January 10, 2006

Environmental Watch: Cramer to head Federal Assurances Project

OLYMPIA — Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland appointed Darin Cramer to serve as acting federal assurances project manager at the State Department of Natural Resources.

He replaces Debora Munguia, who joined the Washington Forest Protection Association as director of governmental relations. Cramer has been assistant manager for the Federal Assurances Project since it began in 2002. Prior to that he worked in forest practices and aquatics divisions at DNR, and for Thurston County on environmental and natural resource issues.

The federal assurances project is an effort to get assurances from the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that forest practices that comply with state rules will satisfy federal requirements under the Endangered Species Act.

The Department of Natural Resources has applied for a statewide, programmatic habitat conservation plan known as the Forest Practices HCP.

The final HCP document has been prepared and the final EIS will be available to the public by the end of the month. DNR expects a decision by the federal agencies this spring.

Waste Management honors Freecycle

SEATTLE — Dan Corcoran and David Ruggiero of Seattle received the Environmental Stewardship Award and a gift from Waste Management for work on behalf of Freecycle, an online network that focuses on giving away items to keep them out of landfills.

Corcoran is a founding moderator of the Seattle Freecycle group and Ruggiero is the current lead moderator and head of the Freecycle program. They say Freecycle groups used the online network to keep more than 100 million pounds of goods out of landfills worldwide in 2005.

Worldwide last year, nearly 6 million items were given away through http://www.freecycle.org. Freecycle has 3,219 groups in 50 countries, with more than 1.25 million members. Waste Management is Freecycle's founding sponsor.

Ecology revises injection-well rule

OLYMPIA — The state Department of Ecology has revised rules that regulate underground injection control wells.

Injection wells are dug or drilled to put water or other fluids into the ground. Most dispose of stormwater runoff or waste water, such as dry wells along roads and parking lots, and septic systems that serve 20 or more people per day.

Ecology regulates the wells to prevent pollution or contamination of ground water. Here are some of the changes in the injection well rule: