3/17 'Not For Any Price,' Trump budget, climate report, poop woes, coal port, marine monuments, Site C, pub radio

"Not For Any Price"

Not For Any Price
Watch this new 15-minute documentary about how the Lummi Nation put their treaty rights on the line to protect natural resources for everyone. (NW Treaty Tribes)

Trump budget would gut science, environment programs
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would gut programs for science and the environment, reflecting the Republican’s rejection of mainstream science. Trump has frequently called climate change a “hoax,” and his EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, said last week he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. Trump’s proposed budget would cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31 percent — nearly one-third — and eliminate more than 3,200 jobs. That amounts to 20 percent of the agency’s current workforce of 15,000. White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the Trump administration is cutting spending for climate change efforts because “we consider that to be a waste of your money.” Matthew Daly reports. (Associated Press)

Lead author on forthcoming UN climate report admits it's time for action, not reports
A Simon Fraser University professor says the world needn't wait for an upcoming United Nations report on climate change to start acting to limit global warming. Kirsten Zickfeld is a professor of geography and a lead author of a special report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report aims to examine the feasibility of limiting global warming to 1.5 C — one of the more ambitious goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which was backed by Canada and nearly 200 other countries. The Paris Agreement seeks to limit the rise in average world temperatures to "well below" 2 C above pre-industrial times, but ideally limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 C. (CBC)

Trump proposes budget to hobble the EPA
President Donald Trump wants to decimate the Environmental Protection Agency with a budget that would hobble federal programs to safeguard air and water. Trump’s budget proposal released Thursday would slash more than a third of EPA’s funding. Polluter enforcement would be reduced and communities would lose federal help in cleaning up contaminated sites. Sean Cockerham reports. (McClatchy) See also: Puget Sound hits bottom in Trump EPA budget proposal: zero  ....The White House wants to eliminate more than 50 programs at the Environmental Protection Agency. Programs to be terminated include EPA grants for Puget Sound. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

Regulators Take On Dual Roles Dealing King County’s Broken Wastewater Treatment Plant
The breakdown last month of Seattle’s wastewater treatment plant has poured hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated stormwater and raw sewage into Puget Sound. Repairs alone will cost an estimated $25 million. And it’s expected to take till the end of April to get the West Point Treatment Plant back to normal. Until then, the broken wastewater facility will be violating its permit and polluting Puget Sound. The state’s Department of Ecology has a dual role to play as it works with the county to help it get back in compliance, which is the ultimate goal. But it will also levy penalties against the county’s Wastewater Treatment Division for all the illegal pollution it continues to release since the catastrophic event on Feb. 9, when stormwater overwhelmed the facility. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX)

Judge to decide if environmental groups can intervene in coal-export lawsuit
 A Cowlitz County judge will decide this month whether three environmental groups can intervene in a lawsuit brought against the state by developers of a coal export terminal in southwest Washington. Millennium Bulk Terminals and Northwest Alloys last month appealed the state’s denial of an aquatic lands lease for the project. The company wants to build a dock at the site, which would be a critical factor in the terminal ultimately getting built at the site of the former Reynolds Metals Co. aluminum plant. (Bellingham Herald)

Site C: B.C. Hydro gets enforcement order related to sediment runoff
B.C. Hydro has received yet another enforcement order from the province’s Environmental Assessment Office related to a contractor’s work at the $9-billion Site C dam project that poses a threat to fish stocks. The order from Chris Parks, senior compliance and enforcement officer, states that on Feb. 28, 2017, he received a report from the project’s Independent Environmental Monitor. The report indicated that on Feb. 16, 2017, staff employed by project contractor Peace River Hydro Partners pumped sediment-laden water from a flooded work area to a ditch that connects directly to a fish-bearing watercourse identified as L3. The report also identified ongoing erosion and sediment transport non-compliance in the L3 ravine since Nov. 8, 2016. Larry Pynn reports. (Vancouver Sun)

GOP Could Reverse Protection Of Papahanaumokuakea
The Republican who chairs the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources has teamed up with a congresswoman from American Samoa to lobby President Donald Trump to open all marine monuments, including those in the Hawaii area, to commercial fishing. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah and Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of Amercian Samoa wrote to Trump on March 7 asking him to remove all fishing prohibitions from the monuments…. At the hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans, three advocates for commercial interests were asked to testify, compared to one environmental advocate. Spokesmen for the fishing and energy industries framed the topic as an issue of economic development and job creation. Kirstin Downey reports. (Honolulu Civil Beat)

Public Broadcasters Fear ‘Collapse’ if U.S. Drops Support
Public radio and television broadcasters are girding for battle after the Trump administration proposed a drastic cutback that they have long dreaded: the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The potential elimination of about $445 million in annual funding, which helps local TV and radio stations subscribe to NPR and Public Broadcasting Service programming, could be devastating for affiliates in smaller markets that already operate on a shoestring budget. Michael Grynbaum and Ben Sisario report. (NY Times)

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  256 AM PDT FRI MAR 17 2017  

TODAY  SE WIND 5 TO 15 KT BECOMING E TO 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON.  WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 7 FT AT 10 SECONDS. A SLIGHT  CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE MORNING THEN RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT  E WIND TO 10 KT BECOMING SE AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES  1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 7 FT AT 10 SECONDS. RAIN.
SAT  W WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT  10 SECONDS BUILDING TO 8 FT AT 10 SECONDS IN THE AFTERNOON. RAIN  IN THE MORNING THEN SHOWERS LIKELY IN THE AFTERNOON.
SAT NIGHT  SW WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL  8 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
SUN  LIGHT WIND. WIND WAVES LESS THAN 1 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT  10 SECONDS.
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