9/27 Skagit water, BPA, Clark County stormwater, BC pipe, smell sense, BC birds, vampire squid

"I came to Casablanca for the waters."

If you like to watch: Google Street View Goes Underwater

Due to seasonal low water flow conditions in the Skagit River, the City of Anacortes and Skagit Public Utility District are asking water customers to voluntarily reduce water usage by 10 percent. The Skagit River and its feeder streams are a main source of water for the Anacortes and PUD water systems.  At this time, there is an adequate amount of water to cover basic needs.  However, we are asking customers to curtail discretionary water use in order to maintain minimum water levels in the Skagit River for the protection of fish habitat.  City: Reduce water usage 10 percent   Meanwhile: Planned Bottling Plant Moves Closer To Tapping Western Wash. Water  

Research in the Northwest is finding new evidence that a chemical used to harden plastics can damage female reproductive systems. Researchers exposed pregnant monkeys to daily doses of bisphenol-A, also known as BPA. The chemical is found in plastics like water bottles and on cash register receipts. Courtney Flatt reports. Study Confirms BPA Damages Reproductive Systems  

Clark County’s controversial approach to controlling stormwater was shot down Tuesday by the Washington Court of Appeals, which said the plan for handling polluted runoff doesn’t adequately protect waterways. A three-judge panel upheld a ruling by the state Pollution Control Hearings Board, which said a compromise, developed between the county and the state Department of Ecology, was insufficient under federal and state clean water laws. The county, which was joined in the appeal by the Building Industry Association of Clark County, has 30 days to appeal to the Washington Supreme Court.  Clark County loses stormwater ruling  

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has invited her Alberta counterpart for a meeting on the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline when Clark is in Calgary early next week. But the invitation to Alison Redford, contained in a letter released publicly Wednesday, isn't exactly a thaw in the relationship that grew frosty over B.C.'s five demands that must be met before the province will support Enbridge's bid to build the pipeline, which would run from the Alberta oilsands across B.C. to the port of Kitimat.  B.C. premier seeks pipeline meeting with Alberta's Redford  

Gail Evert held the glass flask to her nose and sniffed. She could smell trace amounts of butanol, a kind of alcohol, in the liquid solution. Evert, 51, took a whiff from two others to be sure she could name the one with the most intense smell. The Everett woman was one of 17 people who attended a training-and-screening session Tuesday night at the Snohomish County PUD building to volunteer their sense of smell for an odor study.  Amy Daybert reports. Volunteers who pass sniff test will join smelly study

British Columbia birds outfitted with tiny backpacks have shown researchers that birds of a feather do not always flock together. Forty birds from two distinct groups of Swainson's thrushes — one in Pacific Spirit Park in Vancouver and another near the Interior city of Kamloops — were fitted with penny-sized geolocators. The state-of-the-art technology recorded light intensity data just about every day for a year, as the olive-green birds migrated as far south as South America over the winter and returned to British Columbia for the summer of 2011. Tiny bird backpacks give Vancouver researchers something to crow about

About 100 years ago, marine biologists hauled the first vampire squid up from the depths of the sea. Since that time, perhaps a dozen scientific papers have been published on this mysterious animal, but no one has been able to figure out exactly what it eats. A new paper by MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Henk-Jan Hoving and Senior Scientist Bruce Robison shows for the first time that, unlike its relatives the octopuses and squids, which eat live prey, the vampire squid uses two thread-like filaments to capture bits of organic debris that sink down from the ocean surface into the deep sea. Researchers Discover What Vampire Squids Eat: It's Not What You Think

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 240 AM PDT THU SEP 27 2012
TODAY
W WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 4 FT AT 10 SECONDS. AREAS OF FOG THIS MORNING.
TONIGHT
W WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

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