South Park Bridge Press Conference Update

December 18, 2009 / / No Comments

The ECOSS staff just got back from the South Park Bridge Press Conference where the bridge replacement Environmental Impact Statement was signed by Kathleen Davis, Director of Highways and Local Programs at the State Department of Transportation; Harold Taniguichi, Director of the Department of Transportation; and Dan Mathis, Washington division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration. With all plans approved, the replacement of the bridge can move forward pending funding from the federal government.

We have long heard the reasons why this bridge needs replacement. It has a sufficiency rating of four (out of 100). Truck traffic volume is between 4-10 million tons of freight per year. Over 20,000 vehicles per day cross the bridge. For those of us who work and live in South Park, we are well aware of the potential impacts of closure.

But the most compelling speech came from long time South Park resident and ECOSS supporter Geoff Belau who discussed the bridge’s symbolism to the community, and who was kind enough to let us post his speech here.

GOOD MORNING. MY NAME IS GEOFF BELAU. I AM A 10 YEAR RESIDENT OF SOUTH PARK, I’M AN ARCHITECT, AND I’VE BEEN A MEMBER KING COUNTY’S COMMUNITY ADVISORY GROUP FOR SOUTH PARK BRIDGE REPLACEMENT SINCE 2002.

I’D LIKE TO START BY THANKING EVERYONE WHO HAD A HAND IN GETTING THE PROJECT THIS FAR. IT IS AN EXCITING AND ENCOURAGING THING TO BE STANDING HERE TODAY TO WITNESS THE SIGNING OF THIS DOCUMENT, WHICH SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO PRODUCE. ON BEHALF OF THE SOUTH PARK COMMUNITY, THANK YOU.

I’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT SOUTH PARK AND WHAT THIS BRIDGE REALLY MEANS TO THOSE OF US WHO LIVE AND WORK HERE.

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Last ECOSSolutions of 2009

December 11, 2009 / / 1 Comment

Yesterday we hosted our third installment of ECOSSolutions, our free series of information sessions geared toward providing straight answers to common environmental questions. The topic for this session was the new Industrial Stormwater General Permit. Nathan Graves and Ross Dunning of Kennedy-Jenks Consulting gave a presentation on many of the technical and practical changes to the permit. I got the sense that Nathan and Ross were cutting through the complexities of the permit, translating the difficult wording into more understandable concepts. Honestly, most of it was still over my head, but Alex, one of ECOSS’ stormwater guys, and all of the business owners and managers in attendance were nodding their heads during the presentation, which makes me think the translation was making plenty of sense to them. Alex says that presentations like these are usually given at conferences with expensive admission fees, so the fact that Kennedy-Jenks provided this service through our free information series was significant. Turnout wasn’t as high as we had hoped, as a number of the RSVPs we got didn’t show up, but those who attended said they were glad they came and found the presentation very helpful.

This was the last ECOSSolutions session for this year, but based on the success of these first three meetings we plan to keep it going for next year. Thanks again to the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development for providing funding to make these sessions possible and free for attendees. Stay tuned for upcoming session announcements, and if you have a topic you’d like us to cover, send me an email any time at aldan@ecoss.org. We’ll add your idea to our running list of topics for future meetings.

-Aldan

South Park Farmer’s Market needs your feedback

September 28, 2009 / / No Comments

Taken from the South Park listserv:

Hello South Parkians! The Folks who put on the South Park Market on Wheels this year are looking for community feedback. We would like your input so we can make it even bigger and better next year. Please let us know what you liked, what you wished you would have seen, how you felt about the 10-3 time ect. and in general how we can better serve the community. You can email the listserv if you want to stir the discussion or just email me personally at silentlydreaming@hotmail.com. I will record all comments and bring them to our next meeting. Also we will need volunteers in the not too distant future to help us with the planning for next year, so if you interested in helping us out send me your contact info. Thanks so much, and thank you to all of you who came and supported us!

South Seattle’s Total Reclaim highlighted in NYTimes Article

June 30, 2009 / / 1 Comment

June 30, 2009
A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics
By LESLIE KAUFMAN

This month, Edward Reilly, 35, finally let go of the television he had owned since his college days.

Although the Mitsubishi set was technologically outdated, it had sat for years in Mr. Reilly’s home in Portland, Me., because he did not know what else to do with it, given the environmental hazards involved in discarding it.

“It’s pretty well known that if it gets into the landfill, it gets into the groundwater,” he said. “Its chemicals pollute.”

But the day after the nationwide conversion to digital television signals took effect on June 12, Mr. Reilly decided to take advantage of a new wave of laws in Maine and elsewhere that require television and computer manufacturers to recycle their products free of charge. He dropped off his television at an electronic waste collection site near his home and, he said, immediately gained “peace of mind.”

Over the course of that day, 700 other Portland residents did the same.

Since 2004, 18 states and New York City have approved laws that make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics, and similar statutes were introduced in 13 other states this year. The laws are intended to prevent a torrent of toxic and outdated electronic equipment — television sets, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines — from ending up in landfills where they can leach chemicals into groundwater and potentially pose a danger to public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates 99.1 million televisions sit unused in closets and basements across the country. Consumer response to recycling has been enormous in states where the laws have taken effect. Collection points in Washington State, for example, have been swamped by people like Babs Smith, 55, who recently drove to RE-PC, a designated electronics collection and repurposing center on the southern edge of Seattle.

Ms. Smith’s Subaru Outback was stuffed with three aged computer towers that had languished in her basement after being gutted by her teenage sons, who removed choice bits to build their own souped-up computers. “It’s what geeks do,” she said.

Since January, Washington State residents and small businesses have been allowed to drop off their televisions, computers and computer monitors free of charge to one of 200 collection points around the state. They have responded by dumping more than 15 million pounds of electronic waste, according to state collection data. If disposal continues at this rate, it will amount to more than five pounds for every man, woman and child per year.

Use of the drop-off points was so overwhelming at first that the Washington Materials Management and Financing Authority, which oversees the program, urged consumers to consider holding off until spring.

“We were getting 18 semi loads a day when the program first started,” said Craig Lorch, owner of Total Reclaim, a warehouse on the south edge of Seattle that is among the collection points.

Still, states that pioneered the electronic recycling laws report that consumer participation remains strong over time. Maine, which was one of the first to approve such a law, in 2004, says it collected nearly four pounds of waste per person last year.

Read the rest at the source.

South Park, Seattle; not South Park, CO

June 10, 2009 / / No Comments

When I tell people I work in South Park, I am often met with either blank stares (“Where is that?”) or sarcastic comments (“Do you work with Cartman?”). In the rarer case where my partner in conversation has heard of the scrappy little neighborhood where ECOSS’s offices are located, they usually live in Georgetown or South Park, or have the impression that aside from crime, poverty, or waste transfer stations, there’s nothing else down here.

Not true, my friends.

Among all the other strong community development and neighborhood groups, the new “Market On Wheels” South Park Farmers’ Market starts on June 20th, and last weekend kicked off yet another community mural project at the now-defunct County Line bar just over the crumbling South Park bridge… okay that may not make our little neighborhood (did I already use the word scrappy?) sound like a booming commercial center, but both the Farmer’s Market and the mural represent an ongoing commitment to revitalizing this neighborhood. Dow Constantine, who has tossed his hat into the ring for King County Executive, even signed a highly-visible pledge to support the replacement of the bridge (which carries about 20,000 vehicles every day) as part of the mural work this weekend.

So if you’ve never been south of Yesler (other than the occasional trip to Alki, that is), my suggestion is to celebrate the end of Spring by coming to South Park on June 20th for the final weekend of the mural painting and the kick-off of the Market… and yes, you should still have time to get to the Solstice Parade in Fremont to catch some cyclists in the buff.

-Audrey