10/19 Salish Sea News and Weather: Oil spills, Cherry Point, salmon virus, salmon graphs, fish farm nets, Pebble Mine, wastewater, ferries, behavior change, LOTT, Leech Creek Park

Check out the new marine mammal identification signs on Washington State Ferries and at the terminals.

Off New Zealand, salvage crews face bad weather that stymie efforts to pump oil off the stricken cargo ship. Rena's position 'very precarious'   Locally, we had three oil spills in Puget Sound and the Partnership is convening environmentalists, government officials, citizens and tribal leaders to evaluate oil spill risks and make suggestions on how to reduce them to Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature. Group to analyze how to reduce oil spills in Puget Sound

Must read: Bob Simmons in Crosscut tells the great story of how Governor John Spellman showed true leadership in stopping Chicago Bridge and Iron’s proposal to develop the Cherry Point shoreline. Cherry Point's coal debate: new fight on a site with stormy history

"This is potentially very big. It's of big concern to us," said John Kerwin, who supervises the fish health unit at the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "It's a disease emergency," said James Winton, who directs the fish health section of the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle.  Deadly salmon virus raises concerns in Washington, BC   More: Ashley Ahearn of EarthFix talks to David Montgomery, author of King of Fish about Sick Wild Salmon

I love ‘Iris’ who posted: “I’m getting ready for the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, at which I’m presenting a poster titled “The Potential Importance of Competition Between Juvenile Chinook Salmon and Herring in Puget Sound”.  It’s a long title, I know. Anyway, making posters is actually kind of fun for me.  It’s like designing a flowchart of your project, but with more detail and pictures.  And this poster has been more fun than others I have made, mainly because I have SHINY TOYS to use! Making Pretty Graphs and Posters

Each net encompasses an entire fish farm and costs $250,000 but Marine Harvest Canada says keeping seals and sea lions out rather than having to have to kill them is worth the cost. B.C. salmon farm installs netting to limit need to shoot invading animals

Residents near Bristol Bay have voted to block the Pebble Mine which is proposed next to one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries. The mine would be an open-pit operation to extract gold and copper. The vote was close, and mine developers have challenged the local initiative in court. Alaska's attorney general has called it "unenforceable." Bristol Bay votes to block Pebble Mine operation

Read the news release on the Cascadia Green Building Council’s report examining and comparing wastewater management practices in urban areas. “Using a mid-sized city in the Puget Sound region as a case study, Cascadia, measured a broad spectrum of environmental impacts associated with large scale, centralized sewage conveyance and treatment systems and compared them against smaller, decentralized alternatives.” Then read the report. Report on the Environmental Impacts of Wastewater Treatment Strategies
 
Ed Friedrich in the Kitsap Sun reports on the details of changes in Washington State Ferry ridership. The study is part of the ferry system designing a new reservation system and a simpler fare structure to go with it. It must also handle time-of-day pricing and mesh with other transit payment systems. Washington State Ferries study find fewer frequent riders in past decade

Interesting story in Grist about Jon Bird, his work trying to get people to change their behavior using “nudge” theory, and experiments carried out on Bainbridge Island. "There's a difference between awareness and behavior," Bird says. "We've got the awareness, but haven't quite got the motivation ... Why is it that gyms have more membership than capacity? Most people don't go. That's human beings."  Change hurts: Influencing behavior is a messy business

Department of Clean Enough To Drink: All the sites where the LOTT Clean Water Alliance plans to discharge highly treated wastewater into the ground are sites with well-drained soils that are places where the wastewater could contaminate groundwater. Regulations block LOTT plant plans

Did you know that the National Recreation and Park Association Standard for Park Land are 34.45 Acres of land per 1,000 people? And that even after Saturday’s dedication of Leech Creek Park in Pierce County’s University Park, the city is about 90 percent short of this having only 3.63 acres/1,000 population — the lowest percentage per population for parkland of any city in the South Puget Sound area! But congratulations to the folks who made the new park possible.  Leech Creek Park Will Be Dedicated This Saturday

Now, your tug weather:
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT WED OCT 19 2011
  TODAY
 SE WIND 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING SW 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS. CHANCE OF RAIN.
 TONIGHT
 W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS. CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE EVENING...THEN RAIN LIKELY AFTER MIDNIGHT.

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