Snohomish County now is your time to go LEED
Everett LEED for New Construction Technical Review
September 10, 2008 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Snohomish PUD, 2320 California Street, Everett, WA
Contact Email
workshop@usgbc.org
Contact Phone
1-800-795-1747
Are you ready to enter the rapidly growing green building market?
Attend the LEED® for New Construction and Major Renovations Technical Review Workshop presented by the U.S. Green Building Council. Gain the knowledge needed to maximize commercial building performance, achieve LEED certification and take the LEED Professional Accreditation Exam.
CLICK HERE FOR FLYER AND REGISTRATION LINK!
Thanks to our workshop sponsor!
Check-in and breakfast at 8:00am, workshop starts at 8:30am
More information about this event…
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Rooftop Garden on the Dog's House
Gretel, emerges from her doghouse with features a green roof
Skip the ordinary doghouse; give your pooch a homemade, garden-topped refuge that is cooler, in every sense of the word, than anything else around.
By Bettijane Levine Los Angeles Times
MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ / TPN
Green roofs are good. They clean the air, cool the house below, provide rest stops for birds and butterflies. If you work well with wood and want to try a green roof, why not start by building one for your dog?
Landscape architect Stephanie Rubin and her partner, sculptor Chris Isner, sell doghouses with rooftop gardens for $1,000 to $4,000. Your homemade version will cost a lot less — and the dog in residence will appreciate a plant-topped refuge that is cooler, in every sense of the word, than anything else around.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Runoff Polutions: State and Local Governments side with Builders
Environmentalists seek 'low impact' mandates Governments side with builders 
Gov. Chris Gregoire made restoring Puget Sound a key part of her environmental policy.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is known as one of the greenest mayors in the country.
And King County Executive Ron Sims has long labored to make sure people know he loves the Earth.
Yet who's standing in the way of requiring building techniques that a growing chorus of scientists says could rein in the largest source of most of Puget Sound's worst pollutants?
Gregoire's Ecology Department. And the city of Seattle. And King County. And Tacoma, and Pierce and Snohomish counties, and other local governments.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
GREEN DRINKS SNOHOMISH COUNTY
GREEN DRINKS SNOHOMISH COUNTYJuly 8th from 5:30-7:30pm
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visit many places all over the world and really wants to make sure that our kids (hers and yours and all the people we'll never meet, because they haven't been born yet) will inherit a planet that is as beautiful and diverse as the one we've enjoyed. She's an avid recycler and is often found at our local Goodwill store. she can "green-up your green". You're sure to enjoy her extensive collection of work by local artists and refreshments provided by "The Savory Table". She is excited to share her Edward Jones office located in Everett's first mixed-use/affordable housing development . | |||
Friday, June 20, 2008
Rebates in Everett Helps Consumers Go GREEN
Rebate program helps consumers go green
Chances are, if your home is more than 16 years old, your toilets are due for a facelift. At up to seven gallons a flush, older toilets are water hogs, wasting natural resources and hurting consumers' wallets.To promote change, the city of Everett Water Conservation Program will give $100 rebates to 1,500 consumers who upgrade their toilet or clothes washer to newer, more efficient models. Both the city and consumers save money and help conserve water as a result. The program is open to all water customers of the city of Everett, which includes most of the county. Snohomish County PUD also has similar programs for energy-efficient dishwashers and clothes washers.
Read more....
Chances are, if your home is more than 16 years old, your toilets are due for a facelift. At up to seven gallons a flush, older toilets are water hogs, wasting natural resources and hurting consumers' wallets.To promote change, the city of Everett Water Conservation Program will give $100 rebates to 1,500 consumers who upgrade their toilet or clothes washer to newer, more efficient models. Both the city and consumers save money and help conserve water as a result. The program is open to all water customers of the city of Everett, which includes most of the county. Snohomish County PUD also has similar programs for energy-efficient dishwashers and clothes washers.
Read more....
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
"Rapid" in 520 Tansit
Putting the "rapid" in 520 transit
Sound Transit is asking for input on a potential ballot measure for November of this year to fund major transit improvements all over the three-county region, including light-rail extensions further south, north, and east.
By Rob Wilkinson and Jonathan Dubman
Special to The Times
Sound Transit is asking for input on a potential ballot measure for November of this year to fund major transit improvements all over the three-county region, including light-rail extensions further south, north, and east. They envision light rail along Interstate 90, and bus rapid transit — or BRT — service on Highway 520, which will soon be rebuilt.
Both corridors are critical, but Sound Transit has focused on improving I-90 to the exclusion of Highway 520. The state is poised to make a major and necessary investment in the Highway 520 corridor, and Sound Transit should join that effort.
read more
Sound Transit is asking for input on a potential ballot measure for November of this year to fund major transit improvements all over the three-county region, including light-rail extensions further south, north, and east.
By Rob Wilkinson and Jonathan Dubman
Special to The Times
Sound Transit is asking for input on a potential ballot measure for November of this year to fund major transit improvements all over the three-county region, including light-rail extensions further south, north, and east. They envision light rail along Interstate 90, and bus rapid transit — or BRT — service on Highway 520, which will soon be rebuilt.
Both corridors are critical, but Sound Transit has focused on improving I-90 to the exclusion of Highway 520. The state is poised to make a major and necessary investment in the Highway 520 corridor, and Sound Transit should join that effort.
read more
House Hears Testimony on Green Communities
BILL TARGETS FEDERAL PROGRAMS, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on broad legislation aimed at improving energy efficiency in buildings and federal housing programs and encouraging the development of green communities. The Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods Act (H.R. 6078) was introduced by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.). The legislation is co-sponsored by Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation Chairman John Olver (D-Mass.).
"This legislation proves that it is easy to be green," said Perlmutter. "This bill helps revitalize our economy by making energy efficiency practices more affordable, accessible, and achievable by consumers, businesses, and government entities.
"The bill aims to help local governments with green building initiatives by creating a new residential energy efficient block grant program based on the same distribution formula as Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The legislation would also require HUD to overhaul energy efficiency requirements for all federal housing programs from Section 8 to HOPE VI. Residential buildings constructed with federal support would have to meet more stringent energy standards. The bill also offers incentives for housing developers to work with landscapers to plant and care for trees and outlines the requirement of a landscaping plan for assisted housing.
A major focus of the legislation is encouraging Government Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to expand and promote the use of location-efficient mortgages and energy-efficient mortgages. The legislation also amends the Community Reinvestment Act to allow financial institutions to consider energy efficiency improvements made by low-income and first-time buyers when assessing home values and loans. The aim, according to supporters, is to provide lower interest loans and other benefits to consumers who build, buy, or remodel homes or other buildings to improve energy efficiency.
With the backing of House leaders, the bill is expected to move forward later this summer.
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on broad legislation aimed at improving energy efficiency in buildings and federal housing programs and encouraging the development of green communities. The Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods Act (H.R. 6078) was introduced by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.). The legislation is co-sponsored by Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation Chairman John Olver (D-Mass.).
"This legislation proves that it is easy to be green," said Perlmutter. "This bill helps revitalize our economy by making energy efficiency practices more affordable, accessible, and achievable by consumers, businesses, and government entities.
"The bill aims to help local governments with green building initiatives by creating a new residential energy efficient block grant program based on the same distribution formula as Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The legislation would also require HUD to overhaul energy efficiency requirements for all federal housing programs from Section 8 to HOPE VI. Residential buildings constructed with federal support would have to meet more stringent energy standards. The bill also offers incentives for housing developers to work with landscapers to plant and care for trees and outlines the requirement of a landscaping plan for assisted housing.
A major focus of the legislation is encouraging Government Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to expand and promote the use of location-efficient mortgages and energy-efficient mortgages. The legislation also amends the Community Reinvestment Act to allow financial institutions to consider energy efficiency improvements made by low-income and first-time buyers when assessing home values and loans. The aim, according to supporters, is to provide lower interest loans and other benefits to consumers who build, buy, or remodel homes or other buildings to improve energy efficiency.
With the backing of House leaders, the bill is expected to move forward later this summer.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Wildlife Habitats at Camano Gardens Tour
Photo credit: Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald
(Zsofia Pasztor is a member of the Sustainable Development Task Force of Snohomish County)
New Camano garden tour celebrates homeowners' wildlife habitats
By Debra Smith Herald Writer
What may matter most at Kitty and Stu Smith's place is what you won't see. No blackberry brambles, no nettles, no lawn.That's remarkable, considering that not too long ago, this chunk of wooded property on Camano Island had an abundance of all of the above.Today it feels naturally beautiful, as if it has always been this way. That's the point."Our goal was to preserve as much as we could and add in a way that looks as if it was never added to," said Zsofia Pasztor, a landscape designer who worked on the project.
read more
Friday, May 23, 2008
Acidified SeaWater Showing up Along Coast
Acidified seawater showing up along coast ahead of schedule
By Sandi Doughton
Senate hearingon ocean acidificationSen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will hold a field hearing in Seattle on Tuesday on "Climate Change and Ocean Acidification: Impacts on Puget Sound." The hearing will be from 10 a.m. to noon in the Seattle Aquarium's Puget Sound Great Room. For more information, call Cantwell's office at 206-220-6400.
Climate models predicted it wouldn't happen until the end of the century.
So a team led by Seattle researchers was stunned to discover that vast swaths of acidified seawater already are showing up along the Pacific Coast as greenhouse-gas emissions upset the oceans' chemical balance.
In surveys from Vancouver Island to the tip of Baja California, reported Thursday in the online journal Science Express, the scientists found the first evidence that large amounts of corrosive water are reaching the continental shelf — the shallow sea margin where most marine creatures live.
Off Northern California, the acidified water was only four miles from shore.
"What we found ... was truly astonishing," said oceanographer Richard Feely, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "This means ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on the continental shelf right now."
All along the coast, the scientists found regions where the water was acidic enough to dissolve the shells and skeletons of clams, corals and many of the tiny creatures at the base of the marine food chain. Acidified water also can kill fish eggs and a wide range of marine larvae.
"Entire marine ecosystems are likely to be affected," said co-author Debby Ianson, an oceanographer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Though it hasn't received as much attention as global warming, ocean acidification is a flip side of the same phenomenon. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from power plants, factories and cars that is raising temperatures worldwide also is to blame for the increasing acidity of the world's oceans.
Normally, seawater is slightly alkaline. When carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves into the water, it forms carbonic acid — the weak acid that helps give soda pop its tang. The process also robs the water of carbonate, a key ingredient in the formation of calcium carbonate shells.
Since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Feely estimates the oceans have absorbed 525 billion tons of the man-made greenhouse gas — about one-third of the total released during that period.
By keeping some of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the oceans have blunted the temperature rise due to global warming. But they've suffered for that service, with a more than 30-percent increase in acidity.
The acidified water does not pose a direct threat to people. "We're not talking battery acid here," said co-author Burke Hales, an oceanographer at Oregon State University.
On the pH scale, which measures acidity, strongly alkaline materials such as oven cleaner measure about 13. Hydrochloric acid has a pH of 1. Seawater usually measures around 8.1. The most acidic water the scientists found off the Pacific Coast measured 7.6 on the pH scale. The numerical difference may seem slight, but it represents a threefold increase in acidity, Hales said.
Until now, researchers believed the most acidified water was confined to the deep oceans. Cold water, which holds more carbon dioxide, sinks. Deep waters also are naturally high in carbon dioxide, which is a byproduct of the decay of plankton.
Feely and his NOAA colleague Christopher Sabine previously have shown that zones of acidified water are growing and moving closer to the surface as the oceans absorb more man-made carbon dioxide.
During surveys on the Pacific Coast last year, a team including Feely and Sabine discovered the natural upwelling that occurs along the West Coast each spring and early summer is pulling the acidified water onto the continental shelf.
"I think this is a red flag for us, because it's right at our doorstep on the West Coast," said Victoria Fabry, a biological oceanographer at California State University, San Marcos, who was not involved with the study. "It's telling us that we really need more monitoring to figure out what's going on."
Climate scientist Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, said the finding underscores the limitations of computer models.
"This is another example where what's happening in the natural world seems to be happening much faster than what our climate models predict," he said. And there's worse to come, the scientists warn.
A network of currents shuffles ocean water around the globe. The acidified water upwelling along the coast today was last exposed to the atmosphere about 50 years ago, when carbon-dioxide levels were much lower than they are now. That means the water that will rise from the depths over the coming decades will have absorbed more carbon dioxide and will be even more acidic.
"We've got 50 years worth of water that's already left the station and is on its way to us," Hales said. "Each one of those years is going to be a little bit more corrosive than the one before."
Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
By Sandi Doughton
Senate hearingon ocean acidificationSen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will hold a field hearing in Seattle on Tuesday on "Climate Change and Ocean Acidification: Impacts on Puget Sound." The hearing will be from 10 a.m. to noon in the Seattle Aquarium's Puget Sound Great Room. For more information, call Cantwell's office at 206-220-6400.
Climate models predicted it wouldn't happen until the end of the century.
So a team led by Seattle researchers was stunned to discover that vast swaths of acidified seawater already are showing up along the Pacific Coast as greenhouse-gas emissions upset the oceans' chemical balance.
In surveys from Vancouver Island to the tip of Baja California, reported Thursday in the online journal Science Express, the scientists found the first evidence that large amounts of corrosive water are reaching the continental shelf — the shallow sea margin where most marine creatures live.
Off Northern California, the acidified water was only four miles from shore.
"What we found ... was truly astonishing," said oceanographer Richard Feely, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "This means ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on the continental shelf right now."
All along the coast, the scientists found regions where the water was acidic enough to dissolve the shells and skeletons of clams, corals and many of the tiny creatures at the base of the marine food chain. Acidified water also can kill fish eggs and a wide range of marine larvae.
"Entire marine ecosystems are likely to be affected," said co-author Debby Ianson, an oceanographer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Though it hasn't received as much attention as global warming, ocean acidification is a flip side of the same phenomenon. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from power plants, factories and cars that is raising temperatures worldwide also is to blame for the increasing acidity of the world's oceans.
Normally, seawater is slightly alkaline. When carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves into the water, it forms carbonic acid — the weak acid that helps give soda pop its tang. The process also robs the water of carbonate, a key ingredient in the formation of calcium carbonate shells.
Since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Feely estimates the oceans have absorbed 525 billion tons of the man-made greenhouse gas — about one-third of the total released during that period.
By keeping some of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the oceans have blunted the temperature rise due to global warming. But they've suffered for that service, with a more than 30-percent increase in acidity.
The acidified water does not pose a direct threat to people. "We're not talking battery acid here," said co-author Burke Hales, an oceanographer at Oregon State University.
On the pH scale, which measures acidity, strongly alkaline materials such as oven cleaner measure about 13. Hydrochloric acid has a pH of 1. Seawater usually measures around 8.1. The most acidic water the scientists found off the Pacific Coast measured 7.6 on the pH scale. The numerical difference may seem slight, but it represents a threefold increase in acidity, Hales said.
Until now, researchers believed the most acidified water was confined to the deep oceans. Cold water, which holds more carbon dioxide, sinks. Deep waters also are naturally high in carbon dioxide, which is a byproduct of the decay of plankton.
Feely and his NOAA colleague Christopher Sabine previously have shown that zones of acidified water are growing and moving closer to the surface as the oceans absorb more man-made carbon dioxide.
During surveys on the Pacific Coast last year, a team including Feely and Sabine discovered the natural upwelling that occurs along the West Coast each spring and early summer is pulling the acidified water onto the continental shelf.
"I think this is a red flag for us, because it's right at our doorstep on the West Coast," said Victoria Fabry, a biological oceanographer at California State University, San Marcos, who was not involved with the study. "It's telling us that we really need more monitoring to figure out what's going on."
Climate scientist Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, said the finding underscores the limitations of computer models.
"This is another example where what's happening in the natural world seems to be happening much faster than what our climate models predict," he said. And there's worse to come, the scientists warn.
A network of currents shuffles ocean water around the globe. The acidified water upwelling along the coast today was last exposed to the atmosphere about 50 years ago, when carbon-dioxide levels were much lower than they are now. That means the water that will rise from the depths over the coming decades will have absorbed more carbon dioxide and will be even more acidic.
"We've got 50 years worth of water that's already left the station and is on its way to us," Hales said. "Each one of those years is going to be a little bit more corrosive than the one before."
Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
LEED User Group of Snohomish County
LEED® User Group in Snohomish County
The North Sound LEED User Group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month
at noon at the PUD in Everett to talkabout LEED, the green building rating system operated by US Green Building Council.
May 21st - Thor Peterson from Cascadia Green Building Council will talk about their Living Building Challenge initiative.
June 18 - Alistair Jackson of O'Brien and Company will give a guided tour of "Going Green at the Beach" project, which has achieved LEED Gold.
July's Topic: Energy Modeling for LEED
August’s Topic: LEED Materials
September Topic: LEED Grocery Stores
Contact Scott Schreffler at Dykeman ScottS@Dykeman.net or 425-259-3161
The North Sound LEED User Group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month
at noon at the PUD in Everett to talkabout LEED, the green building rating system operated by US Green Building Council.
May 21st - Thor Peterson from Cascadia Green Building Council will talk about their Living Building Challenge initiative.
June 18 - Alistair Jackson of O'Brien and Company will give a guided tour of "Going Green at the Beach" project, which has achieved LEED Gold.
July's Topic: Energy Modeling for LEED
August’s Topic: LEED Materials
September Topic: LEED Grocery Stores
Contact Scott Schreffler at Dykeman ScottS@Dykeman.net or 425-259-3161
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Most Endangerd Properties List
NOMINATION TO 2007 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES LIST
THE
Describe the current use and condition of the site.
Our nomination involves two aspects of an interconnected site: a bridge and the street below.
The railroad bridge is on a main Amtrak Line and BNSF freight line where
The street portion is a City owned approximately one-half acre of right-of-way that has been crudely fenced off since 2001 as part of past policies and concerted efforts by the Port and BNSF to close the docks to the public while eliminating traffic conflicts with the trains. Currently, the area is an unsightly mess complete with chain link fencing, broken pavement, tall weeds and windblown garbage.
The setting provides a panoramic view of the commercial activity that has been and continues to be one of the hallmarks of
What is the historical significance of the property? Has it been placed on a national, state or local register? If not, has it been determined eligible for the National Register?
The bridge is an increasingly rare steel girder bridge and in fact may be the last surviving one in Everett, a town known as the place where rail meets sail.
For hundreds of years native people spent summers at this site since fresh water flowed down nearby Forgotten Creek and in an unnamed stream that flowed down
Originally paved in locally manufactured red brick,
Give a brief history of the property and tell us why it continues to be important to your community.
For all of the reasons mentioned above, this site reminds people of the City’s connection to the waterfront, and their own relationships to the people who lived before. Of what it must have been like to be a new person in the last of the American Frontier. Considering its blue collar origins - what an exciting place
Why do you consider the property to be endangered? Please be specific about impending threats to the property.
No reason has ever been given for the need for replacement, but on October 2, 2006 BNSF made application to the City of
construction of the berm and demolition of the bridge. Mitigation was minimal and allowed only for landscaping of the berm, a vaguely described pedestrian walkway in the berm and a viewing stand to be placed alongside the tracks. In their environmental review, BNSF attached no historic value to the site or the structure.
What is currently being done currently to save the property? Who is involved and what resources, financial or otherwise have been directed toward this effort.
We have filed an appeal with the City challenging the Final MDNS. A group has formed consisting of prominent citizens, business people, The Pt. Gardner and Bayside Neighborhood Associations, property owners in the immediate vicinity and Historic Everett. The neighborhoods have agreed to adopt the site and will apply for Office of Neighborhoods matching grants funds to help with restoration and maintenance. We have participated in meetings with City Planning Staff. We are working with Parks and Recreation Staff. And they have assured us they will help with the design, construction and maintenance of the site as a park. Both local newspapers, The Daily Herald and The Everett Tribune, have written supportive articles about preserving the site and the attendant history as recently as December 2006.
What is your long term goal for this property?
Immediate preservation of the steel plate bridge along with continued maintenance. Preservation of the turn of the 20th Century brick street. To create a more visually pleasing setting on the publicly owned property. Honor the place with historical markers that educate the public about the early railroad, the Everett Massacre and the original industrial waterfront and its connection to Downtown. Create open space for the people who live and work in the increasingly dense downtown core. Ensure visual and physical public access to the waterfront and related shorelines of statewide significance.
Green Drinks to be at Anchor Tavern
ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES The historic Anchor Tavern in Everett is located on the western end of Hewitt Avenue in a "flatiron" building that dates back to 1906.
June 10th 5:30pm The SDTF is hosting the second Green Drinks in Snohomish County at the Anchor Tavern, 1001 Hewitt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201 ....
Come socialize with Everett professionals and community members about environmental issues. Excerpt from the Seattle Times on the Anchor Tavern from July 4, 2007...
From decades past
The west end of Hewitt still reflects the city's working-class, mill-town roots.
Four one-time tavern buildings remain between the bridge and Marine View Drive. The Anchor occupies a classic "flatiron" brick building, which opened as an office in 1906, then converted one year later to Mulligan's Saloon. It has been the Anchor since 1934; the actual anchor on its sidewalk dates to its founding.
Seamen based at nearby Naval Station Everett "borrowed" the anchor several months ago, then returned it with a new blue-and-yellow paint job.
Two storefronts up, a Hawaiian restaurant that relocated from the downtown core has taken over an historic two-story wooden building that once housed another saloon.
And Anchor regular David Williams, a 26-year-old artist, remembers a childhood spent skateboarding past the old Blue Diamond, in a small building that now houses a Thai restaurant.
He would make faces through the window, he recalls, prompting pub patrons to come outside and watch him skate down the block and beneath the trestle.
"This is Everett," he said, nodding at the industrial-looking bridge. "It's been here forever; why take it down?"
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Builders Learn About Going GREEN
Companies and contractors learn how to build their business by embracing environmentally friendly practices.
By Michelle DunlopHerald Writer
EVERETT -- If you're planning to do construction work for the state or federal government, you might want to brush up on your green skills."It's getting easier to build green," said Scott Schreffler, a project designer with Dykeman, an architecture and design firm in Everett.Building green is in demand, participants at the Green Conference, held Tuesday in Everett, found out.
Private companies and individual home buyers are looking for environmentally friendly elements in their buildings. Governments -- including the city of Mukilteo and the state of Washington -- increasingly are incorporating green standards into their new projects.
read more
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
By Michelle DunlopHerald Writer
EVERETT -- If you're planning to do construction work for the state or federal government, you might want to brush up on your green skills."It's getting easier to build green," said Scott Schreffler, a project designer with Dykeman, an architecture and design firm in Everett.Building green is in demand, participants at the Green Conference, held Tuesday in Everett, found out.
Private companies and individual home buyers are looking for environmentally friendly elements in their buildings. Governments -- including the city of Mukilteo and the state of Washington -- increasingly are incorporating green standards into their new projects.
read more
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Puget Sound Ecosystem
You are invited to participate in a series of topic forums to help inform the development of the Action Agenda. The forums will help synthesize the region’s knowledge on key aspects of the Puget Sound ecosystem. All information gathered during these forums and from comments and input from interested parties will be synthesized and discussed at a broad, ecosystem-wide forum May 28.
During these all-day work sessions, science and policy experts will:
§ Review Sound-wide status and threats analyses;
§ Discuss the technical understanding of the problem; and
§ Identify policy strategies needed to help achieve a healthy Puget Sound.
Each of the following topic forums will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.:
Species/Biodiversity – May 1
TOC Conference Center, 5799 – 23rd Drive W., Everett
Water Quantity – May 5
Edmonds Conference Center, 201 Fourth Ave. N., Edmonds
Synthesis Forum – May 28th
Location TBD
Detailed materials developed for each topic forum will be posted on the Partnership’s Web site on or before April 14.
Attendees should be able to share their scientific and policy expertise on each of the topic areas. The meetings are open to the public. If you cannot attend a forum but would like to participate, you can submit comments electronically by May 6.
For more information about the topic forums process, visit http://www.psp.wa.gov/aa_topic
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Linda Lyshall
Regional Liaison | Puget Sound Partnership
State of Washington
Office: 425-640-3557
Cell: 425-457-1157
Public Forum: Unified Development Code Update Project
Public Forum: Unified Development Code Update Project
Please join us for a discussion of two topics that will lead to amendments to the Snohomish County Unified Development Code (UDC):
1. Urban Centers: Creating welcoming places for pedestrians
2. Forest Practices: County permits for cutting trees
When: Thursday, May 1, 2008*
Morning Session: 9:00 a.m. – Noon
Evening Session: 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
*The same agenda is repeated at both sessions.
Where: Snohomish County Campus, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett
Administration Building East, Meeting Room 1
We welcome and invite public feedback and questions. Come share your concerns and make suggestions in the early stages of these important regulatory updates.
1. Urban Centers: Creating welcoming places for pedestrians.
This will be a continuation of discussions begun in UDC Update Public Forums last May and December. Regulations governing the development of Urban Centers most directly affect residents within or near areas designated as Urban Center, Urban Village and Transit/Pedestrian Village in the comprehensive plan. These regulations are of importance to anyone planning to design or build a mixed use/multiple family residential project in an unincorporated urban growth area; cities considering annexing the unincorporated area and public service providers. Currently the County has designated the areas around the following intersections for such development: 164th & I-5; 128th & I-5; State Route 527 and 196th St; State Route 99 and State Route 525; State Route 99 and 152nd St; I-5 and 44th Ave W; and scattered smaller sites throughout the unincorporated Southwest UGA.
Snohomish County planners will lead a group discussion of policy issues and are looking for feedback to help answer key questions captured under several broad themes. Themes to date include public realm, neighborhood compatibility, development character, circulation (roads and sidewalks), and the review process. Additional themes to be explored include density, master plans and allowable uses.
2. Forest Practices: County permits for cutting trees.
The forest practices regulations in RCW 76.09 were changed last year to require a transfer of authority from State of Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to local jurisdictions for the review and permitting of certain types for forest practice activities.
These regulations affect individuals planning to remove trees within the urban growth area or for the purpose of converting the land use from a natural forested condition. The County will be taking over the review and permit issuance responsibilities for all forest practice activities within the unincorporated urban growth areas and for all forest practices related to land conversion countywide.
Snohomish County planners will present an overview of the scope of the forest practice responsibilities shifting from DNR to the County. The presentation will focus on the statutory basis for the shift in jurisdictional responsibility, what types of forest practice activities the County will be responsible for and how the forest practices regulations will be meshed with other regulatory requirements.
UDC Update Project Public Forums are held the first Thursday of each month (unless otherwise noted). Forums are offered in the morning and evening to ensure as much public participation as possible.
For more information or to sign up for monthly or quarterly email notices and news about specific issues pertaining to the UDC Update Project, visit the UDC Update Project web page at www.snoco.org, or call UDC Planning and Development reception at 425-388-3311 ext. 2203 to be directed to a project team member.
For more information or to sign up for monthly or quarterly e-mail notices and news about specific issues pertaining to the Update Project, visit the UDC Update web page or call the UDC Planning and Development reception at 425-388-3311 ext. 2203 to be directed to a project team member.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Rescue Plan for Sound Falls Short
Scientists: Rescue plan for Sound falls short
New blueprint neglects stormwater, critics say
For a quarter-century, government agencies have been birthing plans to rescue ecologically ailing Puget Sound. They didn't work.
And neither will the latest blueprint, a brand-new stab at the task unveiled by a brand-new agency that fails to deal with the biggest source of pollutants entering the Sound, leading scientists charged on Friday.
That pollution source is stormwater, the fetid mixture flowing off streets and parking lots and other hard surfaces, carrying oil, pesticides, antifreeze, pet waste and so much more into the Sound and its tributaries.
The Puget Sound Partnership's 43-page "internal discussion draft" on how to start cleaning up the waters of Puget Sound devotes just one tentative paragraph to what scientists advising the agency identified as the best solution: "low-impact development."
That involves steps such as "green roofs" that soak up rainwater, "rain gardens" that intercept water before it flows onto hard surfaces, cisterns and porous pavement that allows rainwater to soak into the ground.
None is mentioned in the draft paper, surprising even the group of scientists whose expertise the Partnership supposedly tapped to produce the report. They leveled their critique Friday at a meeting of about 180 scientists, regulators and activists at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
"It's as disappointing to some of you as it is to us not to see those (concepts) pop up as action items," said Derek Booth, a stormwater expert with Stillwater Sciences. "The time is past to be scratching our heads about every step."
Another panel member, Bill Derry of CH2MHill, a consulting firm, said the techniques need to be put into effect not just in newly developing areas but also in already-built cities such as Seattle.
"Retrofit has to be a major focus," Derry said. "Focusing on new development ... just slows the decline."
State Department of Ecology regulator Bill Moore stunned some participants with his straight-ahead admission that his agency has failed to fix the problem, calling the regulatory system for stormwater "fractured and incomplete and frankly not very effective as a consequence."
Moore, head of Ecology's stormwater unit, said solving the problem "probably means behavioral changes" by citizens, "which the regulatory system is not very well suited to."
A prime culprit in polluting stormwater is cars, which shed pollutants even when they are functioning perfectly -- not to mention leaking oil, antifreeze, steering fluid and numerous other pollutants as they age.
Development patterns also will have to change, said scientists on the panel. And, said panel member Anne Fairbrother, a toxicologist, businesses must minimize wastes.
"Many businesses have found that not only is that better for the environment, but it's also better for business," she said.
David Dicks, director of the partnership, said he was not dismayed to hear complaints -- the whole point of the meeting was critiquing the document.
"This is what we want to happen," Dicks said.
In fact, the document discussed on Friday isn't in itself a plan, Dicks said, but rather an attempt to get people talking about the issue.
The Partnership, which was created by the Legislature last year and got rolling in late 2007, has only until later this year to produce an "action agenda" to save the Sound, complete with surefire methods to check on progress and hold accountable people, businesses and agencies getting in the way.
"We're still figuring this out at the same time we are engaging the public," Dicks said.
The draft document pilloried Friday is one of six coming out to tell people how the agency is thinking about a series of topics. Meetings to discuss these early drafts continue Monday in Bremerton, with an all-day session on land use and habitat preservation at the Kitsap Conference Center, 251 First St.
P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@seattlepi.com.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Green Drinks in Snohomish County
SAVE THE DATE –
MAY 13, 2008 from 5:30 to 7:30
THE VERY FIRST EVER GREENDRINKS IN SNOHOMISH COUNTY!!!
THE VERY FIRST EVER GREENDRINKS IN SNOHOMISH COUNTY!!!
Let’s raise a toast to the planet while we figure out ways not to toast the planet. Never heard of Greendrinks? It began in Europe and now sustainability people in over 342 cities all over the globe meet monthly for libations.
It is a lively mixture of people from non-profits, academia, government and business and is a great way of catching up with folks you know and for making new contacts. Greendrinks is simple, unstructured and rather organic. People have found jobs, developed new ideas, done deals and had epiphanies at Greendrinks.
Check out all the ways to have Greendrinks at http://www.greendrinks.org/. Greening Properties http://www.greeningproperties.com/, is hosting the debut for Snohomish County at their downtown Everett office - 2817 Rucker Avenue.
Greening Properties is a small, locally owned independent real estate company that is committed to building communities that honor the past, protect the future and support healthy living for the present. Historic Everett http://www.historiceverett.org/ is our featured non-profit. Historic Preservation and sustainability are natural partners – it has been said that the greenest building is one that already exists.
To make the first Greendrinks a very special event, the extremely talented local artist, Mary Coss will be showing some of her latest work.
Visit http://www.marycoss.com/ to see how art builds community. If you’ve got questions, call Valerie or Mary at 425-252-7601. This is going to be over the top, so bring a friend.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Environmental Superhero: Snohomish County
Elizabeth Armstrong /The Herald/ Deanna Carveth, a hazardous waste chemist for the county, talks a little "trash" with Deanna Clark Willingham (left) and Tom Stowe at a meeting of the International Right of Way Association.
Employee spreads Green Know-How
Before long, Deanna Carveth will have to be fitted with a cape. It would be one woven using renewable materials, of course.
"I've packaged a lot of household hazardous waste, rendering people's garages safer from the toxic goo that lived within," Carveth said in her best superhero voice. "I get a cape."
Carveth is a hazardous waste chemist working for Snohomish County's public works department -- in other words, a chemical geek.
After years of tackling pesticides and paints elsewhere, she's been helping Snohomish County's environmental effort.
Her work earned her a big award. She was recently anointed a "Built Green Pioneer" by the Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties, which represents the region's home building industry.
read more
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
Building industry info at builtgreen.net.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Low Impact Development Workshop Series
Puget Sound Low Impact Development Technical Workshop Series
This series is developed by Curtis Hinman with WSU (the author of the LID Technical Guidance Manual) and sponsored by the Puget Sound Partnership. The cost to you is only $50 for each 2-day workshop. These two-day workshops, with instruction by regional and national experts, will provide the current state of knowledge on the following topics:
May 6-7 Permeable paving specifications for permeable asphalt, concrete, interlocking concrete pavers, and other paving systems, as well as subgrade preparation, base material specifications, modeling, and maintenance.
May 28-29 Bioretention siting, sizing and modeling techniques, designing surface and subsurface drainage components, and soil mixes.
June 4-5 Vegetated roof modeling (aka green roofs), cistern design, rainwater collection, and low impact PIN foundations design.
June 25-26 Site planning, clearing and grading, LID construction sequencing, and inspection.
This series will be held in Sequim at the Jamestown Tribal Center. The same series of workshops will be also be provided in Bellingham (September and October 2008) and Seattle (February and March 2009)
For more information and registration see: http://capps.wsu.edu/conference
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