Wednesday afternoon links and notes

| Environment | How to help | West Seattle people

MERCURY FROM CEMENT PLANTS: They’re not in West Seattle but they (and other Duwamish-area industrial operations) affect the air quality here (and come up in discussions such as this recent WSB comment thread about a “mystery smell”). Today the Times reports an environmental group says the emissions from Lafarge and Ash Grove cement plants include up to 91 pounds of mercury a year. The Times story (at this moment, anyway) doesn’t link to the group’s report, but we found it here.

SHE’S A CHAMP: Think people tend to get weaker with age? 48-year-old Tamela Thomas of West Seattle is among those who can disabuse you of that notion. The Weekly writes about her historic martial-arts win.

MORE TIME TO ORDER ROTARY BLUEBERRIES: Another harvest delay is changing the Rotary Club of West Seattle blueberry pickup date – which means more time to order if you haven’t done so already – now pickups are projected for August 8-9. Raspberries will be here this weekend as scheduled, however. You can order blueberries from the Rotary website till August 5th; notes Rotary member Josh Sutton of the West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor), “These sales support our annual Holiday Kids Shopping Spree, where we take about 100 kids to Sears and buy them new clothes, shoes and winter coats each December. And the berries are yummy.”

INTERESTED IN GOING TO INDIA OR FRANCE? This too comes from the Rotarians, but it’s a citywide announcement – “young businesspeople” who are NOT Rotary Club members are invited to apply for an exchange program to spend a month in India or France. Find out all about it here.

E July 23, 2008 (2:57 pm)

This is frightening. What can we do about it? How can we know if we’re in the mercury smoke plume zone or not?

me July 23, 2008 (9:14 pm)

There’s more than just the smoke plumes to worry about, in 2007 The Seattle PI reported that the Duwamish is one of the largest and most toxic site in the nation.

I doubt much has changed since then. It’s so polluted they don’t even know where much of it is even coming from…

T July 23, 2008 (10:07 pm)

The smell from the cement factory (smells like burning plastic) has been noticeable in Pigeon Point lately and was pretty bad two days ago. I looked up the previous post here and called in a report. It is concerning because the smell is so strong it makes me think that it really can’t be good…

Wendy July 24, 2008 (8:40 am)

As a point of clarification, the reports and the Times story are about cement plants, not concrete plants as stated in this blog post.

WSB July 24, 2008 (8:46 am)

I originally used both terms – my reference had suggested they were synonymous – but I am hereby corrected.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-concrete-and-cement.htm
fixed the one incidence of “concrete.” (The one that I wrote, anyway; comments stand as is – we don’t edit them unless they violate rules.) Thanks! – TR

JumboJim July 24, 2008 (4:25 pm)

Just a wild guess here, but since our prevailing winds are so often out of the west and south those of us in West Seattle may be out of the plume for these plants. Maybe.
Remember the story a couple of years ago about all the horrible stuff (arsenic I think) in Renton, Vashon and other places north that came from the Asarco smelter in Tacoma?? You don’t necessarily have to be too close to industry to be affected – just in the wrong spot geographically – just ask the Hanford down-winders.

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