April | 2009 | Rosemere Neighborhood Association

RNA’s letter to Governor Chris Gregoire regarding stormwater and septic tank ordinances – February 16, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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Governor Chris Gregoire

The Rosemere Neighborhood Association has sent a letter to Governor Chris Gregoire regarding legislation introduced under House Bill 1661 [Reducing the authority of the state board of health with regard to small-scale sewage systems] to remove state oversight on private septic systems. Without state standards, local jurisdictions would have the authority to revoke existing operations and maintenance requirements for on-site septic systems, and local authorities would be faced with public challenges to overturn local codes without the presence of state regulations. In short, this bill would allow failing septic systems to continue to pollute ground and surface water and spread disease. The RNA asserts that a major component of stormwater pollution may be septic tank infiltration through perforated stormwater pipes. [Read More...]
RNA Receives letter of support for Camp Bonneville Superfund Petition – February 9, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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The Rosemere Neighborhood Association has received a letter of support for our Camp Bonneville Superfund Petition from Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (Wisconsin). CSWAB was organized in 1990 when rural families near Wisconsin’s 7,400-acre Badger Army Ammunition Plant learned that private drinking water wells were polluted with high levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

Read entire CSWAB letter of support here (adobe pdf format)
Preliminary Superfund Petition for Camp Bonneville – February 3, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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This location marks the pits where fireworks were discovered. The city and county buried confiscated fireworks in these pits. The fireworks were supposedly destroyed by open burning them first, but contractors found fireworks that had not been burned.

The Rosemere Neighborhood Association has requested that the Environmental Protection Agency conduct a preliminary assessment of the known and suspected release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants at Camp Bonneville, the former US Military installation in Clark County, Washington (just outside Vancouver).

Read entire Preliminary Camp Bonneville Superfund Petition here (adobe pdf format.)
City of Vancouver Storm Water Ordinances – January 25, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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The Rosemere Neighborhood Association and Columbia Riverkeeper submitted comments on proposed revisions to the City of Vancouver’s Storm Water Ordinances, VMC 14.24, 14.25 and 14.26.

Read entire RNA Stormwater Ordinance Public Comments here.
Wind Power: Wind Farms and The BPA – January 6, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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Bonneville Dam

On the last day of June, 2008, a surge of wind power caused a spike in the Northwest power grid, making the Bonneville Power Administration realize it could not handle such surges without spilling water that could be potentially dangerous to Columbia River salmon.

The BPA was “caught off guard” when an unexpected increase in wind power overloaded the regional grid. The Bonneville dam compensated by spilling water, keeping it from the hydropower generators. Generally, water is spilled to help juvenile salmon make their way downriver; however, excessive nitrogen, created when water plunging from the dams into the river becomes saturated with air (which is composed of 78% nitrogen), can be harmful to salmon. In this instance the BPA claimed the spill was not heavy enough to damage fish. [Read More...]
Update on Kalama Energy Plant – January 5, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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This is a 2544-ton-per-day coal gasification plant on the Wabash River in Indiana. (Photo: Department of Energy)

Our efforts to block the coal fired power plant in Kalama have been successful. In their meeting held on September 9, 2008, the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council announced that The Pacific Mountain Energy Center in Kalama is being redesigned as the Kalama Energy Project. The newly renamed project will eliminate all the gasification facilities originally planned for the site and run exclusively on natural gas. [Read More...]
Solar & Alternative Energy Tax Incentives – January 6, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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Advancement for solar energy was attained in 2005 by the State of Washington.

“This is the most important solar legislation ever introduced in any American state legislature.”
- Denis Hayes, founder of Earth Day, former director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute and current President of the Bullitt Foundation

Two bills — SB5101 and SB5111 — won overwhelming bipartisan support from lawmakers interested in growing solar manufacturing and installation within the state. [Read More...]
Ocean Dead Zones of the Pacific Northwest – January 6, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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“Dead Zones” were first reported and studied in 1910 — 4 areas in the world’s oceans. Currently the world-wide count is over 400. According to a study in the August 15 issue of the journal Science, the tally is 405 dead zones in coastal waters worldwide. These affect an area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of the country of New Zealand. Some of the increase is due to the discovery of low-oxygen areas that may have existed for years and are just being found, but others are actually newly developed. [Read More...]
“Greening” the Foods We Eat or, Current Applications of Benjamin Franklin’s “Green Economics” – January 6, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin
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DID YOU KNOW?
Food safety experts have identified the five most common food-borne pathogens. The “Big 5,” easily transmitted through food and the cause of severe illness are: Enterohemorrhagic E.coli or Shiga-toxin producing E. coli, Hepatitis A virus, Norovirus, and Salmonella Shigella. Salmonella is one of the most common pathogens and it has many different strains. Salmonella Shigella is only one strain. Since 1971 there have been at least 20 outbreaks of food-related poisoning. [Read More...]

Clams and Crayfish Used to Study Waterborne Contaminants – January 6, 2009

April 6, 2009 Author: admin

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Asian clams collected at Frenchman's Bar, Vancouver

Recent water quality monitoring efforts in the Columbia River have relied upon the analysis of clam tissue to determine the levels of dangerous toxins that have been absorbed by aquatic organisms. In Vancouver, high levels of PCBs, a cancer-causing agent, have been identified in clam tissues taken from samples in front of Alcoa at the Port of Vancouver, and downstream toward the mouth of the flushing channel to Vancouver Lake. [Read More...]