Thursday, December 22, 2011

12/22 La Nina, FEMA & ESA, coal port, Action Plan, WSF, LOTT, coal-plant rules

PHOTO: Candace Emmons
OOPS: The correct number of Southern resident orcas is 89, not 98 as mis-keyed yesterday.

Might turn out to be one of the driest Decembers on record. Climate scientists Cliff Mass asks, then answers: Where is La Nina?

Suit was filed in federal court yesterday asking the government to stop the Federal Emergency Management Agency from allowing development in flood-prone areas until it can be demonstrated that development won’t harm endangered fish or whales.  Battle escalates over building in flood plains

Proponents of a coal-export facility at Cherry Point have been granted their second 90-day extension for submitting their project permit and shoreline development permit. The formal environmental assessment of the project can only begin after the permits are submitted. Gateway Pacific Terminal gets extension on permit deadline

Chris Dunagan at the Kitsap Sun reports on how the new draft action agenda for saving Puget Sound by 2020 has been improved to link how millions of dollars worth of restoration projects would actually meet goals for restoring the Sound. Puget Sound Partnership offers a more detailed plan of action

Increase in average body weight has required Washington State Ferries to reduce passenger capacity to comply with U.S. Coast Guard regulations. For example, if a ferry carried 2,000 passengers, it would only carry 1,750. Lifeboats, anyone?  Obesity Rise Prompts Wash. Ferry Capacity Change

Redevelopment of Tumwater’s Olympia Brewing property begins with the Lacey Olympia Thurston Tumwater (LOTT) Water Alliance purchasing a parcel to build more treatment plant. It’s the water, apparently.  LOTT buys brewery land for future treatment plant  

Courtnery Flatt and Bonnnie Stewart at EarthFix unpack how EPA’s rules on coal-fired plant emissions of mercury and toxics affect the TransAlta plant in Centralia and the Boardman plant in Oregon— and the region’s importing of coal-fired electricity. What the EPA’s New Rules On Coal-Plant Toxics Mean for the Northwest  

Take a cruise on the last day of the year and help the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.  New Year’s cruise to view Protection Island  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 251 AM PST THU DEC 22 2011
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM PST FRIDAY
TODAY
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING SW AFTER MIDNIGHT...THEN EASING TO 5 TO 15 KT LATE. WIND WAVES 1 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 11 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF RAIN.
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2 comments:

  1. Regarding Chris Dunagan column on the new draft of the Puget Sound Partnership Action Agenda: I tried to read it to provide comments. OMG! Dense, foggy, huge long detailed tables, 41-page executive summary full of gobbeldy gook, almost impossible to actually find any "action" items/plans. Woe is us ....

    ReplyDelete
  2. I received the following comment via email on the Dunagan story:

    "The Puget Sound Partnership talks about “restoring” decimated species (below story). But they say nothing about preventing the final destruction of Puget Sound. Puget Sound’s death will be collateral damage to the final wave of development in the Basin.

    "As we have discovered in Chesapeake Bay, restoration is probably not politically possible. It requires scraping off most of the development in the watershed and replacing it with forest and LID. (That is not going to happen any time soon). Why is PSP focusing on “restoration” when we have an eternity to restore, but only months left to prevent driving the final nails in the coffin?

    "The Carnegie Letter to the governor spells out the bare-bottom minimum action that PSP must insist upon if their mission is not to be a total failure. (NPDES permits must insist on the 65/10/0 development standard.) PSP has shown no indication that they will endorse the Carnegie action plan. Is it because PSP’s boss, the governor, has dismissed the CG action plan?"

    (read the Carnegie Letter at http://salishseacommunications.blogspot.com/2011/11/get-real-raise-revenues.html )

    ReplyDelete

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