1/20 Inauguration Day, Kalama methanol, 'dead zones,' sewage spills, virtual climate Site C slides

Inauguration Day 2021

State Ecology Department rejects permit for Kalama methanol plant on Columbia River
The state Department of Ecology has denied a request for a shoreline permit required to build a $2 billion Kalama methanol plant that would export the chemical to China. The permit rejection is a serious setback for a project that would be one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest industrial users of natural gas — the feedstock for methanol — and has generated intense controversy since first proposed back in 2014. Critics have attacked the NW Innovation Works project as a major new source of Pacific Northwest greenhouse gas emissions that would pollute for decades into a future when the imperatives of climate change call for cutting back such pollution. Hal Bernton reports. (Seattle Times)

Human-caused ‘dead zones’ threaten health of Puget Sound
One of the most common nutrients that boosts these algae blooms is nitrogen, and according to the Washington State Department of Ecology, wastewater treatment plants contribute significantly to low oxygen levels. Nitrogen in urine isn’t treated in most wastewater plants anywhere in Puget Sound, and King County’s West Point plant is one of the largest. A 2019 report from the Salish Sea Model found that during the warm spring and summer months, wastewater treatment plants account for about 70% of the excess nutrients in Puget Sound. Much of the nitrogen in Puget Sound is from the Pacific Ocean, but human-caused nitrogen compounds this....Because of their concerns, Ecology decided in January 2020 to move forward with drafting a nutrients permit, specifically for filtering out nitrogen, that would be applied to the nearly 70 Puget Sound wastewater treatment plants. Aaron Kunkler reports. (Bellevue Reporter)

Power outages cause massive wastewater spill into Puget Sound, Lake Washington
Power outages last week caused a few of King County’s wastewater treatment facilities to spill more than 10 million gallons of untreated overflow into the Puget Sound and Lake Washington, according to the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks...According to the department, a combination of pump station failures caused by power outages and increased rainwater runoff created flooding overflows at the West Point Treatment Plant, Richmond Beach Pump Station, East Pine Pump Station and Medina Pump Station. Cameron Sheppard reports. (Seattle Weekly)

Washington hosts first climate assembly in the United States
Residents from all over the state begin virtual meetings to decide which climate change solutions to recommend to the Legislature in Olympia. Mandy Godwin reports. (Crosscut)

Gould's baby chiton
Gene Helfman of Lopez wrote joyfully: "The chiton piece brought back fond memories. My very first publication, as an undergrad at Berkeley ca 1967 was a note: 'A ctenostomatous ectoproct epizoic on the chiton Ischnochiton mertensii.' Now how's that for a gripping title? Sorry, I don't have any reprints. Thanks; I hadn't thought about that for decades."

Homeowners near Site C project sue after landslides wiped out property values
Thirty-five homeowners in the small B.C. community of Old Fort — just south of Fort St. John — are suing the province and BC Hydro after two landslides they claim were caused by Site C dam construction rendered their properties worthless.  On Monday, the group filed a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court saying the excavation activities carried out by BC Hydro on the $10-billion dam project have destabilized the soil that supports their properties. (CBC)

Now, your tug weather--West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  149 AM PST Wed Jan 20 2021   TODAY  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  7 ft at 14 seconds. 
TONIGHT  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell

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