11/2 Coal meetings, Port Townsend bags, Victoria stormwater, Kitsap sewage, Cooper Cr., Nature Votes Last

Fall back this Sunday. Daylight savings time ends.

Listen up: A proposal by Peabody Coal to build North America’s largest coal terminal in Bellingham to ship coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin through Washington to Asia, drew thousands at the first formal public hearing. The hearing is the first phase in an environmental review process where key agencies will decide what factors to consider as they determine whether to approve or deny permits for the terminal. Martha Baskin reports. Public Weighs in on Proposal to Build North America’s Largest Coal Export Terminal  Now you go: Coal port proposal environmental impact statement ‘scoping’ meetings: Sat, Nov 3, Friday Harbor High School, 12-3 PM; Mon, Nov 5, Mount Vernon McIntyre Hall, 4-7 PM.

Check this out: The SeaDoc Society’s November 2012 Update

The South Sound Estuary Association will hold its first Pier Peer at 8 p.m. Saturday at Boston Harbor Marina. The group will offer the event the first Saturday of each month, taking over the program run by the now defunct People for Puget Sound. Evening look at marine life

The city of Port Townsend’s single-use plastic-bag ban went into effect Thursday, requiring stores and some of their customers to change their shopping habits.  The ban requires retail stores to discontinue use of flimsy plastic bags and instead supply paper bags to customers who lack reusable bags and charge 5 cents for each paper bag, which will be used to defray the cost of the program. Charlie Bermant reports. Plastic-bag ban begins in Port Townsend  

Shifting the bulk of stormwater management costs from commercial to residential properties amounts to giving the rich a tax break, Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin said Thursday. "With all due respect, I'm not [U.S. Republican presidential candidate] Mitt Romney," Fortin said. "I don't think that people who make a whole lot of money should get a tax break, and that's fundamentally what we're doing." Fortin's comments came as councillors considered the creation a new utility to manage stormwater. Bill Cleverley reports. Stormwater cost shift tax break for rich: Fortin    See also: Stormwater utility would shift costs to homeowners

Sewage spills Thursday in both Bremerton and Kingston have caused local health officials to issue separate health advisories for the two areas. A five-day no-contact advisory was issued by Kitsap Public Health District for the waters of Port Washington Narrows in Bremerton, following an 11,800-gallon sewage overflow at the end of High Avenue. The overflow of sewage mixed with stormwater lasted only two minutes, when the sewer system could not handle the flows, said Pat Coxon, Bremerton's wastewater manager. Flows of 38 million gallons per day exceeded the capacity at the West Bremerton sewage-treatment plant for a time, he said. Christ Dunagan reports. Sewage spills close waters near Bremerton, Kingston  

A female chum salmon wallowed Thursday morning in the gravelly shallows of Cooper Creek, digging out a suitable bed for her eggs. Thousands of salmon are carrying out the same ritual in streams throughout Puget Sound, but the appearance of spawning chum in this Bainbridge creek carries special significance. The Bainbridge Watershed Council has released tens of thousands of chum fry into the stream since 2009, with the hope of restoring a self-sustaining run of salmon. The fish spawning in the stream this week represented the eagerly awaited first return from the program. Tad Sooter reports. Bainbridge creek sees return of long-sought salmon   See also: Salmon Swim Across Flooded Road In Washington  

Seattle is completing the first update since 1987 to its Shoreline Management Program. And the peaceful, quintessentially Seattle lifestyle of living on the water may be threatened. Lynn Thompson reports. Some floating homes could be in jeopardy with updated shoreline regulations

Timothy Egan opines: A catastrophic storm has no feelings, no fury, no compassion and certainly no political position. Hurricanes may sound like bridge partners at the Boca community center — Sandy, Irene and Katrina — until they land and become monsters. The mistake, perhaps, is trying to anthropomorphize them. But that doesn’t mean that a fatal blow from Mother Nature will not alter the course of human nature. When the seas rose earlier this week, swamping the world’s greatest city and battering a helpless state, the turbulence of the elements washed away the sand castles of politics. Climate change is to the Republican base what leprosy once was to healthy humans — untouchable and unmentionable. Their party is financed by people whose fortunes are dependent upon denying that humans have caused the earth’s weather patterns to change for the worse.... Nature Votes Last

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT FRI NOV 2 2012
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT THIS MORNING THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
SE WIND 10 TO 15 KT RISING TO 15 TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FT. SW SWELL 4 FT AT 8
 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF RAIN THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN LIKELY IN THE AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. SW SWELL 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS. RAIN.
SAT
SW WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 7 FT AT 11 SECONDS. RAIN LIKELY.
SAT NIGHT
S WIND TO 10 KT BECOMING E 5 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 9 FT AT 13 SECONDS BUILDING TO 11
 FT.
SUN
SE WIND 10 TO 15 KT RISING TO 10 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 11 FT AT 15 SECONDS.
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