9/15 Salish Sea News & Weather: Elwha, coal export, Bremerton superfund, BP at fault, BC geothermal, Point Wells, flying snails

Glines Canyon Dam

Elwha Love: The Peninsula Daily News is right on top with today’s report on the first chip being removed from the Glines Canyon Dam. Dam removal work begins

If you like to watch, webcams have been placed to monitor habitat changes-- but you can watch the dams being removed as well. Are they dam cams?

If you like to read, here’s part 5 of Port Angeles writer/historian John Kendall Elwha history. Flooding along the Elwha

State revenue forecast is out today. New Wash. revenue forecast to bring more bad news

Whatcom County will issue work permits retroactively if the proponent of a coal export facility at Cherry Point restores the damage they made in clearing land and follows the rules in the future. Anyone wanting to comment on that deal can do so by Sept. 26. Whatcom County orders SSA to repair road work at Cherry Point

Trains, trains: Port of Skagit commissioners on Tuesday conditioned their support of a Whatcom coal export facility only if proponents can lessen impact of trains passing through Skagit County... In Anacortes, many comments have been received in the ESA scoping of Tesoro Refinery’s proposal to move a 100-car unit train with crude oil through the county every day.

Remembering our dirty past: A 3.7-acre waterfront industrial site where Bremerton Gasworks stood will be proposed as a federal Superfund site. West Bremerton site to be proposed as federal Superfund site  In Snohomish and Island counties, Herald reporter Bill Sheets maps out Poisoned ground: Superfund sites in Snohomish County

Hey, guess what? According to the federal investigators, BP gets much of the blame for the Horizon Deepwater rig disaster and oil spill. But the report also faults Transocean and Halliburton and cites factors including poor risk management. BP, contractors violated safety rules, U.S. inquiry finds

News up North: a "massive" store of clean, renewable energy is sitting at Canadians' feet, according to a federal report on geothermal energy. "As few as 100 projects could meet Canada's energy needs," according to the team's findings, to be presented at a geothermal conference in Toronto today Canada sitting on 'massive' store of geothermal energy

Point Wells is back to square one: After suits were filed, “negotiations with Woodway and Shoreline over the Point Wells condo development may have come to an end, according to the developer who hopes to build the 3,081-unit project.” After lawsuit, Point Wells developer won't work with cities; Blue Square Real Estate says it now will only deal with Snohomish County on the proposed Point Wells condo project.

Here’s your science hit for the day: Smithsonian scientists and colleagues report that snails successfully crossed Central America, long considered an impenetrable barrier to marine organisms, twice in the past million years -- both times probably by flying across Mexico, stuck to the legs or riding on the bellies of shorebirds and introducing new genes that contribute to the marine biodiversity on each coast. Hitchhiking Snails Fly from Ocean to Ocean

Now, your tug weather:
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 245 AM PDT THU SEP 15 2011
  TODAY
 W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. SW SWELL 6 FT AT 12 SECONDS. PATCHY MORNING FOG OR DRIZZLE. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
 TONIGHT
 W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. SW SWELL 5 FT AT 13 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING.

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