2/26 White House coal, Tris, Lk Whatcom, BC LNG, Port Angeles cleanup, airport pipe, ferry woes, Sally Jewell

PHOTO: Peter Haley-The News Tribune

If you like to watch: Crushed cars fall from barge in Tacoma

New blog: "The Seattle Times tried putting itself in the same class as the New York Times when announcing Sunday that, like the New York Times and 400 other daily newspapers, it would begin charging for viewing its online content next month..." Erecting the Paywall to Save the Product

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has convened a series of meetings with federal regulators over the past nine months as the Obama administration shapes environmental impact analyses for the building of terminals to export coal to Asia.   While CEQ downplays its involvement in the deliberations, a former CEQ official and other analysts suggest the White House role highlights the sensitive policy issues at stake, as the administration is under pressure to assess the possible climate change impact of burning U.S. coal in Asia. At issue is how broadly the government should extend its analysis: whether to consider the impacts of each of the Pacific Northwest export terminals through narrowly tailored individual environmental impact statements or to assess their cumulative effects together, which would allow for a comprehensive analysis of possible climate change impacts.  White House CEQ Meetings on Coal Projects Seen Indicating Major Policy Issues at Stake  

Of the estimated 80,000 chemicals used in everything from sofas and mattresses to baby bottles and car seats, only 200 have been assessed for health risks. Individual states have succeeded in banning chemicals one at a time. In Washington, foes of the toxic flame retardant Tris have proposed legislation to not only ban its use, but make sure manufacturers find less toxic alternatives. Martha Basking reports. Legislation to Ban Tris Flame Retardants Hits Snag: Third Try by Toxic Free Legacy Coalition to Remove Its Use in Sofas and Children’s Products  

The Washington Department of Ecology is renewing its push for progress on the daunting task of making huge cuts in polluted runoff into Lake Whatcom from developed areas. On Monday, Feb. 25, the state agency issued a new report on the lake's phosphorus pollution woes that will mandate the city and Whatcom County to come up with a timeline for taking steps to achieve pollution control goals, and a plan to pay for it. Steve Hood, an engineer in Ecology's Bellingham office, said the state expects to give the city and county five years to develop that plan, which will be neither cheap nor simple: Getting the lake back to natural conditions will mean controlling rainfall runoff at an extremely high level, almost as if the developed area had not been developed at all. John Stark reports. State gives city, county new mandate for fixing Lake Whatcom woes

The federal government has approved a 25-year export licence for shipping liquefied natural gas from a West Coast terminal proposed by a consortium headed by Shell. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says the approval for LNG Canada Development Inc. is a milestone in British Columbia's plans for a trillion-dollar LNG sector. The licence awarded to LNG Canada — a consortium of Shell, Korea Gas Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., and PetroChina International — will allow the export of up to 24 million tonnes of LNG per year, the largest of three export licences awarded to date. Shell consortium gets nod for 25-year LNG export licence  

A multibillion-dollar natural-gas export project has agreed to pay more than $200-million to a group of British Columbia first nations in exchange for their support. A deal between the backers of the Kitimat LNG project and the First Nations Group Limited Partnership, a consortium of 15 northern aboriginal groups, promises to secure local peace for a major new energy project in British Columbia. Its official signing, at the outset of a government-organized LNG conference in Vancouver on Monday, was “a very important milestone,” said Janine McArdle, senior vice-president of gas monetization for Houston-based Apache Corp. Accord brings first nations on board with LNG project

Formation of a draft cleanup plan is the next step for industrial property off Marine Drive that is contaminated by an underground petrochemical plume. Port of Port Angeles commissioners Monday unanimously approved a cleanup-related amendment to an agreed order with the state Department of Ecology that focuses on the site west of downtown Port Angeles. The agreement removes the property bordered by Cedar and Tumwater streets known as the marine trades area from the adjacent mill site at 439 Marine Drive, which most recently housed the Peninsula Plywood mill. That site is undergoing demolition prior to its own cleanup and under its own agreed order. Paul Gottlieb reports. Port amends cleanup agreement with Ecology

A controversial proposal to pipe jet fuel to Vancouver International Airport via a Fraser River terminal has been delayed for several months. Environment Minister Terry Lake says an environmental assessment for the Vancouver Airport Fuel Delivery is suspended pending further study on land and marine fuel spills. Plan to pipe jet fuel to YVR delayed several months

The Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) has secured $4.8 million in federal grants to help acquire and restore 550 acres of tidal wetlands and associated freshwater and upland habitat areas in Island, Jefferson, Kitsap and Mason counties. The $4.8 million comes from the National Wetland Conservation Program and includes $1 million to acquire 225 acres along Port Gamble Bay in north Kitsap County. The county will manage the project which contains some of the most pristine coastal wetland habitat in the upper Hood Canal area. The acquisition is part of the Kitsap Forest and Bay Project seeking to protect 1.78 miles of shoreline and 6,700 acres surrounding Port Gamble Bay.  Ecology awarding $4.8 million in federal wetland conservation grants for Puget Sound  


A review of state Department of Transportation statistics by the Record shows that, in two years of service on the Coupeville-to-Port Townsend ferry route, Kwa-di Tabil class ferries are less used by the public and more susceptible to weather cancelations than their predecessors. Last year, total ridership on the route — including cars and walk-on passengers — was down 12 percent from 2006, the last full year the 80-year-old Steel Electrics were in service. That pencils out to nearly 83,000 fewer riders than the 766,843 who rode the ferries six years ago. During the same period, weather cancelations rose 128 percent, from just 64 runs scrubbed in 2006 to 146 last year. Justin Burnett reports. Sailing failings: New ferries see less use, more weather cancelations

Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is a 315,000-acre stretch of eelgrass and tundra pockmarked with lakes and lagoons, a site where the geese called Pacific black brants stop off to feed before they begin their journey to wintering grounds in Mexico. But the fate of this remote wilderness area has become a critical bargaining chip in an inside-the-Beltway battle, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) threatening to block Sally Jewell’s nomination as interior secretary unless the Obama administration agrees to put a road through it. Juliet Eilperin reports. Interior secretary nomination becomes embroiled in fight over Alaska refuge And: Senate schedules confirmation hearing on Sally Jewell’s nomination as Interior Secretary

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PST TUE FEB 26 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
S WIND 5 TO 15 KT...BECOMING SE 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS...BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 11 FT AT 16 SECONDS...
 SUBSIDING TO 9 FT AT 16 SECONDS. RAIN LIKELY.
TONIGHT
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING W 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 8 FT AT 15 SECONDS...
 BUILDING TO 10 FT AT 14 SECONDS. RAIN.

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