Monthly News Archive:
June 2005
Table of Contents:
- Monorail: A Railroad or a High Road?
- Risk-to-salmon warnings on pesticides are upheld
- U.S. Senate's energy bill pushes grants for biofuels
- Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Not Exactly a Wild Goose Chase"
- Hanford safety panel to be created
- Whales and More
- 75 Summer Kids Adventures
- Whale Watching
- U.S. Senate Passes a Renewable Electricity Standard for the Third Session Running
- A Green Blueprint for Land Management
- Earth Share's Day in the Park tops 750 volunteers!
- Radioactive contamination at Hanford is on the move
- Apollo Creed
- Snohomish River salmon plan OK'd
- Glaciers steadily retreat on Mt. Rainier
- Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Homing Seal"
Monorail: A Railroad or a High Road?
By Eric de Place of Northwest Environment Watch, originally published in the Cascadia Scorecard Weblog.
Seattle's monorail project has smashed into the biggest bump in its bumpy history. This is hardly news anymore: the $2 billion 14-mile line will end up costing $11 billion, with $9 billion in interest payments, and the tax to fund it will extend until 2053. City hall and Olympia are, in short, freaking out. Read about it here, here, and here.Read the full story
Risk-to-salmon warnings on pesticides are upheld
If your Independence Day weekend plans involve a trip to the hardware store or home and garden section, take note of warnings to go easy on pesticides and give salmon a break.
An appeals court yesterday upheld a federal judge's 2004 ruling requiring warning signs where pesticides are sold in Washington, Oregon and California. About two dozen still are restricted, including 15 in Seattle and the Puget Sound area.
"This is a terrific victory for salmon and everyone who lives in the Northwest, because salmon are part of our lives here, and we all want clean water," said Amy Wil...Read the full story
June 30, 2005 | 
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U.S. Senate's energy bill pushes grants for biofuels
Measure would open new markets in state, Cantwell says
WASHINGTON -- Miles Richardson at University Volkswagen and Audi in Seattle is a firm believer in biofuels. So is King County Executive Ron Sims. Last year, Washington State Ferries and Seattle City Light came on board.
Yesterday, the Senate did as well, endorsing $550 million in grants over the next five years to perfect and promote a new class of biofuels made from vegetables such as soybeans, mustard seed and canola and from high-starch crops such as timber, wheat straw, barl...Read the full story
June 29, 2005 | Comments Off
Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Not Exactly a Wild Goose Chase"
By Naturalist Kevin Mack from Earth Share organization PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, published in the June 29, 2005 edition of Wild Again
We first spotted her sometime during the winter. PAWS Humane Educator Julie Stonefelt and I were at Brackett's Landing Park in Edmonds, and the large, gray bird with bright orange feet stood out like a sore thumb. She looked lost and confused. She seemed to have no idea where she was or why she was there. Clea...Read the full story
June 29, 2005 | Comments Off
Hanford safety panel to be created
10-member council will hear workers' health concerns
YAKIMA -- For months, some workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation have said that vapors from underground waste tanks are endangering their health. The contractor hired to clean up the tanks -- and the federal agency that oversees the site -- have claimed otherwise.
The two sides appeared to reach a resolution of sorts yesterday with the creation of an independent panel intended to hear workers' complaints.
The new Hanford Concerns Council, a 10-member panel of worker a...Read the full story
June 28, 2005 | Comments Off
Whales and More
By Kathy Fletcher, Executive Director of People for Puget Sound, originally published in her new weblog.
I spent June 18 and 19 on San Juan Island, where we held the 7th annual OrcaSing at Lime Kiln Point State Park. If you're not familiar with OrcaSing, I'm inviting you now to mark your calendars for next year -- it's an event not to be missed. Every year, on the Saturday evening closest to the Summer Solstice, the City Cantabile Choir sings to th...Read the full story
June 27, 2005 | Comments Off
75 Summer Kids Adventures
Friday is the last day of school for most children in the South Sound, and starting Saturday they'll be pestering their parents daily with plaintive cries of "There's nothing to do."
But how does one pry them away from the Xbox, put a GPS receiver in their hands rather than a cell phone or get them to turn off the latest episode of One Tree Hill and get off the couch for some family fun?
Well, The News Tribune's intrepid Adventure team has searched high and low to come up with suggestions to educate, entertain and enthuse your young ones. T...Read the full story
June 24, 2005 | Comments Off
Whale Watching
By Eric de Place of Northwest Environment Watch, originally published in the Cascadia Scorecard Weblog.
If you think we haven't made progress, consider what happened in south Puget Sound in 1976.
One day in March, collectors from Sea World were using powerboats, planes, and explosives to trap orcas in a small inlet where they could be netted. (Although capturing wild killer whales was still legal at that time, the aquarium was violating the...Read the full story
June 22, 2005 | Comments Off
U.S. Senate Passes a Renewable Electricity Standard for the Third Session Running
New Energy Information Administration Study Touts Benefits of National Standard
Statement by Alan Nogee, director, Clean Energy Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
"Today, in a major victory for citizens who want cheaper, cleaner electricity, the U.S. Senate passed an amendment offered by Senators Bingaman (D-NM) and Coleman (R-MN) to include a renewable electricity standard in the broader Senate energy bill. The provision, also known as a renewable portfolio standard, would require major electric companies to obtain 10 percent o...Read the full story
June 21, 2005 | Comments Off
A Green Blueprint for Land Management
SNOQUALMIE, Wash. -- When summer visitors come to the viewing platform to see Snoqualmie Falls, one of Washington's main tourist attractions, few of them realize they are also looking at an example of a unique and successful land management and planning exercise.
The falls are backed by more than 100 acres of lush and unscarred green forest, once destined for commercial and housing development by Puget Western Inc. and the city of Snoqualmie. But the Cascade Land Conservancy, a private nonprofit, stepped in and bought the property for $13.3 million.
June 20, 2005 | Comments Off
Earth Share's Day in the Park tops 750 volunteers!
Thanks to more than 750 volunteers turned out on this rainy June day from more than 50 environmental organizations, community groups, businesses, and goverment agencies.
Seattle Parks Senior Gardner, Bob Baines, summed up the value of an event like Day in the Park best when he said "Earth Share's Day in the Park 2005 at Golden Gardens was the most productive volunteer work project I've ever attended!"
Check out Day in the Park photos at:
www.dayinthepark.org
Thank you Luc Schoonjans & Anne Jennings for your excel...Read the full story
June 17, 2005 | Comments Off
Radioactive contamination at Hanford is on the move
It is 'not just staying in place,' warns report by watchdog group
Radioactive dust in a Tri-Cities attic and plutonium-tainted clams in the Columbia River are red flags signaling that contamination from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is in the environment and moving into the food chain, a watchdog group says.
After finding radiation in river mud, mulberry bushes and deer and mouse scat, the Government Accountability Project says better testing is needed to determine how widespread the potentially dangerous material is and where it's going.
Th...Read the full story
June 15, 2005 | Comments Off
Apollo Creed
New Apollo Energy Act contrasts sharply with "Jurassic" GOP energy bill
- By U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee
On April 21, Congress stepped back in geologic time when the House of Representatives passed an energy policy of the dinosaurs, by the dinosaurs, and for the dinosaurs. This energy bill is truly a "Jurassic" piece of legislation that relies on a limited energy source derived from creatures and plants that died millions of years ago. In fact, 93 percent of the $8 billion in tax incentives in the bill go to oil, gas, and oth...Read the full story
June 14, 2005 | Comments Off
Snohomish River salmon plan OK'd
The strategy for saving chinook salmon and bull trout in the Snohomish River basin is expected to cost $134 million over 10 years.
TULALIP - After three years of soul searching and story swapping, a diverse group of bureaucrats, farmers and environmentalists say they have reached a $134 million agreement to launch salmon recovery in the Snohomish River basin.
The 38-member Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Forum on Thursday unanimously adopted a plan to save chinook salmon and bull trout, two fish species listed as threatened in the P...Read the full story
June 3, 2005 | Comments Off
Glaciers steadily retreat on Mt. Rainier
Nobody plans to wrap Mount Rainier in a reflective sheet to keep it icy cold.
Yet the glaciers coating Tacoma's backyard mountain share troubling symptoms with the dwindling Gurshen glacier of Andermatt, Switzerland.
The glistening masses of ice and snow that make 14,411-foot Mount Rainier shine aren't as impressive as they once were. The mountain shoulders 34 square miles of year-round ice, but at least five of its largest glaciers - Nisqually, Winthrop, Tahoma, South Tahoma and Carbon - are smaller than ever.
When Swiss workers installed an $83 million blanket to sto...Read the full story
June 3, 2005 | Comments Off
Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Homing Seal"
by Naturalist Kevin Mack from Earth Share organization PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, published in the June 1, 2005 edition of Wild Again
On May 16, I was standing on the lowered bow of a landing craft boat just north of Jetty Island in Everett. To my right sat a large pet carrier, the front of which was positioned at the edge of the lowered bow about 2 inches above water level. I opened the carrier door and a shuffling noise came from within. I watched as the furry, gray...Read the full story
June 1, 2005 | Comments Off
