprofits, universities, soil and water conservation districts, as well as private landowners, are forming a network to fight back against weeds. They'll use tools like a database called Weed Mapper, created at Oregon State University.

"Over the last 10 years or so, the importance of invasive species as a threat to conservation and good economics has really risen to people's attention as we've learned more and more about the true costs of failure to act on these things," said Jonathon Soll of the Nature Conservancy of Oregon.

Tom Forney, projects coordinator with the noxious weed control program at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said some weeds have now invaded riparian areas and spread particularly well during floods.

According to the agency, 21 weeds cost the state $83 million annually. The total cost of all invasive weeds is many times that, Forney said.