Proud Co-Sponsors of 2025 Earth Day at the REACH. See more below.       

  EVENTS

May 3. 2nd Annual Wildfire Preparedness Expo. 9:00 am 350 Keene Road, Richland. Learn about the Richland Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

 May 7. What Is the UPWP, Anyway? 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Webinar.  Learn about the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) that guides how federal transportation planning funds are spent in our region.

May 9.  STC monthly meeting.  Location TBD. We will meet new members and plan future projects. 

May 9 & 10. Master Gardeners Annual Plant sale. Friday 9am-4pm, Saturday, 9am-2pm. Highlands Grange Park (next to Kennewick Public library) on 1600 S. Union St.

May 10. Pasco Farmers Market Opening Day. 9:00 am. 426 W. Lewis St., Pasco.

May 17. Bike Trail Clean Up. 8:30 am -10:30 am. Bike Tri-Cities is sponsoring a litter clean-up for the Sacajawea trail alongside the highway 240 bridge.

May 20. Shoreline Master Program Listening Session. 6:30 pm. Share your thoughts on shoreline use, access, and protection. 525 N. 3rd Ave., Pasco.

May 24. Seedling/Plant Giveaway/Exchange. 1:00 pm. Tri-Cities Food Co-Op, 1420 Jadwin, Richland.

May 28. TC Chapter Citizens’ Climate Lobby monthly meeting. 7pm in person and online. Contact Steve. We are writing to Rep. Newhouse to save IRA funding. And a new monthly book club is planned.

ACTIONS FOR MAY

Call Rep. Newhouse to save clean energy tax credits.  The IRA clean energy tax credits could be omitted in the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill. The House Ways & Means Committee is working on this right now. Newhouse was one of 21 Republicans who signed on to a letter to the House Ways & Means Committee urging continuation of energy tax credits. Go here for guidance to make the call to ask to save IRA funding for local clean energy projects. You don’t need to be a member of CCL.

NextCycle WA Pitch Showcase.  Co-located with the WA State Recycling Association Annual Conference, it will take place May 19-22 at the Northern Quest Casino Resort in Airway Heights, WA, west of Spokane. The conference will have nearly 40 different sessions covering topics like waste reduction, glass recycling, farm waste, organic management laws, textiles, food waste, offal, electric fleets, contamination, and grant opportunities. Kick off the event with the NextCycle Pitch Showcase. You must register for each event separately. Visit the WSRA website for more information.

Earth Day, Every Day. The official earth day has passed, but we agree with the WA State Dept. of Ecology that every day is Earth Day. Check out their page for a quick review of great ideas.

WHAT WE DID IN APRIL

Tri-Cities Earth Day April 19. STC was a co-sponsor, helping to cover the cost of the very successful Earth Day celebration at the REACH Museum, attended by about 700 people. Members spent months planning, then volunteered at one of over 30 booths with learning opportunities and activities for kids. We featured our landscape model for the Tri-Cities, Jenni’s multi page earth day section published in Tumblewierd, and the sustainability quiz spinning wheel activity. We welcome four new members!

WSU Tri-Cities Hosted Panel on Small Modular Reactors . Attended the WSU Tri-Cities Institute for NW Energy Futures (INEF) event on April 22.The WSU Tri-Cities campus hosts INEF which is working to meet the global need for sustainable clean energy production. Energy Northwest recently signed an agreement with Amazon to build and deploy small modular reactors in the Tri-Cities. Efforts are also underway with Energy NW and Columbia Basin College to establish a SMR operations simulation center inside the INEF building as an essential training resource for the next generation of nuclear operators.

Pasco Arbor Day event, April 25. We attended the tree planting (pictured here) and Grand Opening of the Interactive Tree Walk at Volunteer Park. Take some time to visit the variety of mature, labeled trees at this lovely park.

Sustainable Tri Cities Resource Directory . Now available on the STC website. It defines then lists who is working on each topic in our community. The three main categories are Environmental, Economic,  and Social Sustainability. Many thanks to STC member Les Stewart for this extensive resource for our community! If you see something to add to it, please let us know.

Salmon Summit. April 29. Hosted by the Benton Conservation District. More than a thousand fourth and fifth graders released their salmon fry into the river at Columbia Park. STC and Kids for Urban trees leader taught nine classes about sustainability, the benefits of riparian trees to salmon, and proper tree planting.

Helped pass WA state laws. We thank everyone who contacted our legislators asking them to support our priority bills. We followed the  Environmental Priorities Coalition, and others. The WA legislative session is now over. The following bills have passed, but a few still need to be signed by the governor.

HB 1135  GMA Compliance. Ensure local government planning complies with the growth management act to implement new housing and climate regulations. The governor appointed board may impose sanctions on a local government if they remain non-compliant. Passed. Effective 7/27/25.

HB 1154 Adding Ecology approval for landfill permits. Ensure environmental and public health protection from solid waste handling facility operations.

HB 1183 Concerning building code and development regulation reform. Revises Growth Management Act to enable energy efficiency retrofits for some houses and buildings. Passed. Effective 7/27/2025.

HB 1409 Clean Fuels Program. Strengthens CFP standards for more incentives and investments in clean fuels, including investments in electric vehicle infrastructure and utilities.

HB 1462 Reduce GHG emissions associated with hydrofluorocarbons.  Phases in prohibitions against certain HFCs subject to certain exceptions. Directs the Dept of Ecology to establish transition task force.

HB 1491– Promoting transit-oriented housing development. Provides guidelines & assistance to cities.

To help increase affordable housing and promote use of transit.

HB 1522 Approval of electric utility wildfire mitigation plans. Investor-owned electrical utility must file  their wildfire mitigation plan with Utilities & Transportation Commission. Passed. Effective 7/27/2025.

HB 1539   Addressing wildfire protection and mitigation. Creates a work group to recommend wildfire mitigation & resilience standards, and a grant program to homeowners to retrofit residential property to resist wildfire losses.  Submit by Dec 1, 2025.

HB 1563 Prescribed fire claims fund pilot program. Office of Risk Management must administer a pilot program to reimburse claims for certain costs from a prescribed fire. Passed. Effective 4/21/2025.

HB 1837  Improve Intercity Passenger Rail. Sets targets for Amtrak service including more frequent and reliable services and more reliable on-time service.

SB 5033 Testing for PFAS in biosolids.  PFAS (i.e., the forever chemicals) in biosolids from wastewater treatment facilities, are spread in forests and on farms.

SB 5184 Minimum Parking Requirements. On-site parking requirements drive up the cost of development, particularly housing, discourage walking and multimodal transit usage, and encourage excessive reliance of automobiles with attendant impacts on human health and GHG emissions.

SB 5284 Recycling Reform Act.  Establishes producer responsibility program for consumer packaging & paper products; requires producers to use packaging with reuse/recycling rate of 65%. 

SB 5445 Develop Distributed Energy.  D. Energy includes clean energy facilities including solar energy gen. & accompanying energy storage & electrical transmission & distribution, including electric vehicle charging; energy storage; microgrids; programs to reduce energy demand. Sen. Boehnke is a sponsor.

BFCOG Coordinated Safety Action Plan and Safe Routes to School Plan. STC offered the opportunity for our community to provide feedback to the plan.

BFCOG Tri-Cities Climate Survey. STC offered this opportunity to the community to share our experience and ideas for addressing local weather and climate impacts. Now closed.

The survey results will be used by the regional Climate policy advisory team (CPAT) with includes Benton County and city officials, and STC members and partners.

NEWS and THINGS to READ

May issue of Tumbleweird

Boots in the Basin: Celebrating Earth Day at The REACH and

Wildflower Walks: four dates in May, by Jenny Rieke. Pg. 20.

Nature + Art = Magic. By Pauline Schafer, Reach Museum. Pg. 21.

Richland Public Library announces Children’s Reading Garden and Outdoor Amphitheater, by Dorri Luzzo Gilmour. Pg. 31.

Recycling will not save our climate, by Steve Ghan. Pg. 32.

For more news and events, see the Sustainable Tri-Cities website www.alsctc.org/events and Like the Face Book page.