Erik covers environment and transportation.
Recent Stories
BPA plan for power line generates lots of worry
Clark, Cowlitz residents, officials urge consideration
A proposed high-voltage transmission line continues to generate plenty of concern among Clark and Cowlitz county residents, despite the Bonneville Power Administration adding a new alternative running primarily through state and industrial forest land. Bonneville bowed to public pressure in adding the new alternative to the north and east away from populated areas. However, by shifting segments away from campsites and trails proposed in the Yacolt Burn State Forest, Bonneville added other alternatives that affect an extra 300 to 400 living on the forest’s western edge.
BPA officials catch flak over power line route
A proposed high-voltage transmission line continues to generate plenty of concern among Clark and Cowlitz county residents, despite the Bonneville Power Administration adding a new alternative running primarily through state and industrial forest land. Bonneville bowed to public pressure in adding the new alternative to the north and east away from populated areas. However, by shifting segments away from campsites and trails proposed in the Yacolt Burn State Forest, Bonneville also added other alternatives that affect an extra 300 to 400 living on the forest’s western edge.
C-Tran fare hike to take effect
Bus riders will start paying an extra nickel Wednesday
C-Tran bus riders will have to pay an extra nickel beginning Wednesday, and they should expect similar fare increases in the years to come. “The working assumption right now is that each year we would be doing a fare increase,” C-Tran spokesman Scott Patterson said.
Power line proposals generate new buzz
BPA to host another series of public meetings
A proposed high-voltage transmission line cutting a swath through Clark County will be the subject of another round of public meetings beginning next week. The Bonneville Power Administration will give brief presentations and then take questions about a new map of alternative routes. Released earlier this month, the new map includes dozens of alternative segments where the agency might string a new 500-kilovolt transmission line between new substations in Castle Rock and Troutdale, Ore.
Salmon Creek projects help habitat, water
Bank restored near Klineline; Fruit Valley well to aid stream flow
This has been a good week for Salmon Creek. Two projects, miles apart, share a unifying goal to improve habitat and conserve water flowing through the creek snaking through Vancouver suburbs.
Clark bumps electric rates by about 5.7 percent
Utility tried to forestall move with austerity measures
Customers of Clark Public Utilities will begin paying about 5.7 percent more for electricity next month. The utility’s three elected commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the third rate increase since 2003. The rate hike during the final three months of the year is expected to bridge a $5.7 million shortfall on this year’s $388.6 million electric system budget.
Heat ignites blazes
Fire hazard rises with the temperature, with fuel abundant in forest and urban settings alike
HOCKINSON — Wildland firefighters, enduring scorching heat, on Monday began to make significant headway against a fire burning in industrial timberland in the Cascade foothills of east Clark County. Yet, even as firefighters began to wrap a line around the remote Hilltop fire, firefighters from Vancouver to Camas scrambled to suppress grass fires in urban areas of Southwest Washington. Four days of 90-degree heat has rapidly dried out fuels such as high grass and brush — which grew prodigiously during an unusually wet spring and early summer.
Forest fire in Cascades foothills now 46 percent contained
HOCKINSON — Wildland firefighters, enduring scorching heat, on Monday began to make headway against a fire burning in industrial timberland in the Cascade foothills of east Clark County. By late afternoon, firefighters reported that the Hilltop fire was 46 percent contained.
PUD to consider hiking cost of power
Utility needs to increase income for the end of the year
Clark Public Utilities commissioners will convene Tuesday to weigh a proposed rate increase for electric customers. A lousy economy and mild weather have depressed demand for electricity, which is forcing the utility to look for ways to offset a projected year-end budget shortfall of almost $17 million on a $388.6 million electric system budget.
C-Tran offers ‘no hassle’ ride to Clark County Fair
That’s what a Vancouver couple find, but transit agency says fewer people taking shuttle
With the temperature climbing past 90 by mid-afternoon Friday, Jim and Donna Warren climbed into the air-conditioned comfort of a C-Tran bus. The Vancouver couple, bound for the Clark County Fair, had eschewed the fairgrounds parking lot and instead pointed their car to the 99th Street Transit Center in Hazel Dell.
