9/27 Lummi pole, sewage, Navy sonar, toxic fines, dog dangers, tug grounding, bad air, kelp help, fish movies

Keep dry this weekend

A healing pole created by Lummi carver Jewell James and the House of Tears carvers will be welcomed to Northwest Indian College Friday, Sept. 27, near the end of a 16-day journey from Wyoming coal fields to British Columbia. Events begin at noon with drumming and other ceremonial observances. Lummi fishermen as well as non-Indian supporters of the tribal position on the Gateway Pacific Terminal coal export facility are scheduled to speak. John Stark reports. Lummi healing pole rallies coal opponents

Metro Vancouver's planned new Lions Gate sewage treatment plant won't include many bells and whistles like a once-mooted wedding chapel. And the plant replacement project will stop at secondary treatment – not the more advanced tertiary treatment demanded by environmental groups – in the name of saving money... And all of the region is expected to share to some degree in the $560-million estimated cost, which is up from an initial $400 million but not as costly as planners had feared. It's the first of two big sewage plants Metro must upgrade from primary treatment – basic screening and skimming – to reduce ocean pollution and meet new federal standards. Jeff Nagel reports. Metro Vancouver's new Lions Gate sewage plant pegged at $560m

Boaters on Puget Sound would be prohibited from releasing any sewage - treated or untreated - if the Washington Ecology Department persuades the federal Environmental Protection Agency to declare the sound a "no discharge zone." Under current rules, boaters are allowed to release treated sewage, but they should be using pump-out locations, said Amy Jankowiak, the department's leader on the effort. Puget Sound may become no-sewage discharge zone

A judge is requiring federal regulators to reassess permits that allow the Navy's expanded use of sonar in training exercises off the West Coast. U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas wrote in a ruling Wednesday that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to consider the best available scientific data for the 2012 authorization. The parties are now discussing the timing and scope of how the permitting reassessment. The permits had authorized a five-year Navy plan for operations in the Northwest Training Range Complex. That area stretches from the waters off Mendocino County in California to the Canadian border. Mike Baker reports. Judge wants feds to reassess Navy sonar permits

A whopping $1.5 million in fines are in the mail to some local recycling businesses. Snohomish County made good this week on a promise to enforce its laws against hauling waste to other counties, where disposal fees are cheaper. County solid waste officials said in April they would be moving against two local recycling companies. Noah Haglund reports. Local firms fined $1.5M for waste disposal violations

Fishermen around the Northwest are enjoying some exceptional salmon runs this autumn. Puget Sound is teeming with pink salmon and there's a record-breaking fall Chinook run in the Columbia and Snake Rivers. But as fish move upstream to spawn, danger lurks for dogs. Dr. Scott Capsey had his first encounter with "salmon poisoning" years before he became a vet. His family's normally exuberant golden retriever mysteriously turned lethargic, had diarrhea and lots of vomiting. After much investigation, it turned out the dog had eaten a fisherman's discards, which brought on a bacterial infection spread by a fish parasite. The potentially fatal infection is treatable with antibiotics, antidiarrheals, fluid therapy, and an anti-parasitic drug. Tom Banse reports. Bumper Salmon Runs Pose Danger for Dogs

The Coast Guard is investigating why a tugboat went off course and ran aground on Cape George Beach early Thursday morning. The tugboat Shannon, which ran aground at about 12:30 a.m., was refloated at about 7 a.m., the state Department of Ecology said. It was moored behind the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill. Charlie Bermant reports. Why did tug run aground? Coast Guard wants to know

Take a deep breath in Seattle’s Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods and you’ll take in the worst air the city has to offer. The University of Washington and Puget Sound Sage group released results of an air monitoring study that compares diesel contamination in those neighborhoods to the Beacon Hill and Queen Anne areas. Georgetown/South Park got the worst of it. Gary Chittim reports. Diesel dust contamination the worst in Georgetown, South Park

Michele Fire-River Heart worked quickly in the chilly morning air, peeling strips of spore-filled kelp off paper backing and punching them into plastic carboys. The ocean at her back was smooth. Too smooth. There was a time, decades ago, when the bay would have been dense with the bobbing heads of bull kelp. Today, only a few lone stems weave up from the rocky ocean bottom. “Kelp is the forest of the ocean….and it’s disappearing,” said Heart, from Clark Bay on Gabriola Island. “People that have lived here for 20 years said [kelp] was so thick you couldn’t row a boat through it and now the densest areas [are] small patches. I want to help change that.” Heart is part of a team of ‘Help the Kelp’ citizen scientists staging a coastal intervention to fight the disappearance of underwater forests. Tamara Cunningham reports. Citizen scientists help reforest kelp on ocean floor

If you like to watch: B.C. wild salmon are ready for their close-up in Twyla Roscovich’s lively documentary Salmon Confidential, which is being screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. It’s a VIFF first for Ms. Roscovich, who has worked as a director and cinematographer for the BBC Natural History and Discovery Channel. In Confidential, she turns her camera on activist biologist Alexandra Morton as she tracks European salmon viruses that have turned up in B.C. wild salmon. The film raises questions about the salmon-farming industry’s role in the situation. Ms. Morton’s Pacific Wild Salmon Society financed the project. Ian Bailey reports. Documentary filmmaker captures the wild life of salmon

Meanwhile: An online video campaign designed to build consumer confidence in sustainable seafood has sparked outrage in the B.C. and Alaska fishing industry. While a song titled Happy Go Lucky Me plays, the animated video features a tractor pulling an enormous net that captures farm animals, uproots trees and causes widespread destruction on the property. The marketing spot carries the tag line: “We don’t farm like this. Why do we fish like this?” Brent Jang reports. Fisheries outraged by WWF video touting sustainable seafood

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 900 AM PDT FRI SEP 27 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON
 GALE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING
TODAY
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 8 SECONDS. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
W WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING S 10 TO 20 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 14 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS...THEN RAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SAT
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING S 25 TO 35 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. COMBINED SEAS 5 TO 8 FT WITH A DOMINANT PERIOD OF
 13 SECONDS. RAIN.
SAT NIGHT
SW WIND 25 TO 35 KT...EASING TO 15 TO 25 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. COMBINED SEAS 9 TO 12 FT WITH A DOMINANT PERIOD OF
 11 SECONDS.
SUN
SW WIND 15 TO 25 KT...EASING TO 10 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 12 FT AT 13 SECONDS.

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