9/7 Sound health, Union R., Tesoro trains, Samish oysters, stormwater rules, Navy wharf, prairie rules, Alberta crude

Ah, Puget Sound (PHOTO: WDNR)

Yeah! The Weatherman Is Not a Moron

A new report brings together data collected from all around the Sound in 2011. It’s got information on river inputs, seawater temperature, salinity, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, ocean acidification, phytoplankton, biotoxins, bacteria, pathogens, shellfish…. Ashley Ahearn talks to Stephanie Moore, a biological oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the lead editor of the report. EarthFix Conversations: So, How’s Puget Sound?

Rumbling excavators and other earth-moving equipment have begun to reshape the former Johnson Farm in a $1.8 million restoration project at the mouth of the Union River in Belfair. Next summer, construction crews will rip two big holes in an 80-year-old farm dike, allowing the waters of Hood Canal to rush in and reclaim more than 30 acres of salt marsh. Chris Dunagan reports. Union River estuary restoration begins  

Rail cars that made up the first of Tesoro's new 100-car unit trains from North Dakota carrying Bakken Shale crude oil are lined up at their March's Point refinery rail yard on Wednesday. Last year, Tesoro announced plans to transport 30,000 barrels per day on dedicated unit trains. Later, Tesoro said it had authorization to bring 50,000 barrels per day of Bakken crude into its Anacortes rail unloading terminal. Tesoro has said they will start with 30,000 barrels per day deliveries and ramp up to 50,000 later in the year. Art Shotwell reports. First 100-unit Tesoro train arrives  

Go figure: The Samish Bay is open to oyster harvest again, after continued investigation revealed that one of the four reports of illness that previously closed the bay had not been caused by Samish Bay shellfish. Samish Bay shellfish had been available at a restaurant, but had not been eaten by the sickened consumer, according to a press release from the state Department of Health. The oyster growing areas had been closed in August by the state Department of Health until Oct. 1, after four vibrio-bacteria-related illnesses were reported within a 30-day period from the area. Only one more illness would renew the closure of the bay, the release read. Samish Bay open to oyster harvest again

Clark County has appealed new state environmental regulations to the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board, challenging low-impact development requirements and other rules as costly and illegal. The new regulations, set to take effect in 2015, were handed down by the Department of Ecology as part of the county's stormwater permit. The rules go beyond stormwater regulations meant to control polluted runoff. The county has been fighting those rules and is awaiting a ruling from the state Court of Appeals. While Clark County was alone among Western Washington governments in challenging the first set of regulations, it has been joined by Pierce, King and Snohomish counties in fighting the new rules. Stephanie Rice reports. County appeals new rules tied to stormwater permit

A federal judge has been asked to halt construction of the Navy's explosives handling wharf at Bangor pending a full review of the environmental damage from the $715 million project. The group Ground Zero for Nonviolent Action, which filed a lawsuit against the Navy in June, followed up Thursday with a motion that seeks a preliminary injunction to halt construction. Irreparable harm to the environment from wharf construction far outweighs the cost of delaying the project until the environmental effects are fully explained and considered, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, according to attorneys for Ground Zero. Chris Dunagan reports. Ground Zero seeks to halt Bangor wharf construction  

Thurston County is partnering with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to conserve prairie lands that are home to species that could be considered endangered by the end of the month. The plan is to create an inter local agreement that would identify the species’ habitat and what conditions they need to thrive. The agreement would regulate the process landowners go through when filing for permits to develop the protected lands. Chelsea Krotzer reports. County, state work to conserve prairie species  

A wave of Alberta crude oil is washing up on British Columbia shores, destined for export. But the sole refinery on Canada’s West Coast is finding it so difficult to secure domestic oil that it is considering, instead, buying it from as far away as Saudi Arabia. Chevron Canada operates a refinery in British Columbia, just a couple kilometres away from a pipeline that carries crude from Alberta’s surging oil sands to Pacific waters. But as Canada’s energy industry pushes for massive expansion of that pipeline to take more Alberta crude to the West Coast in the chase for higher oil prices abroad, Chevron is scrambling to obtain enough domestic oil to fill its refinery.  Nathan Vanderklippe reports. Flood of Pacific oil exports leaves West Coast refinery thirsty for crude  

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT FRI SEP 7 2012
TODAY
E WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 12 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
LIGHT WIND...BECOMING E TO 10 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 14 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG AFTER
 MIDNIGHT.
SAT
LIGHT WIND...BECOMING W TO 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 13 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG.
SAT NIGHT
W WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT.
SUN
NE WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 4 FT.

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