Olympic Peninsula Environmental News

Someone has to pay when we want to protect farmland. It should not be farmers. This is one area where we the people, should be willing to use some of our taxes to avoid runaway development. However, obviously there are risks to this approach, and it does not guarantee that we can stop rampant development with buying the land that some farmers may be willing to lock up. To be clear, we are doing approaches like this in Jefferson County.

Thurston  county is looking to establish a program to purchase development rights from qualified farm owners. “Landowners may get paid to preserve” http://www.theolympian.com/2011/07/28/1740388/landowners-may-get-cash.html

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I have been saying this for years, and it’s still true. There are plenty of environmental laws on the books, let’s demand that our local agencies enforce them. There will always be more to do later, but this is something we can do now.

From the People For Puget Sound Blog:

“The folks at Preserve Our Islands (the ones who defeated the gravel operation on Maury Island) might be on to a novel way of protecting Puget Sound — enforcing our laws.

In a report to supporters this month, they wrote: "We have also been busy investigating current regulatory conditions, reviewing in-water construction permits from 2010 to see if the agencies have made any changes and are now applying the proper regulations etc.  It was not a surprise to find they still fail to uphold the current environmental laws – but it seemed wise to have that actual information in hand."

http://pugetsound.org/blog/072611mhs

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If you missed the great discussion today on the latest issues facing the NW with the Clean Water act, and how it is affecting logging road construction here in the Pacfic Northwest, you can catch the repeat online at

http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=24051

Donate to KUOW if you don’t already and protect our local journalism.

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On this hottest day of the year in the NW, as I sit under an umbrella having taken in a bit too much sun, I was forwarded this article about global warming, and it’s affect on the US. This excellent three part article is about the best layman’s overview of how climate change is here, now. And what it means to us. While there are always going to be people who continue to claim that this isn’t real, just like there were people who claimed for centuries that the earth was still flat, we can only work to get our local and state politicians to make the hard choices that are needed to get us prepared.

Here on the Olympic Peninsula, if severe drought hits us, like it is in other parts of the country, we will lose our water supplies. Think it’s impossible? It happened out at the Makah reservation a few years back, when they had to truck water in.

More violent and frequent storms, once merely a prediction of climate models, are now a matter of observation. Part 1 of a three-part series

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=extreme-future-predicting-coping-with-the-effects-of-a-changing-climate

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Green Acre Radio reporter Martha Baskin asks “What’s a Toxic Colorless Chemical Doing in My House and How is it Harming the Environment?” in her investigation of “the mysterious pathways for phthalates (pronounced thalate), a family of chemicals that causes problems with male reproductive development and the survival and reproduction of aquatic organisms.”

Good overview for any folks that you know that aren’t really aware of how our household chemicals can affect the world around us.

 http://greenacreradio.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-21-2011-whats-toxic-colorless.html

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This is a strong condemnation of the process that allowed these biomass incinerators to be built. The Seattle based No Biomass Burn is going so far as to charge criminal intent on the part of Nippon and the regulator’s by what they claim was purposely mistating the output of the incinerator. If true, this will be a dramatic case. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.

Given the lack of desire by our representatives to stand up to these unproven technologies that have numerous unanswered questions, it is up to organizations like these below to help fight to assure the correct diligence is done. It’s our health that is at stake folks. This isn’t theoretical, we and our families will be breathing this output– Ed.

Regional Agency Throws Human Health Concerns to the Winds

Port Angeles,: Seven environmental groups filed an appeal today with Washington’s Pollution Control Hearings Board, challenging the recent decision of the Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency (ORCAA) to issue an air permit for the proposed Nippon biomass project. They are: Protect the Peninsula’s Future, North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club, Olympic Environmental Council, Olympic Forest Coalition, Port Townsend Air Watchers, World Temperate Rainforest Network, and No Biomass Burn.

“ORCAA failed in its assigned mission to protect our health and the health of the environment when it approved Nippon’s request for a permit,” said Bob Lynette, with the North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club, one of the groups joining the appeal.

“ORCAA did not even come close to requiring Nippon to use the best pollution control technology available, which means that all of the citizens on the north Olympic Peninsula will be subjected to excessive health risks.” he added. “It’s shameful that we citizens have to spend our own money to force an agency that is supposed to protect us to follow the laws and safeguard our health.”

It appears to us that ORCAA and Nippon have worked together to greatly understate the amount of toxic pollution the Nippon biomass project would emit. If allowed to stand, the drastically lower pollution estimates would let Nippon avoid more rigorous government regulations and more expensive and effective pollution controls.

Nippon already releases tons of hazardous air pollutants, including especially dangerous fine particles. Medical researchers are especially concerned about these nanoparticles, so tiny that they bypass the human body’s filtering systems, enter the blood stream and slip toxins through the placenta. Infants, pregnant women, those with chronic illness and the elderly are especially vulnerable. The amount of these fine particles released increases with the amount of wood burned. There is no substantive basis to Nippon’s claims about reducing emissions while thousands more tons of wood would be burned.

Toxic pollutants like cancer-causing dioxins land on farms and gardens, lawns and streams, rivers, marshes and tidelands, threatening the farms, fish, shellfish and forests that sustain the peninsula.

Pollutants released in Port Angeles carry many miles and will further diminish the already poor air quality in Seattle and other communities along the I-5 Corridor.

What’s more, additional dioxins will be added to our air by the doubling of truck trips bringing wood feedstock to Nippon’s plant on the Port Angeles waterfront.

The appellants are concerned with all aspects of air pollution, since, once airborne, pollutants become health hazards to human beings, animals, fresh and saltwater creatures by contaminating water and earth as well as the Earth’s atmosphere.

-end-

Local Sierra Club contact: Bob Lynette (360) 461-0761; windenergy@olypen.com

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While I try to stay “on topic” of the Olympic Peninsula, the issue of nuclear power is relevant, in that we are struggling to find alternatives to our power sources, alternatives affecting us like tidal, wave generated, solar, “biomass” or the like. Our dams, like the Elwha, are killing off our salmon runs. As Billy Frank, Jr has said, “Every time you turn on a light bulb, a salmon comes flying out”.

Additionally, some noted “environmentalists” have taken up the cause of nuclear power, at sites like http://www.ecolo.org/base/baseen.htm, to combat global warming.

A small article from the BBC today discussed the latest closing of a nuclear power plant (temporarily) in western Japan, but mentioned the following

With the closure at Ohi, only 18 of Japan’s 54 reactors remain operational.

This is really an astonishing number. Japan has spent billions, maybe trillions, building out a nuclear power infrastructure that appears to have less than 1/2 of the plants currently operating. Radioactivity from the plants at Fukushima, damaged in the earthquake/tsunamai in April, continue to spew unknown amounts of radioactivity into the sea near the coast of Japan, into the Japanese current, that eventually ends up near our shores. We fish in that current. We have no idea if our sea food is safe or not given this situation. In May, Federal and State government officials decided not to even test seafood for radioactivity. (!). Obviously, even finding a small amount of radioactivity above normal levels could bring disaster to the Alaskan and Washington fishing industry. But is the fish safe? European diners are apparently trying to avoid Alaskan fish, as a precaution.

The only thing that a sane person could take from this is that the nuclear power bet in Japan has been a huge failure, from a cost/benefit basis, and is possibly affecting other countries as well given the spillage into the sea. What alternatives the Japanese may have at this late stage is unknown. Solar power at these latitudes is not very effective. Tidal, wind and wave on a large scale basis is likely the only way forward safely.

My take on all this is that we need a real push in this part of the country to continue to pursue alternative power options. Years have been wasted with government inaction in funding this critical work, while we give huge tax breaks to Big Oil. The work being done to determine the tidal power generation off Admiralty Head by Puget Power is an excellent opportunity to see what the efficiency is, and scale we need to build out to achieve goals of power for the area. We also need to find where these ‘farms’ could be built without major disruption to the seabed and marine ecosystem. Recent findings about the importance of deep (150 ft) sand dunes that are breeding ground for sand lance (bait fish for salmon and birds), mean that we need to be cautious moving forward.

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*7/14/11 Tacoma News Tribune
JOHN DODGE
Four years after its creation, the Puget Sound Partnership has defined what a healthy Puget Sound would look like by 2020.
The state agency formed in 2007 to oversee the daunting task of restoring the health of Puget Sound just finished crafting 16 recovery targets that give agencies, local governments, tribes, citizens, conservation groups and businesses something to aim at with their ongoing work to restore and clean up Puget Sound….
The measurable indicators of a healthy Puget Sound have drawn criticism from environmentalists, who say the goals don’t go far enough, and business interests, which say the benchmarks could lead to more regulation and hurt the economy.
“We think it is important that the targets be set at the level needed for recovery and not at what might be achievable by 2020,” People for Puget Sound executive director Tom Bancroft said in a critique of the targets….
More at
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/07/14/1745487/reducing-fecal-coliform-poisons.html

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Clallam county is apparently trying to get out of Phase II stormwater runoff  processes in new urban growth areas to the east of Port Angeles. If I’m not mistaken, these are the areas out where the new Walmart is located. Stormwater is essentially raw runoff that ends up untreated in the Strait. Given the findings over the last number of years of how much pollutants get dumped into the Strait and Sound via stormwater runoff,  it would seem that making sure that new areas get properly developed in the first place makes more sense. Many of these can be designed as Port Townsend did recently, as “rain gardens” or other holding systems that can deal with the overflow via evaporation.  Retrofitting infrastructure is vastly more costly than doing it right in the first place. It seems it should be a cost of doing business. Otherwise it’s a cost to the taxpayers to fix, including taxpayers who don’t use the businesses service. Since PA is looking to expand to the east, it would seem they need to get this right the first time.

Again, we find that Representative Tharinger is taking a stand against stronger environmental rules, which is odd given that he’s on the Puget Sound Partnership’s Strait Ecosystem Recovery Network, and has chaired meetings on these issues. He has been in support of biomass burning, about as dubious a ‘clean energy’ as imaginable and now this.

I’ll be glad to offer both Representative Tharinger and C.D.D. Ms. Roarke-Miller a forum if they want to clarify why this is going to help restore the Strait and our salmon runs. Like the old blues song says, “everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die.” If we want our salmon runs back, we need to make changes in future development to avoid doing the wrong things. And the new regs are the right things to do.

Also wondering where the Puget Sound Partnership is standing on all this. It would be great to see them take a position on this contentious issue.

But I’m willing to hear a reasonable argument as to why that doesn’t make sense, and will be willing to post whatever logical and civil argument people want to make.

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7/7 Peninsula Daily News
Clallam says no thanks to phase II stormwater permit
By Rob Ollikainen
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Clallam County told the state Department of Ecology in a letter signed by the commissioners Tuesday that unincorporated Port Angeles urban growth area shouldn’t be covered by the 2012 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System phase II municipal stormwater general permit.
Ecology is evaluating the east Port Angeles urban growth area — or UGA — for possible inclusion in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.
Such a designation would require “more restrictive and more stringent” stormwater regulations, Clallam County Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller said.
More at
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110707/news/307079991/clallam-says-no-thanks-to-phase-ii-stormwater-permit

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A few weeks back, I was attending a breakfast session to raise funds for the local hospice. My family has been a customer of hospice a few times, so it’s a charity close to my heart. While there, I sat next to a local reporter. He ended up doing a great job of reporting on the event, and while we ate breakfast, waiting for the speakers, we introduced ourselves.

When I mentioned my name, he thought a moment and said, “I recognize your name, but can’t place it. Are you one of our local “rabble-rousers"?  I laughed and said, “I guess so, as I speak out occasionally on issues that I feel are important, usually around the environment.”

As the days have gone since that breakfast, I have thought about that comment. While it was probably innocent enough, I found that there were many ways I could take the comment, depending on how I felt about myself. And today  on the Fourth of July, I’m also thinking about our Founding Fathers (and mothers too).

I might have taken that comment to mean that I was one of the people that, in the press room, behind closed doors, or over drinks after work,  are considered a ‘nut case’, one of the local cranks or angry old men, who seem to populate the editorial columns these days, ranting about government excess.  Or perhaps the local press, so sensitized to having to be careful about not getting local advertisers upset, that anything that smacks of negativity is suppressed, for the sake of survival.

Living in small town America, you learn that in private you can complain about anything, and most people do, but that in public, and in the press, you never complain about anything, or face ridicule by your peers.

The ‘rabble’ in the old days was the unwashed and uneducated mass of humanity that leaders in those days wanted to keep ignorant and subservient.  They ended up being the people who rose up against those leaders and demanded to get more. Sometimes, like in France and America, they got much more. Sometimes they were shipped to Australia.

So this is the place we’ve come, as Americans, since 1776. From a country populated by true ‘rabble-rousers”, people who used the press to get the population roused to take action, or mirrored the action of the few to the many, to a world where we are labeled by the press for simply opening our mouths. We watch as ‘rabble-rousers’” in the Middle East take their freedom from despots, or when Spanish youth by the millions protest their extraordinary unemployment numbers. But here, that’s just a label, a subtle put down that is meant to mean, “do you really fit here?"

It seems to me that most of us in America, go along to get along. That’s to be expected. And when I speak up I always try and do it with a smile on my face.  But on the Fourth of July, while we honor those who put at risk homes and businesses, and their very lives, to change a political situation that needed changing, that we all could be a bit more of a bunch of “rabble-rousers”. Looking at the state of our economy,  our environment, and those that are less fortunate around us, struggling to just hold on, makes me want to do a bit of rabble-rousing. While many of those that claim to lead us simply want to compromise so that they won’t seem to be ‘rabble-rousers’, it means to me that to preserve our freedom or solve problems with the environment, you sometimes have to take unpopular positions. It comes with the territory.

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This just came in. As you can see, the battle over salmon farming vs. wild stocks continues just north of the border as well as here. I don’t usually publish non-Olympic Peninsula news, but given the recent battles in Jefferson County over allowing salmon net pens in the SMP (or not as the case may be), and the hearings coming up over that issue in the county, it seems timely.

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Over the weekend Don Staniford found minutes of a recent meeting of Cermaq’s BC Corporate Team posted on the web. This posting has now disappeared, but not before we saved it.

In it the Cermaq’s BC Corporate Team is asked to keep quiet on the “situation” in BC.

I have explained the context of this in my blog: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

I strongly suggest that if you want to see BC wild salmon survive that you attend the fish farm hearings at the Cohen Commission in Vancouver, August 25 – September 9 (check commission website to confirm as date approaches as they have experienced many delays). I will be blogging about the proceedings. However, if you have a legal or personal interest in wild salmon, nothing is better than witnessing this first hand.

First Nations, commercial and sport fishing organizations, wilderness tourism associations, municipal governments, environmental organizations, MLAs, MPs the NDP, Conservatives, Liberals, Green Party should all send representatives. I don’t believe in the power of government to work for the people anymore. I don’t believe the Cohen Commission will be able to save the Fraser sockeye without us. But together, truth can be served. Justice Cohen has done his part by making the province of BC release their salmon farm disease records. No one has ever done that before worldwide, but what we do with this information is up to us, the wild salmon people.

If you can donate even the smallest amount of money, we can stay with this until people with real resources realize that it is time for them to step in and help us.

There are no losers here. We can protect the 1,250 fish farm jobs, but where we are headed now is not serving them either.

Many of us received a huge advertisement newspaper from the BC Salmon Farmers in the mail this week. They are spending millions to make us think Atlantic salmon we are not allowed near, fed on fish shipped from Chile are better and more sustainable than the millions of wild salmon that flowed home to us every year. They spread stories that I am a corporation, wealthy, funded by Americans. They are so deep in this now, they don’t see what they have become.

Thank you for sticking with me on this,
alexandra morton

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The latest effort by Puget Sound Starts Here to get you to do the right thing: “Dog Doogity” http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jDh12w-jcfs

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Orcanet is reporting humpbacks, and many other sightings in the last few days. If you want to get out on the water and see them, now is a good time. Here on the Peninsula you could go out with the Hanke’s, on the PS Express.

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