Environment

Exhibit inspires woman to try to avoid buying plastics for a month

Bellamy Pailthorp — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:14:00 +0000

Plastics have only been in wide use since the 1940s, yet they are everywhere, from sandwich bags to phones, to keyboards, to rain gear. Even the cans of soup in the grocery aisle are lined with it.

It's hard to imagine a world before these conveniences. What would your life be like without plastics?

Latest in 'living building' green design: Self-sustaining classroom

Bellamy Pailthorp — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:00 +0000

A prototype of a self-sustaining portable classroom has arrived at a parking lot in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

The classroom is meant to set a higher bar for schools by demonstrating they can meet the highest standard of green building design, the Living Building Challenge, fairly quickly.

Nissan electric car sales booming in Washington state

Tom Banse — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:01:16 +0000

The automaker Nissan says sales of its fully-electric Leaf compact surpassed all other Nissan models at dealers in the Seattle and Portland areas this spring. The announcement Wednesday runs counter to the prevailing wisdom that adoption of plug-in cars has been sluggish.

At Nissan USA headquarters, director of electric vehicle marketing and sales Erik Gottfried says he's scrambling to ship enough Leafs to meet demand in the Pacific Northwest. The car maker juiced its plug-in sales by slashing the sticker price and offering low-cost leases. Gottfried says that was made possible by opening a domestic production line in Tennessee.

Can this rare songbird be lured away from risky neighborhoods?

Tom Banse — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:30:20 +0000

A songbird called the streaked horned lark has a curious propensity for risky neighborhoods. That's not a good quality for a bird proposed for listing as a threatened species. Its preferred hangouts include airports, Army training fields, and dredge spoil dumping sites along the lower Columbia River. A two-state experiment seeks to find out if these rare larks can be enticed to safer habitats.

Some Hanford water cleanup moving faster than expected

Anna King — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:20:58 +0000

Cleanup of a hazardous chemical in the groundwater at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is going faster than expected.

Hexavalent chromium is the nasty stuff that made Erin Brockovich famous down in California. The chemical was used to inhibit rust in coolant water in Hanford’s reactors. But that water was dumped into the desert, and now the carcinogen is making its way toward the Columbia River in large groundwater plumes.

Inslee issues greenest-yet budget pledge for Climate Solutions

Bellamy Pailthorp — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:01:47 +0000

As the special legislative session gets underway in Olympia, Gov. Jay Inslee says some of the most important parts of his two-year budget proposal are investments in clean energy.

During a fundraiser for the nonprofit group Climate Solutions on Monday, the governor said he is pushing for a state budget that includes funds to start a new research center at the University of Washington.

Greening up historic buildings: Seattle’s Town Hall as case study

Bellamy Pailthorp — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:59:05 +0000

Seattle has been in the spotlight lately as the home to the world’s greenest new office building, the Bullitt Center. Also under construction is the headquarters of Brooks Sports in Fremont, which promises to be “deep green.”

But what about all the buildings that are already standing?

Eagles return, drive entire colony of herons out of Kiwanis Ravine

Martha Kang and Liam Moriarty — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:01:00 +0000

The great blue heron is one of Washington’s most iconic birds, as is the bald eagle. Now, it seems eagle attacks on heron nests are driving herons to abandon the largest colony in Seattle. And volunteers are asking local residents to help them figure out where the herons have gone.

For more than a decade, Pam Cahn has monitored the dozens of heron nests at Kiwanis Ravine near Discovery Park in northwest Seattle. The volunteer citizen-scientist has kept track of eggs laid, chicks hatched and fledglings flown, then sent the data to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife for record-keeping.

But Cahn says this season, eagles have wreaked havoc on the approximately 90 heron nests in Kiwanis Ravine.

Pebble Mine opponents put value of Bristol Bay fishery at $1.5 billion

Bellamy Pailthorp — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:04:09 +0000

Though it’s thousands of miles away, a proposed mine for gold and copper in Alaska’s Bristol Bay threatens to destroy the livelihood of thousands of people in the Puget Sound area.

Seattle’s fleet of commercial fishermen and seafood processors have been a big part of the opposition to the so-called Pebble Mine.

A new economic report puts the value of Bristol Bay’s salmon at $1.5 billion per year, and says more than a quarter of the jobs it generates are located in Washington state.

'Slow Flowers': Seattle author's case for sustainably-grown flowers

Bellamy Pailthorp — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:01:00 +0000

Like many other holidays, Mother’s Day has become quite commercialized. Along with a Hallmark card often comes a perfect-looking bouquet of flowers that have traveled thousands of miles to get to your front door.

But for those who long for flowers with a local tie and fewer pesticides, there are other options.

Canceled open house latest effect of sequester on parks, science

Bellamy Pailthorp — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:53:47 +0000

A much-loved open house at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver did not take place over the weekend. The center is run by the U.S. Geological Survey, which had to cancel the program due to the federal budget sequestration.

Want to be green? Have your groceries delivered

Bellamy Pailthorp — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:14:15 +0000

Having your groceries delivered might seem like a self-indulgent luxury.

But researchers at the University of Washington have found that, most of the time, you can feel good about doing something for the environment when you order your groceries online and have them delivered instead of making a trip to the store.

“We like to call it 'the bus for groceries,'” said Anne Goodchild, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW.

Tacoma City Council favors Hilltop area for light rail extension

Bellamy Pailthorp — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:01:00 +0000

Tacoma is on the brink of more than doubling the length of its Sound Transit Link Light Rail line.

Under a plan just recommended by the Tacoma City Council, the current starter line between the Tacoma Dome and the city's downtown would extend north into the Hilltop neighborhood.

Micro-housing boom has some Seattle neighborhoods up in arms

Bellamy Pailthorp — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:48:28 +0000

New buildings packed with dorm-like rooms for rent have been popping up in Seattle’s densest neighborhoods.

A grey area in the law is allowing these so-called “micro-housing” projects to go up without neighborhood comment. A brown-bag discussion on the issue of takes place at City Hall today.

Seattle, King County to spend $1.5 billion on wastewater upgrades

Bellamy Pailthorp — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:35:09 +0000

The city of Seattle and King County will spend $1.46 billion on upgrades to public sewer systems aimed at reducing the amount of polluted water entering the Puget Sound and other waterways, according to a federal settlement filed under the Clean Water Act.

Under the agreement, the city and county will also pay $750,000 in fines for dumping raw sewage into the Sound and several lakes.