Posted on May 4, 2011 by Al Bergstein
It’s really a shame that we can’t take this threat as seriously as terrorism. This will cause much more disruption than even 911. 5 foot sea level rise will affect all of us on the coast.
5/4 Associated Press
Report sees sharper sea rise from Arctic melt
By Karl Ritter and Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press
STOCKHOLM — The ice of Greenland and the rest of the Arctic is melting faster than expected and could help raise global sea levels by as much as 5 feet this century, dramatically higher than earlier projections, an authoritative international assessment says.
The findings “emphasize the need for greater urgency” in combating global warming, says the report of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), the scientific arm of the eight-nation Arctic Council.
More at
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110504/NEWS02/705049953/-1/NEWS
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Posted on May 4, 2011 by Al Bergstein
5/3 Peninsula Daily News
Paper mill’s cogeneration plant touted to Chamber of Commerce audience
By Charlie Bermant
PORT TOWNSEND — The biomass cogeneration plan proposed by the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill will provide essential support for regional education and health care as well as the economy, according to information presented to the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
“These kinds of jobs are needed in order to supply our health care,” Team Jefferson chair Bill Wise said of the jobs he said will be created and sustained by the biomass project.
More at
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110503/NEWS/305039993/paper-mills-cogeneration-plant-touted-to-chamber-of-commerce-audience
—The mill, which refuses to talk to the press, and seems to enforce a PR blackout, comes out of the cone of silence to issue essentially a marketing pitch that promotes health by building the plant. I recommend considering the source, and doing some research yourself to find out if these claims are true. – Editor
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Posted on April 19, 2011 by Al Bergstein
Virus causing salmon deaths?
By ROB HOTAKAINEN; Staff writer
WASHINGTON – In Canada’s Fraser River, a mysterious illness has killed millions of Pacific salmon, and scientists have a new hypothesis about why: The wild salmon are suffering from viral infections similar to those linked to some forms of leukemia and lymphoma.
For 60 years before the early 1990s, an average of nearly 8 million wild salmon returned from the Pacific Ocean to the Fraser River each year to spawn.
Now the salmon industry is in a state of collapse, with mortality rates ranging from 40 percent to 95 percent.
http://www.theolympian.com/2011/04/18/1620501/virus-causing-salmon-deaths.html?story_link=email_msg
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Posted on April 13, 2011 by Al Bergstein
Guns not butter clams…Zero cuts for defense, 16% cuts for environmental protection. Draw your own conclusions. Please remember this when they call for donations to their campaigns in the fall & next year. – editor
4/13 Wall Street Journal
GOP Wins Deep Cuts in Environment Spending
BY JANET HOOK, NAFTALI BENDAVID and STEPHEN POWER
In negotiating the budget deal that averted a government shutdown, Democrats and the White House claimed a big victory in preventing Republicans from blocking a set of environmental regulations. But as details of the compromise became known Tuesday, it was clear Republicans had won deep reductions in spending at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Under the deal headed to House and Senate votes by the end of this week, the EPA’s 2011 budget would be reduced by 16% from 2010 spending, taking it to $8.7 billion.
That reflects the kind of tradeoffs each side made in the negotiations over the bill. The legislation doesn’t include most of the policy provisions that Republicans proposed to block funding for key administration priorities on health care, the environment and other issues. But Republicans found Democrats moving more than halfway in the compromise over how much to cut spending in the $1.05 trillion bill for the remaining six months of the 2011 fiscal year.
More at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703385404576258550820756980.html
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Posted on April 12, 2011 by Al Bergstein
KATIE SCHMIDT; Staff writer
More federal money, more jobs and a new Puget Sound Corps are all among the expectations Washington policymakers have for a bill that the governor signed into law Monday.
House Bill 1294, which goes into effect in July, will move the administration of the Washington Conservation Corps from several agencies into the Ecology Department and add a special Puget Sound-focused branch of the corps.
“It’s a very important piece of legislation that’s primarily about the cleanup and conservation of the Puget Sound and about consolidation at the same time,” said Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, who helped develop the bill.
More at
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/04/12/1622771/puget-sound-cleanup-crew-expected.html
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Posted on April 12, 2011 by Al Bergstein
4/11 Seattle Times
Lab puts Puget Sound sea life to an acid test
By Craig Welch
Seattle Times environment reporter
The baby crabs look like lint specs swirling in glass jars. The 3-day-old geoducks are too small to even see.
But the shellfish being reared in this cramped government laboratory near the Montlake Cut will play a central role in predicting the future of sea life in Puget Sound.
Biologists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center are doing some of the most sophisticated work anywhere to see how the marine world responds to a major side effect of fossil-fuel emissions: increasingly corrosive seas.
More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014748297_acidification12m.html
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Posted on April 12, 2011 by Al Bergstein
*4/12/11 Crosscut
Scientist is taking charge at People for Puget Sound
By Daniel Jack Chasan
It seemed a great omen for a first meeting with Tom Bancroft, who in June will succeed Kathy Fletcher as executive director of People for Puget Sound : The ferry on which I rode veered, slowed, lay almost dead in the water, as passengers rushed to the port side windows to see a whole pod of killer whales heading north through the Sound.
Their big dorsal fins jutted up through the choppy water. Their sleek bodies curved up into daylight and back down again. Some of them leapt clear of the water. The middle-aged watchers seemed just as excited as the kids.
I described the scene later in People for Puget Sound’s Western Avenue conference room, looking out at the Sound (and the Alaskan Way Viaduct), where a small group of journalists sat down with Bancroft, Fletcher, and the group’s long-time communications director, Mike Sato. Later, Bancroft said he hoped to see orcas like that soon.
More at
http://crosscut.com/2011/04/12/puget-sound/20793/Scientist-is-taking-charge-at-People-for-Puget-Sound/
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Posted on April 11, 2011 by Al Bergstein
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Posted on April 8, 2011 by Al Bergstein
NOAA today announced new regulations to protect killer whales in inland waters of Washington State from the effects of various vessel activities. The new regulations have two parts:
1. vessels must not approach any killer whale within 200 yards (up from 100 yards)
2. vessels must stay out of the path of oncoming whales out to 400 yards.
The new regulations go into effect 30 days after the Federal Register notice publishes. We’re working with our partners to educate boaters about the new regulations on and off the water.
It is unclear how this will work. Will people who have individual whales approach them be fined? If you start 200 yards away and the whales come closer, is it appropriate to run and flee to stay 200 yards off (which is impossible) or do you need to shut down your engine (currently it is to disengage your transmission)? And what if it is unsafe to do so at the time, such as when running through a narrow passage with the tide? (think Cattle Pass for example). Can a person even see a whale at 400 yards in poor conditions? etc.
What this sounds like to me is that we are hearing the moneyed interests on the San Juan’s who own modern castles along these shores who have been fighting having the whale watch boats in front of their homes for many years. A cynical person could think that they managed to pay off the right people to get the job done. I say this having had read the testimony last year as the two sides presented testimony to NOAA, and it was clear how unclear the distance issue actually was. There is no clear science that was presented on this issue, just supposition. In fact, the science that was presented was clear that there was no known issues that they could actually prove that boats inside these boundaries were having any effect at all. You could just as easily argue that because whale numbers are rising, that the boats are having a beneficial effect. And so it goes. Well, we’ll just have to see what kind of enforcement that NOAA funds for this. The only good news is that the enforcement has been incredibly missing to date, and is unlikely to find any funding in the current budget crisis.
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Posted on March 29, 2011 by Al Bergstein
3/26 Kitsap Sun
Risks over recycling sewage into biosolids are still not resolved
By Christopher Dunagan
When the city of Bremerton started applying processed sewage sludge to its forestland west of Gorst, the trees began to grow dramatically faster.
One can see the result 20 years later in tree rings when the Douglas firs are cut down: skinny rings before the application, fat rings ever since.
Some people consider biosolids — produced from sewage sludge — to be a prime fertilizer, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and organic material.
Others raise questions about an array of low-level compounds found in the material, from toxic industrial chemicals to pharmaceutical drugs to personal health care products.
More at
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/mar/26/risks-over-recycling-sewage-are-still-not/
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Posted on March 29, 2011 by Al Bergstein
3/26 Tacoma News Tribune
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Senate lawmakers approved a bill to limit the use of phosphorus-based fertilizers in an effort to protect water sources from contamination.
Supporters say that the wide use of phosphorus-based fertilizers has led to runoff getting into lakes and streams and contributing to harmful algae blooms.
The bill makes an exemption for fertilizers being used on gardens or agricultural lands, but does not exempt organic fertilizer from the management requirements.
Opponents argue that targeting fertilizers as the culprit behind water contamination is misguided, as all human and animal waste also contains phosphorus and adds to algae blooms.
Limiting the use of phosphorus in fertilizers was one of the top four priorities this year for the Washington Environmental Priorities Coalition.
The bill now returns to the House to vote on amendments added.
More at
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/26/1600403/olympia-senate-restricts-phosphorus.html
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Posted on March 22, 2011 by Al Bergstein
County close to buying 7.45 acres in Clallam Bay for beach access
By Rob Ollikainen
Peninsula Daily News
CLALLAM BAY — Getting to the beach at Clallam Bay will be a lot easier if Clallam County commissioners approve paperwork before them today.
Commissioners will consider authorizing a $75,000 acquisition of 7.45 acres of land north of state Highway 112 and a half-mile west of the existing Clallam Bay Spit County Park.
The new park, which will have 700 feet of beach access, is next to a one-acre parcel the county already owns.
More at
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110322/NEWS/303229988/county-close-to-buying-745-acres-in-clallam-bay-for-beach-access
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Posted on March 22, 2011 by Al Bergstein
The pressures continue to mount for wildlife due to the rapid heating of our planet. The federal government now wants to expand the protection of the Snowy Plover to try and save it, as their numbers dwindle.
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Feds want to double nesting areas for shorebird
JEFF BARNARD
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to double the amount of West Coast beaches protected for a threatened shorebird in anticipation that sea levels will be rising due to global warming.
The proposal announced Monday would expand critical habitat designations for the western snowy plover in California, Oregon and Washington to a total of 68 units covering more than 28,000 acres.
Biologists estimate the snowy plover numbers no more than 2,270 individuals. Its numbers have declined as the bare sandy dunes where it lays its eggs were developed and covered with European beach grass, which makes the nests more vulnerable to predators.
The proposal also calls for expanding protected beaches to give the birds room to move into new nesting areas.
More at
http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/21/1587807/feds-want-to-double-nesting-areas.html
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Posted on March 20, 2011 by Al Bergstein
A free training with Regional Expert and author Charlotte Corkran.
Wednesday April 13th, 2011 9AM to 5 PM
At WSU Extension Office and Tarboo Wildlife Preserve
Learn to identfy salamanders and frogs as eggs and adults from the woman who wrote the book!
Limited space available
Advance Registration Required
Call 360.385.5358
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Posted on March 18, 2011 by Al Bergstein
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3/18 Peninsula Daily News
Draft Port Angeles Shoreline Master Program plan includes new edicts
By Paige Dickerson
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Planning for restoration and creating more detailed descriptions for what is allowable on the Port Angeles shoreline have dominated the proposed changes to the city’s Shoreline Master Program.
The draft of the document, a proposed update of the 2003 version of the program, adds a chapter outlining restoration plans for the shoreline, which is a new requirement of the state Department of Ecology.
A major new state requirement is that development cause no “net loss of ecological function” of the shoreline.
More at
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110318/NEWS/303189989/draft-port-angeles-shoreline-master-program-plan-includes-new-edicts
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Posted on March 17, 2011 by Al Bergstein
The Seattle Times reported today that radioactivity being monitored by Washington State government monitors has not shown increases in radioactivity, and in fact, has shown lower levels present than before the tsunami. The Times information states that reports of possible radioactivity reaching the U.S. were based on U.N. models, not actual data being gathered. No above normal levels have been reported yet in Alaska (the Aleutians) or Hawaii. In it is important to note that normal levels fluctuate greatly, statistically speaking, and that it would have to spike at levels 10 times above ‘normal’ range to have the state become concerned.
The New York Times reported on the 17th that: “The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.”
All this could change by Saturday, but it does not appear, as of now, that radioactivity has reached the Jet Stream and been carried this way. We will do our best to stay abreast of this issue, and report any changes as soon as possible.
The EPA site to see the raw data and get your own information directly from the source is http://www.epa.gov/radiation/ Be aware, it is apparently not easy to decifer this data without understanding the normal figures.
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Posted on March 14, 2011 by Al Bergstein
Just put out by the Washington State Department of Health. I’ll let their statement stand on it’s own without comment.
Nuclear event in Japan poses no health risk in Washington; state monitoring
OLYMPIA – The state Department of Health is conducting ongoing air monitoring for radiation to see if the nuclear plant incident in Japan has affected radiation levels in Washington. There have been no elevated readings.
The agency’s Radiation Protection staff expects no public health risk in Washington, and the monitoring is precautionary. If the situation changes in Washington, the Department of Health will inform the public.
State health officials are monitoring the events in Japan, and are in contact with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Environmental Protection Agency. An explosion took place at the Japan reactor site Saturday.
The nuclear plant incident in the wake of the earthquake in Japan has raised concerns among some people in Washington about windblown radiation coming to our state. Air sample readings in our state remain normal. The Department of Health Radiation Protection Program doesn’t expect any change in environmental measurements taken in Washington.
Even in the event of a significant release from the reactor, radiation would be diluted before reaching our state and levels would be so low no protective action would be necessary. The state health department will continue its monitoring work as the situation in Japan develops and changes.
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Posted on March 14, 2011 by Al Bergstein
The Washington Native Plant Society is sponsoring a showing of Voices of the Strait, a documentary film and discussion by Al Bergstein, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 7:00 pm, Natural History Exhibit building PTMSC . Also at the showing will be Joanne Hoemueller, the Puget Sound Partnership Eco-Net coordinator for the Olympic Peninsula.
What was it like to grow up on the Olympic Peninsula in the early to middle part of the last century, a place that had so many fish the usual joke was that you could walk across the river on the backs of the fish? What have we lost, how did we lose it, and what should be done about restoring it?
Voices of the Strait, attempts to answer these questions by talking to a wide variety of people, from mill workers, fishermen, and tribal members, to name a few. This video by Port Townsend producer/director Al Bergstein (and editor of this news blog) and assisted by long time Port Angeles resident Betsy Wharton, will be shown as part of our March program. Al will follow up with a Q&A and discussion session. “Although this video is short it has the impact to drive a new conversation about restoring the body of water that sustains the North Olympic Peninsula” – Peninsula Daily News.
Questions to Dixie Llewellin at dixie AT cablespeed.com. 360 385-6432
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Posted on March 11, 2011 by Al Bergstein
World Water Day, March 22, will be observed in Port Townsend, with a showing of a new film documentary — Living Downstream — 7- 9pm, Fellowship Hall, QUUF. (55 minute film plus discussion) contact Jeanette Richoux, 379-4895.
This critically acclaimed film, like the book on which it is based, documents the growing body of scientific evidence that links human health with the health of our environment. It is the personal journey of Sandra Steingraber, biologist, Ph.D., and her exploration of the causes of her own cancer at age 20. Her research has led to comparisons to Rachael Carson’s similar studies. Sandra works to identify potential carcinogens in our waters with updated technologies and other scientists. We are all "living downstream."
The United Nations international observance of World Water Day, March 22, is an initiative that grew out of UN Conferences on Environmental and Developmental concerns about clean, drinkable water rights. If you go to www.worldwaterday.org and look under events around the world you will find our event listed. Locally, there are many programs from WSU that celebrate our water sustainability — www.water.jefferson.wsu.edu. Please think about the clean water you use.
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Posted on March 7, 2011 by Al Bergstein
This in from the South Sound..apparently the legal battle over geoduck farming needing Environmental Impact Statements is continuing in the appeal hearings. Given the controversy up here over Geoduck aquaculture, I thought you should all be aware of this.
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Pierce County issued a Determination of Non-Significance in May 2010 for the first application since 2006, opening the doors to intertidal geoduck feedlot expansion in Pierce County. The Case Inlet Shoreline Association and the Coalition To Protect Puget Sound Habitat have appealed this decision and the appeal will be heard starting on March 14, 2011.
The following scientists are requesting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) be completed prior to further expansion due to the significant adverse impacts:
1. Dan Penttila–Retired Forage Fish Expert for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (38 years).
2. Wayne Daley–Restoration and Fisheries Biologist
3. Jim Johannessen-Geomorphologist-Coastal Geologic Services
4. Harry Branch-Restoration and Ecosystem Consultant
5. Dr. Steven Gilbert–Toxicologist
6. Captain Charles Moore- Expert Marine Plastic Debris Expert from Long Beach, California.
Captain Moore will be holding an event in Olympia on March 16 where he will be talking about marine plastic debris and his concerns about the shellfish industry introduction of PVC, nets and plastic bands in Puget Sound.
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