7/16 Victoria sewage, Water Works, Clam Digger, Pt. Wells, BC oil, killer killer whales

Eastern Meadowlark (Matthew Paulson/BirdNote)

If you like to listen: We may be more indebted to birds than we know. Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton explains: “I was curious about the human range of sound . . . it’s a perfect match for bird song,” he says. “. . . If we hear bird song, then we’re also listening to an area that has food, water, and an extended favorable season long enough to raise the young off the nest . . . Bird song is the number one indicator of habitats prosperous for humans.” BirdNote: Listening for Bird Song - Featuring Gordon Hempton

New blog: Last week, the subject of telling a story came up at the Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council meeting. “We need to tell our story,” Councilmember Diana Gale said. Even people on the “inside,” our friends, don’t know what we’re doing and what’s being accomplished. Others on the Council agreed that better stories, not only about the bad things happening to the Sound but also about the good things being done, need to be told... Tell Me A Story...About Puget Sound

The B.C. government will have to decide the future of a sewage-treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt, after a town council vote Monday night put the community at loggerheads with the Capital Regional District. Esquimalt refused to pass the CRD’s rezoning application to build a sewage-treatment facility at McLoughlin. Instead, council passed its own alternate bylaw by a vote of five to two. It allows the CRD to build at McLoughlin only if the regional government offers more amenities, barges all construction material to the site to avoid traffic and safety problems and pays $55,000 a year into an amenity fund. Rob Shaw reports. Esquimalt rejects CRD sewage plan for McLoughlin Point, pushes issue to province  

In 1878, a sanitary engineer named George E. Waring Jr. ranted in The American Architect about the nation’s sudden craze for faucets on every bowl and washbasin....  Waring was right when he warned of the limits. The 20th-century miracle has become a 21-first-century migraine as aging systems strain to rush freshwater to and rid waste from some 300 million Americans and their industries. Cynthia Barnett reports in Part 2 of Water Works 2: A system at its utmost limit  

The Clam Digger still rests on the seafloor where it sunk last week near Guemes Island. Oil has spilled from both an external fuel tank and a hydraulic oil tank on board. Weather and currents in the area have made removing the boat a challenge. Divers successfully rigged the boat Monday, but removal operations continue today. The amount of fuel on the boat was revised from an estimate of 3,000 gallons to 1,600 gallons, including a 700-gallon external tank that was pinned under the boat after sinking this past Wednesday, Department of Ecology spokesman Dustin Terpening said. Kimberly Cauvel reports. Clam Digger still submerged, oil spilled

When locals first petitioned to incorporate (Woodway) in 1958, they included an oil-company's property on Puget Sound within the boundaries. Then-owner Union Oil objected. To Woodway's dismay, the upscale residential community formed without the beachfront industrial property known as Point Wells.... Fast-forward 55 years, and a deep-pocketed developer is advancing plans to turn the old fuel facility into Snohomish County's largest condo development, with some 3,000 luxury units, retail businesses and a public pier. The coming transformation has set up a tug-of-war between local governments looking to annex the prime real estate. Noah Haglund reports. Status of Point Wells still in limbo  

An oil refinery in Burnaby says it has been forced to receive oil by rail and by truck because the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline isn’t able to meet demand. Up to 35,000 barrels of crude oil come through the pipeline to Chevron’s Burnaby refinery every day. But spokesman Ray Lord says that isn’t enough. Eight to 10 rail cars deliver about 6,500 barrels a day to the refinery, Lord said. Another 1,000 barrels of oil a day are also delivered by tanker truck.  Oil brought by rail, truck to Burnaby refinery  

On February 24 2010, news channels aound the world reported that Dawn Brancheau, an experienced trainer of killer whales at SeaWorld Orlando, had been found dead in the pool. A huge male orca, Tilikum, had leapt out of the water as Brancheau had been talking about the creature to a group of visitors, grabbed her with its jaws and dragged her under the water, where she drowned. Initially, there were calls for the “rogue” whale to be put down. But as the facts began to emerge, the story grew darker and more complicated, as revealed by Gabriela -Cowperthwaite’s astonishing new documentary, Blackfish. “I first heard about the story on the news,” the director told me, on a visit to London. “I didn’t understand it. I had a lot of questions.” Those questions led Cowperthwaite to an extraordinary human drama, framed by the greater drama of our troubled relationship with animals that we claim to love, yet which we allow to be treated in appalling ways. Philip Hoare reports. Do captive whales turn into killers?

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT TUE JUL 16 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM THIS MORNING TO NOON PDT TODAY
TODAY
SE WIND RISING TO 15 TO 25 KT THIS MORNING...THEN EASING TO 10 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 1 TO 2 FT. NW SWELL 4 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
E WIND TO 10 KT...BECOMING S 10 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. NW SWELL 3 FT AT 7 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS.

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