6/4 House move, pit-to-pier, Navy orcas, oil future, Shell drill, bad pipe, Ocean Modeling, whale hunt

House move (KOMO)

If you like to watch: Mansion on the move: $3.5M house barged to Bainbridge
Matt and Mary Rain are making a monstrous move -- a 500-ton move, to be exact. The Bainbridge Island couple bought a 1923 Madison Park Mansion that they call their "rescue home" and they barged it to Bainbridge…. Crews from Nickels Brother Industrial Movers spent the past two and half months preparing the house for the giant trek across Lake Washington, through the Ballard Locks and across the Puget Sound. They tunneled under concrete and put three layers of criss cross steel and more than a dozen dollies under the home to lift it onto a barge…. The house, valued at $3.5 million with its granite kitchen floors and counter tops, will cost the new owners a minimum of $750,000 to buy and move. They wanted a home made a recycled materials like their last dream house. Elisa Jaffe reports. (KOMO)

Pit-to-pier claims against state dismissed; Developer plans to appeal superior court decision
A Kitsap County judge has dismissed with prejudice all claims made against the state by the developer of the controversial pit-to-pier project along Hood Canal. That developer – Hood Canal Sand and Gravel – is not giving up its fight to nullify an easement granted by the state Department of Natural Resources to the U.S. Navy for tidelands along the Hood Canal shoreline, which has effectively blocked its plan to build a pier for loading gravel onto barges for shipment to local and international markets. “We're going to be appealing the decision,” said Dan Baskins, project manager for developer Hood Canal Sand and Gravel's Thorndyke Resource Operation Complex, also known as T-ROC. Nicholas Johnson reports. (Port Townsend Leader)

Navy halts live-fire exercise to avoid harming whales
The Canadian navy halted a live-fire explosives exercise near Nanoose Bay on Wednesday after a whale-watching crew warned that a pod of orcas was arriving in the area. J-pod, which includes three calves less than a year old, was heading south of Qualicum and into the path of the active military exercise in the Strait of Georgia off Nanoose Bay, said Dan Kukat, owner of SpringTide Whale Watching…. A similar incident happened in July 2014, when the Canadian Forces suspended an explosives exercise near Bentinck Island after a whale-watching company alerted them to approaching orcas. Bentinck Island, near Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, is used by the military as a demolition range and test site for explosives. Katie Derosa reports. (Times Colonist)

Sorry environmentalists, the Pacific Northwest is likely the next big hub for oil and gas
The Pacific Northwest has traditionally prided itself on environmental leadership and clean energy, but radical changes in the oil and gas industry could mean the region will become the next major hub for oil and gas production. That's primarily because of our proximity to Asia. With its growing population and increasing demand for fossil fuels, the Pacific Northwest coast is the easiest way to get coal, oil and gas from North America to Asia. Sarah Aitchison reports. (Puget Sound Business Journal)

Shell Oil’s Arctic rig permit hearing set for July 23
A hearing has been set for July 23 for the Port of Seattle and Foss Maritime’s appeal to the City of Seattle’s interpretation that the port needs a new permit to host Shell’s Oil’s rig Polar Pioneer. Representatives from all parties attended a prehearing conference Wednesday with deputy hearing examiner Anne Watanabe to discuss the timeline and to estimate how much time the parties will need for witness testimony. Coral Garnick reports. (Seattle Times)

Pipeline that spilled oil on California coast badly corroded
A pipeline rupture that spilled an estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil near Santa Barbara last month occurred along a badly corroded section that had worn away to a fraction of an inch in thickness, federal regulators disclosed Wednesday. The preliminary findings released by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration point to a possible cause of the May 19 spill that blackened popular beaches and created a 9-mile slick in the Pacific Ocean. Michael R. Blood and Brian Melley report. (Associated Press)

Ocean Modeling Forum to bring human element to herring fishery, others
Similar to how hurricane forecasters combine all projected paths of the storm to predict landfall, a new group aims to take the most useful science and perspectives to gauge how the world’s oceans should be best managed. The Ocean Modeling Forum, a collaboration between the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at University of Washington and NOAA Fisheries, is trying something very rare — bringing together multiple science models and people who care about a particular ocean resource or fishery to decide what’s most important for its vitality and the communities it serves. Michelle Ma reports. (UW Today)

Public comment period for Makah whaling request is extended to July 31
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service has extended to July 31 the period for public comment on the Makah tribe's request to resume whaling. The opportunity to comment on the draft environmental impact statement had been scheduled to close June 11. Anti-whaling activists — who included Chuck and Margaret Owens of Joyce and D.J. Schubert of the Animal Welfare Institute of Washington, D.C. — had urged at an April 29 public meeting in Port Angeles that they be given more time to file objections to the tribe's request for a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act. James Casey reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 243 AM PDT THU JUN 4 2015
TODAY
W WIND TO 10 KT...BECOMING NW 5 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. SW SWELL 3 FT AT 17 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. SW SWELL 4 FT AT 16 SECONDS.

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