Cantwell helps secure $25M increase in the Land and Water Conservation Fund

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Al B.

From Cantwell’s office:

As the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Cantwell fought back against the Trump Administration’s proposal to eliminate the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the country’s most successful conservation program, and secured a $25 million increase in funding over last year’s levels. The funding also includes specific allocations for Washington state projects, including $1 million for Lake Chelan Natural Recreation Area, $5 million for Okanagan National Forest, $6.3 million for the Forest Legacy program in South Puget Sound, and $2 million for the Dewatto Headwaters. Cantwell has long promoted the program, touting its importance for conservation and its positive economic affects for Washington state. In March of 2017, she introduced a bill to permanently authorize and fully fund the LWFC, and she has steadfastly defended the program in the face of attacks.

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Governor slated to sign oil spill prevention act.

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Al B.
Some positive news on the oil spill protection front.
SB 6269-S2.E – DIGEST
Addresses oil transportation safety. Finds that the department of ecology’s oil spill program faces a critical funding gap due to the lack of adequate revenue to fully fund the prevention and preparedness services required by state law, including the 2015 oil transportation safety act.
Declares an intent to: (1) Provide adequate revenue to fully fund prevention and preparedness services required by state law;
(2) Direct the department of ecology to specifically address the risks of oils submerging and sinking; and (3) More extensively coordinate with our Canadian
partners in order to protect the state’s economy and its shared resources.
Requires the department of ecology to: (1) Establish the Salish Sea shared waters forum to address common issues in the cross-boundary waterways between Washington state and British Columbia such as: Enhancing efforts to reduce oil spill risk, addressing navigational safety, and promoting data sharing; and (2) In consultation with the Puget Sound partnership and the pilotage commission, complete a report of vessel traffic
and vessel traffic safety within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound area that includes the San Juan archipelago, its connected waterways, Haro Strait, Boundary Pass, Rosario
Strait, and the waters south of Admiralty Inlet.
Provides a July 1, 2021, expiration date for the Salish Sea shared waters forum.

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Governor to sign bill improving halibut monitoring.

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Al B.
More money for halibut monitoring and management.
States that a catch record card for halibut is five dollars. Requires the funds that are received from the sale of halibut catch record cards to be used for monitoring and
management of recreational halibut fisheries including expanding opportunities for recreational anglers

Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill No. 6127
Relating to improving the management of the state’s halibut fishery.
Primary Sponsor: Kevin Van De Wege

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Governor Slated to Sign Bill Helping Marbled Murrelet Information Today

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Al B.

Mike Chapman  and Steve Tharinger sponsored the bill. Governor to sign it today.

Requires the department of natural resources to provide a report to the legislature by December 1, 2018, and each December 1st until the year after the United States fish and wildlife service issues an incidental take permit on the state trust land habitat conservation plan for the long-term conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet. Requires the report to include: (1) An economic analysis of potential losses or gains from any proposed marbled murrelet long-term conservation strategy selected by the board of natural resources; and (2) Recommendations relating to actions that support family-wage timber and related jobs, strategies on loss of revenues to the trust beneficiaries, financing county services, and conservation measures for the marbled murrelet that also provide economic benefits to rural communities. Requires the commissioner of public lands to appoint a marbled murrelet advisory committee to assist the department in developing and providing the report. Requires the standing committee with jurisdiction over state trust land management from the house of representatives and the senate, each regular legislative session, to each hold a meeting on the report and on the habitat conservation plan update process.

Engrossed Substitute House Bill No. 2285
Relating to establishing a reporting process for the department of natural resources
regarding certain marbled murrelet habitat information.
Primary Sponsor: Mike Chapman

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New Washington directive aims to help endangered orcas

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Al B.

[Washington Governor Jay] Inslee said the orcas are in trouble and called on everyone in the state to do their part. His directive aims to make more salmon available to the whales; give them more space and quieter waters; make sure they have clean water to swim in; and protect them from potential oil spills. “The destiny of salmon and orca and we humans are intertwined,”…”As the orca go, so go we.” Phuong Le reports. (Associated Press)

https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2018/03/14/inslee-roll-out-measures-protect-orcas/425028002/

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No adverse effects from 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on B.C. coast: SFU researchers – Canadian Press

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Al B.

I know this has been a concern to some of you here on the Peninsula. There also has been a huge amount of fake news on social media about this. Here’s the latest research.

Seven years after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan released radioactive elements into the environment, researchers say those elements pose minimal risk to human or salmon health along British Columbia’s coast. A team of researchers at Simon Fraser University’s nuclear science lab collected soil and salmon samples from the Quesnel and Harrison rivers and used a high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy to search for signs of radioactive isotopes. The isotopes — Cesium 134 and 137 — are fission fragments that do not exist in nature and, therefore, can be directly attributed to nuclear reactions. Amy Smart reports. (Canadian Press)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/no-adverse-effects-from-2011-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-on-b-c-coast-sfu-researchers-1.4571870

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UPDATE: Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen appointed to EPA post in Seattle- Bellingham Herald

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Al B.

This article in the Bellinham Herald has been denied by State Senator Ericksen. No announcement at this moment on who will be heading Region 10 of the EPA. 

The cynical abuse of power by the Trump administration continues with no let up in sight. Appointing politicians who have spent their careers denigrating the various bureaucracies they now are placed in charge of, with the marching orders to shrink, gut and cut any power that these agencies have to do their jobs. Doug Erickssen is one such politician who has made it clear he hates the EPA.

As reported in Oregon Live.com “The work of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency? It raises “the cost of operations so high that too many businesses are closing and too few new businesses are opening up.”

According to the Seattle PI – “The EPA under Trump has dismantled regulations and withdrawn efforts under the Clean Water Act to block a huge proposed mine in Alaska adjoining two of Bristol Bay’s major salmon producing rivers.”

Candidate Donald Trump said at the debate of March 3rd, 2016,” Department of Environmental Protection. We are going to get rid are of it in almost every form. We’re going to have little tidbits left but we’re going to take a tremendous amount out.”

State Sen. Doug Ericksen has been appointed to a new job as the senior adviser to the Region 10 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle. He will start his position some time in the near future, according to the executive assistant for Chris Hladick, the regional administrator for the Pacific Northwest and Alaska region. The Ferndale Republican, in an email, neither confirmed nor denied that he had a new job with the EPA. Kie Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article193252109.html

So is this what Washington State Republican voters expected?

Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Environmental Protection, epa, Era of Trump, Puget Sound | 3 Comments »

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