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February 1999
(BPA’s FY99 budget contains more than $930,000 for ocean research on salmon. The largest amount, $788,000, is to fund research under the National Marine Fisheries Service 1995 Biological Opinion on salmon. BPA is also funding $150,000 in ocean research for the Northwest Power Planning Council. That comes under the 1996 Gorton amendment to the Northwest Power Act. It requires the NPPC to consider the impact of ocean conditions on Northwest fish and wildlife. Hugh Moore covers fish and wildlife issues for BPA’s communications group. He wrote this article on recent major findings in the ocean.)
Biologists are finding that Mother Nature has rearranged the furniture in the Pacific Ocean. Research of the last few years has found major changes in the structure of the ocean environment. And that has serious consequences for salmon and steelhead stocks in West Coast streams from northern California to Alaska.
“Since the late 1970s water temperatures have risen two degrees Centigrade,” said Alan Ruger, a BPA fishery biologist. “And since the early 1990s, nitrate levels in the Gulf of Alaska have fallen sharply.”
Nitrate is a major plant nutrient that makes it possible for plant and animal plankton to grow. And plankton fuel the food chain in the ocean. Animal plankton is a major food source for juvenile salmon and steelhead.
David Welch is a scientist with the British Columbia Department of Fisheries and Oceans. He heads the high seas salmon research at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, B.C. “In 1998,” Welch said, “we found zero nitrate levels by mid-summer for a broad region in the Gulf of Alaska that stretched from Vancouver Island all the way around to the Aleutians.” Welch said calculations by his colleague, Frank Whitney, “suggest that this has reduced biological production at the base of the food chain by 40 percent.”
The base of the food chain is where juvenile salmon line up to eat. “It’s like a farmer who wants to fatten up his hogs by feeding them turnips,” explained Welch. “If there’s little or no nutrients to grow the turnips, it’s going to mean smaller portions for the hogs or maybe none at all,” he said.
How much can ocean conditions affect the number of returning salmon? “The rate of ocean survival could have as much as a ten-fold effect on numbers of returning salmon compared to the rate from freshwater survival,” Ruger said. “For example, if the number of juvenile salmon that survive to reach the ocean is increased by two percent, you’ll get a four percent increase in numbers of returning adults, assuming all other factors are constant,” Ruger said. “By contrast, a two percent increase in ocean survival could result in 40 percent more returning adults.”
Welch agrees. “Even if all harvest of southern stocks of British Columbia steelhead had been stopped after 1990, it would not have made up for the losses due to ocean conditions,” he said. “The situation is the same for coho in both B.C. and Oregon. Ocean survival has dropped to only one-tenth of what it was two decades ago,” Welch said. “In B.C. we used to have marine survival rates upwards of 10 percent. Ocean survival has steadily declined now to less than one percent.”
Does this mean that Northwest efforts to recover dwindling runs of salmon and steelhead are hostage to ocean conditions that society is powerless to change?
Ruger doesn’t think so. He believes that it’s important for the region to get juvenile salmon and steelhead off to a good start to increase their chances of surviving in the ocean. Efforts to improve tributary production and survival through the hydro system can help. One new idea is to time the release of fish into the Columbia River estuary. That could take advantage of conditions known to be helpful for juvenile survival and avoid harmful conditions.
Michael Schiewe is director of the fish ecology division at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle. He sees the value of ocean research to help evaluate the results of freshwater management regimes. “A better understanding of ocean cycles and productivity patterns,” Schiewe said, “will give us knowledge we need to make better decisions to manage the freshwater environment so that it will be most beneficial in the salmon’s total life cycle.”
Welch said, “The challenge in ocean research is to get people to accept that the changes are real and are having very rapid and profound effects on anadromous fish populations. People seem to have a natural inclination to assume that the ocean, because of its size, continues basically unchanged, and that when a problem suddenly develops it must have a freshwater cause,” he said.
So according to the latest research, young salmon and steelhead that make it safely through the river may find the ocean food supply sparser than in the past. This is just one of the many challenges for federal efforts to develop a unified plan that will lead to real, long-term salmon recovery.
Ocean salmon research underway -- The National Marine Fisheries Service is using several vessels for ocean research on salmon. In some places, NMFS contracts with private boat owners. The Sea Eagle (top right) is a private fishing trawler working off the Washington coast. NMFS researchers (left and bottom right) haul in a vertical tow net used to collect plankton samples. BPA helps fund the research.
Many people have noted changes in BPA’s writing the past two years. Customers have complimented BPA for contracts that are shorter and easier to read. Employees find forms easier to use since BPA has simplified them. Some folks have commented about the more personable style in publications.
The communications group writes for the public and the news media. So it has followed Associated Press style and basic journalism practices over the years. More recently though, we have also tried to write more personably in BPA publications.
We have received some E-mail on these changes the past two years. Most folks said they like the easier style, but a couple said they didn’t. One person said he noticed “the growing use of informal language” and asked if it is a trend. The answer is yes. BPA is purposely using less formal language in most of its writing. So are many leading businesses.
Several things led to this effort. One is BPA’s need to communicate better with its customers and the public so they can understand what BPA is about. Another is our drive to cut costs and improve efficiency in the workplace. Plain language cuts the amount of paper we use and saves readers valuable time. BPA also wants to put human faces back into its work and the benefits we provide for the region. And management wants employees to identify better with the agency and to “own” their roles and jobs. Finally, BPA wants to connect employees better through our own communications in the face of the information explosion.
BPA was a leader in transmission technology in the past. Today we are among the leaders in the effort to reinvent government. Our work to communicate better is an important part of that effort.
The federal government is now making an all-out effort to improve public service through plain writing. Read about the new PLAN, efforts for plain language, and tips and sources that can help you write better. You’ll find articles on these and more below.
It’s a tale of two coasts. From dust bunnies in musty archives to computer mice on desktops; from musty warehouses to flashing computer screens.
On the West Coast, Bob Lohn, head of BPA’s fish and wildlife group, had been looking at a printing bill that ran up to $30,000 a month.
On the East Coast, people at the Department of Energy were studying ways to get department-funded information off the shelves and into the hands of people who needed it.
The answer to both problems was the same. Forget printing; forget warehousing. Put information on the Internet where researchers can search for and download it directly. No libraries, no paper, no dust bunnies.
“Four or five years ago,” says Rose Ann Ranft, BPA’s technical information officer, “I began working on a DOE project to move research information from a centralized physical location to a ‘virtual library’ that everyone can access.” The base problem is that all federal agencies are required to disseminate information from projects they have funded.
Ranft says the way BPA had approached the task in the past “was laborious and expensive.” Each research report and environmental impact statement produced by Fish and Wildlife and all other groups was printed, to the tune of about 500 copies each. Work groups sent four of the documents to the BPA library. The library then sent two copies to DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Finally, OSTI made them available through the National Technical Information Service.
BPA would also announce its reports publicly and then spend hours of staff time to respond to requests. Bill Hewitt, computer specialist in fish and wildlife says, “A researcher who got an initial copy would read it and then toss it. A year later, he or she would want to cite the paper and would request another copy. Sometimes we reprinted more copies to respond to that request and then ended up with hundreds of copies in the warehouse.”
Ranft linked up with Hewitt who was helping Lohn work on his budget problem. As a result, the issues from the two coasts merged. Now BPA puts its fish and wildlife and many other studies on the Internet through DOE.
Fish and wildlife is close to its full conversion to the new system. It has put most of the early paper reports out on the Internet (from the BPA home page, click on Environment, Fish and Wildlife, then on Fish & Wildlife Group and then on Reports and Publications).
When the system is up to full speed, all new research reports, EIS documents and other studies will come to BPA by computer. BPA can then easily format them for the Internet. Annette Davis in Fish and Wildlife creates an electronic form with information about each document. She sends it to the BPA library along with two printed copies of the document. Linda Kuriger in the library catalogs the hard copies and puts them on the shelf. She also checks the electronic forms for accuracy and then releases them to OSTI.
OSTI in turn places the forms on the DOE Information Bridge site (www.doe.gov/bridge/) where PC users can search all the DOE-sponsored research. Researchers can just click on an item they want and download it directly from the agency that sponsored it.
Neither BPA’s site nor the DOE site is completely free of bugs yet, but they are close. Hewitt is still tweaking the BPA system to make it easier to search.
Ranft and Hewitt share a vision for the future. They look forward to a time when the entire body of federally funded research is at the fingertips of anyone with a computer and modem. And as they do their part to help us get there, they’re also doing a lot to save BPA staff time, resources and money.
Ian Templeton is a writer in communications
Research reports at your fingertips -- Srrounded by stacks of BPA studies and research reports, Rose Ann Ranft checks Internet sites for such documents. The DOE Web site (www.doe.gov/bridge) will link to BPA studies to that researchers around the nation will be able to get them in an instant on the Internet. BPA will no longer print thousands of reports.
In my teen years in the 1950s, I collected jazz, blues, ragtime and Dixieland records. I bought all the “LPs” I could get my hands on. (Some folks will remember the old long-playing hi-fi and stereo albums.) As soon as they came out, I bought albums by Lionel Hampton, The Dukes of Dixieland, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
“Satchmo” was my favorite as a trumpet player. In school, I also played a “horn” – the jazz term for the trumpet or cornet. And for two years I had a combo that “jammed” just like the greats of jazz, albeit not as expertly.
As I began to plan the articles for this Circuit, I thought about ways we might help observe February as Black History Month. I thought about African Americans who made their marks in history. In grade school we read about George Washington Carver and his many inventions and discoveries. In college we read about the courageous Rosa Parks who challenged segregation on a southern bus in 1955. In my early adult years Martin Luther King Jr. and other Blacks inspired hope for our country and gave us a new sense of liberty based on civil rights.
I remembered my experiences growing up with people of African descent. I have known, played and worked with African Americans throughout my life.
So how is this all related here? Well, it’s about Black history and American history. It’s about civil rights and true freedom. It’s about the contributions of African Americans to our country and our culture. And it’s about our need to honor people for those contributions.
African American achievements run the gamut of our society. From agriculture, science and medicine, to sports, the arts, national defense, human rights and liberty itself – Afro-Americans have given much to our nation and the world.
I asked Scott Lawson to design this month’s crossword puzzle with a theme of Blacks in history. As it turned out, Lawson also loves jazz and blues. Instead of trying to cover the wide range of African American contributions, he had an idea to focus on a single major field of achievement – music.
African Americans have given us something we all enjoy and appreciate so much today. Most modern music forms have their roots in our African American culture. Blues, ragtime, jazz and Dixieland led the way. Swing and the big band sounds developed from those. And rock n’ roll, country and other music forms soon followed.
So today we have a rich part of our culture that singularly owes its origins to African Americans. And since music tends to unite people of different tongues, races and nationalities, Lawson and I think this is an apt subject for this month’s crossword. The puzzle contains the names of some of the great Black musicians of history. They directly shaped the legacy of American music that much of the world enjoys today. This month’s crossword, “Blacks and Blues,” appears below.
BPA will have various events that focus on Blacks in history this month. The African American resources group, diversity office and others will sponsor these programs. Watch for schedules in BPA This Week and on lobby posters and displays.
And besides those of us who enjoy listening to music, quite a few BPA people are accomplished musicians who still play, sing and perform. Many employees are familiar with BPA’s volunteer band, RIF and the Early Outs. Watch for articles in future editions about the band and other employees who take part in community and “semi-professional” music groups.
Jack Odgaard, editor
The U.S. is what it is today because of the contributions of people of all nationalities and races. February is Black History Month. African Americans have given much to society and enriched our culture. We honor those contributions this month.
One of the biggest gifts from African Americans to our nation is a widespread realization and belief in the family of humankind. We are all neighbors. We are all brothers and sisters. That reality grew directly out of the civil rights movement of the last half-century.
No other American better expressed this sense of brotherhood than Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He said this about neighbors and brothers:
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and con-venience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.”
You’re 19 years old and the world is your oyster. You’re a college sophomore trying to decide whether to become a commercial pilot or, perhaps, a mathematician. For fun, you either fly planes or jump out of them. When you’re not belly dancing, that is.
Last fall, you survived what just might be the best piece of party game personal trivia there is. After all, how many people can say they walked away from a plane crash?
So what do you do for an encore? How about work at BPA? It may sound mundane, but not to Katie Leonard. Since April 1996, Leonard has worked at Portland headquarters — first as an unpaid student intern, then as a BPA employee and, currently, as a Unisys contractor.
Leonard splits her BPA time among no less than four workgroups: operations planning, federal hydro projects, and products, pricing and rates – all in the Power Business Line; and communications in Corporate. Talk about a “shared resource!”
At work, Leonard spends most of her time creating and maintaining pages for the BPA Web site. But she also runs computer programs and keeps up-to-date “The Board” that greets visitors to the PBL offices on the sixth floor. The Board shows the operating status of major federal Columbia Basin hydro projects. In addition to the lighted display, she keeps up the Web version at http://webip1/Power/PGF/welcome.htm (or welcomex.htm on the BPA external site).
So why would a high-flying Portland State University student allow herself to be chained to her BPA computer? “Actually I do stuff for so many different people at BPA that there’s always something new,” says Leonard. “It may not be as exciting as jumping out of a plane, but it’s exciting enough.”
Leonard has made 11 skydives since taking up the hobby last August. “The initial fall is kind of stomach wrenching,” she says. “But after that, when you get your bearings and can just float and look around, it’s really something.” (Not unlike a BPA reorganization, right?)
Last October, she made a different kind of free fall during a pilot training solo flight. Her Cessna ran out of gas at an altitude of 800 feet. She was able to crash-land the plane in a field near Vancouver, Wash. Although bumped and bruised, she was unbowed. Within three days she was back up in the sky, and two months later she earned her pilot’s license on her first try.
Leonard says the crash taught her something about dealing with an emergency and about the value of planning. “Now I fill the tanks until they almost overflow, and I’m a little paranoid about watching the fuel gauges,” she says. “And while I’m flying, I’m always looking for nice places to land, just in case.”
Her aeronautical pursuits are a nice contrast to her studies and job, Leonard says. So, too, is belly dancing, which she took up as a freshman at PSU. “Belly dancing class was right between math and physics, so it was a nice break from all of that intellectual stimulation,” she says with a smile.
Leonard plans to pursue a masters and perhaps a Ph.D. — in math, not belly dancing —unless the call of the wild blue yonder lures her first. “I wouldn’t want to fly big jets, but I might like to pilot smaller commercial planes. They’re more fun and less automated,” she says.
But until then the hydro system and BPA’s Web site are more than enough to keep her busy. They’re not as glamorous as flying or skydiving, but they pay the bills. So, for Leonard, working at BPA isn’t a comedown at all.
Ken Kane is the Web guy on the communications staff.
Flying for fun -- (Top right) BPA intern-turned contractor Katie Leonard recently got her pilot's lcense after a harrowing experience when she safely crash-landed her plane during a training solo flight. Leonard, a college sophomore, has some unusual hobbies for a person her age -- like flying and skydiving. She enjoys the hobbies that take her mind off classes and work, she says. Leonard uses the control panel (bottom left) to update the hydro projects board on the Power Business Line's sixth floor. That's just one of her tasks for PBL and other BPA work groups.
What is BPA doing to communicate more clearly? What do others say? How can you sharpen your writing skills? Read on, and be sure to check the related articles and boxes in this centerfold section.
This Circuit edition is set up to be inter-active. Readers on the Internet can click on the highlighted word in each of half a dozen articles in this section. That will take you to the draft samples of those articles. Each one has three drafts. You can compare them and see how each draft improves on the previous one. Most get shorter and easier to read and improve understanding of the subject.
For practice after the third drafts, you might try your hand to see how you can rewrite an article to make it even shorter and clearer or better. First copy the drafts with the statistics as a MSword(TM) document. After you’ve rewritten it, check for word count, percent of passive sentences and the reading ease. The grammar check will give you those readability statistics.
If you are reading the “street” edition now, you can check out the Internet edition by going to the BPA home page (www.bpa.gov). Then click on “Public Affairs” and then on “Publications”. You will find a link to the Circuit there. BPA employees using the Intranet will also find tips and aids under the “Writers’ Info” link on the Public Affairs home page. There you will find a link to these Circuit draft exercises, “Writers’ Cramp” (some tongue-in-cheek tips” and other grammar and writing references.
Finally, the Plain Language Action Network has a Web site with lots of information on clear writing, the background on the plain writing effort, awards, training and other resources. You’ll find it on the Internet at: (http://www.plainlanguage.gov/).
Note: We’re always trying to improve the Circuit, including our writing. So we’d also like to have your comments on any articles in this edition. Send them to the E-mail or post office address at the bottom of this web page. Tell us the articles you liked and found easy to read and understand in this edition. And tell us which ones you may have found hard to read or understand. – Editor
Plain language takes aim at bureaucratese -- Starting this year, government agencies are to write rules, regulations and all communications in plain, clear and concise language. The government's Plain Language Action Network has tips and training for employees. BPA has several other resources to help people learn and practice clear writing. Leading journalism schools use many tools to train writers to communicate effectively. Two of them are The Associated Press stylebook and Ten Principles of Clear Statement. See the articles below for more details.
People should notice a change in government writing starting this year. Federal documents should be clearer, shorter and easier to understand. Beginning Jan. 1, 1999, all agen-cies were to use plain language in writing. That goes for proposed and final rules published in the Federal Register as well.
The plain prose push is part of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, headed by Vice President Gore. President Clinton announced the effort in a memo to all agencies last June. He set up a PLAN – Plain Language Action Network – to coordinate the effort. The timetable called for all agencies to begin using plain language by the start of this year.
The president said the new effort will help reinvent government to make it more responsive, accessible and understandable to the public. “By using plain language, we send a clear message about what the government is doing, what it requires and what services it offers,” he said. “And plain language saves the government and private sector time, effort and money.”
Vice president Gore said the use of plain writing is crucial. “Plain language helps create understanding, and understanding helps create trust. And trust is essential to solve the common problems we face,” he said. Last summer, Gore established an award to recognize employees who convert burdensome bureaucratese to plain English. Each month he presents a “No Gobbledygook Award” to one or more persons for outstanding examples.
But will this new effort succeed? After all, government programs come and go – by the hundreds and thousands. And government writing in the past has seemed to have a fixation for fogginess.
So far we have some bright indicators for the new effort. First, it reaches across all federal agencies. Second, it has high priority as part of the reinvention project. Third, the vice president’s award program keeps it in the forefront.
Finally, there is the language itself that PLAN uses. It’s clear. It’s simple. It’s easy to understand. The plain language proponents practice what they preach. So it’s not hard for folks to believe that the government is serious.
For instance, PLAN says government should use “common, everyday words, except for necessary technical terms.” That’s easy to understand in itself. PLAN says we should use “‘you’ and other pronouns.” Pronouns put faces on people and help establish ownership. PLAN says we should use “the active voice.” Active verbs put life into phrases and help create personal identity. Abstract or passive terms, on the other hand, foster detachment.
And PLAN says we should use “short sentences.” They save energy because the human brain works like a computer in one way. It processes information in bits and chunks. If the chunks are short and clear, the brain can work at tremendous speed. But when we get large, complex chunks, our brains slow down to process them. Masses of mumbo-jumbo create a brain drain on a reader’s energy.
The PLAN guidelines are also similar to the principles of good journalism. Clear and simple words, short sentences and active voice. Those are the simple tools and golden rules for effective communication.
Leading journalism schools, like the University of Missouri, still use the Ten Principles of Clear Statement of the Gunning-Mueller Clear Writing Institute Inc. The best schools and teachers still follow guidelines of 50 years ago. Columbia University Prof. Rudolf Flesch designed a formula to measure the readability of writing. He based it on scientific research by the university. Flesch’s book, The Art of Readable Writing, was reprinted several times and is still stocked in most libraries.
Some people in highly technical fields balk at efforts to write about their fields in plain terms. Not all writing has to be in common, everyday language. It depends on the audience. “Plain language requirements vary from one document to another, depending on the intended audience,” the president said in his memo.
So a writer for a geophysics journal can use scientific terms and jargon of the trade. Subscribers in that field will understand. Yet the best and most widely read publications, even in specialty fields, still use clear, concise sentences. Scientists and experts who want to get their messages across know they must use language that their readers don’t have to labor over to decipher.
I remember a quote I read years ago attributed to Albert Einstein. I don’t remember the source, but it went something like this: “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well.”
In the case of government writing, we should consider the general public as our audience. If we write like newspapers and most magazines, we’ll reach the widest readership. More people will like the writing and be able to understand the topic.
At an awards program last year, Gore cited a rule that President Kennedy had in the White House. “Never use a word with three syllables if you can use a word that has two.”
People violate the rule against complexity more than any other rule when we write. The Ten Principles guide says, “We use three words where one would do.” And we use four-syllable words that fog-up our writing – like “utilization” instead of “use,” or “modification” instead of “change.”
Vice President Gore said times have changed. Plain language is a trademark of good government. “By examining our phrases, we will be forced to re-examine the original purpose of our rules and regulations,” Gore said. “By doing that, we will reinvent government itself.”
So the outlook for the future is bright. Federal rules that affect people should be much easier to understand in the future. Government should become more efficient and people friendly. In doing so, it will save money and resources. And people may begin to trust government more.
Jack Odgaard, editor
Reducing government "fog" -- Library rechnicians Frances-Crystal Wilson and Bill Zimmerman stack current Federal Register issues on BPA's library shelves. The register alone takes up 24 feet of shelf space, but that will shrink in the years ahead -- by half. It's all part of the federal push for plain language in government writing. The goal is better communication with the public.
Vice President Al Gore established a “No Gobbledygook Award” last year. Each month he gives the award to one or more employees who change legalese into plain writing that the public can understand. The award is part of the federal push for plain writing.
“The American people expect clear communication from their government,” Gore said. And they are entitled to it, he said. “Plain lang-uage in all of our communications is the very foundation of good service to our customers.”
The first award last summer went to a Labor Department worker who rewrote a regulation on dip tanks. The new rule of 55 words replaced 80 words that included a list of technical terms. The second award went to two Bureau of Land Management employees. They cut a regulation on use of public land for geothermal power from 628 to 112 words.
Another award went to two General Services Administration employees. They pared a 194-word rule on government travel down to 45 words. A Housing and Urban Development worker got an award for scrapping a confusing 600-word complaint form. Instead, people can send a simple complaint or call it in by telephone. And he reduced the regulation that applies from 141 to 53 words.
An Agriculture Department woman won the award in November. She rewrote a cumbersome consumer guide on how to cook a turkey safely.
Joe Kimble takes plain language critics head-on. The Lansing, Mich., writer says some people are just too stuffy. They don’t understand how important it is to communicate clearly with others.
In an article for the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, Kimble debunked five myths about plain language. The following excerpts come from “Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please.”
“First, plain language does not mean baby talk or dumbing down the language. It means clear and effective communication – the opposite of legalese – and it has a long literary tradition.
“Second, plain language and precision are complementary goals, not antagonists. If anything, plain language is more precise than traditional legal writing …with all its excesses. So plain language is not only the great clarifier – it improves accuracy as well.
“Third, plain language is not subverted by the need to use technical terms or terms of art. Real terms of art are a tiny part of any legal document.
“Fourth, plain language is not just about vocabulary. It involves all the techniques for clear communication – organizing … clear sentences … plain words … and testing … on typical readers.
“Finally, contrary to what some critics have said, there’s a pile of hard evidence showing that plain language is more understandable to readers than the traditional style of official and legal writing.”
Shirley Staggs is BPA’s chief correspondence officer. She says BPA began efforts to improve our writing well before the current government effort for plain language. “The push to communicate better with the public came with competition,” she says.
“It started in 1994,” Staggs says, “when the account executives said the one big thing they heard from customers was that it’s got to be simpler to deal with BPA.” Then the regional review came along, “and we heard the same thing again,” she says.
That gave BPA a wake-up call, Staggs says, “so we went to work to improve our communication.” In 1994, a task group rewrote BPA’s correspondence manual and cut its size about in half. In the next two years, BPA hired instructors to train people in business writing.
Different work groups worked on their documents. The Power Business Line greatly simplified BPA’s power contract. PBL reduced what used to fill a complete loose-leaf binder to a 17-page contract.
Last year BPA offered a Rapid Grammar Review course for support and administrative staff. Last fall personnel services began a Power Writing course that’s open to all employees. Annette Guarriello leads the two-hour workshop. It focuses on clear and concise writing and many participants have had positive comments.
“We have received many requests to expand the workshop,” Guarriello says, “so beginning in March it will be at least three hours.” And personnel services also plans a presentation skills course to be led by Rene-Marc Mangin.
Staggs says that when the administration picked BPA as a government reinvention pilot, “we got a green light to try many different things to improve.” Better communication was an urgent area, she says.
Staggs says Dept. of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson sent a memo throughout DOE last fall. He wants all agencies and groups under DOE to begin using plain language. Staggs says that can only help more since BPA has so many dealings with the department.
How to write effectively -- Nick Christmas of media services and Annette Guarriello of personnel services go over a model used in BPA's Power Writing workshop. Guarriello leads the training course that gives employees tips and practice in clear, concise and effective writing. Christmas took the workshop and said, "I went back to work and immediately began using what I had learned."
When he launched the plain writing effort last year, President Clinton said, “Plain language saves time, effort and money for the government and the private sector.” But where is the evidence to support that claim?
Law school writer Joe Kimble of Lansing, Mich., provides some. In an article published by the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, Kimble said there is a pile of evidence that shows the benefits of plain language.
“If readers understand plain language better, then no doubt they’ll like it better than the dense impersonal prose of most public documents,” Kimble wrote. And the payoff follows naturally, he said. “Because they understand it better, they’ll make fewer mistakes in dealing with it, have fewer questions, and ultimately save time and money – for themselves and for the writer’s company or agency.”
Kimble cited three books in his article: The Productivity of Plain English, How Plain English Works for Business: Twelve Case Studies and Plain English for Better Business.
In those books, trade groups and business folks testify to the value of plain writing. They included people from the American Gas Assn., Target Stores, Shell Oil, Bank of America, General Motors and many others.
Kimble said they cited three ways in which plain language helps them.
1) It streamlines procedures and paperwork, makes it easier to train staff and increases staff productivity and morale.
2) It reduces confusion, complaints and claims, and it improves customer satisfaction.
3) It increases sales and raises the company’s standing in the marketplace.
BPA’s Transmission Business Line is taking another bite out of pollution. Last fall, with the help of the environment group, TBL set up a pollution prevention workgroup at the Ross Complex. Its goal is to reduce the number of products TBL uses that are hazards to the environment. Already the team has cut a large number.
The pollution control team identified a total of 1,877 chemical products at the Ross Complex alone. Among those are various adhesives, sealers, degreasers, lubricants, desiccants, paints, coolants, leak treatments, fillers, pesticides, additives, solvents and other cleaners.
After its first inventory, the team agreed to eliminate 863 products – about 46 percent of them. Of those, 299 have hazardous ingredients. The team accepted the other products and put them on an Approved Products List. Work groups will no longer buy or use products that aren’t on the list.
TBL’s approach to reduce use of hazardous products is different from most. Many companies take an approach that’s based on controlled use of substances. But the BPA team wanted to take a broader approach. So first it got members from all different groups that use the products.
“We wanted to involve the user groups directly,” said Elaine Stratton, environmental coordinator at Ross. “We feel they are in the best position to evaluate the products in use and to recommend substitutes,” she said. And, instead of having a “central pharmacy” as many companies do, BPA’s users themselves track the products they use.
The users thus become more aware of the substances that pollute the environment. And wherever possible, they can substitute products that don’t harm the environment or that are less hazardous.
As an example, the review team looked at 157 different solvents BPA has used to remove grease. Some contained one of two forms of alcohol – isopropyl or denatured. The former isn’t hazardous but the latter is. So the group removed the products that contain denatured alcohol from the approved list.
Stratton said, “The work group’s success shows that the pollution prevention ethic has percolated down into the day-to-day operations at Ross. No long-er are we just focusing on what comes out of the pipe. We are now looking at what goes into it.”
BPA’s new process also cuts costs. Vern Shipe, who handles chemical disposal, said that by law BPA must inventory and track the use of hazardous chemicals. “This greatly improves our housekeeping,” he said. “Groups now buy and store only what they can use. So we don’t have to dispose of unused hazardous products when their shelf-life expires,” Shipe said.
Stratton and Shipe served on the new pollution prevention team. Other members included Mike Anderson from laboratories, Dan DeBoever from supply services, Pamela Odam from regional services, Mark Town from construction, and Nancy Morgan for the commodity managers. Bob Fleishman of construction electrical services, Curt Wilkins for Dittmer, Kathy Baker from the warehouse and Arlene Miller from computer support rounded out the team.
The new effort at Ross isn’t a one-time deal. BPA will continue to look for hazardous products it can eliminate or replace with safe products in the future.
Tony Morrell of Environment/Fish & Wildlife contributed to this article
Environmentally friendly job -- Mechanic Bob Houglum cleans an engine part in BPA's auto shop at the Ross Complex. The parts washer uses a biodegradable solvent instead of one that harms the environment. (Top right) A storage area at Ross holds some of the many chemical products BPA uses.
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(Tony Koch from Energy Efficiency and Gordon Matthews of the Western Sales Hub are part of the BPA team working on a project overseas. They worked together years ago to meter savings in BPA’s conservation projects. Matthews then worked in the BPA labs.
Last December they were together again and – with a sack-full of metering equipment – headed for the other side of the planet. Matthews filed this brief report on his and Koch’s travel and work in Sri Lanka.)
What do you do if you’re a region whose loads are growing by seven to 10 percent a year, you have no new hydro resources to develop, and you want to avoid increasing your reliance on imported oil? No, this isn’t the Pacific Northwest of the 1970s, and the answer isn’t nuclear plants. The place is the island nation of Sri Lanka today, and the answer is a familiar one to BPA – aggressive demand-side management. And who better to help with DSM than BPA?
Recently, BPA forged a partnership with SRCI, a private energy company, and won a competitive bid to help Sri Lanka build a DSM department. The World Bank is financing the project. BPA’s role is to install meters, measure current energy use and set a baseline to meas-ure the effects of future DSM programs against.
Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) lies off the southern tip of India and has a population of 18 million. The government’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is the sole electric power supplier today. It will move into the private sector over the next decade. The country relies almost totally on hydropower, but its hydro sites are fully developed. It has no proven reserves of fossil fuels, so new energy supplies will be expensive. BPA’s expertise is now helping make the country a little greener and its future a little brighter.
Heading out – We fly west, heading for Sri Lanka, and have a 30-hour, whirlwind stopover in Bangkok, Thailand. We meet with major meter manufacturers that serve Southeast Asia and pick up some new samples to show CEB.
Arrival in Sri Lanka – We arrive in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at midnight and embark on the first of many harrowing driving excursions. A guidebook that calls it “maniacal” best describes the driving in Sri Lanka. We almost bought it twice on the way from the airport.
Busy days – The first day in Sri Lanka starts early, with an 8 a.m. meeting that lasts until noon. Unfortunately, we also find that we’re expected to make a presentation that afternoon to CEB. It’s a good thing we had decided to skip lunch because of jet lag. Fortunately, Tony had lugged lots of samples from his BPA ‘tool box,’ so the second meeting also went well. Most of the CEB people came from an engineering background, so the more “toys” we have the better.
Over a 10-day period, we install meters and analyze industrial, commercial and residential sites around Colombo and its outskirts. The CEB folks are great to work with and sharp. We’re impressed with their technical savvy. They are more into metering than typical Northwest distribution companies.
Finds and designs – In the meter shops, we discover two treasures. First, CEB has invested in a substantial stockpile of advanced solid-state digital meters. Second, we discover that Lanka Electric Company (LECO) has installed solid-state metering for all its industrial and large commercial customers. LECO is a for-profit subsidiary already spun off from CEB as part of deregulation.
We design a metering plan that gets CEB and LECO together. We work with CEB to decide which sites get the new meters first. Then, we get LECO to agree to share the data from their metered sites in return for sharing our DSM project results once we’re done.
Our most important contribution was to find ways to download data in the field. Unfortunately, CEB and LECO went with different vendors for their meters, and they don’t use software that can interface. The solution to this challenge just happened to be halfway home….
Travel finds solution – … in England. We leave Colombo at 3 a.m. on a Saturday, after ten adrenaline-filled days. We’re heading west again – this time to London. After attending a risk-assessment modeling conference, we head to Stafford to work out the logistics of using CEB’s and LECO’s solid-state meters for energy profiling. We decide to use notebook PCs as hand-held meter readers that crews can use in the field. The PCs can be fitted with optical probes that read and access the data from the meters.
We find a vendor in England that develops software to read hand-held meters. Our plan is to have a laptop PC that can download data and talk with both types of meters.
End of the trip – We’re back home and pleased with our accomplishments. This project is in the true spirit of BPA’s involvement in the global energy efficiency market. We helped another utility and another country, and we got benefits for BPA as well. We helped strengthen the relationship between Sri Lanka’s primary utility and its private-sector partner. We helped CEB and LECO make good use of their investments in new metering technology.
We improved the markets for energy efficiency products – metering and data loggers. We shared the lessons we learned in BPA’s Northwest demand-side management with a country on the other side of the planet. And we gained first-hand experience with new metering technology that will benefit BPA in our own deregulated marketplace.
We also made many new friends and new technology connections, and learned some new tricks. Pretty good stuff for three weeks on the road and one low-level orbit around the globe.
Metering a load -- BPA's Tony Koch of Energy Efficiency and two employees of the Ceylon Electricity Board hook up a meter to check a CEB load.
A BPA employee died from a fall in the Columbia Gorge over the holidays. Valerie Dietel, 39, fell to her death on Sunday morning, Dec. 27. She was sightseeing with her family at the time and stopped to take a photograph along Wash. Highway 14 about seven miles east of Washougal. She stepped over the guardrail, slipped and fell about 300 feet. The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office is investigating her death.
Dietel worked at the Dittmer Control Center. She began her federal career with the Veterans Administration in 1991. She came to BPA in 1994 as a secretary in financial services and moved to system operations in 1995. In 1997 she became an electrical engineering technician.
Dietel lived in Battle Ground, Wash., and had been taking night classes at Clark College in Vancouver. She was president of her Vancouver bowling league. Survivors include her husband, Jeffrey; daughters Heather, Krista and Melissa; stepdaughters Jesse and Ashley; and her father, two sisters and a brother. Funeral services were held Dec. 31 at Layne Funeral Home in Battle Ground.
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1999 St. Patrick’s Day Luncheon and Reunion
For Bonneville Power Administration Employees, Retirees, Spouses and Guests Chuck Clark – Co-Chairperson Jim Pachot – Co-Chairperson When: Friday, March 12, 1999, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
(Meal: 12:30 – 1:30pm)
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Are times really so tough at BPA that Redmond’s mechanic foreman for heavy mobile equipment has to bicycle his way around? Not really, but Chuck Markee shows what can be done in a pinch.
Markee actually rode a bike (right), with tool bag draped ov-er the back, to get around during a job last fall. BPA’s Redmond line crew and other groups were in California to build a transmission line to Sierra Pacific’s Hilltop Substation near Alturas.
The workers were short of equipment and vehicles for a time, and Markee showed BPA’s typical employee initiative. If you doubt this story, Sonja Horner at Redmond says you can check with her. She provided the scoop and snapshot that was taken by line foreman Marty Oakland.
Fuel cell gets attention (left) – BPA’s new fuel cell to power a home got a lot of attention in Eugene in January. Customer account executive John Lebens said three TV stations and other area press turned out for a demonstration. Mark Jackson (left, gesturing) of Energy Efficiency helped install the cell in the home of Jeff Sheilds, general manager of Emerald PUD. Another BPA customer, Eugene Water and Electric Board, serves his home. For the demo, Shields’ home was disconnected from the EWEB grid, and the fuel cell alone produced the juice to power the home. Jackson explained the fuel cell to the press and local officials on hand.
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Across
1 Musician’s sessions 5 Mideast airline 9 Blues artist “Lightnin’ ___” 13 Scarlett’s home 14 Restrict 16 Ebb or neap 17 Tel ___, Israel 18 Muslim title 19 … maids in _ __ (2 wds) 20 Freddie King’s nickname 23 In no manner 24 German yesses 25 Blues artist “Otis ___” 28 Caesar or tossed 31 It makes music louder 34 Space agency 35 Weighing device 36 Court action 37 Where Robt. Johnson learned the blues? 41 Each 43 Reverse 44 Sold out 45 Cod and May 46 Remains 47 Heavy weight 48 Ma’s mates 49 Partner of Wilson “Thunder” Smith 50 Land measure 59 ___ Howe, inventor 60 Goddess of fertility 61 Greenish blue 62 Quiet times 63 Lease 64 Blues artist ___ “The Chief” Clearwater 65 French city 66 Golf gadgets |
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Down
1 RBI or ERA 2 Roof overhang 3 “___ are for kids” 4 Geogia city 5 Vote in 6 Peru capital 7 Last word? 8 Claim 9 Pokes 10 Italian money 11 Hero 12 Whine 15 California college team 21 Blues artist “___ House” 22 Consumer advocate 25 Fastens 26 Relative (Lat.) 27 Jetson’s dog 28 Strip of leather 29 Got up 30 ___ track of 31 Buddhist throne 32 Blues artist “___ Waters” 33 Mexican money (pl.) 38 ___ Center, Disney Park 39 English ___ 40 Suburbs 46 Tree fluid 47 Female (comb. Form) 48 Sheriff’s men 49 Tardy 50 ___ tea 51 Alum 52 Troy founder 53 Cleopatra’s river 54 Stop 55 Words of understanding 56 Baseball team 57 Fast planes |
