5/5 Mr. Floatie, green crabs, spotted frogs, cow manure, herring love, pollution rule, public noise, jet fuel spill

Bye bye, Mr. Floatie [Hippolito / Canadian Press]

Long sewage plant battle leaves Victoria’s Mr. Floatie pooped
A mascot that helped raise a stink about the dumping of raw sewage into the waters off Victoria is about to be retired. Mr. Floatie was created by elementary school teacher James Skwarok on April Fool’s Day in 2004 as part of the spoof organization People Opposed to Outfall Pollution, or POOP. Brown and more than six-feet-tall, the Mr. Floatie costume resembled his organization’s acronym and came to represent the lack of progress on the development of a secondary-sewage treatment plant for Greater Victoria. Skwarok and his Mr. Floatie character decided to voluntarily step down after the region adopted a plan last September to build a treatment facility by 2020, ending the flow of unfiltered waste directly into the Salish Sea and Strait of Juan de Fuca. Mr. Floatie is slated to make one of his last public appearances Friday at a ceremony in Seattle to mark his retirement, hosted by the Canadian consul general and attended by Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and area tourism representatives. (Canadian Press)

More invasive green crabs found on Dungeness Spit
Washington Sea Grant’s Crab Team has captured seven more green crabs on the Dungeness Spit since 13 of the invasive European green crabs were found there last week. Crab Team Program coordinator Emily Grason said traps have been pulled from the water on Graveyard Spit, a part of the Dungeness Spit across from Dungeness Landing near Sequim, until stakeholders meet today to discuss their findings and next steps. Grason said 20 crabs might not sound alarming, but to researchers, it causes concern because a small number of crabs can quickly become a large population. (Peninsula Daily News) See also: 'The blob' blamed for bringing invasive crab to Puget Sound  Paige Browning reports. (KUOW)

Vancouver Aquarium set to release Oregon spotted frog tadpoles
Darren Smy fell in love with reptiles and amphibians as a lad, to the point that his dad wound up converting the family’s dining room to floor-to-ceiling holding tanks for his collection of the critters back home in East Anglia, England. On Friday, Smy continues his labour of love, as he and a team from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre will release 1,000 tadpoles of the endangered Oregon spotted frog near Agassiz….The Oregon spotted frogs are indigenous to the west coast from northern California to the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. Gordon McIntyre reports. (Vancouver Sun)

New Janicki Bioenergy dairy project draws inspiration from Omniprocessor
Like most dairy farmers, Natural Milk owner Jeremy Visser uses lagoons to store cow manure. He’ll manage the nutrients in the manure, then put them back in the soil along with fertilizer he buys to grow more grass to feed his cows. But soon, Visser will have another option thanks to Janicki Bioenergy. The Sedro-Woolley company plans to build an experimental dairy processor on Visser’s Stanwood farm that will turn cow manure into clean water while producing fertilizer as a byproduct. Aaron Weinberg reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Herring Gets No Respect. This Man Wants To Change That.
Small oily fish get no respect—but as climate change reshapes the food landscape and sustainable foods gain currency, it may be time to change the way we eat. Driven by respect for the sea, Warner Lew is on a crusade to bring herring back to your dinner table. Lew’s home is permeated by the spirit of the ocean, from a harpoon-sized piece of baleen hanging on the wall to an impressive collection of handmade fish-themed pottery. (KUOW)

Environmental groups sue EPA over rollback of pollution rule
Environmentalists and public health advocates are going to court to fight the Trump administration’s move to rewrite Obama-era rules limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants. A coalition of about a dozen groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The action challenges the decision by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last month seeking to rewrite the 2015 water pollution regulations. The rule would have required utilities to cut the amounts of toxic heavy metals in the wastewater piped from their plants into rivers and lakes often used as sources of drinking water. Arsenic, lead and mercury and other potentially harmful contaminants leach from massive pits of waterlogged ash left behind after burning coal to generate electricity. Michael Biesecker reports. (Associated Press)

America's Protected Natural Areas Are Polluted, By Noise
There are thousands of parks, refuges and wilderness areas in the U.S. that are kept in something close to their natural state. But one form of pollution isn’t respecting those boundaries: human-made noise.New research based on recordings from 492 protected natural areas reveals that they’re awash in noise pollution. Christopher Joyce reports. (NPR)

Environmental lawsuit against province over jet fuel spill approved by B.C. court
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has approved a class-action lawsuit against the provincial government over a fuel spill that forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in the Slocan Valley four years ago. The law firm representing 2,500 residents says it's the first such environmental lawsuit certified by the court against the province of B.C. The firm, Rosenberg Kosakoski Litigation, says in a statement the tanker truck that overturned, spilling 35,000 litres of jet fuel into the Slocan River water system was part of a province-led refuelling operation for firefighting helicopters. (Canadian Press)

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  630 AM PDT FRI MAY 5 2017...UPDATED

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING  
TODAY  W WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 6  FT AT 11 SECONDS. SHOWERS.
TONIGHT  W WIND 15 TO 25 KT EASING TO 10 TO 20 KT AFTER  MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 7  FT AT 10 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING THEN A SLIGHT  CHANCE OF SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT.
SAT  W WIND 5 TO 15 KT BECOMING NW 10 TO 20 KT IN THE  AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 11 SECONDS. A  SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
SAT NIGHT  W WIND 15 TO 25 KT BECOMING NW 5 TO 15 KT AFTER  MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR LESS AFTER  MIDNIGHT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
SUN  NW WIND TO 10 KT BECOMING W 15 TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON.  WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. W  SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
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