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New state laws focus on toxics Wider yield to emergency vehicles, too
furniture containing a toxic chemical flame-retardant. The new law is one of a handful that took effect New Year’s Day. Another law prohibits the use of lead wheel weights used to balance tires. State officials said about 40 metric tons of lead weights fall off By Phuong Le vehicles every year in Washington. and Rachel La Corte Lead fragments and dust from The Associated Press the weights contaminate soil and OLYMPIA — The state is ban- water, and pose hazards to aquatic ning the sale of televisions, com- life, they said. puters or residential upholstered Washington state was the first
Also . . . ■ New federal health insurance laws in effect/A6 ■ New Year’s brings some small federal tax breaks/A6 ■ Filing income tax early won’t mean an early refund/A6
in the nation to phase out the use of decaBDE, the flame retardant, which has been found in people and wildlife. “It’s really exciting to see this
very forward-thinking policy go into effect that will protect all of Washington residents,” said Erika Schreder, staff scientist with the Washington Toxics Coalition. She noted that the only two U.S. makers of deca and the largest importer of deca voluntarily agreed in late 2009 to stop producing and importing deca for most uses by 2012. “Action here at the state level can have national implications and change the whole way the industry does business,” Schreder said.
Deca, one of three main types of PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, is largely used in the black plastic casings of TVs. The makers of the other two forms — penta and octa — voluntarily agreed to stop making them by the end of 2004. Washington’s law required state officials to identify safer alternatives that would meet fire safety standards before the ban on deca could take effect. Turn
HAPPY NEW YEAR
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Laws/A6
Signaling a big two-oh with her hands, bobbi fabellano symbolizes her 20 years of New Year’s Day dipping. She’s one of the founders of the Port Angeles Polar Bear Plunge.
Getting 2011 off to a rousing start By Paige Dickerson Peninsula Daily News
M
ark Ostroot heard that all he needed to do to stay warm during the annual Polar Bear Plunge was to wear a
dry suit. So when he got up early Saturday morning, he dressed in a suit and tie and headed for Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles. “It was the only ‘dry’ suit I had,” he said, just after taking three quick dips in Port Angeles Harbor. “Now it is a wet suit.” Ostroot, who was participating in the event for the first time, dragged about 15 of his friends and co-workers at Price Ford Lincoln Mercury in Port Angeles to the beach to start out the new year with a chilly dip. “The way I figure is that if it is about 30 degrees outside and the water is about 47 degrees — well, that adds up to 77, and that is plenty warm,” Ostroot said. Ostroot was joined by about 70 others who gathered at 10 a.m. to run three times into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Turn
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Dave Logan (2)/for Peninsula Daily News
Some of the estimated 70 who took the Polar Bear Plunge at Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles on Saturday
Plunge/A10 react to the 40-degree water while a larger number of bundled-up spectators watch and take pictures.
‘Hot bear’ back at store where stolen Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — A bear statue swiped from a downtown store last month is back — battered but welcomed. The hand-carved soapstone figure of a bear with a salmon in its mouth, which was priced at $1,249, disappeared from Necessities & Temptations gift shop the Monday before Christmas. Owner Edna Petersen offered a $200 reward for its return. “We don’t know who took it, but the wanderer is home,” she said Friday. The statue was returned by “a
New rules could affect biomass By Tom Callis
really nice man who suddenly got a hot bear,” she said. “Mr. Bear now has a broken foot, and he lost his dinner somewhere because the fish is gone,” Petersen said, but the statue is back on display at the store at 217 N. Laurel St., Port Angeles, after being returned at about 5 p.m. Thursday. David Richardson, who is known to collect bears, found the statue on his porch in Sequim when he returned from a trip to Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Seattle on Thursday, Petersen Edna Petersen, owner of the shop Necessities said. & Temptations in Port Angeles, with the bear Turn
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Peninsula Daily News
The federal government’s first greenhouse gas regulations, which took effect Saturday, have caused a stir among some biomass proponents who believe that woodto-energy projects should be exempt. Meanwhile, those opposed to the burning of wood waste for power applaud the new requirements. Biomass energy projects are planned on the North Olympic Peninsula at Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles and the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill. Both burn wood waste now and expect to have upgraded facilities online sometime next year.
Bear/A7 sculpture that had been pilfered from the store.
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