Jun 13, 1995

Cascade Plastics

Cascade Plastics has purchased the custom molding business and related assets of Production Plastics and moved from Tacoma to Puyallup. The new facility, which houses 15 molding machines, a mold making and tool repair room and secondary operations facilities for molded parts, will be hosting an open house on June 16, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at their new location, 7009 45th Street Court E.

Seattle Executives Association

Dave Salzberg, president of nationwide Roth Young Personnel, will replace Earl Brown as president of the Seattle Executives Association, an organization whose goal is to promote business for its 121 member firms. Salzberg has worked for Roth Young since 1991 and was selected Account Executive of the Year for the United States in 1994. Prior to joining Roth Young, he was an executive with the retail food industry for over twenty-five years. Other officers of the Seattle Executives Association include: Mike Sherry, Alexander Hutton, first vice president; Gary Beck, Republic Parking Northwest, second vice president; and Wayne DeMeester, Kemper Securities, treasurer. New board members are Darrell Beetham, Dick Pakko and George Vestal. They join Jeff Altchech, Craig Dander, Suzanne Giovannoni, Jeri Lafromboise, Brian Westerlund and Cam Wilson. Video Software Dealers Association Mark Vrieling has been elected to the national board of directors of the Video Software Dealers Association, an international trade association of the home video entertainment industry, for a three-year term. Vrieling is owner of Rain City Video, a chain of three video stores located in Seattle, and co-owner of Work & Play, a Seattle-based multimedia production company. The Video Software Dealers Association members represent more than 20,000 retail locations -- small, independently owned video retailers as well as large video chains. Members also include the home video divisions of motion picture studios, video distributors, and other associated businesses.

MBA

Jill Goodwin has joined the staff of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties as public affairs coordinator. Her background includes positions with Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce, the city of Seattle and Bates Technical College. She has also been a freelance reporter for several area newspapers. Goodwin's new duties include coordinating the association's publications and serving as a media contact. She will also work with city governments in King and Snohomish counties concerning building issues.

Lumbermen's

Lumbermen's of Washington Inc. recently announced the acquisition of Truss Span Corp. of Auburn. Truss Span is expected to open June 19 as Lumbermen's. Part of Redmond-based Lanoga Corp., Lumbermen's is a 33-store chain of retail building material centers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

FMI Corp.

Kevin C. Kilgore has joined FMI Corp. as a client service manager in the firm's Denver office. Kilgore will be working with clients to provide improved services and satisfaction, to ensure client's awareness of the full-range of services offered by FMI, and to provide focused and meaningful communication. Prior to joining FMI, he was a principal with Marathon Management Systems, where he was involved with automating estimating and financial applications for contractors.

Plant engineering and maintenance convention

The American Institute of Plant Engineers Chapter No. 130 is sponsoring the 1995 Puget Sound Plant Engineering & Maintenance Show June 28-29 at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. The event is designed specifically for all personnel levels of plant engineering and facilities management. There will be free seminars and over 150 state-of-the-art exhibits. For further information, call (206) 646-4287.

NREC seminars

Building and Design 2000 -- a private, nonprofit organization providing training and technical assistance to design and construction firms for the Non-Residential Energy Code --is holding three NREC classes later this month. Simplifying NREC Compliance will be held June 20, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Building Envelope will be held June 22, from 8 a.m. to noon; and NREC Field Compliance will be held June 27, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. All will be held at the Lighting Design Lab, located at 400 E. Pine St. in Seattle. All classes must have a minimum enrollment of 15 attendees three business days prior to each seminar. For further information, or to register, call (206) 682-2800.

Permitting process workshop

The King County Department of Development and Environmental Services, the Master Builders Association, and the EcoBuilders Guild together have designed and are offering a workshop to help developers better understand and successfully navigate the development and permitting process. The workshop is entitled Getting to Yes with DDES. The program will include information on major changes to the new King County Zoning Code and how they will affect the development process. Additional features include a lunch panel on the future of the water supply, disposal in King County, and a presentation by the EcoBuilders Guild on cost-savings in the disposal of construction debris. The workshop will be held June 15, between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., in Room J-116 of Bellevue Community College's upper campus. Cost is $75. For further information, contact David Dudley in the DDES Environmental Education Office at (206) 296-7269.

EPA, NW Enviroservice reach settlement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Seattle-based hazardous waste processor Northwest EnviroService Inc. resolving alleged violations of federal and state regulations for handling hazardous waste at the firm's plant near downtown Seattle. According to the agreement, Northwest EnviroService will pay a $350,000 penalty over two years. Independent of the settlement, the company has sold the hazardous waste processing portion of its business, but will continue processing non-hazardous wastewater and used oil. Over the next few months, the hazardous waste processing facility will be closed and decontaminated. EPA and Northwest EnviroService have also agreed on a site-wide clean-up order, which will proceed in conjunction with the closure. The original allegation, which the company neither admits nor denies, stems from the discovery by EPA inspectors of four illegal hazardous waste handling units, all being operated without permits.

Adolfson Associates Inc.

Adolfson Associates Inc., specializing in environmental analysis, has added David Christensen as a surface water quality scientist in its Seattle office, and Jessica Galvano as administrative office at AAI's Portland office.

Weather creates abundance of electricity

RICHLAND (AP) -- Recent warm weather has swelled Northwest rivers and delayed the restart of the state's only commercial nuclear reactor. Hot temperatures two weeks ago thawed snow and ice, sending meltwater down the Columbia-Snake river system and past its hydroelectric dams. Heavy rains last week added even more water to rivers. The abundance of available hydropower from the high runoff has pushed the Bonneville Power Administration's generating network to capacity, said Bob Mazurkiewicz, chief of operations for nonfederal projects for BPA. As a result, the BPA asked Washington Public Power Supply System engineers to change their plans to restart Plant No. 2 near Richland on Thursday. Energy managers prefer to create electricity from falling water that powers dam turbines, rather than letting it scour spillways, Mazurkiewicz said. If WPPSS were to restart its reactor, the BPA would have to shut down hydroelectric generators and send even more water over spillways, he said. BPA doesn't even want to accept the minimal amount of electricity No. 2 would create during low-power testing, Mazurkiewicz said. The plant has been shut down in recent weeks for annual maintenance. BPA had all its operating generators on line Thursday, but still was forced to send 60,000 to 70,000 cubic feet per second over spillways, he said.

Weyerhaeuser trucks protect watersheds

On June 1, Weyerhaeuser's White River Tree Farm in Enumclaw became the first to operate all logging trucks equipped with new equipment designed to protect the health of watersheds by lowering air pressure in truck tires on logging roads. The result is reduced road maintenance and siltation runoff into fish-bearing rivers and streams caused by surface degradation and rutting, according to Weyerhaeuser. It also allows for a smoother ride over rough roads, thereby minimizing stress on drivers' backs, the company says. Installed directly on the trucks, the $15,000 Central Tire Inflation System allows drivers to easily adjust tire pressure from inside the truck cab and saves them time by avoiding a stop at the airing station. A few "contract" logging trucks will also be retrofitted with hardware allowing the use of a newly installed airing station at the White River Tree Farm. According to Weyerhaeuser, when rutting and surface degradation is reduced, there will be less road maintenance needed, particularly grading. Grading roads in the winter is a major source of sediment from logging roads. Three years of testing by the Forest Service showed that low tire pressure reduced sediment flow from logging roads by 80 percent, the company says.

Program pays farmers to protect wetlands

The Department of Fish and Wildlife is encouraging farmers to participate in a voluntary program sponsored by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) that provides owners of eligible land the opportunity to sell easements to the federal Department of Agriculture and receive cost-share assistance to restore the land to natural wetlands. The program's goal is to protect and restore habitat for salmon, steelhead, migratory birds and other wildlife, and to purify and prevent floods. This year, crop, pasture and forest land qualify for the restoration project. Restorable wetlands, buffer areas and stream corridors also are eligible. Lands requiring restoration as part of a mitigation agreement do not qualify. The easements will be paid at fair market value to a cap of $2,500 an acre in western Washington and $1,500 per acre in easter Washington. NRCS will pick up 75 percent of the restoration costs -- breaching dikes, planing trees and shrubs, etc. -- with either the landowner of state picking up the remainder. Enrollment for the national program, which has $92 million for FY 1995 to enlist up to 118,000 acres, runs through June 30. Call your local NRCS office listed in the telephone directory under the USDA for additional information.

Aquatic weeds workshops, grants

The state Department of Ecology has announced the opening of the FY 1996 funding cycle for the Aquatic Weeds Management Fund (AWMF), which provides grants to cities, counties and state agencies to reduce the propagation of freshwater aquatic weeds and to manage the problems these weeds cause. Approximately $350,000 will be available on a competitive basis and $100,000 will be set aside for Early Infestation projects. The application period will run from July 1 to August 1. Early Infestation grants are offered on a first-come, first-serve basis and are available year-round. Two public workshops have been scheduled to help local governments and others eligible for funding understand the grant program and application procedures: June 27 at 10 a.m. in the North Spokane Library, 44 East Hawthorne, Spokane; and June 30 at 10 a.m., Ecology Auditorium 300 Desmond Dr., Lacey. Those unable to attend the workshops can request an application packet from Kathy Hamel at (360) 407-6562.

UW professor gets $295,000 grant

SEATTLE (AP) -- History professor Richard White of the University of Washington has been named a 1995 MacArthur Fellow. He will receive a $295,000 grant from the foundation to continue his pioneering work in environmental history. White, 48, has been a professor at UW, where he received his masters and doctorate in history, since 1990. He teaches history of the American west, Native American history and new Western history. White is best known for his studies on how environmental changes affect the social, economic and political fabric of a culture. His book "Land Use, Environment, and Social Change in a Western County, Island County, Washington, 1790-1940" is one of the first small-scale studies on environmental history.