December 7, 2004

Environmental Watch: Mentor Law Group adds two

Ruple

Symms

SEATTLE — John Ruple recently joined Mentor Law Group as an associate. Jennifer Symms was promoted to paralegal. Ruple has done natural resource projects for local governments and regulatory agencies. He clerked for the Washington and Utah attorneys general, where he worked on water resources permitting and contaminated site remediation. He also worked for SE Group as a manager for permits for to operate resorts on National Forest System lands in six western states.

Symms joined Mentor Law Group after working with Starflower Foundation, where she helped local community groups do habitat restoration in Seattle parks.

Mentor Law Group is based in Seattle and works on natural resources, land use and environmental law.

Safety topic of haz-mat meeting

SEATTLE — Eric Tofte, training manager for the Evergreen Safety Council, will present a talk today on the ways people commonly get hurt at work and at home.

A social hour starts at 6 p.m. and is followed by "Serious Safety with a Humorous Twist" and dinner. The event takes place at Rock Salt Steak House, 1232 Westlake Ave. N. in Seattle.

It is hosted by the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Academy of Hazardous Materials Management. Also at this meeting, the chapter is set to hold elections.

Tofte was deputy director of Chelan County Emergency Management for 12 years. He helped businesses in the county come up with disaster and emergency response plans.

Key Peninsula-Islands basin plan meeting

TACOMA — Pierce County Water Programs will host a public meeting Dec. 14 on data collected for a basin plan for Key Peninsula-Islands. The meeting will be held in the Key Peninsula Civic Center, 17010 S. Vaughn Road in Vaughn at 7 p.m.

Representatives of Pierce County and the URS Corp. will gather public feedback about stream survey results.

Crews took water samples from 10 streams and collected data on instream and streamside habitat on 17 streams. They also gathered information on current and predicted land uses, fish and water quality in the area.

"We now have an accurate, up-to-date source of information on area streams," said water programs services manager Dan Wrye, "and a better idea of where our services can be put to the best use."

Data will be used to write a basin plan that will help determine where and how much money is spent on surface water management. Funds come from stormwater utility fees collected from the basin's property owners.

County staff and URS consultants have completed the first phase of preparing the plan, which will cover the Key Peninsula, including the Burley-Minter and Rocky Bay areas, and Fox, Raft, Anderson, Ketron and Herron islands.

The Key Peninsula-Islands Basin Plan is one of 10 basin plans Pierce County is developing to update the county's 1991 stormwater plan.

Kent schools win air quality award

KENT — The Kent school district is one of 12 schools and districts chosen for an indoor air quality award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Winners were picked from hundreds of schools and districts around the country with air quality management programs.

EPA says indoor pollutants in schools can cause headaches, nausea, respiratory problems and asthma.

About 25,000 schools and school districts across the country are in the voluntary air quality management program, which the EPA developed in 1995. It was created in response to government studies showing deteriorating conditions of schools and rising asthma cases, particularly among school-age children.

For its management program, Kent school district tells administrative staff about indoor air quality at their orientation program, trains custodians semi-annually, and sends employees newsletters on identifying and preventing indoor air quality problems.

"Children spend a significant amount of time in schools," said EPA assistant administrator Jeff Holmstead, and the agency is working to keep schools free of indoor pollutants and irritants that affect students and staff.