Hanford’s LIGO team shares in Nobel Prize victory

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics felt like a hometown victory to the Tri-Cities’ scientific community.

The prize went to three physicists “for decisive contributions” in the development of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory at Hanford and in Louisiana.

Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne received the prize Oct. 3.

In 2015, the universe’s gravitational waves were observed for the first time. The waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago, came from a collision between two black holes and took 1.3 billion years to arrive at the LIGO detector. The Hanford observatory is located north of Richland.

The signal was extremely weak when it reached Earth, but is already promising a revolution in astrophysics.

Gravitational waves are an entirely new way of observing the most violent events in space and testing the limits of our knowledge, according to a Nobel Prize news release.

LIGO is a collaborative project with more than 1,000 researchers from more than 20 countries.

The 2017 Nobel laureates have each been invaluable to the success of LIGO, according to the release.

LIGO project’s achievement was reached by using a pair of gigantic laser interferometers to measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus, as the gravitational wave passed the Earth.

All sorts of electromagnetic radiation and particles, such as cosmic rays or neutrinos, have been used to explore the universe. However, gravitational waves are direct testimony to disruptions in spacetime itself, the release said.

LIGO Hanford offers free tours of the observatory on the second Saturday of every month. For details, visit ligo.caltech.edu/WA.

Public meetings planned on L&I proposed rate changes

Washington employers’ workers’ compensation average rate could decrease in 2018 under a proposal by the state Department of Labor & Industries.

The agency is holding a series of meetings to learn and receive comments about the proposed rates. A meeting is set at 9 a.m. Oct. 26 at the Richland Community Center, 500 Howard Amon Park Road N.

The proposed decrease would result in employers, as a group, paying $67 million less in premiums. The lower rate would mean employers would pay an average of about $34 less a year per employee for workers’ compensation coverage.

L&I attributes the proposed decrease to several factors, including employers and workers focusing on safety, and L&I initiatives helping injured workers recover sooner and reducing workers’ compensation costs.

For more information about the proposal, go to lni.wa.gov/rates.

Engineer to discuss servant leadership at Nov. 14 meeting

Ed Landauer, a certified quality engineer, will be the guest speaker for the American Society for Quality, Columbia Basin Section, on the topic of servant leadership. He will discuss two leadership styles and the resulting outcomes.

Landauer has taught engineering and quality courses for more than 25 years. He has master’s degrees in statistics, industrial engineering and mathematics. He also is a registered professional engineer in mechanical, industrial and manufacturing engineering.

The meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Shilo Inn at 50 Comstock St. in Richland. Check-in and a no-host cocktail service begins at 5:30 p.m. with a 6 p.m. buffet dinner and presentation at 6:45 p.m. Cost for presentation and dinner is $20 for members and $25 for all others. To attend the presentation only, the cost is $5.

Reservations are due by Nov. 9 by emailing panda_2@charter.net with name, phone number, company affiliation and type of reservation. For more information, visit asq614.org.

Cold storage company to build facility in Grandview

A week after announcing the arrival of three new businesses to the Port of Grandview’s Byam Business Park, the port announced the arrival of one more.

Henningsen Cold Storage Co. has signed an agreement to buy nearly 26 acres of property to build a cold storage facility.

The company is one of the largest public refrigerated warehousing companies in the U.S., with locations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

The first of three phases of construction includes a 140,000-square-foot facility on Stover Road.

Women in Agriculture to hold Pasco conference 

The sixth annual Women in Agriculture Conference, with simultaneous meetings throughout several states, is Nov. 18.

This year’s conference theme, “We Can Do It,” will be shared at 39 locations throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana.

This year’s featured speakers are Alexis Taylor, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and Anne Schwartz, owner of Blue Heron Farm in Skagit County.

Each event location will feature a panel of local female farmers who will talk about their leadership roles, challenges they have faced and how they have used a mentor to develop their skills.

Cost is $25 before Nov. 5 for women involved in agriculture and $30 after that. Cost for students is $20. Sponsors may pay a registration for an aspiring famer or student with a $30 donation that will be added to the Women, Farms & Food Scholarship Fund. For more information, to register and get more updates, call 509-745-8531, email donna.rolen@wsu.edu or visit womeninag.wsu.edu or find on Facebook @ WomenInAgricultureConferenceWashingtonState.

Tri-Cities Cancer Foundation offers tools for fundraising

The Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation is inviting businesses to offer support for breast cancer awareness throughout October.

Tri-City companies wishing to participate can sign up for a free box that includes canisters to collect donations, pink promotional items, staked signs and fundraising activity ideas. All the money raised benefits breast cancer patients in the community.

To participate and have a box delivered, contact 509-737-3413 or foundation@tccancer.org.

Corps of Engineers to have training for business owners

The Walla Walla Corps of Engineers is holding a free seminar for business owners and representatives on how to do business with the Corps and learn about upcoming contracting opportunities.

Industry Day is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Marcus Whitman Conference Center, 6 W. Rose St., Walla Walla.

Registration for the free event is required. Contact James Glynn at 509-527-7434 or james.glynn@usace.army.mil.

Property owner fined $28,000 after oil spill

The Department of Ecology has fined an Outlook property owner $28,000 for a 2015 oil spill from an above-ground storage tank.

About 2,700 gallons of oil was lost from the tank on the property owned by Ward Deaton of Deaton Land LLC.

Seven miles of Sulphur Creek and 12 miles of the Yakima River, from Mabton to Prosser, were damaged from 1,900 gallons of oil. The oil traveled from the property through underground piping that spilled into the creek, then reached the Yakima River.

The Department of Ecology, the local irrigation district, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Yakama Nation responded to the spill to clean up the oil reaching water. Soil and groundwater at the property remains contaminated and needs a long-term cleanup plan.

Under state law, the owner also faces a resource damage assessment for harm caused to public resources. In Washington, an oil spiller is responsible for adequately compensating the public for injuries to their resources.

The EPA initially conducted its own investigation of the incident and later deferred action to the state.

DOE funding allows PNNL projects to move forward

Five Pacific Northwest National Laboratory projects are among those the Department of Energy is spending $32 million to fund as part of the Grid Modernization Initiative.

The initiative is an effort by DOE to work with public and private partners to develop the concept, tools and technologies needed to create a power grid to meet the demands of the 21st century and beyond.

PNNL will lead a project to advance resilient distribution systems with a focus on the integration of clean distribution energy resources as well as lead the Laboratory Value Analysis Team for each of the other resilient distribution system projects.

In addition, PNNL will join efforts with other labs on three projects aimed at validating new approaches and technologies to make the aging grid more resilient and secure.

Coal export terminal project halted after permit denied

A water quality permit sought by Millennium Bulk Terminals that’s necessary to build and operate the largest coal export terminal in North America near Longview has been denied by the Department of Ecology.

If built, the project would have moved 44 million metric tons of coal annually, likely some through the Tri-Cities. Coal would have been piled eight stories high and equivalent to 50 football fields wide at the site.

The water quality certification was needed under the federal Clean Water Act before the company could fill wetlands and dredge the riverbed. The coal terminal would have included filling 24 acres of wetlands, dredging 41.5 acres of the Columbia riverbed and installing more than 500 pilings in the river for a new trestle and docks.

“There are simply too many unavoidable and negative environment impacts for the project to move forward,” said Ecology Director Maia Bellon.

Ecology said the coal export terminal would have caused significant and unavoidable harm to nine environmental areas including air quality, vehicle traffic, vessel traffic, rail capacity, rail safety, noise pollution, social and community resources, cultural resources and tribal resources.