Oregon’s state treasurer says he won’t approve bonds for a new I-5 bridge across the Columbia River without a guarantee: that Oregon can collect tolls from Washington drivers.
An artist’s rendition of the proposed 1-5 bridge over the Columbia River. Columbia River Crossing Source: nwNewsNetwork.org
The statement Friday is a response to a new analysis that says tolls will be enough to pay off the bonds for the project.
Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler says it’s not that he doubts enough drivers will use the proposed bridge, dubbed the Columbia River Crossing. It’s that he’s not sure enough of those drivers will actually pay the toll.
The new I-5 bridge would rely on electronic tolling. The money is either collected from a vehicle-mounted transponder or by scanning license plates and sending the driver a bill.
Here’s the thing: the majority of bridge commuters live in Washington. So the state of Oregon would need to work out an agreement with its cross-river neighbor to collect tolls from Washington drivers. Talks are under way between the states but no deal has been reached yet.
Wheeler says without such a deal, he’s not sure whether toll money would be enough to pay the debt on building the bridge.
Lawmakers in Olympia are wary of turning over control of tolling to Oregon. But Washington lawmakers have not approved any funding from their state to help build the bridge.
Scientists studying the atmosphere above Barrow, Alaska, have discovered unprecedented levels of molecular chlorine in the air, a new study reports.
Molecular chlorine, from sea salt released by melting sea ice, reacts with sunlight to produce chlorine atoms. These chlorine atoms are highly reactive and can oxidize many constituents of the atmosphere including methane and elemental mercury, as well activate bromine chemistry, which is an even stronger oxidant of elemental mercury. Oxidized mercury is more reactive and can be deposited to the Arctic ecosystem.
Jin Liao checks the instrumentation in Barrow, Alaska, during a research trip to measure molecular chlorine in the atmosphere. Image-Georgia Tech
The study is the first time that molecular chlorine has been measured in the Arctic, and the first time that scientists have documented such high levels of molecular chlorine in the atmosphere.
“No one expected there to be this level of chlorine in Barrow or in polar regions,” said Greg Huey, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
The study was published January 12 in the journal Nature Geoscience and was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), part of the international multidisciplinary OASIS program.
The researchers directly measured molecular chlorine levels in the Arctic in the spring of 2009 over a six-week period using chemical ionization mass spectrometry. At first the scientists were skeptical of their data, so they spent several years running other experiments to ensure their findings were accurate.
The level of molecular chlorine above Barrow was measured as high as 400 parts per trillion, which is a high concentration considering that chlorine atoms are short –lived in the atmosphere because they are strong oxidants and are highly reactive with other atmospheric chemicals.
Molecular chlorine concentrations peaked in the early morning and late afternoon, and fell to near-zero levels at night. Average daytime molecular chlorine levels were correlated with ozone concentrations, suggesting that sunlight and ozone may be required for molecular chlorine formation.
Previous Arctic studies have documented high levels of oxidized mercury in Barrow and other polar regions. The major source of elemental mercury in the Arctic regions is coal-burning plants around the world. In the spring in Barrow, ozone and elemental mercury are often depleted from the atmosphere when halogens — chlorine and bromine — are released into the air from melting sea ice.
“Molecular chlorine is so reactive that it’s going to have a very strong influence on atmospheric chemistry,” Huey said.
Chlorine atoms are the dominant oxidant in Barrow, the study found. The area is part of a region with otherwise low levels of oxidants in the atmosphere, due to the lack of water vapor and ozone, which are the major precursors to making oxidants in many urban areas.
In Barrow, snow-covered ice pack extends in every direction except inland. The ultimate source of the molecular chlorine is the sodium chloride in sea salt, Huey said, most likely from the snow-covered ice pack. How the sea salt is transformed into molecular chlorine is unknown.
“We don’t really know the mechanism. It’s a mystery to us right now,” Huey said. “But the sea ice is changing dramatically, so we’re in a time where we have absolutely no predictive power over what’s going to happen to this chemistry. We’re really in the dark about the chlorine.”
Scientists do know that sea ice is rapidly changing, Huey said. The sea ice that lasts from one winter to the next winter is decreasing. This has created a larger area of melted ice, and more ice that comes and goes with the seasons. This seasonal variation in ice could release more molecular chlorine into the atmosphere.
“There is definite climate change happening in the Arctic,” Huey said. “That’s changing the nature of the ice, changing the volume of the ice, changing the surface area and changing the chemistry of the ice.”
This research is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number ATM-0807702, ARC-0806437 and ARC-0732556. Any conclusions or opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.
Washington’s top environmental regulator found herself in the hot seat Thursday during a state Senate hearing called by Republican lawmakers who disapprove her agency’s scrutiny of a coal export terminal proposed for the northern shore of Puget Sound.
At issue: greenhouse gas emissions.
The Department of Ecology caused a stir last year when it announced that it would consider the greenhouse gas emissions produced when 48 million tons of exported coal is burned in Asia – that’s how much coal would move through the Gateway Pacific Terminal every year.
Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, convened a work session to question Ecology officials, including director Maia Bellon, about its move.
Ericksen emphasized fears among business and trade leaders that Ecology’s move sets a precedent.
Some worry that in the future the state could consider the greenhouse gas emissions of say, exporting Boeing airplanes or apples, and that could prevent projects from going forward.
Here’s an exchange between Bellon and Ericksen:
Maia Bellon
Bellon: Because there is no question about the end use of the commodity for the coal transportation projects, it makes that different in terms of the pollution that’s created.
Ericksen: I know we’re over time but I essentially heard you say that the Department of Ecology can pick and choose and no business can have a guarantee of what will be studied and what will not be studied.
Bellon said that greenhouse gases are a pollutant and therefore should be considered in the environmental review of projects.
But she stressed that her agency considers projects on a case-by-case basis and the environmental review is meant to present information. It’s not a final decision on whether a project is built or not.
The committee did not take any action during Thursday’s hearing.
Criminal records of tribal fishermen could be cleared
Police arrest a woman during a fishing rights confrontation on the Puyallup River on Sept. 9, 1970. Sixty-four adults and 10 children were arrested after police and state game agents broke up an encampment that had stood for several weeks. WAYNE ZIMMERMAN/STAFF FILE, 1970
The legislation itself might not help very many people.
A search of records by the Washington State Patrol shows that perhaps as few as 80 people still alive were arrested and convicted of state crimes related to what is now remembered as the Fish Wars.
One was Nisqually Tribe elder Billy Frank Jr.
“I was 14 years old when I first got arrested,” he told the House Community Development, Housing and Tribal Affairs Committee in Olympia on Tuesday. Frank was 14 in 1945.
The value of House Bill 2080, even for Frank, may be more symbolic than practical. By making it easier for tribal fishermen to have their records cleared, the state of Washington would be acknowledging not only that it was wrong but that it caused real harm to real people.
“This is small. This doesn’t do the times justice,” Rep. David Sawyer said of his bill. It does, however, give the state another opportunity to “own up to our own mistakes.”
“Very few things are more dear to the culture of a tribe as fishing. It is a huge part of their culture, and it’s something we stole from them,” Sawyer said.
That Sawyer, a liberal Democrat from Tacoma, would sponsor HB 2080 isn’t surprising. Some of the co-sponsors, however, might seem unexpected to those who recall the politics of the Fish Wars. Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, Western Washingtonians and Eastern Washingtonians are among the 15 sponsors of the bill.
History shows that tribal members bristled under state restrictions on their fishing rights almost from the beginning of statehood. But the issue heated up after World War II when younger tribal members became more assertive.
At the same time, fish supplies were strained by environmental degradation and overfishing, and the state became more aggressive in managing the fishery. Off reservation, tribal fishermen had to follow the same regulations as nontribal fishermen, the state asserted, including limited seasons and restrictions on equipment such as gill nets.
Building slowly, the issue exploded in the 1960s when tribal members adopted tactics practiced by the black civil rights movement. Whereas blacks in the South held sit-ins to protest segregated facilities, the tribes began to hold fish-ins. Authorities often responded with arrests and harassment.
And as in the South, mainstream media paid more attention when celebrities got involved. One in particular is still revered by Puget Sound tribes.
“The greater force against you was indifference rather than the people who were hitting you all the time,” actor Marlon Brando later wrote that he told the National Indian Youth Council in 1961. “Then if you could break that indifference you could get the mass of non-Indian people on your side.”
According to “Where The Salmon Run,” by Trova Heffernan, in attendance at that Utah conference was Hank Adams, who would soon be a leader in the tribal rights movement in the Puget Sound area. When Adams heard that Brando wanted to join a fishing protest in Washington, he saw it as a way to break through white indifference. At 2 a.m. on March 2, 1964, Adams roused reporters to tell them to be on the Puyallup River near Tacoma that very morning.
Brando and Puyallup activist Bob Satiacum got into a canoe and, at least according to a game agent, took salmon from the river illegally.
Here’s how Brando described it in his autobiography: “I got in a boat with a Native American and a … priest. Someone gave us a big salmon we were supposed to have taken out of the river illegally, and, sure enough, a game warden soon arrived and arrested us.”
According to Heffernan, the fish had been purchased earlier at Johnny’s Seafood. The spot on the river is still known as Brando’s Landing.
Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory played a similar role at Frank’s Landing on the Nisqually. Unlike Brando, who was never charged, Gregory served six months in the Thurston County jail, Adams told the House committee Tuesday.
The most violent confrontation might have been along the Puyallup in September 1970. A large protest camp had been set up beneath a railroad bridge since Aug. 1. From there, tribal members continued to take fish despite state objections. After two raids mid month, the tribal leaders announced that they would arm themselves.
On the morning of Sept. 9, well-armed Tacoma police officers, along with state game and fisheries agents, broke up the camp, arresting 62 adults and 10 juveniles. Some shots were fired and tear gas was released, but there were no injuries.
The beginning of the end came in 1974 when U.S. District Court Judge George Boldt ruled that the treaties promising that the tribes could take salmon “in common” with white fisherman meant 50 percent of the catch. He also ended state restrictions on tribal fishermen. That ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1979.
Frank said he lost track of how many times he was arrested, sometimes guessing at least 50 times between 1945 and Boldt’s ruling.
“That’s a long time of your life to be going to jail for something you believe in,” Frank said.
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2014/01/16/2933590/peter-callaghan-bill-could-help.html#storylink=cpy
Contempt of court charges against Dusten Brown, Veronica’s birth father, have been dropped, according to an Oklahoma newspaper.
Veronica, now 4 years old, was caught in the middle of an internationally publicized custody dispute involving her Native American heritage.
Brown, who lives in Oklahoma, faced contempt charges for refusing to comply with a Charleston County Family Court order to return Veronica to her adoptive parents, Matt and Melanie Capobianco of James Island.
The court dropped that charge Thursday, according to the Tulsa World.
Brown still faces a criminal complaint of custodial interference in South Carolina.
Gov. Nikki Haley dropped efforts to extradite him, but the warrant is still active.
Brown also remains part of an Oklahoma civil case in which the Capobiancos’ attorneys are seeking to recoup more than $1 million in fees and legal expenses incurred during the custody battle.
Veronica’s birth mother gave her up for adoption to the Capobiancos shortly after she was born in September 2009.
Brown, who is part Cherokee, said his daughter was given up without his knowledge when he was getting ready to deploy to Iraq. Veronica’s mother argued he wasn’t involved in her life.
With the help of attorneys from the Cherokee Nation, Brown sued for custody under the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was designed to keep Native American families intact. Brown gained custody in December 2011, when Veronica was 27 months old.
The Capobiancos appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and were reunited with Veronica last September, when she was 4.
In this June 13, 2011 file photo, the Energy Tide 2, the largest tidal energy turbine ever deployed in the U.S., appears on a barge in Portland, Maine. Scientists at the University of Washington have determined that Admiralty Inlet, in Puget Sound, is an excellent place to test tidal turbines. (AP Photo/File)
A public electric utility in Everett could be among the first in the nation to generate power from the tides.
Scientists at the University of Washington have determined that Admiralty Inlet, in Puget Sound, is an excellent place to test tidal turbines.
“Admiralty Inlet stacks up pretty well, worldwide, in terms of its actual tidal energy resource,” said Craig Collar, assistant general manager at Snohomish County Public Utility District No. 1. Currents have been clocked at 6-7 knots, he said.
The PUD is pledged to maintain carbon-free power sources. It has wind power and is exploring geo-thermal energy, as well.
“We’re highly dependent on the Bonneville Power Administration,” said Collar. “That’s a lot of eggs in one basket and it only makes sense to diversify.”
The advantage of tidal power: tides are reliable and predictable.
The disadvantage is you have to pick the right spot.
The utility wants to place two turbines, each about 20-feet in diameter, on the bottom of Admiralty Inlet, 200 feet below the surface. The more than $20 million pilot project, funded in half by the U.S. Energy Department, is at least six years in development. It’s been delayed, in part, by a challenge from a California company that owns two trans-ocean fiber optic telecommunications cables.
“The turbines, as currently proposed, are dangerously close to our cable,” said Kurt Johnson, chief financial officer of Pacific Crossing. He’s worried that turbine deployment and maintenance could damage the cables.
“Pacific Crossing is not against tidal energy, or even this specific project. All we’re really asking is that the PUD locate the turbines a safe distance from our cable.”
“In fact, we have done that,” said Collar. “This project is now several hundred feet away from their cable, so the crux of the matter is our project simply doesn’t represent any risk whatsoever to their cable.”
Collar said an environmental review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), draws the same conclusion.
“The facts are they’ve got a six-inch wide lease, we’re several hundred feet away, we have a deployment accuracy of less than ten feet, we won’t use any anchors at all in the deployment operation or maintenance of these devices,” said Collar.
Tribal and environmental groups have also challenged the project out of concern for fish and orcas.
“But the truth is these turbines rotate quite slowly, more the speed that we’d visualize for a turnstile, taking several seconds just to make a single revolution,” Collar explained.
The utility is awaiting approval of a license from FERC and some state and local permits. The soonest the turbines could be deployed would be 2015.
It’s not known if tidal power will prove effective around here.
The Snohomish County PUD No.1 will hook up the turbines to the power grid but Collar said this pilot project is more about collecting data than generating electricity. If approved, the turbines will operate for three-to-five years and be removed.
SNOQUALMIE — One day after being accused of running Snoqualmie Casino illegally by replacing its gaming commission with the Tribal Council, Tribal Chairwoman Carolyn Lubenau said a new commission has been selected and is being directed, in the interim, by the tribe’s police chief.
Lubenau said the selection of three new Snoqualmie Gaming Commissioners was made Thursday, and had no connection to a lawsuit filed last Friday or a report on accusations included in the litigation by KING 5 the day before.
The lawsuit, filed by former SGC Chairman William Papazian, outlines a deteoriating relationship between the commission and the Snoqualmie Casino staff it is required by law to oversee.
According to federal law, tribal gaming agencies/commissions must be independent from the casinos and tribes they watch.
Lubenau said Thursday the problems between the SGC and the casino had nothing to do with Papazian, but the Executive Director and Manager he hired.
“We want professionals,” she explained, “You have to be above reproach. You can’t have tantrums.”
Lubenau said commission staff frequently threatened to pull gaming licenses from casino personnel “for no reason”. The tribe, she said, conducted two independent investigations.
“It was very clear, if we wanted to have our gaming commission functioning in the way we want to go, we need to terminate those two positions,” said Lubenau.
Papazian refused to go along, according to Lubenau and court documents, and resigned.
“It was very amicable,” recalled Lubenau, “He said in the resignation it was a family matter.”
Beyond what led to his departure is what Papazian alleged has happened in the interim, the SGC being filled with the Tribal Council.
Just one day after the situation became public, Lubenau said changes have been made. Thursday, three commissioners were appointed under an interim Executive Director, police chief Gene Fenton.
None of the commissioners have gaming experience, which is not required by law. Fenton is handling background checks for all casino employees, a task usually handled by the SGC.
“We won’t be caught by surprise when things are not working right,” said Lubenau, “We can fix things before they get to this point where they unravel so quickly like they did.”
As for why Papazian would file a lawsuit against his former employer, accusing it of “fraud”, “racketeering”, and “money laundering”, Lubenau thinks the answer is simple. Money.
Conceptual artist Cassandra Canady’s illustration of what the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts in Marysville could look like. — image credit: Courtesy image.
MARYSVILLE — The Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts has entered the next phase of settling into its new home in Marysville, but it needs the public’s help to complete the transition.
Scott Randall, president of the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts, started the nonprofit organization in June of 2009, and in June of 2013, the group moved into the former Dunn Lumber building in Marysville.
“The next step in the process came on Dec. 3 of last year, when I was doing a site walkthrough of the facility with the building commissioner and the fire marshall,” Randall said. “I asked them what we would need to do in order to start operating from this building sooner.”
The Foundation won’t be hosting concerts or plays from the Dunn Lumber building for a while yet, but if Red Curtain can raise the funds to get the facility in shape to meet the current regulations for fire safety and ADA compliance, then the group can provide a space for classes, meetings and other small events, to help it generate semi-regular revenue toward the down payment that needs to be made before more significant renovations are performed.
“We’re looking to add extras, to tear up pavement, and to put up and knock down walls, but we can’t do that now, because we don’t actually own the building yet,” Randall said, noting that the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts is still operating under a lease agreement with Dunn Lumber. “In the meantime, because the facility has had hardly any updates since it was first built in 1967, we need to upgrade its fire system, make its restrooms ADA-compliant, put up new exit signs and install new doorhandles. And we need to do all of that immediately, before we can begin to offer even scaled-down programming on a regular basis.”
Beyond that, Randall eventually plans to install sprinkler systems and redesign the building’s exterior to include an enclosed space outdoors, but while conceptual artist Cassandra Canady has illustrated what Randall hopes the fully refurbished facility will ultimately look like, and engineer and architect Doug Walter has even drawn up a schematic for its interior layout, Randall himself knows that the Marysville community will need some persuading.
“What I’m finding is that folks in Marysville are very excited about having the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts in their town, but they’re still saying, ‘Okay prove it,'” Randall said. “By hosting these smaller events to start with, we can prove that this center can be a benefit to the community. In an ideal world, it’d be nice to generate enough donations and revenue to have our facility fully ready for the art season this fall, maybe even by launching it with a concert, but if it takes us a while longer, at least by taking care of the immediate concerns, we can do enough good stuff to sustain ourselves and show some of what we’re capable of.”
SEATTLE — Today the U.S. Department of Interior recognized the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP) for its conservation achievements focused on federally listed salmon species. The partnership was selected for a “Partnership in Conservation” award because it improves the scientific foundation for natural and cultural resource management and advances government-to-government relationships with Indian nations.
“The Department of the Interior is proud to recognize the accomplishments of those who are innovating and collaborating in ways that address today’s complex conservation and stewardship challenges,” Secretary Jewell said at an awards ceremony at the Interior headquarters in Washington today. “These partnerships represent the gold standard for how Interior is doing business across the nation to power our future, strengthen tribal nations, conserve and enhance America’s great outdoors and engage the next generation.”
For the past eight years, the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership has promoted the recovery of Endangered Species Act listed salmon populations that represent a significant cultural resource for four Treaty Indian tribes and numerous non-Treaty tribes, as well as state commercial and sport fisheries. The partnership helps ensure program accountability and avoid duplication of efforts, which can pose problems for resource management. The partnership also plays an important role in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of water and biological monitoring and in management and exchange of data.
The “Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership demonstrates that the whole truly can be more than the sum of its parts,” said Max Ethridge, U.S. Geological Survey’s Regional Director for the Northwest, “with partners working together in a time of scarce resources, the winner is conservation.”
The Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership is a voluntary partnership of state, tribal and federal entities, supported by a small team of four USGS employees. Working to coordinate efforts of partners and other entities, the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership strives to improve efficiency and effectiveness of aquatic monitoring programs in the Pacific Northwest. Ultimately, these efforts contribute to the restoration of salmon populations and protection of aquatic habitats throughout the region.
“Salmon recovery is a shared goal,” said Jennifer Bayer, USGS Biologist who oversees the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership’s staff, “by focusing on common needs and sustaining collaboration among many entities, the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership enhances partners’ contributions to salmon conservation, ultimately working towards more effective monitoring and data collection efforts.”
The Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership has created free, web accessible tools that help users discover and share data, document methods, and design and manage monitoring programs. The team also organizes workshops, standing workgroups and technical forums to share best practices for documentation, data sharing and data management related to salmon conservation.
The Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership has a unique geographic, technical and policy scope. The Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership supports partners across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and northern California; engages technical experts in water quality, water supply, energy resources, endangered species recovery, invasive species, ecological modeling and data management; and reports annually to federal, state and tribal executive leadership.
The Partners in Conservation Awards recognize outstanding examples of conservation legacies achieved when the Department of the Interior engages groups and individuals representing a wide range of backgrounds, ages and interests to work collaboratively to renew lands and resources. At the annual awards ceremony, the Department of the Interior celebrated conservation achievements that highlight cooperation among diverse federal, state, local and tribal governments; public and private entities; non-profit organizations; and individuals.
Jacob Lucas’ chain saw art is show on Wednesday, January 15, 2014. The Bonney Lake artist spent more than three weeks creating the tribute to the Seattle Seahawks and the 12th Man. (Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)
Jacob Lucas has always been an artist. He has painted, worked with clay, blown glass, drawn and went to college for graphic design. But it is the magic he creates with a much less elegant tool that has been buzzing on social media and captured the attention of Seahawks fans recently.
Lucas spent more than three weeks finessing a Western red cedar log with his collection of 22 chainsaws. The stunning result of his work —a 7-foot-tall tribute to the Seahawks, the 12th Man and Native American culture — has been shared and “liked” online countless times.
“I’d like to see it on display in the CLink,” he said Wednesday after trucking the finely detailed creation to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, where the Seahawks train.
The Bonney Lake artist first noticed chainsaw art at the Puyallup Fair when he was 13. He saved up money and purchased a saw. Unfortunately, it was stolen about two weeks later.
He mostly forgot about the unique art form until his grandmother paid for him to attend a class a decade later.
Since then his skill with a STIHL has led to a full-time career turning logs into masterpieces.
Lucas has 20 carvings lining the main drag in Bridgeport, Wash., near Omak. The award-winning carver has also been commissioned to create custom carvings.
Lucas hopes to have his Seahawks carving on display Friday at a rally for the team.
Click through the gallery above to see the detail work he put into the carving. You can see more of his work on his website.
