9/23 Climate rally, BC oil & LNG, Hood Canal fish kill, Anacortes, Coleman Dock, B'ham rain gardens

Jason Taylor art at MUSA (Eric Vance)

On this first fall workday, take a look at Eric Vance's report in The Last Word On Nothing about the backstory on art and marine resource protection in Cancun's underwater museum, Museo Subacuatico de Arte. Birth Of The World’s First Underwater Museum

New blog: I wondered if it was tougher last week to be Pope Francis or to be Congressman John Boehner. The Road to Heaven, the Road to Hell

Climate activists gathered on the Seattle waterfront Saturday and vowed to fight any increase in coal and oil exports through ports in Washington and other states. In one of more than 200 such demonstrations across the nation, about 600 people lined the edge of Elliott Bay in Myrtle Edwards Park to form a symbolic barrier to coal shipments. Although the nationwide “Draw the Line” demonstrations were aimed primarily at persuading President Obama not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, the Seattle crowd also protested proposed new West Coast coal ports they said would accelerate global warming. Keith Ervin reports. Hundreds gather in Seattle in opposition to coal, oil exports  

CN Rail, at the urging of Chinese-owned Nexen Inc., is considering shipping Alberta bitumen to Prince Rupert, B.C., by rail in quantities matching the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, documents shared with The Canadian Press show. Internal memos obtained by Greenpeace under the Access to Information Act show the rail carrier raised the proposal last March with Natural Resources Canada.  CN, feds eyeing oil by rail to Prince Rupert, B.C.   See also: Feds bring pipelines pitch to B.C. First Nations  

The pledge has come from the highest levels of a province determined to see a giant new industry ship away natural gas and leave billions of new dollars in its wake. British Columbia, its Premier and her lieutenants have repeatedly said, will build the cleanest liquefied natural gas industry on the face of the earth. But if B.C. is to keep that pledge it will need to impose a series of strict, and likely costly, rules to reshape how powerful oil and gas companies proceed in the province. Without those measures, a sober new assessment warns, each tonne of LNG produced in Canada could produce up to a tonne of carbon dioxide, nearly triple the best projects in Norway and Australia. Nathan Vanderklippe reports. B.C.’s pledge to keep LNG sector clean faces steep hurdles, report warns  

Chris Dunagan blogs: Are we about to see one of the infamous fish kills that we have observed in Southern Hood Canal in past years? I am unable to sound any alarms at this time, but if you live in the Hoodsport-Potlatch area or are scuba diving nearby, you might want to watch for dead fish on the surface, rockfish or shrimp swimming in shallow water, or wolf eels and octopuses acting strangely. Will Hood Canal experience a fish kill this year?

From Anacortes, Wash., you get the classic, gorgeous views of the San Juan Islands.  But tourists mostly breeze by this city, thinking of it as just the gateway to greater places. Anacortes does have its own thing going, though. It’s an unusual mix of a real working city with super lovely landscape. Now, Anacortes has to figure out how to maintain that mix of beauty and industry. Sarah Lerner reports. Anacortes: One Town Debates Its Future

The makeover of Seattle's downtown waterfront is picking up steam as the seawall replacement, the viaduct removal, and other major projects gear up for action. Into this mix will come another ambitious renovation—a near-total rebuild of the Washington State Ferries' flagship terminal, the historic Colman Dock. Liam Moriarty reports. Rebuilding Plan for Seattle's Aging Colman Ferry Dock

The city of Bellingham is promising some rain gardens in the downtown area, and is looking for business people to keep an eye on them once they're planted. With help from a state grant, the city plans to install 36 curbside rain gardens in the eastern part of downtown to cleanse runoff from 90 urban acres that drain into Whatcom Creek... A $600,000 grant from the Washington Department of Ecology is paying for the stormwater portion of the project. In recent years, the agency has shifted its focus for dealing with runoff from expensive treatment facilities to so-called "low-impact development" methods, including rain gardens, green roofs, swales and pervious paving. Dean Kahn reports. Downtown Bellingham to sprout rain gardens

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 259 AM PDT MON SEP 23 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR HAZARDOUS SEAS IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 13 FT AT 14 SECONDS. SHOWERS. ISOLATED TSTMS.
TONIGHT
SW WIND TO 10 KT...BECOMING SE. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 10 TO 12 FT AT 14 SECONDS. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
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