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A Little Fish's Evolution Revolution
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/16/2008
For most locals, getting the sewage out of Lake Washington beginning in the late 1960s was a good thing. Not so for the threespine stickleback. For the little fish, the pollution and associated algal murk was good cover to protect it from hungry trout.
When the waste and water cleared, the stickleback faced a genetic scramble to evolve into a more protected, armored and ancestral version of itself.
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California Senate Bill Would Ban Suspect Plastic
San Francisco Chronicle
05/16/2008
If the measure becomes law, California would be the first state in the nation to ban the plastics ingredient bisphenol A in any consumer product.
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Bush Strikes Clean Air Rules Protecting Parks
Washington Post
05/16/2008
The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan.
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Washington governor's disputed pesticide panelist resigns
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/16/2008
Gov. Chris Gregoire's controversial appointment of a scientist affiliated with Dow Chemical to a state panel that tracks pesticide exposures ended Thursday with the researcher resigning before his first meeting.
The appointment riled farmworker advocates, who accused the governor of bowing to industry by kicking off an environmentalist-leaning scientist who previously held the position.
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Strong smells push action for nail care workers
Portland Oregonian
05/16/2008
A nail salon makes its first impression on the nose. Even regular customers can feel overpowered by the smell of the chemicals necessary for that professional finish.
On a typical visit, a customer might spend two hours exposed to that smell while getting a manicure or pedicure. Yet day after day, thousands of Oregon women, a large number of them immigrants from Vietnam, must tolerate air quality that could make them sick.
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China's Silver Lining
Atlantic Monthly
05/14/2008
Why smoggy skies over Beijing represent the world’s greatest environmental opportunity.
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Views: San Francisco's Real Energy-Policy Choice
San Francisco Bay Guardian
05/15/2008
According to City Attorney Dennis Herrera, if San Francisco wants to see the Potrero Hill power plant, which spews pollution over the southeast part of the city, close down next year, the city's going to have to operate its own fossil fuel plants in the neighborhood. Some environmentalists say that's not true — that the city could develop enough renewable energy and use existing backup systems to obviate the need for the so-called peaker plants.
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San Francisco's First 'Spare the Air Day'
San Francisco Chronicle
05/15/2008
Tomorrow will be the Bay Area's first Spare the Air Day of the 2008 smog season, air quality officials said this afternoon. And while they're encouraging people to ride public transit, they're not offering free rides.
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64,000 Gallon Sewage Spill in Marin County
San Francisco Chronicle
05/15/2008
About 64,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater spilled into the bay off Tiburon because of an overflow at a treatment plant, the latest in a spate of sewage spills in Marin County, authorities said today.
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Views: Alaska EPA Guidelines for Mineral Pollution Flawed
Anchorage Daily News
05/15/2008
Quick question: What is the most polluted state in the union?
Answer: Alaska -- or at least that is the answer you will get if you consult the EPA Toxic Release Inventory figures.
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Methane Extraction Threatens B.C. Rivers
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/15/2008
A new report released by the Pembina Institute raises fears about the possible impact of coal-bed methane extraction on three major salmon rivers in northwestern British Columbia.
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Murray Pushes for More Hanford Funding
Tri-City Herald
05/15/2008
More money for nuclear cleanup is expected to be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee today as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., continues to chip away at Hanford budget shortfalls.
Murray worked to add $300 million for cleanup at Hanford and other Department of Energy nuclear sites to the supplemental appropriations bill for fiscal 2008.
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Rural Yakima Riverbanks Get Trashed
Yakima Herald-Republic
05/15/2008
Treasured by sportsmen and tribal members alike, the more remote sections of the Yakima River harbor a dirty little secret: they're used as a quick escape from landfill fees by folks who dump their trash and other junk. Out of sight and mind. It's a problem not only on the reservation, but across Yakima County.
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Environment Wrecks Havoc on Girls
Portland Tribune
05/15/2008
First, girls who hit puberty sooner are more likely to wind up with a long list of health and social problems.
Second, it raises the unpleasant possibility that something sinister in our environment may be sabotaging the complex hormonal system that governs sexual development.
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Private Help for Duwamish Superfund Site
Seattle Times
05/14/2008
A Seattle environmental company is proposing to jump-start restoration of the gritty Duwamish River Superfund site by spending private money to make it more salmon-friendly.
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Views: Being Green Shouldn't Be Forcefed
Seattle Times
05/14/2008
In 2006, Seattle recycled 47.5 percent of its garbage, a figure comparatively high. For 2012, the city's target is 60 percent, and next is 70 percent. No American city has reached such a figure, which requires more than subsidy. It requires compulsion — which Seattle government seems eager to supply. Green is good. More than that, it is imperative, and we all have to go along with it.
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Montana Creek Sees New Life
Missoula Missoulian
05/14/2008
The Lincoln Spring Creek, a troubled tributary of the Blackfoot River, is being reborn.
Gurgling up from the woodlands near here, the creek runs through the ranches and farmland of the Blackfoot Valley.
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Trout Vital to Montana
Missoula Missoulian
05/14/2008
Wild trout, Montana icons hard hit by development, pollution and other threats, remain an important part of the Missoula area's economy and culture, a new survey found.
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Ex-Energy Exec Says, Phase Out Coal, Oil
Missoula Missoulian
05/14/2008
A former utility executive and energy adviser says America can and should phase out coal-generated power and move entirely to renewable electricity within 30 years.
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The Need for 'Cruise' Control
Crosscut
05/14/2008
Why better federal regulations are needed to police polluters among the world's fleet of cruise ships: State and local authorities can only do so much. Over six months this year, Puget Sound will see 211 big ships bearing 835,000 passengers call on Seattle.
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California Gold Rush: Environmental Legacy
ABC
05/14/2008
Elizabeth Martin is executive director of the Sierra Fund, a Nevada City-based environmental group studying what it calls the "toxic legacy" of the California Gold Rush.
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Rusting Fleet Pollutes California Waters
San Francisco KPIX
05/14/2008
More than seventy ships that once served our country are now just rusting away, polluting Northern California waterways. Everyone agrees that's a problem, but is the plan to dismantle them dead in the water?
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Last of Hanford Fast Flux Fuel Sent to Idaho
Tri-City Herald
05/14/2008
The last of the fuel has been removed from Hanford's shutdown Fast Flux Test Facility and shipped to Idaho almost a year ahead of a legal deadline.
The research reactor is being deactivated to allow it to be put into a long-term surveillance and maintenance mode at minimum cost by August 2009.
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Tug Hits Pipeline, Fuel Spills into Suisun Bay
Contra Costa Times
05/14/2008
A Coast Guard observation plane, flying at daybreak, reported there is no visible sheen of gasoline on the waters of Suisun Bay, five hours after a tugboat crashed into a Martinez refinery wharf, rupturing three pipelines and spilling an estimated 1,500 gallons of gasoline into the Carquinez Strait.
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Shipper Fined for Elliott Bay Oil Spill
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/13/2008
A Singapore-based shipping company whose ship spilled oil into Elliott Bay last year paid a $27,500 fine to the Washington Department of Ecology, the agency reported Monday.
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