South Sound bloggers are abuzz this week about the possible demise of Commencement Bay Coffee Co., the one-off coffee shop and former roasterie at 2354 Jefferson Ave.in Tacoma.

Seems the owner, Keith Prichard, has been ordered by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to pay a civil penalty of $8,730 – which is down from an original penalty of $13,878 – assessed because Prichard continued to roast coffee without proper attention to mitigation. He had been told to use an “after-burner” that incinerates particulates that could, and did, rise into the air.

“I’ve had a problem with them for over three years,” Prichard said Tuesday. (“Them” is the PSCAA.) “I feel I’ve been unfairly fined for the whole affair. They say I need to send a check, or we’ll go to court. I’m at the point, if they pursue that, I’ll have to close.”

He contends he has the support of three members of the Tacoma City Council.

Jim Nolan, director of compliance at PSCAA, said Tuesday that Prichard installed the Commencement Bay roaster without a permit and without an air pollution control device.

After an initial confrontation, the agency changed its regulations to allow roasters the unmitigated roasting of 10 pounds or less per batch. Prichard was roasting 30.

The agency offered Prichard three options: 1. Control the pollution; 2. Get a smaller roaster; 3. Contract with another roaster who complies with the law. Prichard now buys his roasted coffee from Martin Henry Coffee Rosters of Puyallup.

“He continued to run until we caught him in January, 2007,” Nolan said. “He had made no progress, and continued to roast. Our view was that he was trying to ignore the issue. The penalty was for operating past the due date.”

“I was waiting for them to come and talk to me,” said Prichard, in his defense.

“Then he had the right to appeal, which he never did,” said Nolan. “We’ve been trying to work with him. His time for appeal went out. We sent him a form letter, an order of civil penalty. We’re always willing to talk to him about a settlement. If he’d like to engage with us, we’re willing to talk about a settlement. If he does nothing, eventually we’ll file a lawsuit.”

“I’ll talk to them,” said Prichard. “I want them to leave me alone.”

The Ports of Tacoma and Seattle decided today to cooperate even more.

The ports held a rare – some have said first, though that hasn't been verified – joint commission meeting to explore areas the two ports can work together including marketing, environmental issues and security.

They ended the meeting with plans to meet again and to form a few task forces including one on focused on determining regional rail infrastructure needs.

The commissioners discussed the need to jointly promote the strengths of the ports and the benefits they provide the community.

Port executive directors Tay Yoshitani and Tim Farrell, of Seattle and Tacoma respectively, proposed a few key next steps as well including:

- Jointly advocating for security parity – meaning ensuring that cargo coming into the U.S. via Canada and Mexico is subject to the same security standards as cargo entering the country via the ports.

- And implementing a collaborative air emissions reduction strategy (which the ports have been working on for more than a year).

Everyone was very nice to each other.

There was no talk of Tacoma stealing Seattle's business or of Seattle port officials wanting to merge the two organizations.

John Creighton, president of the Seattle port commission, called the meeting a "wonderful, critical first step."

The port commissions plan to meet again in the fall.

If you haven't shopped for eggs lately, get ready for some sticker-shock: A dozen eggs costs more than $2, up about 45 percent in just eight months.

A quick tour around Tacoma today showed that both Top Foods and Fred Meyer were charging $2.59 for a dozen grade AA large eggs.

And the lofty price tag is likely to stick for the foreseeable future, according to those that track the industry.

What's up? Supplies are tight, demand remains strong, and wholesale prices are stubbornly high, according to Marketwatch.

"Normally, we see a decline in prices after the Easter holiday," said economist David Harvey of the U.S. Agriculture Department. "But with the number of birds in the laying flock continuing to be down, we may not see much of a drop."

This past weekend, Trader Joe's in University Place posted a sign about the price increases. The price of a dozen was $2.49.

It read: "While it's true our egg prices have increased, the increase in the cost of eggs has been market-wide and we think if you shop and compare, you'll find that ours are still an everyday value."

=> Read more!

According to The Associated Press, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Costco Wholesale Corp.'s request that it reconsider a decision upholding Washington state's rules on beer and wine distribution.

Costco hoped to beat the laws in hopes of using its massive buying power to drive down prices. The court said Tuesday it would not hold a rehearing of the case.

Puget Sound Energy said today it is offering new energy efficiency programs to help customers conserve electricity and natural gas and save on their energy bills.

The details:

PSE energy advisors can examine customers' homes and perform diagnostic testing to determine areas of energy loss and provide recommendations for increased energy efficiency.

In-home electricity monitors will be available to view energy consumption in real time, helping customers track kilowatt hours used and dollars spent on their energy use throughout the day. This is a pilot program.

Select customers will receive home energy reports describing energy use averages and how they compare to homes of similar age and size in their neighborhoods.

These programs could displace 53.3 average megawatts of generation and 5.3 million therms of natural gas over the next two years, according to the company.

"Our plan for meeting growing energy demands begins with aggressive energy efficiency programs," said Cal Shirley, vice president of Energy Efficiency Services for PSE. "Conservation is the right thing to do for the environment and costs less than building new power plants or buying energy on today's wholesale market, helping to preserve our robust region and save our customers money."

Tax time is ticking, and some cities are dawdling until the last minute.

TurboTax recently released a list of the top tax procrastinating cities, determined by the number of tax returns electronically filed last year between April 14 and April 17.

Seattle was among the top.

Here's the results as reported by The Associated Press:

California and Texas each had three cities on the list, while eight of the top ten cities are west of the Mississippi River.

Chicago took the top spot for the first time in the seven years the list of late filers has been compiled, while New York hustled in at second.

Houston, which has topped the list more than any other city, came in third, while Austin — one of the fastest growing cities in America — moved up on the list to fourth place.

San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles also made the cut, while San Jose, Calif. and Phoenix dropped off the list this year.