5/2 Island recycling, lobbying, coal dock, weekend fishing, oil pipe, toxic oil, Elwha Love

Surf scoters (Laurie MacBride)

Laurie MacBride in Eye on Environment writes: ‘Earlier this spring we spent a couple of days on our boat, anchored in one of our favorite little places – not far from home, but enough distance to feel “away”. I expected a quiet time, but the Surf Scoters had something else in mind....’ A Weekend with Surf Scoters  

Thanks! Last month we entertained 3,017 visits to the Salish Sea News web site, for a total of 39,856 visits since launch 20 months ago. The Salish Sea Communications blog site received 2,140 visits, for a total of 29,770 visits since launch 19 months ago. And thanks to you, our nearly 250 subscribers, too: Let your family, friends and colleagues know they can subscribe to the weekday email postings at no cost. Just send a 'subscribe' request to me.

Shame! The Island County commissioners likely made history [last] week when they killed a curbside recycling program on Earth Day, an international movement focused on climate change. The board hammered the final nail into the coffin of the controversial program, which aimed to bring curbside service to Langley and unincorporated areas of Whidbey Island, in a 2-1 vote Monday in Coupeville. Republican commissioners Kelly Emerson and Jill Johnson voted to end the planned service while Commissioner Helen Price Johnson, a Democrat, voted against the motion. Justin Burnett reports. Island County marks Earth Day by killing recycling program

In the first three months of this year, lobbyists in Washington state spent more than $200,000 on entertainment. Much of that money was spent to wine and dine state lawmakers during the just-concluded 105-day session. But what are lobbyists and their clients getting in exchange for picking up the tab? After the legislative day ends up at the Capitol, it’s pretty common for some of the players to decamp. They go to one of a handful of usually higher-end Olympia establishments. This is where – over a meal, perhaps a bottle of Washington wine – the work continues. Austin Jenkins reports. The Influence Game: Wining And Dining Washington Lawmakers After Hours  

Gaining access to the Fraser Surrey Docks terminal, the site of a controversial proposal for a new coal export facility, requires me to navigate a checkpoint, deposit my driver's license with the guardhouse as collateral, and wait for official clearance before the tall chain link gate sidles slowly open. Standing by the ocean's edge at the far end of the yard, the terminal's president and CEO motions to where trains laden with U.S. coal -- four million tons of the fossil fuel every year, and eventually double that -- would drop their cargo onto enclosed conveyor belts, where it would be loaded onto barges bound for Texada Island's deep sea terminal, and from there to China and other Asian markets. David Ball reports. Burning Questions over Coal Port Plan  

Anyone with a boat probably will have it out on Puget Sound this weekend. Three major local fisheries are on tap, and the forecast for great weather will most certainly add to the total. Shrimp and halibut will be the target Saturday, while lingcod will be available both days. Wayne Kruse reports. Three fisheries will keep Puget Sound busy  

Elsie Dean is not concerned about how, or when, or even why B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix arrived at his position against increased oil tanker traffic. She is just happy he got there. “We may not have to lay down in front of the bulldozers after all,” said Ms. Dean, a founder of a Burnaby community group that is fighting the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, which terminates near her home. The 89-year-old Ms. Dean and her 300-member group are door-knocking in Burnaby North, a key swing riding that is home to its oil refineries and loading terminals, to encourage voters to use their ballot to help shut the proposal down. “There is only one major party leader who hasn’t come up with a position on oil tankers, and that is Christy Clark,” said Eric Swanson, the No Tankers campaign director for the Dogwood Initiative. The conservation group has signed up 3,100 opponents to oil tanker traffic in the Burnaby ridings, and their volunteers are also on the ground pushing their message here. Justine Hunter, Daniel Bitonti and Andrea Woo report. Oil tanker issue keeps B.C. campaign well-lubricated  

Crude oil toxicity continued to sicken a sentinel Gulf Coast fish species for at least more than a year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to new findings from a research team that includes a University of California, Davis, scientist. With researchers from Louisiana and South Carolina, the scientists found that Gulf killifish embryos exposed to sediments from oiled locations in 2010 and 2011 show developmental abnormalities, including heart defects, delayed hatching and reduced hatching success. The killifish is an environmental indicator species, or a "canary in the coal mine," used to predict broader exposures and health risks. Other species that share similar habitats with the Gulf killifish, such as redfish, speckled trout, flounder, blue crabs, shrimp and oysters -- may be at risk of similar effects. Health Defects Found in Fish Exposed to Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Three Years Later

Author Lynda Mapes' new book isn't a story about dams or salmon. It's a love story to the river itself. In her new book, "Elwha: A River Reborn" (The Mountaineers Books, co-published with The Seattle Times; photography by Steve Ringman; softcover, $29.95), Lynda Mapes, who has covered all this (very well) for the Seattle Times, has — sensibly — kept her focus tightly on the Elwha. This is not a book about dams or salmon or struggling milltowns. It is about the Elwha. Dan Chasan reports. The life of the Elwha: Biography of a river

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 301 AM PDT THU MAY 2 2013
TODAY
LIGHT WIND...BECOMING NW 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 2 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
NW WIND 5 TO 15 KT...BECOMING LIGHT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato@salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

Follow on Twitter.

Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told