Electric vehicles hit the road

By Eli Levitt and Johanna Ofner, Climate Policy GroupThanks to a federal grant from the Department of Energy, Ecology recently installed an electric vehicle charging station at our Lacey Headquarters. If you’ve visited our facility, you might have noticed some rather unusual vehicles parked in front of it.Have you seen the brand new Nissan Leaf? How about the yellow Volkswagen Plugbug? Or the

Around the Sound: Irondale cleanup slated for summer 2012

By Diana Smith, Public Involvement CoordinatorView of Indian Island from atop a pile of slag and rubble remaining on the shoreline.Cleanup and restoration work at the former Irondale Iron and Steel site are now being planned for summer 2012. Cleanup will include removing contaminated soils, sediments, and slag; capping remaining contamination; and restoring the beach.The site in Jefferson County

Quick Response Protects People from Harmful Smoke

By Joye Redfield-Wilder, Communication Manager, Central Regional Office^Smoke from the Monastery Complex fire on Satus Pass^Ecology staff Stan Rauh and Greg Hannahs with the mobile monitor.^Air quality monitoring reportTalk about turnaround time — it was midday Friday, Sept. 9, and a request had come in from the Klickitat County Health Department for air quality monitoring in Goldendale. The

Air Time: The latest on ozone

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Air Quality ProgramAlthough EPA’s plan to strengthen the nation’s health-based air quality standard for ozone levels has been delayed (Air Time, Sept. 2), there’s still movement on that front.That’s because the previous standard proposed by the Bush-era EPA still needs to be officially enacted. This piece from the New York Times explains what’s going

Our Changing Climate: Policy, politics and what people actually see

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Air Quality ProgramHere are recent, interesting articles and newspaper editorials on climate change policy and politics: Syndicated columnist Neal Peirce writes about how more and more business leaders are realizing that addressing climate change makes business sense. The Associated Press offers this special report about climate change denial in the United

Around the Sound: Catching up ...

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Toxics Cleanup ProgramJust a few interesting things that have come up in the past couple of weeks... The Kitsap Sun offers this rundown on a two-day event in October called “Water Courses: Connecting West Sound.” Looks like there are a number of interesting speakers and topics on the schedule. The Associated Press reported recently on national

Fecal Matters: Seahurst County Park is Open for Swimming

BEACH Program Update

Seahurst County Park in Burien, WA is open for swimming! Sample results show bacteria concentrations have dropped to background levels. The swimming beach was previously closed on September 16, 2011 due to a sewage spill.

Visit the BEACH web site to find the latest results for these and other saltwater beaches: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/beach/

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