A VACATION TO REMEMBER Make-A-Wish Foundation sends family to Disneyland. Page 4
NEWS | Heritage association will purchase historic house. [3] COMMENTARY | A longtime islander remembers Kiwanis. [6] ARTS | DramaDock’s popular improv night returns. [10]
TOP OF THE LEAGUE Lacrosse team enters playoffs in first place. Page 15
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2014
Vol. 59, No. 20
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Loss of natural shoreline confirms concerns about Puget Sound health Some homeowners will have to address unpermitted work By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Juli Goetz Morser Photo
Daniel Ahern and Shauna James Ahern sample a recipe in their test kitchen.
Gluten-free duo earns national acclaim Islanders’ most recent book wins a prestigious culinary award By JULI GOETZ MORSER Staff Writer
When Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern first learned they had won the prestigious James Beard Award, they were on a ferry heading to Seattle. The
announcement arrived via Twitter, and the couple squealed like little girls, Daniel said. It’s hard to blame them. The Beard awards are the highest honors given to culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in the field. Think Pulitzer Prize, maybe even Nobel, for the food and beverage industry. “It came as a marvelous surprise,” said Shauna, whose sparkling brown eyes and rosy cheeks look like the SEE GLUTEN FREE, 13
Despite shoreline restoration efforts, Vashon has seen an overall loss of natural shoreline in the last decade, a recent study found, leading some to call for better education for homeowners, stricter permitting enforcement and even the banning of bulkheads. “It’s a bit disheartening when you work on so many different projects and we’re still treading water and not forging ahead,” said Greg Rabourn, Vashon’s basin steward for King County. In recent years on Vashon, Rabourn said, the county has removed almost 600 feet of bulkheads, shoreline armoring that harms the environment by stopping natural beach processes and destroying important habitat.
However, the installation of bulkheads on private property — as well as retaining walls, docks and stairs — outpaced those conservation efforts, according to the recent study, and Vashon has still seen a net loss of natural shoreline since 2005. The recently released study, which was conducted using aerial photos and boat-based surveys, also found that much of the shoreline work on Vashon was not permitted. Later this month, King County will send letters to landowners it believes have done unpermitted work, asking them to work with the Department of Permitting and Environmental Review (DPER) to get any required permits. Those who don’t comply could eventually face penalties. “Initially we’re giving the property owners an opportunity to come into compliance,” said Randy Sandin, a resource product line manager with SEE SHORELINE, 20
From French fries to fuel
Some run cars off of restaurants’ leftover grease By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
When Jim Farrell drives his pickup truck past the Red Bicycle, he says he has one thought: “All right, eat more French fries.” Farrell’s true interest lies not with the gastronomic habits of the bistro’s patrons, but with fuel for his truck, which runs on biodiesel made from the Bike’s fryer grease. Once the restaurant has cooked a few days’ worth of fries, fish and chips and mozzarella sticks, chef Jack Chambers sets aside the used grease — some 120 pounds each week — for islander Terry Roth. Roth picks it up and takes it to his home on Maury Island, where he begins
the alchemy of turning grease into fuel any diesel-powered vehicle can use. A former college chemistry professor, Roth has been turning waste into renewable, clean-burning fuel for seven years, initially for financial reasons, when energy prices skyrocketed. “It was an economy measure and trying to get out from under those guys in the Middle East,” he said one day last week, standing outside the small, openair structure he calls “the refinery,” just steps from the home he shares with his wife. But biodiesel’s earth-friendly benefits figure in as well. Biodiesel is lead-free and contains no sulfur or chemical aromatics, which can lead to illness. It also emits far less car-
bon dioxide than petrodiesel, the diesel fuel commonly available at gas stations. “I feel like I am doing my part for the environment,” Roth said. Another bonus, Roth added, is that biodiesel is better for vehicles than its petroleum-derived counterpart, as it cleans and lubricates engines better and increases their lifespan. Given the fuel’s benefits, home brewing biodiesel has been gaining in popularity in recent years, and Roth is not the only one to do so on Vashon. Zombiez gives its used grease to another islander — who would prefer to fly under the biodiesel radar. And Scott Durkee, who used to Susan Riemer/Staff Photo
SEE BIODIESEL, PAGE 19
Terry Roth makes his own biodiesel.