Feb 23, 1999

She's my little deuce TPV generator

BELLINGHAM -- The Vehicle Research Institute has done it again. Western Washington University's always-cutting-edge engineering group has built another car that advances the state of propulsion technology. Called the Viking 29, the sports car uses an eight-cylinder Midnight Sun thermophotovoltaic generator to convert methane to electricity for its electric motor. The car will be on display this week, Feb. 26 and 27, at the Puget Sound Engineering Council's annual Science and Technology Fair. It will be accompanied by an animated TPV simulator that demonstrates how it works. The show will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days at Seattle Center House. For more information, contact WWU's Public Information Office at (360) 650-3350.

Corps sets hearings on Cascade pipeline

SEATTLE -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct public hearings March 30 and 31 to gather public comments about the Olympic Pipe Line Co.'s plan to build a fuel pipeline from Snohomish County to eastern Washington. The March 30 meeting will be held in the Galaxy Room of the Seattle Federal Center South, 4735 E. Marginal Way S. The second meeting, on March 31, will be at the Hal Holmes Center, 201 N. Ruby St. in Ellensburg. Both meetings are 7 to 11 p.m. Olympic has applied to the Corps for a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act to cross 78 wetlands and 199 streams and rivers with its pipe. The hearings will provide information to the Corps as it considers those permit requests. Written comments will be accepted through April 12. Send them to the Corps at: Regulatory Branch, U.S. Corps of Engineers, P.O. Box 3755, Seattle, WA 98124-3755.

Lunching and branding with PEMA

SEATTLE -- The Professional Environmental Marketing Association will present a luncheon program on marketing and branding of professional services on March 3. The event is to be held at Latitude 47 restaurant on Lake Union. Ann Bradford, director of strategic branding at Tim Girvin Design, will speak on assessing your firm's strengths and establishing a distinguishing brand. Her talk begins at 12:30 p.m., following a social gathering at 11:30 a.m. and lunch at noon. Members of PEMA and the Northwest Environmental Business Council will pay $20 for the luncheon; others pay $30. For more information, or to make reservations, call (425) 455-3680.

Hart Crowser expanding California office

SEATTLE -- The Long Beach, Calif. office of Hart Crowser has added two civil engineers, Gene Lacey, Jr. and Hari Gupta. Lacey is a senior associate engineer and manager of industrial services, and Gupta is a project engineer. Prior to joining Hart Crowser, Lacey was a principal remediation engineer for Dukek & Associates in Encinitas, Calif. In his new position he is responsible for municipal and industrial projects involving environmental remediation, wastewater treatment and reuse, and civil engineering/infrastructure work. Gupta comes from the waste management group at Woodward-Clyde, where he was a senior project engineer working on soil and groundwater investigations, remediation system design and site assessments. At Hart Crowser he is responsible for site investigations and cleanup of commercial and industrial properties in Southern California.

Save a tree, plant the earth

SEATTLE -- King County's Department of Natural Resources has organized a volunteer work party to salvage growing plants from a development site. The property, owned by Quadrant Corp., is located southwest of Duvall at Northeast 133rd Street and 232nd Avenue Northeast. During the March 6 salvage operation, native trees and shrubs will be dug up from the site of a future housing development. The plants will be relocated to restoration projects around King County to improve habitat, keep water cool and control erosion. Volunteers are needed to do the work at the site and at the Redmond holding facility, where plants will be potted. Digging will proceed from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and potting from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Interested persons should contact Greg Rabourn at (206) 296-1923. Workers will need to wear appropriate clothing and rubber boots. Work gloves and a coffee mug are optional; the County will provide refreshments. Tools and gloves will be supplied to those who have none.

No PVC for IV bags, say activists

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Environmental activists are mounting a campaign against plastic medical IV bags that can leach a suspected cancer-causing chemical into patients, but the Food and Drug Administration says alarm is unnecessary. There's no evidence that medical equipment made of PVC plastic harms patients, agency officials said last week. Every product has trace contamination of some chemical, said Dr. David Feigal, a blood safety specialist. "We need to make sure we don't rush to an alternative that would not be as safe as this," Feigal added. PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is a plastic used widely in products ranging from shower curtains to medical devices. Environmentalists dislike it because the manufacture and incineration of PVC can cause dioxin pollution. "Plasticizers" make PVC flexible. The government classifies one such chemical, called DEHP, as a probable human carcinogen, based on studies of animals given high doses. Many IV bags are made of PVC plastic and thus contain DEHP. Greenpeace and the Health Care Without Harm coalition are urging that hospitals use only IV bags made of other plastics. "I would like to reduce as much as possible the potential risks to my patients," said coalition member Dr. Peter Orris of Chicago's Cook County Hospital.

See Pierce County in high-resolution digital

BELLEVUE -- The Nies Mapping Group, of Bellevue, has announced the availability of "a proprietary high resolution color digital orthophoto and 2.0' contour data set covering selected areas of Pierce County, WA." The images are based on color photography recorded in June, 1998; airborne GPS data with pre-marked ground control; and Digital Elevation Model data. They cover about 320 square miles and are accurate for maps having a scale of one inch equals 100 feet. Nies says that Pierce County has licensed the imagery to use as a land-base layer in Countyview, the County's Geographic Information System. Some cities within Pierce County have also licensed the data. The orthophoto and contour data sets are available on CD-ROM. Contact Nies Mapping Group at (425) 869-4020. Jon Savelle is the Journal's environment editor.