*****************************************************************
It turns out that the Montlake fill piece I posted yesterday (Tuesday)
didn't make it onto Tweeters (because my email address hadn't yet been
registered with the listserver).

To clear up any confusion, here's my original post about the Daily
article, including an email exchange with Daily reporter Jake Watrous.
*****************************************************************

Dear Tweets

Most Tweeters know Connie Sidles, my wife, a lot better than you know me
(John Sidles). But I thought all the Tweeters should be aware of, and
should consider responding to, an article on the Montlake Fill that appeared
in the April 30 edition of the University of Washington newspaper, the
Daily.

This full-page Daily article, the first in a planned series, describes the
Fill mainly in toxic terms, as "a dump open for household and industrial
waste [until] 1964", a "Class 4 Superfund site", with "high concentrations
of methane gas at or above the explosive range" (illustrated with a lurid
picture of a methane flare from the 1970's), and as a landfill contaminated
with unknown quantities of pesticides, oil, heavy metals, and PCBs.

Most disturbing was the article's concluding quote from UW Director of
Environmental Health and Safety Karen Van Dusen:

The UW had the opportunity to get reclaimed land and get sports fields.
It was left with the legacy of the landfill.

How many of Seattle's citizens would be happy to see the Montlake Fill's
irreplaceable ecosystem "reclaimed" as a "sports field", with the
justification that this would protect the public from toxic contamination?

Daily reporter Jake Watrous has very graciously responded to these concerns
as follows:

I wonder if you have any names of people or groups, or their phone
numbers, within the Laurelhurst community who would like a chance
to speak out?

Tweeters, now is the time for you to speak out in defense of the Fill!

You may direct your email responses as follows:

Daily Report Jake Watrous: jwatrous at u.washington.edu
Letter to the Daily editor: opinion at u.washington.edu
UW President Dick McCormick: rlm at u.washington.edu

You will find that the University is very responsive to public concerns.
And I hope I needn't remind you to be polite.

Sincerely, John Sidles

> ----------
> From: "Jake Watrous" <jwatrous at u.washington.edu>
> Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:36:14 -0700
> To: "John Sidles" <sidles at u.washington.edu>
> Cc: "Randy Trick" <rjtrick at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Montlake Fill article
>
> This sounds like a wonderful opportunity and a great article. I would very
> much like to take you up on the offer of your wife's services.
>
> Thank you for your interest in my articles. Yes, the first article was
> indeed vague, something which at first bothered me. My editor felt that we
> should be intentionally vague so as to draw the readers to follow the
> subsequent articles. As a result I was forced/pressured into canning my
> origional draft for the version you saw on Monday.
>
> Thank you for the websites as well. Not only is the information great to
> have, but it is also great to get context with it as well. The biodiversity
> makes it better still. I have several hundred, if not a thousand or more,
> pages of information so far, and yours is origional.
>
> I wonder if you have any names of people or groups, or their phone numbers,
> within the Laurelhurst community who would like a chance to speak out?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Jacob Watrous
> 206 934-1585 (Home phone number)
> 206 543-2700 (Daily phone number)
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Sidles" <sidles at u.washington.edu>
> To: <jwatrous at u.washington.edu>
> Cc: "Connie Sidles" <csidles at mail.isomedia.com>; <daily at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:56 AM
> Subject: Montlake Fill article


>
> To: Jacob K. Watrous
> Reporter, The Daily of the University of Washington
>
> From: John Sidles
> Professor, School of Medicine
>
> cc: Connie Sidles
> Montlake Fill community expert
> Jimmy So
> Editor in Chief, The Daily
>
> Dear Jacob
>
> I enjoyed your article in today's Daily entitled "The Montlake Mess: History
> of Landfill Complicates Current Land Use" -- it's a great beginning to the
> Daily's planned series of articles on the Montlake Fill.
>
> But at least in this first Daily article, there wasn't much information
> about either the deep history of the Fill, or about its present main value
> to the University, namely, ecological study. I hope this will be remedied
> in the subsequent articles.
>
> The on-line Google engine yields long list of references for "Montlake
> Fill"; references that document the Fill's status as one of Seattle premier
> sites for ecological diversity. See, e.g. the Washington Ornithological
> Society's site
>
> http://www.wos.org/WB01A02.htm
>
> for an introduction to the Fill's deep ecological history.
>
> My own wife, Connie Sidles, is a well-known local expert on Montlake Fill
> biodiversity ... may I offer her services as as guide, Jacob? She would be
> happy to walk you around the Fill, while acquainting you, and the Daily's
> readers, with some of its little-known ecological treasures -- a guide
> service she has provided on many occasions for the Seattle Audubon Society.
> You can contact Connie by phone: 206.522.7513, or via email:
> csidles at mail.isomedia.com.
>
> A Fill walk with Connie would provide an abundance of photo opportunities,
> and these photos would be much more informative to the community than the
> decades-old file photos that appeared in the Daily's lead-off article. In
> particular, the methane-flare photo that the Daily ran, although
> spectacular, was grossly out-of-date! I remember this particular flare from
> my own student days back in the 1970's. However, it and all the other
> similar flares have been extinct at least a decade. Perhaps the Daily
> should consider running a clarification?
>
> I also ask you to consider whether Daily has an obligation to report more
> fully on the political stories behind the Fill. Montlake Fill politics are
> intense and controversial! As you might expect, many competing factions
> covet the Fill: some for its irreplaceable urban habitat for endangered
> species, some as a venue for teaching ecology, some for athletic field
> expansion, and some as vacant space for new campus buildings. Surely, the
> Daily has an important role to play in bringing these issues to light.
>
> In summary, the Fill's role as unique and irreplaceable community resource
> makes it important that the Daily cover the Fill in-depth and with care;
> both Connie and I would be happy to help with this, and we look forward to
> subsequent articles in the series.
>
> Sincerely John Sidles
>