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| Pysht Tree Farm, Merrill & Ring [WFPA] |
Pysht is an unincorporated community located on the Olympic Peninsula in Clallam County, Washington and sits near the mouth of the Pysht River. In Chinook jargon, push or pushy means "fish." In the 1920s the Klallam village of Pysht was demolished while the villagers were away working. When they returned, they found that European settlers had removed the village in order to build a lumber mill. Merrill & Ring, who first acquired land rights at Pysht in 1886, still owns much of the surrounding land. By the early twenty-first century the town numbered only a few buildings. (Wikipedia, Washington State Place Names)
As deadline nears, analysts doubt Kinder Morgan will get its ‘certainty’
With the clock ticking on Kinder Morgan’s May 31 deadline to get certainty that it can build its $7.4-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, industry analysts doubt the company’s demands can be met. No new suitors have emerged, at least publicly, to share the risk of the project, despite federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s pitch in mid-May that plenty of investors would be interested in the pipeline because of Ottawa’s promise to indemnify the project against extra costs of politically motivated delays. Morneau had named the country’s pension funds as possible investors. And Alberta had talked earlier about taking a stake. “I think they will walk away and I wouldn’t blame them at all,” Roger McKnight, a petroleum analyst with Oshawa, Ont.-based En-Pro International said of Kinder Morgan. Gordon Hoekstra reports. (Vancouver Sun)
Court throws out Trans Mountain pipeline challenge from City of Vancouver and Squamish Nation
B.C.'s Supreme Court has dismissed legal challenges to Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion project from the City of Vancouver and the Squamish Nation. In a pair of rulings issued Thursday morning, Justice Christopher Grauer found the province of British Columbia acted reasonably in issuing an environmental assessment certificate to the company. As Grauer pointed out in his opening remarks to both cases, the decisions are not the end of the legal hurdles facing the pipeline. They dealt strictly with the question of whether the province could defend its actions in light of the National Energy Board's approval of the project. Jason Proctor reports. (CBC)
State Supreme Court finds DNR not responsible for Port Gamble cleanup
The Department of Natural Resources isn't on the hook for the cost of cleaning up Port Gamble Bay, the Washington Supreme Court ruled this week. In a 6-3 decision, justices agreed with a 2015 Kitsap County Superior Court ruling which found DNR did not qualify as an "owner" or "operator" of the former Pope & Talbot sawmill in Port Gamble and was not liable under the state's Model Toxics Control Act for pollution caused by the mill. A state appeals court reversed the Superior Court decision in 2016. The Supreme Court opinion filed Thursday means DNR will not share cleanup costs with Pope Resources, the petitioner in the case. Pope Resources already spent roughly $20 million to remove contamination from the bay, under an agreement with the Department of Ecology. Tad Sooter reports. (Kitsap Sun)
Feds limit chinook fishery to help resident killer whale recovery
The federal government is closing some recreational and commercial chinook fisheries on the West Coast in an effort to help save endangered southern resident killer whales. Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that a lack of prey for the whales is one of the critical factors affecting their recovery.... The closures will be in the Juan de Fuca Strait and around portions of the Gulf Islands, the department said in the release. There will also be partial closures at the mouth of the Fraser River to protect key foraging areas for the whales. (Canadian Press)
114,000 more people: Seattle now decade's fastest-growing big city in all of U.S.
.... The U.S. Census Bureau released new population figures for U.S. cities on Thursday, and they show that Seattle has toppled Austin, Texas, to become the nation’s fastest-growing big city this decade. Seattle moved into the top spot after registering yet another year of remarkable growth in 2017. The city’s population hit an estimated 725,000, gaining 17,500 people from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017. Our growth rate in that period — 2.5 percent — was second only to Atlanta among the 50 largest U.S. cities. Seattle has now been ranked in the top 4 for growth among major cities for five consecutive years — quite an impressive run. Add up all the population gains since 2010 and Seattle has grown by a staggering 18.7 percent, which ranks as the fastest rate of growth among the 50 largest U.S. cities. The Texas capital, which has seen growth cool down a bit recently, falls to second place. Gene Balk reports. (Seattle Times)
Remaking a reef: UW landscape architecture students to present design for new artificial reef at Redondo dive site
What makes a good artificial reef, for divers, and for marine life? University of Washington landscape architecture students have done designs for a state-funded project to replace the artificial reef at the Redondo Beach dive site. They will present and discuss their work in a public meeting May 30, in Des Moines. The landscape architecture studio class is taught by associate professor Iain Robertson, with lecturer and landscape designer Brooke Sullivan, who is working on her doctorate at the University of Melbourne. Both are with the UW’s College of Built Environments. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources and dive community will be removing debris from the underwater location, one of the most popular dive sites in the Puget Sound area. This will include removal of toxic material, as well as small boats and even a long-sunken Volkswagen “Beetle” that have over the years become a habitat for much marine life. The work also will include removing abandoned tires from established geoduck beds to compensate for any habitat loss due to reef construction. Peter Kelley reports. (UW News)
Port of Port Townsend decides against replacing south jetty this year
The Port of Port Townsend commissioners voted 2-1 to reject all bids for the South Jetty Breakwater Project. They voted to suspend the project, citing lack of funds to pay for the jetty and the port’s overall financial condition.... Eric Toews, director of planning for the port, has said that four construction firms submitted bid proposals. American Construction Co. of Tacoma was the apparent low bidder in the amount of $3.991 million. Jeannie McMacken reports. (Peninsula Daily News)
Trump Administration Says It Won't Sell Off BPA Transmission Lines
The Trump administration has abandoned its bid to sell off the Pacific Northwest’s publicly owned utility transmission lines, according to Republican members of Congress who were briefed on the decision. The plan to privatize the Bonneville Power Administration’s lines had been decried by critics as a move that could also have raised rates for customers. The Trump administration has suggested selling off BPA’s transmission lines twice. Both times the proposal has been met with strong pushback from Northwest lawmakers. They expressed some relief this spring when Energy Secretary Rick Perry said he would not sell off BPA’s assets without congressional approval. Courtney Flatt reports. (NW Public Broadcasting)
Whittaker film about second-generation climb on Mount Kennedy to debut at Telluride
Have you ever thought what it would be like to walk in your father’s footsteps? Leif and Bobby Whittaker, and Chris Kennedy have done just that, returning to climb Mount Kennedy in the Yukon, 50 years after their fathers, Jim Whittaker and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, made the first ascent of the newly named peak April 9, 1965. The documentary film, “Return to Mount Kennedy,” chronicles their climb and relationships with their dads and each other. Its world premiere will be today at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival to coincide with the anniversary of RFK’s death, June 6, 1968. “We’re premiering a film that I’ve been working on for several years,” said Leif Whittaker, a mountaineer and writer once based in Port Townsend and now living in Bellingham. Whittaker said it will be shown at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 2 at the Kirkland Performance Center. And, he said, he hopes it will be shown at the Port Townsend Film Festival (PTFF) this September. Jeannie McMacken reports. (Peninsula Daily News)
Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca- 534 AM PDT Fri May 25 2018
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT THIS MORNING THROUGH THIS EVENING
TODAY W wind 10 to 15 kt, rising to 15 to 25 kt this afternoon. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft, building to 2 to 4 ft. W swell 5 ft at 10 seconds.
TONIGHT W wind 15 to 25 kt easing late. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft subsiding late. W swell 4 to 5 ft at 10 seconds.
SAT W wind 10 kt or less, rising to 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less, building to 2 to 4 ft. W swell 4 ft at 9 seconds.
SAT NIGHT W wind 10 to 20 kt easing late. Wind waves 3 ft or less. W swell 4 ft at 9 seconds.
SUN W wind 10 kt or less, rising to 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves building to 2 to 4 ft. W swell 4 to 6 ft at 11 to 13 seconds.
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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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