Our Sustainable Northwest

How to: Create Your Own Solar Panel

How to Use Less Water on Your Yard

Study: Northwest Wildfire Severity Not Getting Worse

The Panther Creek fire is currently burning in North Cascades National Park Photo by Kerry Olson, NPS

To a lot of people, it seems like catastrophic wildfires are getting more common in the Northwest. Now a newly published study on wildfires questions that conventional wisdom. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

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Creative Solutions to Deal with Abandoned Mines

An old abandoned mine in Idaho. Stopping environmental contamination from the historic Clayton Silver Mine costs U.S. taxpayers about $2 million. Photo by Tom Banse.

CHALLIS, ID - Abandoned mines release pollutants into streams and are also draining the wallets of U.S. taxpayers. This summer, the Environmental Protection Agency celebrates a few creative solutions to get new owners to clean up and redevelop old mine sites. Tom Banse reports.

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A Wet June Helps Idaho Fish Down the River

(Flickr photograph by oregon ducatisti)

COEUR D'ALENE, ID - Most of the Northwest has had normal or drier than usual weather this spring. But some of the traditionally driest areas have experienced one of their wettest Junes in years. Some areas of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon have had three or four times the normal rainfall. That’s good news for salmon. Inland Northwest Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

Oregon Lawmakers Approve Field Burning Rampdown

(Flickr photograph by chrisjohnbeckett)

SALEM, OR - Oregon lawmakers narrowly gave final approval on Monday to a bill that would end most field burning in the state over the next two years. The smoke from the burns is blamed for health problems in nearby communities. Some grass seed farmers say they need to burn their fields after harvest to combat pests and weeds. But Charlie Tebbutt with the Western Environmental Law Center dismisses the farmers’ argument. (Full Story)

Stimulus Projects Planned for Northwest Coasts

(Flickr photograph of the Oregon coast by ru 24 real)

Leading federal officials have announced close to 24 million dollars in coastal restoration projects. The plan is to improve habitat and provide jobs in Oregon and Washington. Head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and former Oregon State professor, Jane Lubchenco, laid out the rationale for the 50 projects across the country. They include nine along the coast of Oregon and Washington. (Full Story)

A Wet June Helps Idaho Fish Down the River

(Snake River Flickr photograph by oregon ducatisti)

COEUR D'ALENE, ID - Most of the Northwest has had normal or drier than usual weather this spring. But some of the traditionally driest areas have experienced one of their wettest Junes in years. Some areas of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon have had three or four times the normal rainfall. That’s good news for salmon. Inland Northwest Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

EPA gives states OK for tougher tailpipe exhaust rules

(Flickr photograph by aliciagriffin)

OLYMPIA, WA - West Coast states can forge ahead with tougher tailpipe emissions rules. The federal government has granted trendsetter California a long-awaited OK. But the Obama Administration’s plans to increase gas mileage standards on a national basis mean West Coast states will not go it alone. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

How to Clean One Radioactive Waste Tank

  
(Hanford workers struggle to empty waste from tank C-110. There are 177 tanks full of radioactive sludge at the nuclear site in southcentral Washington. Photo courtesy of Washington River Protection Solutions.)

RICHLAND, WA - At the Hanford Reservation in southcentral Washington, 53-million-gallons of radioactive waste sits in underground tanks. That’s enough to fill 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The government’s been trying to clean up that mess, but it’s slow going. This year, President Obama’s federal stimulus package includes $2 billion to speed up the pace of cleanup at Hanford. But getting rid of nuclear waste is incredibly complicated. Correspondent Anna King uses a series of food analogies to examine the complexities of just one of those tanks of waste: It’s called C-110. (Full Story)