If red means stop and green means go, the sentiment at Monday’s public comment meeting on the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal was in big, bold, capital letters: “STOP.” About 1,000 people packed into McIntyre Hall, their matching shirts forming a red sea in the auditorium seats and balcony. Monday was Mount Vernon’s turn in a series of seven events to gather public comment on the scope of the upcoming environmental impact statement for the proposed terminal project. Gina Cole and Mark Stayton report. Coal terminal scoping meeting draws 1,000 And if you like to watch: Izzy Cheung, a student at Spring Street International School, was among the 450 people attending Saturday's public meeting in Friday Harbor on the impacts from coal export in China. She speaks of her concerns here.
A new city of Seattle report finds that an increase in coal trains through the city would increase delays at railroad crossings and affect emergency response times. The proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal near Bellingham plans to ship coal from Montana and Wyoming for export to Asia. The project could lead to as many as nine round-trip trains a day in 2026, likely through Seattle. The report commissioned by the city estimated that gates would be down at railroad crossings an additional 31 to 83 minutes each day in 2015, and an additional 67 to 183 minutes in 2026. The study says the proposed coal trains would impact emergency vehicle trips to and from the waterfront. Seattle study: more coal trains would increase delays
No one likes making unpleasant decisions more than government. To do so means upsetting people. And upset people can exact a price come election time. That’s why governments often delay issuing tough, no-win edicts they should have delivered long ago. But eventually, a course of action to deal with the intractable problems of the day needs to be taken – regardless of the dimension of hostilities it may provoke. That is where the provincial government finds itself today in regards to BC Ferries. Gary Mason reports. In ferry debate, B.C. government sails too cautiously into sea of public anger
Biologists will describe the secret life of salmon during free "salmon tours" Saturday at two locations on Chico Creek in Central Kitsap. Biologists will be on hand from 10 a.m. to noon at The Mountaineers' Forest Theatre on Seabeck Highway and at a viewing site on Chico Way near Golf Club Road. Meanwhile, kayak tours are planned for two streams in Kitsap County, Chico Creek on Dyes Inlet near Silverdale and Grover's Creek on Miller Bay near Suquamish. The guide is Spring Courtright of Olympic Outdoor Center. A fee covers equipment and a snack. Chris Dunagan reports. Salmon tours planned across Kitsap
The Harper government, already under fire for weakening fisheries habitat laws and cutting biologists in B.C., is now being criticized for deciding, according to a leaked internal email, to establish two new fisheries habitat investigative units thousands of kilometres from the West Coast. One five-person unit will be located in Winnipeg and the other in Burlington, Ont., near Toronto. Both units will be located in Conservative-held ridings. The government said enforcement in B.C. won’t suffer because there will still be fisheries officers on the ground able to lay charges, but critics say the move makes no sense. Peter O'Neil reports. Location of new fisheries habitat investigative units sharply criticized in B.C.
The Bainbridge Island Land Trust is pursuing an Agate Passage property for all the things the property doesn't have. There are no houses on the 12-acre waterfront site, comprised of two parcels of land west of Highway 305. There are no sea walls, decks or docks either. The property represents a rare swath of near-pristine coastline, said Land Trust Executive Director Asha Rehnberg. More than 80 percent of Bainbridge's 53 miles of shoreline are armored with bulkheads or other structures. Tad Sooter reports. Land trust considers buying pristine Agate Passage site
A new program aims to protect Snohomish County's farms and forests while concentrating building activity elsewhere. The transfer of development rights program creates a marketplace for building credits. Owners of farm and forest lands can sell these credits and continue farming or logging their land. Once the credits are transferred, however, the owners give up the ability to carve up the property for homes or new businesses. The people who buy the credits can use them to construct taller, more concentrated buildings in places the county considers appropriate for higher-density growth. Noah Haglund reports. County OKs sales of rights to conserve farm, forest lands
The Capital Regional District has scrapped a sewage-treatment advertising campaign amid complaints that the pro-treatment message was inappropriate during the Victoria federal byelection race. CRD chairman Geoff Young ordered the radio and newspaper ads suspended Monday, after an email campaign by an anti-treatment group. Rob Shaw reports. Sewage ads axed after complaints
Last week’s superstorm Sandy demonstrated on a grand scale the kind of turmoil extreme weather events can bring to coastal areas. Rising sea levels bring high tides and high waves to our shores. It is no longer possible to halt all the impacts coming with climate change. It is time to start adapting to those changes that are now inevitable. The public media project RISE looked to the San Francisco Bay Area for answers. These are the stories of men and women living along the water: a fisherman, a farmer, a developer and others. We see the bay from various perspectives. A kayaker brings us eye level to levees at the water’s edge. An urban planner considers how filling in wetlands has increased the flood risk. An architect suggests one plan that may keep the waters in check. Their responses can provide a model for people everywhere in the face of this growing global crisis. Clare Schoen reports. What We Can Learn From The Bay Area’s Sea Rise
Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PST TUE NOV 6 2012
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 8 FT AT 12 SECONDS. RAIN LIKELY IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN.
TONIGHT
SW WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT 12 SECONDS. SHOWERS...MAINLY IN THE EVENING.
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