9/24 BC carbon boom, Cherry Pt EIS, Boeing's fish, Columbia fish, rare kelp, ocean 'black holes'

Ocean 'black hole' (Science Digest)

The B.C. government is offering royalty credits of almost $116-million to help companies build roads and pipelines for the natural gas industry in the province’s northeast. The announcement comes on the same day as the release of a major environmental report urging the government to stick to its pledge to build the cleanest liquefied natural gas industry in the world. B.C. government sweetens the pot for companies mulling LNG roads, pipelines   See also: B.C.'s LNG plants won't be cleanest: report  

Coastal First Nations in British Columbia have aimed an anti-oil tanker campaign directly at Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an apparent attempt to counter a federal push to get aboriginal leaders onside with resource development in the West. A video featuring a Simon & Garfunkel song, The Sound of Silence, and dramatic images of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989, all builds to the message: “British Columbians have spoken. Will Stephen Harper listen?” Mark Hume reports. Kill Northern Gateway now, First Nations leaders say amid ad campaign

Port Metro Vancouver has had ongoing co-operative communication with a coal lobby group, including a “heads up” to the Coal Alliance about a protest, according to documents obtained by a group protesting coal export increases. Voters Taking Action for Climate Change (VTACC) say emails obtained through a freedom of information request show the port and coal industry lobbyists have communicated as if they were allies, rather than as a public regulator and private proponent. Gordon Hoekstra reports. Port Metro Vancouver’s ‘cosy’ emails with coal industry a problem, critics charge

Two separate Environmental Impact Statements will be conducted for the proposed bulk commodities terminal near Bellingham, the state Department of Ecology announced Monday. Ecology, Whatcom County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had previously agreed to produce one EIS studying a wide variety of impacts the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal could have, including rail traffic, human health impacts and gas emissions. The agencies now say two studies will be conducted; Whatcom County and Ecology will issue a report following the State Environmental Policy Act, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will follow the National Environmental Policy Act. Rachel Lerman reports. Proposed coal train terminal to have 2 EIS studies  

Three months after a dispute over how much fish Washington state residents eat nearly derailed the state budget, a panel of lawmakers revisited the controversial subject Monday in a more peaceful fashion. But that doesn't mean the fighting is over. Members of the Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee got a progress report on revising the state's water quality standards, a process that ties the amount of fish each resident eats with the levels of contaminants allowed in water discharged from industrial facilities. Jerry Cornfield reports. Will fish you eat factor into Boeing’s 777X decision?  

Health officials in Oregon and Washington said Monday that people should protect themselves against mercury and PCB contamination by limiting consumption of certain fish species from a 150-mile section of the Columbia River. The Oregon Health Authority and the Washington Department of Health said people should eat no more than one meal a week of resident fish — those that live year-round in the same place — between Bonneville and McNary dams. Resident species in the Columbia include bass, bluegill, yellow perch, crappie, walleye, carp, catfish, suckers and sturgeon. A meal is about the size and thickness of one’s hand. Jonathan Cooper reports. Ore., Wash., issue Columbia River fish warning  

A mystery kelp found during a survey of Clallam County offshore sea life has been positively identified as a regionally native but rare growth known as Laminaria ephemera.... The kelp, collected by a team of scientists studying the ecology of the floor of the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the mouth of the now-free flowing Elwha River, was initially thought to be one of two species — L. ephemera or L. yezoensis — neither of which had been recorded at the site before. After examination under a microscope by Tom Mumford, a retired state Department of Natural Resources kelp specialist in Olympia, it was determined that the kelp was the ephemera variety. Arwyn Rice reports. Mystery solved: Kelp off Elwha River mouth a rare spring variety found in late summer

As debate broils in Congress to reduce food assistance programs, demand at food banks in communities all over the nation, is high. In Seattle some food banks receive organic produce from “giving gardens” or gardens dedicated to growing fruit and vegetables and donating it to those in need. At these food banks, organic produce is as popular as it anywhere.  Martha Baskin has our story. Martha Baskin reports. This Plum’s For You! Giving Gardens Make a Dent in Hunger While Congress Fiddles With Food Stamps

According to researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Miami, some of the largest ocean eddies on Earth are mathematically equivalent to the mysterious black holes of space. These eddies are so tightly shielded by circular water paths that nothing caught up in them escapes. The mild winters experienced in Northern Europe are thanks to the Gulf Stream, which makes up part of those ocean currents spanning the globe that impact on the climate. However, our climate is also influenced by huge eddies of over 150 kilometres in diameter that rotate and drift across the ocean. Their number is reportedly on the rise in the Southern Ocean, increasing the northward transport of warm and salty water. Intriguingly, this could moderate the negative impact of melting sea ice in a warming climate.  Chasing the 'Black Holes' of the Ocean

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT TUE SEP 24 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR HAZARDOUS SEAS IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON
TODAY
E WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. W SWELL 10 FT AT 14 SECONDS. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
NW WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 8 FT AT 13 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

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