October 4, 2005

Environmental Watch: Wolfe starts his own enviro law firm

SEATTLE — Seattle lawyer Charles (Chuck) R. Wolfe recently opened a law firm to focus on environmental, land use and regulatory counseling.

Wolfe has more than 20 years of experience in environmental and land use law, including as a partner with Foster Pepper & Shefelman. He represents municipalities and private groups on redevelopment, permitting and remediation issues. Past projects have been in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo and Gig Harbor.

Wolfe has chaired the Environmental and Land Use section of the Washington State Bar, and is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington. He has degrees in law and urban planning.

Landau Associates adds staff

Bohm

Raben

Goetz

Goetz is an archaeologist with more than 14 years of experience looking at impacts projects have on historical and cultural resources. Raben has about 10 years of experience as a technical editor and staff writer.

In Portland, Jessica Kruczek is a geotechnical project engineer and Peter Diamond a staff geologist. Kruczek has done site remediation and field sampling, and Diamond spent two years providing technical support to remove oil tanks.

Landau is an environmental, geotechnical and natural resource consulting firm with offices in Edmonds, Tacoma, Spokane and Portland.

EnviroIssues grows in Seattle, Portland

SEATTLE — EnviroIssues, a local public involvement and facilitation firm, named Rachelle Hein and Ara Swanson associates in its Seattle office. Ray Outlaw and Clair Leighton are project coordinators.

Hein did work for Senator Patty Murray, and Swanson coordinated energy conferences. Outlaw recently did an internship with the National Marine Mammal Laboratory and Leighton earned a geography degree from the University of Washington.

In its Portland office, EnviroIssues appointed Cathy McCague as an associate. McCague helped with policy research and outreach for Oregon State Rep. Mike Schaufler.

EnviroIssues does technical and regulatory consulting for government and industry groups.

King County needs land for road work

SEATTLE — King County will hold a public hearing Oct. 11 on the proposed transfer of county property and easements for highway widening. The hearing will be in Woodinville at 22509 State Route 9 S.E. It will follow an open house to start at 5 p.m.

The highway project needs about one acre of land the county bought for the wastewater treatment plant Brightwater, set to be built north of Woodinville.

The proposal calls for land along state Route 9 near state Route 522 to be transferred to Washington state Department of Transportation and Snohomish County PUD. The PUD would use land to relocate utility poles.

Meeting on Madrona Creek daylighting

SEATTLE — The Seattle Board of Park Commissioners will hold a meeting Oct. 13 in the Park Board Room at 100 Dexter Ave. N ., at 6 p.m. It will cover two projects: vegetation at Marshall Park and daylighting Madrona Creek.

A plan for vegetation management has been proposed for a scenic viewpoint at Marshall Park, located at Seventh Avenue West and West Highland Drive.

A public hearing will be held at the meeting on a proposal to daylight Madrona Creek. This work would involve building a new creek channel, a 4,800-square-foot wetland cove and culverts. There would also be a pedestrian trail and four bridges, and native species would be planted between Lake Washington Boulevard and Lake Washington.

The board is a group of citizens who advise the Parks and Recreation Superintendent, the mayor and the city council on parks and recreation matters. For more information, call Sandy Brooks at (206) 684-5066.

AWB, NEBC and Ecology sponsor summit

TACOMA — The Northwest Environmental Summit will be Oct. 19 and 20 in Tacoma at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center. It is targeted to environmental engineers, consultants, lawyers, agency staff and educators.

The summit is part of Association of Washington Business' effort to keep companies informed of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Other groups sponsoring the event are the Northwest Environmental Business Council and the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Ecology Director Jay Manning will give the keynote address. There will also be 15 information sessions on technical issues, and a trade show on new environmental products.

For more information or to register, see http://www.ecwashington.org. Or contact Amy Johnson at (800) 521-9325 or amyj@awb.org.

Oct. 10-11 conference on enviro rules

SEATTLE — Lion Technology will hold a conference on environmental regulations in Seattle on Oct. 10-11 at the Holiday Inn Seattle at Sea-Tac International Airport.

Workshops are targeted to environmental managers, engineers, consultants and lawyers. Topics include the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Air and Clean Water acts, as well as toxic substances and pesticides.

For more information, call (206) 248-1000 or see http://www.lion.com/e962. Lion Technology is based in Lafayette, N.J.