OLYMPIA – Who: Washington Dept. of Ecology, Kinder Morgan, NRC What: Oil spill equipment deployment When: Tuesday, April 12, 9:00 a.m. Where: Pier 59 Alaskan Way Contact: Jasmin Adams, (360) 464-0324 Ecology is providing this notification as awareness …
KETTLE FALLS – Old, uncertified wood stoves are smoky and inefficient. In the winter, this smoke can accumulate and lead to unhealthy air quality in the Colville River Valley. To help reduce these harmful impacts to human health, the Department of Ecology …
Ecology is cleaning up Bellingham Bay one site at a time. This year you’ll see fieldwork at TWO sites! Bellingham Bay 2022 Cleanup Update Fact Sheet (click image to download PDF file) The Bellingham Bay cleanup includes 12 sites on or near Bellingham Bay. …
The drought emergency declaration issued in July 2021 is scheduled to expire in June 2022. While the necessity to extend the drought declaration has yet to be confirmed, for parts of the state it’s very likely. Several streams in Southeastern Washington — …
OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology has issued a $267,000 penalty to Skagit Valley Farm for irrigating 348 acres of vegetable crops in the lower Skagit and Samish watersheds without water rights. “The violations occurred during a drought and on …
The following article is a transcript from the podcast "Water Law 101." Listen to the original audio. Intro: This is water law 101. I’m back with Mike Gallagher Southwest Regional manager for Ecology’s Water Resources program. Water Law 101 is …
Erosion. Floods. Sea level rise. Tsunamis. All of these natural hazards threaten Washington’s Pacific Ocean coast — with potentially dire consequences for coastal Tribes and communities. Through the years, there have been a number of efforts and …
OLYMPIA – A Clark County contractor has been given a $131,000 penalty after inspectors from the Washington State Department of Ecology found sediment and stormwater running off a construction site into nearby wetlands and Packard Creek. Rotschy Inc. is …
By Markus Von Prause and Dan Dugger Protecting and restoring Puget Sound is critical to Washington's environment and a priority for our scientists. Our science team monitors conditions and pollution. We recently installed eight river monitors to help …
Washington, D.C. – Washington Department of Ecology Director Laura Watson visited the nation’s capital last week, urging the federal government to adequately fund cleanup of the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation. Ecology estimates more than $7 …
With declining COVID case rates in Washington and the removal of the mask mandates for most of the state, we are progressing into the next phase of our agency’s COVID emergency response. Appointments no longer required On March 21, we are removing the …
On 3/16/2022, Seattle & King County Public Health reopened Saltwater State Park to the public for water recreation. Sampling has revealed that bacteria levels are now safe for water contact. Contact with fecal-contaminated waters can result in …
OLYMPIA – A decades-old hazardous waste dumping ground on an island in the Columbia River next to the Bonneville Dam will become a Superfund site after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added it to the National Priorities list on Thursday. The U.S. …
On March 28, 2021, a dust storm resulted in a seven car pile-up near Richland, WA. Photo - Washington State Patrol Trooper C. Thorson What causes dust storms? Dust storms, also called haboobs, happen when strong winds pick up dry soil and blow it around …
The Nisqually Tribe won the 2021 George F. Ames Performance and Innovation in the State Revolving Fund Creating Environmental Success (PISCES) Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their work in the Mashel River watershed. The …
YAKIMA – On March 24, the Washington Department of Ecology will host two virtual listening sessions for Yakima area residents to hear about their concerns with air quality issues in their communities, and the impact that air pollution has had on their …
Over at Ecology’s Lacey headquarters, the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) Implementation Group is hard at work developing Washington’s first cap-and-invest program. It’s a big task with even bigger long-term impacts on the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and …
Ready to step into the world of Hanford cleanup? In the next edition of Let’s Talk About Hanford, we’re going to be learning about several important Hanford cleanup facilities — the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility (LERF), Effluent Treatment Facility ( …
Last year’s drought saw the Walla Walla River at Touchet dry up again. The low-to-no flows in the river paint a vivid picture of what this watershed routinely faces from year to year. Community members, farmers, tribal members, cities, and industries on …
We know of almost 14,000 contamination cleanup sites in Washington state: places where accidents, spills, or industry contaminate the soil, water, or groundwater. Well over half of those sites have already been cleaned up. Still, with that many sites, …
