7/23 Don Santiford, sockeye cam, rain gardens, Vic sewage, free Capitol Lake

An outspoken critic of B.C.'s salmon farming industry has been ordered to pay a major industry player $75,000 for claims he made online about the safety of farmed salmon. Last year Mainstream Canada, which operates 27 farms off B.C.'s coast, sued Don Staniford for defamation after he claimed online that "salmon farming kills" and "salmon farming is poison". While the trial judge found Staniford's statements were defamatory, she ruled they were also protected by the defence of fair comment, because readers could make up their make up their own minds about what Staniford was saying. However on Monday, B.C.'s Appeal Court disagreed, and ruled the facts Staniford relied on weren't sufficiently referenced on his website.  Salmon farming company wins defamation lawsuit

If you like to watch: A salmon cam in Alaska’s Steep Creek is showing fair numbers of sockeye swimming upstream near the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau.  Live webcam shows return of sockeye

Foodies get to drool over countless images online and in print of perfectly posed burgers, mouth-watering slices of pies, and other culinary treats. Now rain garden junkies and the bioretention-curious can indulge in inspiring photos and illustrations of green stormwater solutions in the newly released “Rain Garden Handbook for Western Washington: A Guide for Design, Installation, and Maintenance.” Lisa Stiffler reports. Rain Gardens, the Glamour Issue

B.C.’s environment minister remains unwilling to get involved in Greater Victoria’s sewage treatment dispute, after meeting with the Capital Regional District and Esquimalt on Monday. Both sides argued their case to the minister at the legislature but left without persuading her to wade into the disagreement over a treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt.  Environment minister avoids taking role in sewage dispute

The Olympian editorializes: South Sounders can complain all they want about a do-nothing Congress, or partisan deadlock in the state Legislature, but that and a couple of candidates’ campaign yard signs won’t get us very far. There is one log jam right in front of our noses, however, on which local citizens can have a significant impact: Capitol Lake. As Olympian columnist John Dodge reminded us in a recent Soundings column, it’s been decades since the annual Lakefair festival had any connection to Capitol Lake. More to the point, its been four years since the nine-member Capitol Lake Adaptive Management Plan (CLAMP) issued its split-vote recommendation to revert the 250-acre lake into a tideflat mixing salt and fresh water from the Deschutes River. Yet nothing has changed. Well, nothing except another 140,000 cubic yards of sediment has flowed down the river and continues to clog the lake and Budd Inlet at the rate of 35,000 cubic yards per year. Capitol Lake can’t wait for us to get our act together

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT TUE JUL 23 2013
TODAY
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. NW SWELL 3 FT AT 7 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG THIS MORNING.
TONIGHT
W WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 3 FT AT 7 SECONDS.

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