State Senator Van de Wege introduces bill to ban seabed mining.

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Al Bergstein

This idea is a good start to protect the seabed from mining efforts and I’m glad to see Senator Van de Wege getting ahead of this issue before it becomes a problem.Too often in the past we have allowed bad environmental practices to go on until science shows us the error of our ways. This bill is working off the science done elsewhere so we don’t have to repeat the same mistakes.

It’s unclear at this point as to who will be opposing this bill. But it will be worth following to see who shows up to testify against it. It’s slated to go to a public committee meeting on 26 January.

Press Release from State Senator Van de Wege.

Dear friends and neighbors,

It’s great when we enact laws to correct or eliminate activities that are causing harm. What’s even better is when we can address a problem before it even becomes a problem.

That’s the goal of my legislation to ban seabed mining, a growing industry that ravages natural habitat to extract minerals and deposits from the ocean floor. Simply put, seabed mining sucks up the ocean floor to capture metals, minerals and gemstones. This gouges the seabed, creating plumes of sediment that resettle in surrounding areas and can smother deep sea vents. The threat to marine life is obvious — locally we could see serious disruption to crabbing, fishing and shellfish. But the risks extend as well to scientific progress — some of these species are uniquely adapted to the lack of sunlight and intense pressure of deep water, and might prove critical to the research and development of medicines, protective gear and other applications.

So far, seabed mining has not been practiced in our state — and Senate Bill 5145 will ensure that it never is. The legislation would prohibit our state Department of Natural Resources from issuing permits or leases for mining on state-owned aquatic lands along our coast from Cape Flattery south to our state’s southern border, as well as in Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay, and the Columbia River downstream from the Longview bridge. The bill will be heard Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks.

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Cooke Aquaculture pays 2.75 Million dollar fine for net pen collapse

Posted on November 30, 2019 by Al Bergstein

The company responsible for the net pen collapse that released large numbers of Atlantic Salmon into Puget Sound has settled out of court in advance of a Monday court date.

Cooke Aquaculture has reached a settlement to pay $2.75 million in legal fees and to fund Puget Sound restoration projects, putting an end to a Clean Water Act lawsuit that followed the 2017 collapse of one of the fish-farming company’s net-pen structures. – Seattle Times. Read the full article here and consider subscribing to the Times and keeping local reporters working.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/cooke-aquaculture-settles-lawsuit-with-wild-fish-advocates-over-net-pen-collapse/

These funds will go to help pay legal expenses, and the rest of the funds will go to the Rose Foundation to fund environmental projects to protect wild salmon and killer whales in Puget Sound, as well as WFC’s litigation expenses. Cooke also agreed to change their practices and address additional dangers identified in the course of the lawsuit, according to Wild Fish Conservancy, who brought the lawsuit.

“This is truly a victory for the future of our sound,” said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “Open water net pen aquaculture is a risky business, and thanks to this settlement we are one step closer to getting this dirty industry out of Puget Sound once and for all. This was long in coming. Last year, the public demanded an end to Atlantic salmon net pens. Just last week, thousands of people spoke out against switching these farms to different species. Now a federal judge ruled that Cooke broke the law. It’s time for this industry to leave Puget Sound.”

Cooke’s operations continue to put wild salmon and the health of Puget Sound at risk. Just weeks ago, one of the Bainbridge Island net pens began sinking due to a hole in a flotation pontoon; luckily, the damaged portion was not stocked with Atlantic salmon at the time but may have resulted in an escape were the pens occupied. Marine engineer Tobias Dewhurst, an independent expert testifying on behalf of Wild Fish Conservancy, reviewed conditions at each farm site and determined “conditions at each of its eight sites exceeded the maximum rated conditions specified by the net pen manufacturer,” and that as a result “pens and cages operated by Cooke were at risk of failure.” Even given subsequent changes, Dewhurst concluded, “certain remaining sites appear to be operating in conditions that exceed those specified by the net pen system manufacturers,” and therefore “may be at risk of partial or catastrophic failure.”

http://www.wildfishconservancy.org/cooke-aquaculture-to-pay-2.75-million-ending-wfc-lawsuit-over-net-pen-collapse-1

Recently, Cooke has partnered with the Jamestown S’Klallam to reopen the net pens in Port Angeles to raise native, but genetically modified steelhead. While the danger of these fish escaping and somehow altering native stocks is dramatically lessened, there is still the issue raised by Wild Fish Conservancy, of destruction of the environment in and around the feeding pens, along with possible affects of raising large quantities of fish in a small enclose. Virus and parasites are traditionally the concern, yet the Tribe has claimed that they are working on mitigation techniques. The Tribe has been researching raising these steelhead at the NOAA research facility at Manchester for the last few years. Their goal is to do this as environmentally responsibly as possible giving current scientific best practices. Many in the environmental community remain unconvinced that this won’t become another problem.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued a mitigated determination of non-significance, which allowed only  a 21-day comment period. This requires neither a full environmental assessment nor environmental impact statement under the State Environmental Policy Act. Such an assessment would have considered the risks of diseases, pollution, further escapes and collapses, and the potential harm to federally-listed native steelhead. Kurt Beardsley of Wild Fish Conservancy said of the lack of EIS, “The 2017 collapse revealed that these pens are dramatically under-built for conditions in Puget Sound, and that Cooke’s recovery plan in the event of escapes was woefully inadequate. More escapes would directly threaten our wild salmon, steelhead trout, and endangered killer whales. Without a full EIS, the state cannot address the evidence from their investigations and WFC’s.

The Tribe at least brings a local group that has a a track record of being  concerned with long term viability of the resource, and is not going to be moving operations like many international corporations do.

Just to the north, on the Canadian Coast, a long running battle over farmed fish has pitted environmental scientist and activist Alexandra Morton against the fish farming industry. She has been working with the local tribes in documenting a horribly destructive virus that has appeared from Norway in both the local wild fish and the farm raised fish.

While Washington state passed legislation banning PRV-infected farm salmon, it is still an unknown as to whether the virus is affecting the ever decreasing numbers of wild chinook that are the primary food of the resident orcas. Reopening net pens here could provide a vector for fish carrying the disease that could be passing through the infected waters to the north on their way here.

(more on this story at The Georgia Straight News)

In October, Cooke paid another large fine in Maine for multiple violations of their laws for fish farming.  https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/aquaculture/cooke-to-pay-fine-for-overstocking-maine-salmon-farms-not-conducting-environmental-testing

In April, Cooke paid over $300,000 for water quality violations here in Washington.

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Washing Laundry May Be An Underappreciated Source of Microplastic Pollution – Columbia University

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Al Bergstein

More bad news on how our daily lives are affecting the planet.

Concerns over plastic in the ocean are growing in recent years. About 2.41 million tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year, including approximately 15,000 plastic bags per day. However, most of the plastic waste (94 percent) is made up of microplastics — pieces of plastic measuring less than five millimeters across. This summer, three interns at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory decided to focus their research on microplastics, specifically microbeads and microfibers. Mentored by Lamont marine biologist Joaquim Goes, the students Emmerline Ragoonath-De Mattos, Mariela Carrera, and Asya Surphlis uncovered a significant culprit of microplastic pollution that is largely overlooked: the washing of laundry…For now, there are products that consumers can buy to filter microfibers out in the washing machine. Two such options are products called Guppyfriend and the Cora Ball…

Washing Laundry May Be An Underappreciated Source of Microplastic Pollution

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Legal battles continue over dumping human waste in Puget Sound – KING

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Like a tug coming up channel in the middle of the night, this could be seen coming a mile away. When the state, with the support of many environmental organzations, moved to ban all human waste from being dumped in Puget Sound, representatives came and presented to the Jefferson County Marine Resources committee (MRC) on what they proposed. The presenter, a very earnest younger person, discussed banning tugs from dumping waste overboard, and mentioned that they were hoping to grant a waiver extension for them to give them a few more years to revamp the tugs waste storage (which is essentially non existant as I’ve heard), I wondered whether or not they were really going to get support from the industry. It appears they haven’t.

The problem appears that most tugs were never designed with significant holding tanks, as many were built in the era when dumping overboard was the standard. Asking them to redesign what little room exists in order to build in larger holding tanks, if it’s even possible, was a big ask. I argued then, and argue now, that an exemption for existing working tugs should be found, and that new tugs should be designed for standard holding tanks.  If there are some arguements I’m not understanding in this debate, then please write and let me know. This seems like fighting over a very small issue in the larger scheme of things, and we have much larger fish to fry in saving Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.

Tug boat companies are suing the EPA to stop a Washington state ruling that bans the dumping of raw sewage in Puget Sound area waterways. Now, several environmental activism groups are getting involved in the legal fight. Last year, the Washington Department of Ecology created the Northwest’s first no discharge zone (NDZ), which would span 2,300 square miles from the Canadian border to the Discovery Island Lighthouse and waters east of the New Dungeness Lighthouse. It also would include Lake Washington, Lake Union, and connecting waters to Puget Sound…. Puget Soundkeeper is now one of several groups fighting back against a lawsuit that tugboat companies have filed against the EPA, which ruled that Puget Sound has enough pump-out stations to accommodate Ecology’s decision. They have joined the EPA as intervenors, along with the Washington Environmental Council and Friends of the Earth. Alison Morrow reports. (KING)

Legal battles continue over dumping human waste in Puget Sound

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Troubling report on the use of chemicals in National Refuges

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Al Bergstein

Given the current discussion about allowing large scale aquaculture in the Dungeness Bay National Refuge, it’s worth looking at what’s happening at other refuges across the country. While most of these are land based, it’s not likely that most people assume that pesticides are allowed to be sprayed in wildlife refuges. It points out why the Army Corp. of Engineers needs to do more diligence with the permit applicant before coming to a conclusion about what to do.

For Immediate Release, May, 10, 2018

Contact: Hannah Connor, (202) 681-1676, hconnor@biologicaldiversity.org

Analysis: 490,000 Pounds of Toxic Pesticides Sprayed on National Wildlife Refuges

Pesticide Use on Crops Grown in Refuges Spikes in California, Oregon, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maryland

WASHINGTON— America’s national wildlife refuges are being doused with hundreds of thousands of pounds of dangerous agricultural pesticides every year, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Center report, No Refuge, reveals that an estimated 490,000 pounds of pesticides were dumped on commodity crops like corn, soybeans and sorghum grown in national wildlife refuges in 2016, the most recent year for which data are available. The analysis was conducted with records obtained by the Center under the Freedom of Information Act.

“These refuges are supposed to be a safe haven for wildlife, but they’re becoming a dumping ground for poisonous pesticides,” said Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the Center who authored the analysis. “Americans assume these public lands are protected and I think most people would be appalled that so many pesticides are being used to serve private, intensive agricultural operations.”

The pesticides include the highly toxic herbicides dicamba and 2,4-D, which threaten the endangered species and migrating birds that wildlife refuges were created to protect. Refuge pesticide use in 2016 was consistent with pesticide applications on refuges over the previous two years, the Center analysis showed.

America’s 562 national wildlife refuges include forests, wetlands and waterways vital to thousands of species, including more than 280 protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Yet intensive commercial farming has become increasingly common on refuge lands, triggering escalating use of highly toxic pesticides that threaten the long-term health of these sensitive habitats and the wildlife that depend on them.

In 2016 more than 270,000 acres of refuge land were sprayed with pesticides for agricultural purposes. The five national wildlife refuge complexes most reliant on pesticides for agricultural purposes in 2016 were:

  • Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex in California and Oregon, with 236,966 pounds of pesticides;
  • Central Arkansas Refuges Complex in Arkansas, with 48,725 pounds of pesticides;
  • West Tennessee Refuge Complex in Tennessee, with 22,044 pounds of pesticides;
  • Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Tennessee, with 16,615 pounds of pesticides;
  • Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, with 16,442 pounds of pesticides.

Additional findings from the report:

  • Aerial pesticide spraying: In 2016, 107,342 acres of refuge lands were aerially sprayed with 127,020 pounds of pesticides for agricultural purposes, including approximately 1,328 pounds of the notoriously drift-prone dicamba, which is extremely toxic to fish, amphibians and crustaceans.
  • Glyphosate: In 2016 more than 55,000 agricultural acres in the refuge system were treated with 116,200 pounds of products containing glyphosate, the pesticide that has caused widespread decreases in milkweed plants, helping to trigger an 80 percent decline of the monarch butterfly over the past two decades.
  • 2,4-D: In 2016 more than 12,000 refuge acres were treated with 15,819 pounds of pesticide products containing 2,4-D, known to be toxic to mammals, birds, amphibians, crustaceans, reptiles and fish and is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered and threatened salmonids.
  • Paraquat dichloride: In 2016 more than 3,000 acres of corn and soybean crops on refuge lands were treated, mainly through aerial spraying, with approximately 6,800 pounds of pesticides containing paraquat dichloride, known to be toxic to crustaceans, mammals, fish, amphibians and mollusks and so lethal it is banned in 32 counties, including the European Union.

“These pesticides are profoundly dangerous for plants and animals and have no place being used on such a staggering scale in our wildlife refuges,” Connor said. “The Interior Department needs to put an end to this outrage and return to its mission of protecting imperiled wildlife, not row crops.”

 

No Refuge

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

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Pesticides and salmon: Can we see a light at the end of the tunnel? – Watching Our Water Ways

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Al Bergstein

Once again, the National Marine Fisheries Service has determined in official findings that three common pesticides — chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion — raise the risk of extinction for threatened and endangered salmon. By extension, for the first time, the agency also concluded that those same pesticides threaten Puget Sound’s endangered orca population by putting their prey — chinook and other salmon — at risk. This politically and legally charged issue — which has been around for more than 15 years — has gone beyond a debate over potential harm from pesticides. It also raises uncomfortable questions about whether our society will follow science as we try to solve environmental problems. Chris Dunagan reports. (Watching Our Water Ways)

https://pugetsoundblogs.com/waterways/2018/01/16/pesticides-and-salmon-can-we-see-a-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/

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More concerns raised about flame retardants – NY Times

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Al Bergstein

The New York Times has a story that is quite disturbing, about new concerns with flame retardants, found in almost every home and office these days. It now looks like they could be the root cause of a cat wasting disease that has been rampant throughout the U.S. and the developed world. Our State Senator Kevin van de Wege has been a leader in trying to get these chemicals permanently banned in our state and with this article, perhaps he can finally convince remaining holdouts to get these chemicals banned from our homes.  PBDEs are found throughout Puget Sound waters. They likely are found in our fish. And they are found in our homes. Almost every couch seat cushion contains them. As does our electronics. You can help by letting Senator Van de Wege know you want to see him push to get this finalized next legislative session.

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New study finds no Fukushima radiation in shellfish samples in B.C.

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Al Bergstein

News from Canada on the latest round of testing for Fukushima radiation. For those wanting a deeper dive on the methodology, try the link in the story below.

Thought I would let you know of some good news in case you have been asked about this or have concerns yourself. The Fukushima incident in 2011 led to some concerns over the safety of waters and seafood products in BC, and the implied impacts for humans. A group of scientists were formed to look into this https://fukushimainform.ca/about/to assess what the risks were and to disseminate the information to the public.

Last year the group tested radiation levels in salmon and found nothing of concern. This year they also did salmon sampling, but also included shellfish which is where I was involved. I approached growers around BC, from Prince Rupert to Baynes Sound, to Sunshine Coast and west coast of Vancouver Island, using a variety of shellfish (oysters, scallops, mussels and mussel hybrids) and targeting the tissues that would be eaten by humans (in general whole body but in case of the scallops only the adductor muscle). The analysis of both the tissue and the shell is completed and great news, they found no detectable levels of radiation. You can find more about it here:

https://fukushimainform.ca/2016/11/24/results-from-2016-inform-biotic-monitoring-shellfish-and-vancouver-island-salmon/#more-2489

So far the webpage shows the information from the tissues only, but the shells also did not contain any radiation either and that will be posted shortly. So I thought it would be useful to pass it along to you as producers, but also so you can pass along to any consumers who may have expressed caution. You can now direct them to the study!fukushimainform

I also thought I would share it with you as although none of your animals were tested, it shows species information for producers in the same local area – e.g. Steve and David, you’ll see that Quadra is clean for many species. Darlene – I thought you might like to tell members or to link to it on the BCSGA webpage.

Please let me know if you have any questions and please feel free to direct anyone to the website.

Dr. Helen Gurney-Smith

Biological Effects, Ecosytems and Oceans Science
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
St. Andrews Biological Station
531 Brandy Cove Road

St. Andrews, New Brunswick, E5B 2L9 Canada

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State adopts ‘fish consumption rule’ after years of debate – Bellingham Herald/AP

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Al Bergstein

Why does this matter? Because if a waterway is polluted, and the fish in it are too, the question of “how much polluted fish can people safely eat?” is not academic, but could raise or lower cancer rates, and possibly even birth defects,in the case of mercury.

The state of Washington has set very unrealistic amounts of fish consumption on purpose, so that polluters won’t be forced to clean up their businesses more than they already are doing. Now, the state has finally acted, ruling that the state is going to protect people that might eat approximately 175 grams a day, or about one serving. The current rule if far less than that, based more on one 7.5 ounce serving in a month! Given that we have a huge population of people that like fish, and might eat, in the course of a week, a lot more than that, this ruling will work, in the long run, to lower pollution in our waterways to protect fish and us.

Certainly, this is all going to take some time, to allow polluters to make changes, which could take a decade or more, but finally owning up to the reality of our fish consumption, will eventually lead to cleaner waters and healthier food.

Washington state regulators on Monday adopted new clean-water rules tied partly to how much fish people eat after years of heated debate over how clean the state’s water should be.

and the original post by Washington State Department of Ecology.

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Mount Polley: Mines minister accepts scathing report but won’t resign – Globe and Mail

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Al Bergstein

The disaster that keeps on giving by polluting the Fraser and the greater Salish Sea with toxic chemicals is still an active issue. BC’s ministers seem to be owned by the mine owners and not the people of BC, who they are suppose to be protecting. In China they just take people like Bill Bennett out to some hellhole in the desert for a fate unknown. It appears that those of us in Washington need to continue to ask our legislators at the Federal level to call into question our joint Treaty that is supposed to protect waters shared with both countries. Canada has been hard core at asking us to fix our problems in the past. Now it’s our turn.

B.C.’s minister of energy and mines said he will consider the recommendations from a damning report by the province’s auditor general that concluded his ministry’s regulation of the mining industry does not adequately protect British Columbians from significant environmental risks. However Bill Bennett did not agree with Auditor General Carol Bellringer’s finding that his ministry failed to carry out its own regulatory oversight in the case of the tailings-pond dam at the Mount Polley mine which failed in August 2014. Gavin Fisher reports. (CBC) See also: Alaska raises concerns with B.C.’s mining oversight after audithttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/alaska-raises-concerns-with-bcs-mining-oversight-after-audit/article29878365/ Justine Hunter reports. (Globe and Mail)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mount-polley-mines-minister-accepts-scathing-report-but-won-t-resign-1.3567019

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No radiation found in B.C. fish after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster – Vancouver Sun

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Al Bergstein

So far, so good. The raw data from the scientists is in.

From http://fukushimainform.ca.

Coastal monitoring: Results from 26 samples, mostly collected in September and October, did not find any of the Fukushima fingerprint isotope, 134Cs (2 year half-life), in the coastal waters. Low levels of 137Cs (~30 year half-life) were present in all of the samples. Also, some of the new results were from June-August, filling in some gaps that are related to calibration of the new spectrometer. No 134Cs was detected in samples returned for that interval.

The maximum allowable concentration of radiocesium in Canadian drinking water is 10,000 Bq m-3. The levels being detected in our citizen science samples are thousands of times lower and are not a risk to the health of the marine ecosystem or the public.

From the Vancouver Sun story:
Nearly five years after a massive earthquake resulted in the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, researchers in B.C. have found no detectable levels of contamination in fish along the West Coast. Contamination in fish had been expected to increase, as levels for radioisotopes cesium-134 and 137 are getting higher in offshore sea water, according to Jay Cullen, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Victoria. But models showing how ocean circulation will carry that contamination suggest there is little reason for concern in B.C. “While we expect the contamination in fish to increase … we don’t expect those levels to approach levels that will be a danger to human health,” Cullen said. Those projected contamination levels won’t be harmful to the fish, either, he added. Bethany Lindsay reports. (Vancouver Sun)

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/radiation+found+local+fish+after+japan+fukushima+nuclear/11737813/story.html

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Puget Sound’s health filters through mussels – Kitsap Sun

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Al Bergstein

This ought to be a clear reminder  that we a lot of work to do to reverse the inflow of toxins into the Salish Sea. This article shows that many toxins, including DDT, are still being found in shellfish all over the Bainbridge Island and east side of Hood Canal area. If they are there, they are in Port Townsend Bay and elsewhere around here. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center has been involved in the Mussel Watch program. I have been unable to find the data sets of the work they did over the last 10 years. Perhaps a reader can point me to it.

It’s so dark that Maradel Gale and her team of Bainbridge Beach Naturalists don’t see Manzanita Bay until their boots squish into its low tidelands. With only a few house lights along its rim and no sounds but lapping waves, the bay doesn’t seem like the best place to be poking around for pollution. But for Gale, the proof is in the mussels. She shines her headlamp on a few dozen black-shelled bivalves, neatly arrayed in mesh bags and locked in a steel cage. She placed the farm-raised mussels here three months ago to soak, and now it’s time to send them to the lab. Tristan Baurick reports. (Kitsap Sun)

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/puget-sounds-health-filters-through-mussels-2b5d0ae4-56c3-601f-e053-0100007f4843-368897131.html

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Video: Update on Fukushima radiation

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Al Bergstein

Dr. Ken Buessler, is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, running the new Center for Marine and Environmental Radiation. He has been a leading voice in getting what scientific data there is on the radiation released (and still being released) from the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. He was instrumental in forming what little  citizen science based monitoring exists, since the Republican controlled Congress will not fund monitoring, apparently.

This talk, from last month, is an up to date assessment of the situation. We still can be grateful that we have not seen meaningful levels of cesium yet on the west coast. But we cannot be complacent, as the build up of this deadly radioactive isotope is growing, albeit slowly, and could be showing up in seafood captured far off shore. Tuna is one of the most likely fish to have measurable amounts from Fukushima, but still are at levels far below what any scientist feels is of concern. More monitoring is needed, and you can help. See www.ourradioactiveocean.org for funding opportunities for measurements to be gathered from Sequim Bay and other local sites.

Dr. Buessler has recently  helped launch the  Radband, a means of measuring cesium with a sensor built into something small enough to wear on your ankle when you enter the ocean. He also was responsible for the

His web site is http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org

You can also look at http://www.biol.sc.edu/faculty/mosseau

Fukushima from two sides of the Pacific.

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