10/11 Maury healing, pipeline leaks, Johns Cr salmon, polluter pays, sewage costs, butterfly and bird ESA, Stanley Park birds, Wyman's Marina habitat, crab season

October 12 marks the 50th anniversary of the most powerful and destructive storm to strike the Northwest in recorded history. Climate scientist Cliff Mass relives the day. The Columbus Day Storm 50th Anniversary   See also: Columbus Day Storm remains a fearsome memory

Sand and gravel mining started on Maury Island in the 1890s and ended in 2009 when a judge threw out permits obtained by a company preparing to expand it.  Now a 7,000-acre waterfront slope belongs to the public and work has begun to restore it.  Using $2.2 million dollars from a state jobs fund, dozens of workers are cutting and pulling invasive plants from the hillside and removing creosote soaked logs and other threats from the site's full mile of Puget Sound beach.  Gary Chittim reports. Agencies begin healing Maury Island's mining scar

The ability to detect leaks along the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline won't be known until the pipeline is built and pumping oil through the remote wilderness of northern B.C., a lawyer for the province noted at a hearing deciding the pipeline's fate.  Chris Jones grilled a panel of company experts on the design of the 1,100-kilometre pipeline that would deliver oil from the Alberta oilsands to a tanker port on the B.C. coast.  B.C. pipeline proponents grilled on leak detection

A fire that burned roughly 250 acres last week in Western Washington has been extinguished. Now biologists are concerned about the potential impacts on local salmon runs. Johns Creek flows into Puget Sound near Shelton, Wash. It’s about 9 miles long and is home to one of the strongest runs of chum salmon in the southern part of the Sound. And right now, it’s full of fish and surrounded by hills of ash from the recent fire. Ashley Ahearn reports. Fire In Western WA Raises Fears For Spawning Salmon

Bryan Stowe was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to six months in prison and a $300,000 fine. Seattle U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan says it’s one of the first criminal prosecutions under the Clean Water Act in U.S. history. Stowe admitted that he and his Sumner construction company deliberately ignored the conditions of their stormwater discharge permit when they cleared 50 acres – more that twice what their permit allowed – for warehouses next to the West Valley Highway in Sumner. He repeatedly pumped sediment from the site into the nearby White River, despite warnings from environmental officials, and caused two major landslides that closed the highway in 2010 and 2011.  Developer will do time for polluting  

Oak Bay homeowners could be hit hardest when the bill for Greater Victoria's sewage treatment system comes due, according to the latest cost breakdown. The average Oak Bay household could pay about $391 a year, the highest in the region, for the new sewage treatment system, which has an estimated cost of $783 million.  An average Saanich household could pay the least, at $232 a year. Sewage treatment plan has Oak Bay facing biggest cost in region

Species of butterflies and birds that call Thurston County prairie lands home are in the process of getting protection under the Endangered Species Act. Evidence suggests the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly is in danger of becoming extinct and that the streaked horned lark might become threatened with extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday. Both species are found in South Sound prairie lands, which make up 10 percent of the original prairie land. Less than 3 percent of what remains is considered high-quality habitat.  Chelsea Krotzer reports. Butterfles, birds found in South Sound may get endangered tag

Birds in Stanley Park got the first of five quiet places on the water in Lost Lagoon Wednesday as part of an initiative to help protect the wildlife in the park. The Stanley Park Ecology Society is making the resting spots out of logs salvaged from local beaches. Anchored at both ends, the logs are meant to create more habitat for birds on the water away from people and other disturbances on the shore, said Robyn Worcester, conservation program manager for the society.  Birds get a break on anchored logs in Lost Lagoon

The storm-battered property east of Randy’s Pier 61 restaurant known as Wyman’s Marina with its dilapidated building and decrepit docks and pier will be a piece of Anacortes’ waterfront history come fall 2013. The Port of Anacortes, which owns the property, will transform it into an aquatic habitat mitigation site in exchange for redevelopment at Pier 1 for Dakota Creek Industries. Because waters of the state were taken away as part of that project, the Army Corps of Engineers is requiring the port to create new waters. Joan Pringle reports. Port will remove structures at Wyman’s, add aquatic habitat

Late-season crab fishing will re-open in most Puget Sound marine areas on Oct. 13. Waters reopening to sport crabbing Oct. 13 at 8 a.m. include marine areas 4 (Neah Bay), 5 (Sekiu), 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca), 7 (San Juan Islands), 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island, and Skagit Bay), 8-2 (Port Susan and Port Gardner), 9 (Admiralty Inlet), 12 (Hood Canal), and 13 (South Puget Sound). In each area, crabbing will be permitted seven days a week through Dec. 31. Trevor Pyle reports. High amounts of crab means fishing season re-opened  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 900 PM PDT WED OCT 10 2012
THU
NW WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 FT AT 13 SECONDS.
THU NIGHT
W WIND TO 10 KT BECOMING N 5 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 2 FT AT 12 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF
 RAIN.
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