June 21, 2005

Environmental Watch: Aspect Consulting adds staff

Carlson

Carlson joins Aspect's growing groundwater-related practice and will work with the Port of Seattle and Department of Ecology on a contract for water rights processing. His expertise is in analyzing saturated soils and doing groundwater models.

Aspect specializes in earth science and engineering services, with a focus on water resources, remediation and geotechnical engineering. The staff of 35 is in offices in Seattle and on Bainbridge Island.

GLY recycles on Kirkland project

SEATTLE — King County recently recognized GLY Construction for using recycled-content materials on a 100,000-square-foot, five-story medical building at the Evergreen Plaza site in Kirkland.

GLY is using high-grade reusable concrete forms as well as recycled-content building material such as wallboard, concrete, carpet and ceiling tiles. Of 13,000 cubic yards of native soil that crews removed, 11,000 cubic yards will be used for backfill.

GLY has a sustainable construction manual for its employees, which lists resources for recycling and waste management planning. Three of its employees are LEED accredited.

GLY is participating in King County's Construction Works program, which is designed to help builders learn about the benefits of recycling and using recycled-content materials. For more information see http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/construction-recycling/constructionworks.asp. Or call Kinley Deller at (206) 296-4434 or Karen Price at (206) 389-7281.

WWU to buy only green electricity

BELLINGHAM — Western Washington University will buy all its electricity from renewable energy sources in the upcoming school year, thanks to a new student fee the university's board of trustees approved this month.

The $10.50 fee per quarter for full-time students will generate $355,000 each year, enough for Western to buy about 35 million kilowatt hours of electricity from Puget Sound Energy for the 2005-06 school year. That's enough electricity to run 3,200 homes.

(Note: An earlier version of this article gave incorrect information on fee amount.)

Director of facilities management Tim Wynn said students felt using green power was important and introduced the initiative. Now the university is looking at alternate forms of transportation, sustainable cleaning products and ways to dispose of food from dining facilities.

"You could say the green power initiative kind of spurred everything else on," Wynn said.

University officials say Western's purchase makes it the second biggest purchaser of renewable power in higher education and the 15th biggest buyer of green energy in the country.

Ecology honors 44 treatment plants

OLYMPIA — The state Department of Ecology recognized 44 of Washington's 305 wastewater treatment plants for perfect compliance with wastewater discharge permits. These plants had no spills last year in Washington's waters.

In addition to treating the water, plant operators must conduct thousands of water-quality monitoring tests during the year. Award winners passed all environmental tests and analyzed samples according to Ecology's standards.

Treatment plants honored this year in King County are those in Lakota, Miller Creek and Redondo. Kitsap County's Manchester Wastewater Treatment Plant got special recognition as the only treatment plant with a perfect record, having complied with its permits each year since the county began its program to honor plants 10 years ago.

Hanford open for tours this weekend

RICHLAND — This weekend the Department of Energy is making parts of the Hanford site available for public tours for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001.

On Friday and Saturday visitors can trace a route that shows how plutonium was produced. Guides will explain cleanup efforts at places where fuel was manufactured for irradiation in Hanford's reactors. There will be a walking tour of B Reactor, the world's first large-scale plutonium production reactor.

The free, four-hour tours begin at the Volpentest Hammer Training & Education Center, 2890 Horn Rapids Road, Richland. Tours start at 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Register at http://www.hanford.gov/information/sitetours/registration. Participants must be U.S. citizens and must show a photo identification at security check.

Web site shows toxins near you

OLYMPIA — The state Department of Ecology has a Web site with information people can use to find out about toxic chemicals in their communities.

Idell Hansen coordinates the Ecology's Hazardous Substance Information & Education Office and says the Web site is a one-stop shop for facts on toxic substances. People can see which buildings in their areas have asbestos, what chemicals community businesses use and how much mercury local manufacturers release into the air. Tips on how to recycle hazardous materials are also posted.

The Web site address is http://www.ecy.wa.gov/hsieo. For information by phone, call (800) 633-7585.

A link on the Web site goes to the Environmental Defense Fund Scorecard, which lists toxic-substance details by to zip code. See http://www.environmentaldefense.org/go/scorecard.cancer.