Legacy - July 2014

Legacy

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eMagazine of Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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Published by: Wild Game Fish Conservation International

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Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy Wild Game Fish Conservation International Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI): Established to advocate for wild game fish, their fragile ecosystems and the cultures and economies that rely on their robust populations.

LEGACY – Journal of Wild Game Fish Conservation: Complimentary, nononsense, monthly publication by conservationists for conservationists LEGACY, the WGFCI Facebook page and the WGFCI website are utilized to better equip fellow conservationists, elected officials, business owners and others regarding wild game fish, their contributions to society and the varied and complex issues impacting them and those who rely on their sustainability.

LEGACY exposes impacts to wild game fish while featuring wild game fish conservation projects, fishing adventures, wildlife art, accommodations, equipment and more. Your photos and articles featuring wild game fish from around planet earth are welcome for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of LEGACY. E-mail them with captions and credits to Jim (wilcoxj@katewwdb.com).

Successful wild game fish conservation efforts around planet earth will ensure existence of these precious natural resources and their ecosystems for future generations to enjoy and appreciate. This is our LEGACY.

Wild Game Fish Conservation International Founders

Bruce Treichler

Jim Wilcox

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Contents WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook _________________________________________________________ 8 Editorial Opinion __________________________________________________________________________________ 9  Aquaculture industry blowing smoke __________________________________________________________________ 10

Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk __________________________________________________ 13  Dave Hamilton _______________________________________________________________________________________ 13

Featured Fishing Adventures, Photos, “Funnies” and Not so Funny: _________________________________ 14  Fish for Peacock Bass on Brazil’s Aqua Boa River with host Camille Egdorf ______________________________ 14  Fly Gal Ventures Hosted Travel: New Zealand – December 2014 _________________________________________ 15    

Chanel with her 37 lbs Chinook salmon on the Douglas Channel. ________________________________________ Rachel’s first fish: Six pound rainbow trout ____________________________________________________________ Gašper Konkolič: Rainbow trout from Sava River _______________________________________________________ Pacific Ocean Ling Cod (Lower left), Wolf Fish (Lower right) _____________________________________________

16 17 18 19

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses ___________________________ 23       

Kingfish West Coast Adventure Tours _________________________________________________________________ Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing __________________________________________________ Rhett Weber’s Charterboat “Slammer” _________________________________________________________________ Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 __________________________________________________________________ Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors________________________________ Westcoast Fishing Adventures ________________________________________________________________________ Great River Fishing Adventures _______________________________________________________________________

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Fishing Tips and Tricks ___________________________________________________________________________ 31  BOATERS: Make Sure Your Line Is Long Enough When Anchoring Your Boat! ___________________________ 31  Hidden Paths: Marble trout behavior ___________________________________________________________________ 32

Wildlife Artists: __________________________________________________________________________________ 33  Leanne Hodges: “Seals, Sharks and a Herring Ball” ____________________________________________________ 34  Sara Stevenson: “Dungeness” ________________________________________________________________________ 35  Dan Wallace: Fine Traditional Indian Art _______________________________________________________________ 36  Diane Michelin: “I’m in Fire!” (tentative title) ____________________________________________________________ 37

Guest Commentary: Bill Bryden ___________________________________________________________________ 38  Ocean-based salmon disaster too big to ignore ________________________________________________________ 38

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits _____________________________________________ 40  Enjoy seasonal wild salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:___________________________________________ 40  7 questions to ask before you eat that shrimp __________________________________________________________ 42  Food Secrets: It's a shopping trip you won’t want to miss. ______________________________________________ 44  Why You’ll Never Want to Eat Farm-Raised Salmon – Watch HERE_______________________________________ 45  Is Farmed Salmon Actually Bad for You? – Watch HERE ________________________________________________ 45  5 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Farm-Raised Fish ___________________________________________________ 46  Fish consumption rate is a 7-generation issue__________________________________________________________ 48  Big Stakes in Fish Consumption Debate _______________________________________________________________ 49  Washington Unions Worried About Fish Consumption Issue ____________________________________________ 51

WGFCI: protecting what needs protected __________________________________________________________ 52  Denny Heck, Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray: Protecting wild Pacific salmon _______________________________ 52  Derek Corrigan: Opposition to Trans Mountain pipeline expansion_______________________________________ 52

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Preliminary examination of contaminant loadings in farmed salmon, wild salmon and commercial salmon feed _________________________________________________________________________________________ 52

Responses to Wild Game Fish Conservation International __________________________________________ 53  Myron Roth: Ocean-based salmon feedlots ____________________________________________________________ 53

Community Activism, Education, Litigation and Outreach ___________________________________________ 55  Must See: “Salmon Confidential” – October 5 – Olympia, Washington ____________________________________ 57  Marine Biologist, Alexandra Morton, Teams with Ecojustice to Protect North America’s Wild Pacific Salmon from Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots ___________________________________________________________ 58  Urgent Financial Request: Protect Wild Pacific Salmon from Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots _______________ 59  Federal agencies squander chance for progress on Northwest salmon. __________________________________ 60  B.C. chief: We'll do 'whatever it takes' to stop Northern Gateway_________________________________________ 62  Coastal First Nations Declare Northern Gateway Pipeline “Effectively Dead” _____________________________ 65    

Scientists' letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Reject Northern Gateway _____________________________ Petition: Enbridge Honor Your Commitment ____________________________________________________________ The Real Reason Keystone XL Might Fail ______________________________________________________________ Plains Midstream Fined $1.3 Million After Guilty Plea In Alberta Spills ____________________________________

66 67 68 70

          

U.S. Court win for endangered killer whales stands _____________________________________________________ $26 Million and 2 Years Later: DFO must respond and implement the Cohen Recommendations ___________ Muckleshoot Tribe Urges Rejection of Genetically Engineered Salmon Application _______________________ Oil-by-rail protests planned to mark Canadian disaster __________________________________________________ A 'poem' to Create Awareness about Fish Farms _______________________________________________________ Burnaby Chevron Fracking Protest: It’s all over with for now, Power to the people ________________________ Oil Change: Stop the Killer Oil Trains _________________________________________________________________ Louisville Utility Faces $68 Million Penalty for Hidden-Camera Captured Coal Ash Dumping _______________ Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings________________________________________ Wild Salmon Warrior Radio – Recent Archives _________________________________________________________ Petition to Governor Inslee: Moratorium on Oil by Rail Permits __________________________________________

73 75 77 79 80 81 83 84 86 87 89

Salmon feedlots__________________________________________________________________________________ 90  B.C. operation ecologically sound _____________________________________________________________________ 91  Using genetics to measure environmental impact of salmon farming _____________________________________ 94  NAFTA Body Recommends Full Investigation of Canada’s Failure to Protect Wild Salmon From Industrial Fish Farms _________________________________________________________________________________ 98  Salmon Farming Slips Net Yet Again __________________________________________________________________ 101  N.L. outfitters say farmed salmon hurting wild fish, industry____________________________________________ 103

Climate Change _________________________________________________________________________________ 105  Kilmer introduces ocean acidification bill _____________________________________________________________ 105

Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind ______________ 107 Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked ________________________________________________________  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen _______________________________  Tanker carrying jet fuel crashes near the Columbia River ______________________________________________  'Runaway Oil Trains': A Metaphor for Our Fossil Fuel Failure ___________________________________________

108 108 111 112

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Washington Residents Rail Against Oil Shipments ____________________________________________________ 114  U.S. Development applies for permits for oil facility ____________________________________________________ 116  Dead Babies and Utah's Carbon Bomb ________________________________________________________________ 118  Opinion: Oil-spill cleanup is a myth ___________________________________________________________________ 121  Apache Canada’s pipeline just keeps spilling: Another leak in Zama Alberta, Amount Unknown___________ 123  Japan oil tanker explodes off SW coast; 1 missing _____________________________________________________ 125  Oil tanker explodes in Japan, stirs worries in B.C. (BREAKING) _________________________________________ 127  Railroads Seek to Limit Disclosure on Oil Trains ______________________________________________________ 131  In North American rail towns, some try to stop oil trains _______________________________________________ 133  Endangered orcas swim along Kinder Morgan's oil tanker route ________________________________________ 138  Kinder Morgan oil storage plan for Burnaby criticized __________________________________________________ 143  Kinder Morgan dismisses Burnaby fire department’s worst-case spill scenario __________________________ 145    

Trains and crude oil are too often an accident waiting to happen _______________________________________ Centralia Train Derailment Fourth on Rail Line in Month ________________________________________________ The Inland Northwest Fight to Avoid Becoming the Next Bomb Train Story ______________________________ Railroads claim national security in keeping oil train routes secret, but feds say not so __________________

148 151 153 156

 Pipelines and Oil Tankers, Economic Cost and Environmental Risk _____________________________________  The Best Intro to Tar Sands in 3 Minutes ______________________________________________________________  Galapagos emergency over stranded cargo ship ______________________________________________________ Coal __________________________________________________________________________________________________  Coal industry highlights economic contributions to B.C. _______________________________________________  High levels of mercury found in fish at Olympic National Park's Hoh Lake _______________________________ Geothermal ___________________________________________________________________________________________  Canada’s high temperature geothermal reserves are in British Columbia ________________________________  Neal Hot Springs: Oregon’s first commercial geothermal power facility _________________________________ Hydropower ___________________________________________________________________________________________  “DamNation” _______________________________________________________________________________________  Dam work, fish, sediment: Researchers keep track of Elwha River restoration plan ______________________

159 160 163 166 167 170 174 174 175 176 176 177

 Rep. DeBolt Now Seeking $3.4 Billion for State Water Projects__________________________________________ 180  Water Retention, Levees and the Impact on Aquatic Species: Flooding the Focus of Two-Day Workshop in Chehalis _______________________________________________________________________________ 182 Liquefied Natural Gas __________________________________________________________________________________ 184  This Fracking Study Should Scare Livestock Farmers Senseless _______________________________________ 185  Calgary's TransCanada to build $1.9 billion pipeline link for Kitimat LNG project _________________________ 187 Solar _________________________________________________________________________________________________  Solar power gains momentum after long struggle in Texas _____________________________________________ Tidal __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Wind__________________________________________________________________________________________________

189 191 194 195

Forest Management _____________________________________________________________________________ 197  Fish Need Trees, Too ________________________________________________________________________________ 198

Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon: aka FrankenSalmon ______________________________________ 200

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Government action ______________________________________________________________________________ 201  Still in Bed Together: BC Salmon Farmers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans _____________________ 202  Ministers say salmon not being restored in Fraser River _______________________________________________ 203  Ottawa withholding data on B.C. salmon farms: report _________________________________________________ 205  Chinese vessel carrying half ton of salmon seized in Pacific____________________________________________ 207  Vancouver opposes oil terminal plan; now what? ______________________________________________________ 208  Northern Gateway pipeline approved by Harper government ___________________________________________ 211  Official Tipped Off Hess Rail Yard About Oil-Carrier Inspection _________________________________________ 213

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy Forward The July 2014 issue of Legacy marks thirty three consecutive months of our complimentary eMagazine; the no-holds-barred, watchdog journal published by Wild Game Fish Conservation International.

Legacy is published each month to expose risks to the future of wild game fish and their fragile ecosystems around planet earth to our growing audience. This unique magazine also introduces leading edge alternatives to today’s unsustainable practices.

Each month Legacy selects wildlife artists to feature, several conservationminded businesses to promote and several fishing photos from around planet Earth.

Our hope is that those who read Legacy will come to understand that what is good for wild game fish is also good for humans. Similarly, what is bad for our planet’s wild game fish is really bad for humans!

A growing number of recreational anglers and others around planet earth are passionate about conserving wild game fish and their continued availability for this and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. Additionally, growing numbers of consumers and retailers are paying close attention to the impacts each of us have on global resources through our daily activities and purchases.

We continue to urge our readers to speak out passionately and to demonstrate peacefully for wild game fish and their ecosystems; ecosystems that we are but one small component of.

As recreational fishermen, conservation of wild game fish is our passion. Publishing “Legacy” each month is our self imposed responsibility to help ensure the future of these precious gifts that have been entrusted for safekeeping to our generation.

Bruce Treichler

James E. Wilcox Wild Game Fish Conservation International

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

WGFCI Outreach via Legacy and Facebook

The June issue of Legacy has been read in these countries

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Editorial Opinion

KING 5 News (Seattle, WA) photojournalist, Scott Jensen, took this picture of Copper River King Salmon going for $60 a pound! How much are you willing to pay for salmon?

Copper River salmon, like other wild salmon and anadromous fish, are worth so very much more than $60/per pound given their selfless contributions to mankind and wild ecosystems.

Our blatant destruction of these magnificent creatures for short term financial gain is nothing short of madness.

We know better than to rely on fossil fuels, ocean-based salmon feedlots, floodplain development, irresponsible mining and logging. Yet we continue with our self destructive ways.

Wild Pacific salmon are like canaries deep in coal mines - as long as the canaries live to sing, the miners' environment is safe.

Our canaries (wild salmon) are in deep, deep trouble - we must recover them to reap their many life sustaining benefits.

Our destiny is in our hands – we must have wild robust populations of wild salmon to survive.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Aquaculture industry blowing smoke June 2, 2014 Canada’s aquaculture industry is suffering from legislation envy. It wants its own Aquaculture Act. Apparently, the existing laws and regulations that govern the industry don’t have a central theme or vision and lack consistency and coherency. According to the industry, it is burdened by too many regulations.

The Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is holding hearings and studying the regulation of aquaculture in Canada. Representatives of the aquaculture industry alliance have appeared before the committee twice.

Their message is consistent. The industry is on the cusp of greatness if only it could get out from under all those regulations and get its own Aquaculture Act.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The industry has a knack for portraying the sector as a victim of too many regulations. Yet, like every other food and livestock industry in Canada, it is subject to the same Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations designed to protect public health.

And, like every other industrial activity that takes place in marine waters, the aquaculture industry has to follow Transport Canada, Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans regulations designed to protect habitat, wild fisheries and species.

Apparently, dealing with these departments and their regulations is a problem for the industry. Having to deal with provincial labour, safety and environmental regulations also sticks in their craw.

It’s surprising that no one on the Senate committee has called them out on their claim of overregulation. Every industrial enterprise in Canada, whether in the agriculture, chemical, foodprocessing, mining, oil and gas, or forestry sector is, rightly, subject to regulatory scrutiny and control equal to or greater than the aquaculture industry.

The industry been successful in perpetuating the myth of over-regulation because it has bundled in a decade-long stagnation in the industry with a phantom regulatory gridlock. Plus, advocates have blown smoke as to the growth potential in their industry and the need for protein to feed the hungry of the world.

The claims of industry and their key promoter, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, about Canada’s aquaculture and its economic, food and job potential nationally and in the world rings hollow once data are examined.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Association 2012 statistics show that Canada’s contribution to aquaculture production in the world is 0.003 per cent (no, that is not a typo) and, on average, less than 10 per cent of the protein in people’s diet comes from seafood. Vegetable and meat are by far the largest sources (85 per cent) of dietary protein on all continents.

According to Industry Canada statistics, Canada’s cookie, cracker and pasta exports, as well as soap, cleaning, and toilet chemical sectors have larger export value than aquaculture products.

Canada is a tiny global player and farmed salmon is a minuscule source of protein supply for the world’s population. An Aquaculture Act is not going to change those facts.

What about the aquaculture industry’s claim of job-creation benefits? According to DFO and Industry Canada, between 2000 and 2012, aquaculture production in Canada increased 32 per cent, but salary and wages increased only 13 per cent.

This sector has a notoriously poor record for job creation as the drive for increasing profits has led to technological efficiencies that have stripped jobs from the industry.

Norway, the world’s leading producer of farmed salmon, raises 10 times the farmed salmon as Canada does, with one-third of the Canadian farmed-salmon workforce.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters In its lament over regulatory burdens, the aquaculture industry has been consistently silent on the fact that waste from open-net pen operations is not regulated.

Unlike the pulp and paper industry and sewage plants, which are required to treat their waste, salmon farms release thousands of tonnes of waste each year into coastal waters — untreated and unregulated.

For every 500 tonnes of salmon produced in open-net pens, 100 tonnes of waste is released. In 2012, 108,000 tonnes of farmed salmon were produced. The math is simple. However, the industry is not asking for that deficiency in the regulations to be addressed.

The aquaculture industry doesn’t need a special act any more than the pasta or toilet chemical industry need their own act. What is needed is for regulators and politicians to stop fawning over this industry and see beyond its smoke and mirrors.

They need to step up and make the open-net pen industry accountable for the waste they produce by finally introducing legislation that will put controls on one of the largest sources of pollution to coastal waters in Canada.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Conservationist Extraordinaire – Walking the Talk

 Dave Hamilton

Brothers Dave (left) and Tim Hamilton

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Featured Fishing Adventures, Photos, “Funnies” and Not so Funny:  Fish for Peacock Bass on Brazil’s Aqua Boa River with host Camille Egdorf Base camp: Aqua Boa Amazon Lodge Dates: December 18-27. 2014 Book your Peacock Bass fishing adventure with Fishing with Larry

Est. cost: $4,000

I'm hosting another group to the Amazon in December 2014!

Who wants to join me?

Camille You can land 30 to 100+ peacock bass per day. Some will be huge. The lodge has exclusive rights to over 100miles of the Agua Boa River so you literally have an entire river to yourself.

There is a giant reserve area – birds, wildlife, no people, no mosquitoes.

There is one guide per two anglers per boat.

Includes: airport reception, all transfers in Brazil, 240-mile deluxe roundtrip flight Manaus, Brazil to lodge, lodging, daily laundry service, meals, soft drinks, beer, wine, and local liquor, fishing license, free copy of Larry’s 40-page book Fly fishing for Peacock Bass. We also supply all flies, and fly patterns. Plus, courtesy of Agua Boa Amazon Lodge - Free 8-day Global Rescue Insurance, a $119.00 value.

Does not include: international airfare, Brazilian visa, satellite telephone calls, liquor, airport taxes, overnight hotel and meals in Manaus, and tackle. (Our hosted groups usually stay together at a nicer hotel in Manaus.)

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Fly Gal Ventures Hosted Travel: New Zealand – December 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Chanel with her 37 lbs Chinook salmon on the Douglas Channel.

Andreas Handl: Kingfish Westcoast Adventure Tours. Ltd “Very proud of my little girl - she did a great job!”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rachel’s first fish: Six pound rainbow trout Caught using her pink Barbie pole and reel – Dad lending a helping hand holding her prize

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Gašper Konkolič: Rainbow trout from Sava River Fly Fishing Guiding Slovenia, Hidden Paths

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Pacific Ocean Ling Cod (Lower left), Wolf Fish (Lower right) Caught on “Slammer” – Deep Sea Charters - Westport, Washington

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Matt Moisley: Steelhead trout Bluewater Rockies Sportfish Guiding Co. “A pound short from joining the 15 club… Thanks Stevie Lamorrow for pulling anchor to take this pic!

I think she was a worthy one?”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

“Like a good neighbor State Farm is there...”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Conservation-minded businesses – please support these fine businesses

 Kingfish West Coast Adventure Tours

Trophy Salmon and Steelhead fishing on the Kitimat River with driftboat, riverraft or pontoonboat, we offer as well remote streamside wading. We are specialized in fly-fishing and conventional fishing techniques for silver chrome aggressive steelhead and salmon. We give our clients the opportunity to fish our headwaters, tributaries and mainstream Kitimat River. The lower section of the Kitimat River we target with the jet boat and is considered tidal and can offer phenomenal fishing for salmon as they migrate upriver.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dave and Kim Egdorf's Western Alaska Sport Fishing Booking Now for 2014 Montana: (406) 665-3489 Alaska: (907) 842-5480

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rhett Weber’s Charterboat “Slammer” Reserve your 2014 Pacific Ocean fishing adventures on Slammer through Deep Sea Charters – Westport, Washington

2014 Westport Salmon Seasons Set: May 31 to June 13: two hatchery Chinook (King).

June 14 to September 30: one wild or one hatchery Chinook (King) and one hatchery Coho (Silver) OR two hatchery Coho (Silvers).

This is the first year since 1983 that the season has been set to go 7 days a week for the whole year!

Large quotas of both species.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Riverman Guide Service – since 1969 Kim Malcom – Owner, Operator Licensed and Insured Guide Quality Float Trips – Western Washington Rivers – Steelhead, Salmon, Trout

K Kiim mM Maallccoom m’’ss

Riverman Guide Service ((336600)) 445566--88442244

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Learn to fish: experienced, conservation-minded professional instructors View our six-panel, information brochure HERE

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Westcoast Fishing Adventures

We are a world class fishing destination with 17 years of guiding experience on the Skeena and nearly all the remote systems of the North extending our boundaries as far as the head waters of the Nass river.

Guests of Westcoast Fishing can expect a professional experience from the time you book your trip we are licensed to guide on over 30 rivers including area lakes and Ocean fishing for halibut & salmon. There are no extra rod days fees when fishing with our company we include them in the package. Guests will stay at our B&B Style Lodge nested in between the mountains and the Skeena River.

If you’re looking for a unique steelhead fly-fishing adventure — an expedition off the beaten path — this is your trip. By truck, by boat, by helicopter (if you’re feeling rich ), or walk and wade — whatever it takes — we’ll explore hidden valleys and fish where very few people have step foot before. Make your reservations today or visit our guided adventures page for more information.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Great River Fishing Adventures

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Fishing Tips and Tricks

 BOATERS: Make Sure Your Line Is Long Enough When Anchoring Your Boat!

May 27, 2014 CLEARWATER COUNTY, Idaho - A 26' Custom Weld Jet Boat unfortunately sank on the Dworshak Reservoir Saturday morning. What's unfortunate is that the whole incident could have been prevented with a little bit longer anchoring line. The boat was owned by Richard Warden of Lewiston and sank from a combination of the stern anchoring being too short as water levels rose on the reservoir.

Riverview Marina was contacted to retrieve the boat and the Clearwater County Sheriff's Office wants to remind all boat owners of a couple important things.

 

Leave a long line to the bow.

Do not stern anchor the boat when the reservoir is filling.

May this unfortunate incident be a lesson to all.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Hidden Paths: Marble trout behavior Marble trout is endemic specie in Slovenia and also in the whole world.

When you want to catch this predatory trout, you must be completely familiar with its behavior. Many fishermen are comming to Slovenia with one single purpose – to catch a marmorata, but sometimes they leave Slovenia without catching a marble trout. So lets make it clear…marble trout is a predator.

Marble trout feed mostly on a bigger prey like fish, bullheads, frogs, snakes…Smaller marble trout feed also on insects, so you can catch it also on a dry fly or a nimph, but when marble trout reach size of 50cm or more they take dry fly or nimph very rearly. Instead of feeding on insects they rather take bigger prey. So when does the marmorata hunt?

Marble trout mostly hunt when raining, when water level is high or gettin higher because of the rain.

In that time catching a big marble trout is very easy, because they go completely crazy. In the rising water level they would take anything. They also hunt for adult fish (they can easily take for example 35cm long rainbow trout or grayling…).

But when a water level is low catching a big marble trout is almost immposible because they are most of the time hidden under a rock or fallen trees.

When the water level is low you can still catch some smaller marble trout with a dry fly (like caddis) or a nimph, but you must be very carefull when wadding in the river. It is better if not wade in the river at all.

You must always stay hidden in the shadow and if possible on your knees when casting.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Wildlife Artists:

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Leanne Hodges: “Seals, Sharks and a Herring Ball” 3' x 4', oil on canvas – Available: West Coast Wild

Leanne Hodges: “Seals, Sharks and Herring Ball” speaks to the values of healthy Pacific herring populations; wild ecosystems, cultures, dietary staples.

This uniquely-beautiful piece was accepted into the 2013 Artist for Conservation Grouse Mountain exhibit and published in their gorgeous coffee table catalogue.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Sara Stevenson: “Dungeness” Available via Sara Stevenson Fine Art

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dan Wallace: Fine Traditional Indian Art

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Diane Michelin: “I’m in Fire!” (tentative title) Original watercolor: 25” X 16” See Ms. Michelin’s amazing art at Fly Fishing Fine Art

Welcome to Fly Fishing Fine Art, including original paintings, limited edition prints and commissions in fly fishing and angling themes, by Canadian watercolor artist Diane Michelin. Diane is anxious to capture the essence of fly fishing and record those memories that bring us back to the river. Her art is currently on display in museums, fly shops, lodges and private collections.

Browse through the gallery, and contact Diane Michelin directly to discuss your purchase of fly fishing fine art.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Guest Commentary: Bill Bryden

 Ocean-based salmon disaster too big to ignore May 29, 2014 Please allow me space to comment on the interview printed May 14, 2014, with the representative from the Newfoundland and Labrador Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA) regarding the hundreds of thousands of dead, rotting salmon stuffed into putrefied open-net pens along our south coast.

In January, NAIA tried to convince us that their new Bay Management Plan was going to lead to suddenly sustainable self-governing salmon production.

What we see, instead, is nothing short of an eco-cidal aquacide disaster: A) Smashed-up pens and debris drifting around our bays to damage fishing vessels, tangle props, cause snowmobile accidents and near fatalities, and kill marine mammals and wildlife.

B) A lack of testing and monitoring of caged and wild fish.

C) Thousands of ice blocks cut into the net-pen tops with oil spraying chainsaws leaving a big baited, open-water oil slick for marine birds and eagles; D) Over 700 four-foot commercial fish tubs of rotting salmon removed by divers during mid winter and shipped to Barry Group Inc.’s Burgeo rendering plant for re-use into some human product.

E) Harbour seals with their lower jaws removed by the abnormal levels of sharks taking the fish right out of their mouths; F) (For fail) an ever-growing number of 100-pound crates of lobster ruined from having eaten the rancid salmon grease now choking the shorelines, coves and lobster traps in our once pristine bays from the untold hundreds of thousands of putrefied salmon left all winter and spring.

What a first quarter! After the massive disasters, bankruptcies, etc. of 2011, 2012 and 2013, we can just imagine what the rest of 2014 holds.

NAIA fails to convince us they could not clean up their mess due to a lack of access to the cages caused by winter ice. They fail to mention how divers gathered the 700 plus tubs of rotted salmon mid-winter through the ice, or how the owners fed the caged fish through the ice.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters In the middle of a disease outbreak and nonexistent testing, NAIA wants us to believe the fish were perfectly healthy and froze to death in some pens, but not others nearby — and not all of them froze to death?

Moreover, this also occurred in Nova Scotia without any ice? How do the salmon ever survive in the Davis Strait off Greenland all winter?

This conflicting logic is baffling until one remembers there are only three diseases (of the over 50 affecting salmon) that the industry gets compensated for.

Workers are exposing that the mortalities were likely exacerbated by the lack of oxygen from plugged netting and from feces piled up from living fish eating the rotting salmon and their own feces and getting even sicker. This is progress?

Excessive taxpayers’ compensation, tons of pesticides going into our bays, escapees, lice and disease outbreaks, wildlife kills, lack of transparency by government and their co-investors, and ocean grease pots created by rotting salmon all add to the disaster we have in this industry.

Who is overseeing ocean-based salmon farming?

Our governments clearly are not. It’s time to bring in an independent body to clean up this mess — otherwise, it’s eco-cidial aquacide as usual, thanks to government’s handmaiden’s role in industry’s profit-driven agenda.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Seafood consumption: Public health risks and benefits

 Enjoy seasonal wild salmon dinners at these fine restaurants:

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

“I found concerns about the dioxin content of fatty fish. Dioxins are a group of chemicals released as industrial pollution. In addition to being a potent carcinogen, dioxin also acts as an endocrine disrupter, meaning that consumption of dioxin may cause feminizing effects, especially in children. There have been a multitude of studies in animals and humans showing negative effects of dioxin.”

FS: Farmed Salmon – ocean-based salmon feedlots WS: Wild Salmon – free swimming Source HERE

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 7 questions to ask before you eat that shrimp June 14, 2014 Oceans produce half the world’s oxygen, create the clouds that bring fresh water and help to regulate our climate. They also provide more than a billion people with their primary source of protein, according to National Geographic.

As technology has advanced, humans have been able to fish farther, deeper and more efficiently in the world’s oceans. And now some scientists believe that if we don’t start asking questions about the seafood on our plates, the ancient and delicate balance of the sea’s biologic system will be changed forever.

In fact, Barbara Block, professor of Marine Sciences Evolutionary, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, at Stanford University, argues that’s already happening.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “At this point, across the planet, large pelagic predators, big fish, big shark, are being removed at a very high rate. So without a better international plan for management, there could be a time when there are parts of the ocean in which the trophic cascade has tipped so far that all you have is jellyfish in the sea.”

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program agree. They estimate that 85 percent of the world’s fisheries have already been fished to capacity or overfished, and that as much as 90 percent of the large predatory fish such as shark, swordfish, and cod are now gone from the world’s oceans.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, eating seafood sustainably can drastically help us meet our seafood needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

But what does sustainability mean when it comes to the fishing industry and the seafood we consume?

NOAA describes sustainable fishing as seafood caught or farmed responsibly, in a way that considers the long-term health of the environment and the livelihoods of the people that depend upon the environment.

But according to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, fishing practices worldwide are highly unregulated and unsustainable.

Where does this leave consumers? Identifying high quality, sustainable seafood isn’t always easy at your local grocery store or favorite restaurant.

To make things easier, the Environmental Defense Fund recommends asking these questions before ordering: 1. What country is it from?

2. Is the fish wild-caught or farm-raised?

3. If it is farmed, how was it grown? (Was it raised in a polluting open net pen or in a contained tank or pond?)

4. If it is wild, how was it caught? (Were long lines used, or was it caught by pole? Long lines often catch extra unwanted “bycatch.”)

5. Are populations of this fish healthy and abundant? (Small, fast-growing fish can withstand more fishing pressure, while large, slow-growing species are more vulnerable to overfishing.)

6. Are there eco-friendly alternatives?

7. Is this fish really a… red snapper, wild salmon, grouper, etc.? These are prime candidates for fish fraud.

Seafood Watch has also compiled a comprehensive list of its “seafood recommendations” to help consumers make sustainable decisions about the fish they eat.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Food Secrets: It's a shopping trip you won’t want to miss.

Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Why You’ll Never Want to Eat Farm-Raised Salmon – Watch HERE Alexandra Morton On the heels of 60 Minutes, Bloomberg, North America's premier site for business and financial market news, has posted a series of farm salmon videos. The top notch restaurants don't want it and it is a risk to investors due to lack of transparency and disease. They also mention uncertainty around regulations, which Harper and Clark are trying to smooth out right now... This is now an international issue - 60 Minutes, NAFTA and 80 First Nations. Time to lean into this and fix this.

 Is Farmed Salmon Actually Bad for You? – Watch HERE

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 5 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Farm-Raised Fish I made a point in Grain Brain to emphasize the importance of wild fish as opposed to farm-raised fish for several important reasons. I’m well aware that wild fish may not always be available (a situation that will no doubt become more common in the future), but given the chance, wild fish should be your choice, and here’s why:







Farmed fish will provide your body with higher levels of inflammation producing omega-6 fatty acids, and lower levels of inflammation fighting heart and brain healthy omega-3s.

Inflammation is a key player in virtually all the medical issues you don’t want to get including cancer, diabetes, arthritis, coronary artery disease and even Alzheimer’s.

Because of the crowded conditions in which farm raised fish are raised, they are routinely treated with antibiotics to help prevent infection. Not only does this raise concern for residual antibiotic in the fish itself, but the use of antibiotics in this manner helps contribute to the ability of bacteria becoming more and more resistant to the very antibiotics we rely on to combat serious infectious diseases.

Farm-raised fish may have as much as 20% less protein compared to wild fish.

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 

PCBs are cancer-causing chemicals that may exist in farm-raised salmon at a concentration 16 times higher than wild salmon, and the level of dioxin is also higher, by a factor of 11 fold.

Finally, the notion that somehow fish farming is more “sustainable” makes absolutely no sense at all. For every pound of salmon for instance, it takes 2-3 pounds of fish chow made from other fish like sardines, mackerel, anchovies, or herring. This needs to be factored into the equation as stocks of the fish used to sustain the fish farms are well on their way to becoming depleted.

So again, my best advice is to seek out wild fish whenever possible, and be sure to check labels. Don’t be fooled by names like “Atlantic Salmon.” While you might think that Atlantic salmon means the fish was harvested from the Atlantic Ocean, almost all Atlantic salmon is actually farm-raised.

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 Fish consumption rate is a 7-generation issue Jim Peters June 6, 2014 Do you like to eat local fish and shellfish? If so, you should know that right now Gov. Jay Inslee is deciding how much pollution can be dumped in our waters under water quality regulations that are being updated.

There are two important numbers that go into making the decision. One is our fish consumption rate.

At 6.5 grams per day — about one eight-ounce seafood meal per month — we have one of the lowest rates in the United States. That is shocking when you realize we have one of the highest populations of fish and shellfish eaters in the country.

The other number is our cancer risk rate from exposure to pollutants in our waters. Today that rate is calculated at one in a million. But the governor is considering a change that would decrease that protection rate to one in 100,000.

Why? Because business is telling the governor that any meaningful change in water quality standards will increase their cost of business and hurt the economy.

Yet Oregon recently increased its fish consumption rate to 175 grams per day, the most protective rate in the country. They did it through flexibility. Implementing improved water quality standards is phased in over many years, not overnight.

That level is still inadequate for Indian people and others who eat more fish and shellfish than most.

Nonetheless, the tribes are willing to compromise at a fish consumption of 175 grams per day and the current cancer risk rate of one in a million.

Our treaty-reserved rights depend on the health of the fish and shellfish that we harvest. Those rights also include protection of those resources from environmental degradation.

Even the state’s own studies say that a rate of 157-267 is more reflective of actual fish consumption in our state. As for the economy, how many jobs are worth the lives of the additional people that will die from increased exposure to pollution in our waters?

One of our fundamental tribal beliefs is that we must act in the best interests of those who will live after us seven generations from now. I think Ron Allen, Jamestown S’Klallam tribal chairman, says it best: “This is a seven-generation human health issue, not a one-generation economic issue.”

Jim Peters is a member of the Squaxin Island Tribal Council. He has more than 35 years of experience in natural resources management.

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 Big Stakes in Fish Consumption Debate May 26, 2014 SEATTLE (AP) — A bitter fight over how much fish people eat — and thus how clean Washington waters should be — has pitted tribes, commercial fishermen and environmental groups against Boeing, business groups and municipalities.

The state Department of Ecology appears ready to boost the current fish consumption rate, an obscure number that has huge ramifications for the state because it drives water quality standards. A higher number means fewer toxic pollutants would be allowed in waters.

"So much is at stake," said Kelly Susewind with the Department of Ecology, adding: "People are worried about what we might do. Are we going to be protective enough? Are we going to drive business out of the state? That ups the ante."

Meanwhile, the regional head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has warned the state that the EPA intends to take over the process if the state doesn't finalize a rule by the 2014. And a coalition of environmental groups is asking a federal judge in Seattle to get the EPA to step in and force the state to complete a rule or to do it themselves.

The state missed its own March deadline to release a draft rule. With "strong guidance" from Gov. Jay Inslee, the state is still deliberating and may not have a draft rule until later this summer, Susewind said.

Inslee has gotten personally involved in the issue, calling a taskforce representing tribal, business and environmental interests to advise him.

It's a political balancing act for the Democratic governor, who has made the environment a central issue but also has shown a willingness to accommodate companies like Boeing Co. The aerospace giant in March raised concerns to Inslee that the proposals "will have unintended consequences for continued Boeing production in the state."

Editorial Comment:

 Risking

the health of Washington’s prized seafood will have consequences (intended and unintended) to public health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

Inslee spokesman David Postman said the governor believes a balance is possible and "that's what he's working for."

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters For years, the state has known it needs to update its fish consumption rate, which federal regulators say doesn't sufficiently protect those who eat the most fish, particularly Native Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Studies have shown Washington residents eat more fish than other people nationwide, but the state currently assumes people eat about 6 ½ grams a day — or about a small fillet once a month.

The state is now certain to boost that amount, and is considering a fish consumption rate between 125 and 225 grams of fish a day.

Oregon set its rate at 175 grams a day, the highest for a U.S. state.

While a higher fish rate would make standards more stringent, Ecology is also considering changing another factor in the complicated formula that would likely make standards less stringent. The proposal would increase by tenfold the excess cancer risk rate from certain cancer-causing chemicals.

Editorial Comment:

 Washington’s

fish are managed for public benefits – not to be put in harm’s way due to pollution by profit-driven, governmentenabled corporations

 Washington

must implement a fish consumption rate that will adequately protect those who rely most on fish; Native Americans and Pacific Islanders – anything less is irresponsible!

The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and others groups have told Inslee that a less-protective cancer risk level is unacceptable, and would disproportionately harm those who eat the most fish. They worry that a higher cancer risk level would offset gains elsewhere.

The Association of Washington Business, local governments such as Everett and others, meanwhile, have told Inslee that keeping the cancer risk factor at its current rate is "unacceptable" and, coupled with a high fish consumption rate, would result in "unmeasurable incremental health benefits, and predictable economic turmoil."

They say some standards being debated would drive businesses out of state. They note that technology doesn't exist in some cases to limit certain pollutants, though environmental groups argue that the standards would drive technological innovations.

The state is also considering issuing variances — temporary waivers from the rules — allowing businesses and municipalities that discharge pollutants into waterways as many as 40 years in some cases to meet the standards, though they would be required to report progress periodically.

"We think variances are a powerful tool going forward," Susewind said.

Critics of variances have urged Inslee not to give polluters too much time or too many ways to opt out of following the new rules.

The state is also considering different proposals that would leave the standard for mercury the same but make standards for PCBs and arsenic less stringent.

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 Washington Unions Worried About Fish Consumption Issue SEATTLE (AP) — Unions representing Boeing machinists and mill workers are siding with businesses in a bitter fight over how much fish people eat, and thus how clean Washington state waters should be.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and others are worried that a new water quality standard being developed by the state would hurt jobs and economic development.

IAM spokeswoman Tanya Hutchins says workers want a reasonable proposal. They scheduled a news conference Monday in Olympia.

Tribes, environmental groups and others are pressing for rules that protect all people, particularly those who eat the most fish. Businesses and municipalities worry standards will be set so high they can't be achieved.

The state has been deliberating for months. A draft rule is expected this summer.

Editorial Comment (as submitted to Chronicle Editor): These union members need to understand the importance of a healthy Puget Sound, including the many rivers and streams that flow into it.

Irresponsible corporate practices that pollute our life-sustaining waters (fresh and marine) will no longer be tolerated as public health and safety, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies far outweigh the practices that put them in harm's way.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

WGFCI: protecting what needs protected

 Denny Heck, Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray: Protecting wild Pacific salmon United States Congress Wild Pacific salmon are in dire need of effective conservation, recovery and protection as industry continues to put them in harm's way.

Several risks to these iconic species and those who rely on them are directly associated with oceanbased salmon feedlots sited in wild salmon migration routes located in Washington state and in British Columbia marine ecosystems.

These issues are rightfully gaining local, regional, national and international attention and concern.

Your courageous leadership along with that of your colleagues in Congress will be required to remove ocean-based salmon feedlots from Washington state waters and to work to remove them from British Columbia marine ecosystems as US-origin salmon and steelhead pass first as juveniles and then as returning adults by these weapons of mass destruction.

The link below to recent Bloomberg reports and other articles will provide you and your staff with the latest concerns and actions associated with ocean-based salmon feedlots: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2014/05/bloomberg-o.html

 Derek Corrigan: Opposition to Trans Mountain pipeline expansion Mayor Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada I'm writing on behalf of Wild Game Fish Conservation International to thank you and commend you for your courageous leadership and opposition to Kinder Morgan's proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The costs of this project, including risks to public health and safety, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies. far outweigh its purported benefits.

Derek Corrigan

With the expected significant increase in shipping traffic along the international coastline shared by British Columbia, Alaska and Washington state to transport hazardous material including condensate, coal, Liquefied Natural Gas, diluted bitumen and more, it seems as though Burnaby and other coastal communities are ticking time bombs waiting for the next preventable catastrophe (spill, fire, explosion). This scenario is exacerbated by the often-unknown characteristics of these products and by the fact that spill response professionals are inadequately trained and under-resourced.

Given that Kinder Morgan's original pipeline used to carry highly-corrosive, toxic diluted bitumen is now over sixty years old and the proposed pipeline parallels the original for much of the route, the likelihood of a catastrophe is increased.

We respectfully urge you to protect your constituents, community and your natural resources through your efforts to oppose Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

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Responses to Wild Game Fish Conservation International

 Myron Roth: Ocean-based salmon feedlots Industry Specialist-Aquaculture & Seafood Sector Development Branch Ministry of Agriculture British Columbia, Canada Thank you for your recent email, of April 4, 2014, addressed to the Honourable Christy Clark, Premier, regarding salmon farming in British Columbia (BC). As your inquiry falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, and as the Industry Specialist for aquaculture and seafood, I am pleased to respond on behalf of Premier Clark. I apologize for the delay in responding.

Myron Roth

You have identified several risks related to salmon farming, including a risk to public health. I am not aware of any information that indicates farmed salmon from BC presents a public health risk. On the contrary, the weight of evidence suggests BC farmed salmon provides a safe and nutritious food that is consistent with Health Canada’s, the United States Department of Health and Human Services’, and the United States Department of Agriculture’s guidelines that advocate that safe and high quality seafood contributes to a healthy diet1,2,3. In fact, a recent study by the US Institute of Medicine of the National Academies found that farmed Atlantic salmon had the highest levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA) than any of the other common food fish studied. Further, that the three salmon groups studied, farmed Atlantic, wild Atlantic and wild Pacific, had, equally, the lowest amount of the contaminant methylmercury than all of the other common fish food fish studied 44.

Fluctuations in salmon stocks are coast-wide phenomena. This suggests that the situation regarding stock assessment is more complicated than would be suggested by a simple cause-and-effect relationship due to a single factor such as aquaculture. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) records show that southern pink salmon stocks hit historical lows in 1961, long before salmon farming appeared on the coast, and again in 1985, when the industry consisted of just ten farms. In contrast, the largest pink salmon runs ever recorded in areas such as the Broughton Archipelago occurred more than 10 years after salmon farming started there. In other rivers such as the Fraser, pink salmon runs have been near historical highs for the past decade. The largest sockeye run on the Fraser in nearly 100 years occurred in 2010 – 25 years year’s after fish farming started in BC. This year, DFO is predicting another record return of sockeye to the Fraser. This suggests to me, from a wild salmon/ecosystem perspective, salmon aquaculture, as is currently carried out in BC, does not present a significant risk to wild salmon populations.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, I agree that closed containment salmon aquaculture should be considered as an alternative system for farming salmon. However, technical and economic challenges have, to date, prevented this technology from being commercially viable for growing market size salmon at a commercial scale; further research is needed and is on-going in BC.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters To address this information gap we continue to work with various groups, including the Namgis First Nation Atlantic Salmon Recirculating Aquaculture System Pilot Project and the Taste of BC Model Trout Farm project as well as Tides Canada Salmon Aquaculture Innovation Fund to advance the development of closed containment technology. We are undertaking these activities to ensure that we can provide the best possible advice and policy direction for the developing viable and sustainable land-based systems.

Regarding your comments about the well-being of coastal communities, please note that the salmon aquaculture industry is especially important to the economic viability of many of BC’s smaller coastal communities. Salmon farming provides sustainable and well paid employment in areas of the province with limited economic opportunities. In 2012, salmon farming provided 1,400 direct jobs, with many jobs being held by women and First Nations.

In fact, First Nations represent 20% of the sector’s workforce. These jobs in turn support thousands of additional indirect jobs in related supply and service sectors.

I hope this information is helpful. Thank you for writing and sharing your concerns.

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Community Activism, Education, Litigation and Outreach

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Protect Wild Salmon Rally - Peace Arch Border Crossing Saturday, July 19, 2014 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

NAFTA – Investigate Canada’s Failure to Protect Wild Salmon from Fish Farms!

Keynote Speakers: • Zeke Grader, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association • Dr. Claudette Bethune, Clinical Scientist • Ernie Crey, Cheam First Nation Fisheries Portfolio • Craig Orr, Watershed Watch Salmon Society • Alexandra Morton, Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society • More speakers to be confirmed

Come support Pacific Wild Salmon Society, Kwikwasu’tinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, the U.S. –based Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations petition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to conduct an investigation into Canada’s failure to protect wild salmon from industrial fish farms on migration routes of wild salmon.

For more information: Eddie Gardner singingbear@shaw.ca 604-792-0867

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Must See: “Salmon Confidential” – October 5 – Olympia, Washington Limited Seating

Admission by Donation

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Marine

Biologist, Alexandra Morton, Teams with Ecojustice to Protect North America’s Wild Pacific Salmon from Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots

Alexandra Morton (center with brown satchel) and Ecojustice legal team

Watch, Learn, Listen HERE

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 Urgent

Financial Request: Protect Wild Pacific Salmon from Ocean-based Salmon Feedlots Editorial Comment:

Alexandra Morton: I am trying to protect the wild salmon of British Columbia from the impact of salmon farms.

Government refuses to acknowledge the problems. I need your help to communicate the true costs of this industry through science, films, advertising, websites and brochures.

  

 Ms.

Morton’s decades-long, courageous efforts are resulting in long-lasting, global awareness required for the betterment of society and the life giving, wild ecosystems we rely on.

 Wild

Game Fish Conservation International urges you to financially support this necessary work - no amount is too small or too large.

Read more about my work here: alexandramorton.ca See the film: Salmon Confidential Watch 60 Minutes on May 11, 2014

These vitally-important funds will go to the non-profit (not a charity): Department of Wild Salmon DBA Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society Box 399 Sointula, BC V0N 3E0 Your continued financial support via GoFundMe.com/FishFeedlotsOut and personal checks is truly necessary, appreciated and humbling.

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 Federal agencies squander chance for progress on Northwest salmon.

Latest Biological Opinion yet another rehash of court-rejected plan June 17, 2014 PORTLAND, Ore. – Today, 13 conservation and fishing groups filed a legal challenge of the latest federal plan for endangered Columbia and Snake River salmon. The organizations assert that the Obama administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to address the core issues that triggered federal-court rejection of three previous plans, forcing another round of litigation just as momentum is building in the Northwest for a broadly supported stakeholder collaboration as an alternative to the courtroom.

“This latest blueprint is virtually indistinguishable from the plan rejected by the district court in 2011, not to mention the several illegal plans before that," said Save Our Wild Salmon Executive Director Joseph Bogaard. “Rather than looking for ways to do what’s needed to safeguard imperiled salmon and bring people together, the federal agencies have opted to stick with a failed framework while trying an end-run around good science. Unfortunately for salmon, our fishing economy and Northwest people, little has changed in nearly two decades. The agencies are choosing conflict over collaboration, dragging the region back into court as a result.”

Conservation and fishing groups have successfully challenged previous salmon plans for failing to protect these treasured and invaluable Northwest icons, but were hoping to avoid another round of litigation by seeking a solutions-driven stakeholder process. Unfortunately, salmon advocates’ repeated calls over several years for such a collaboration, as well as for new measures to adequately protect fish, were met with near silence by federal agencies. Salmon groups have no choice but to hold the government accountable and ensure at-risk salmon and steelhead populations receive protections under the Endangered Species Act. “This supposedly ‘new’ plan once again fails to help salmon or boost salmon jobs, fails to meet the basic requirements of law and science, and fails to lay the foundation for a broadly supported stakeholder process that could work toward shared solutions,” said Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the west coast’s largest trade association of commercial fishing families. “In some respects, such as cutting back spill, this version is actually a step backward from what's already been thrown out of court as ‘illegal, arbitrary and capricious.’ ” The federal plan not only squanders a chance to move the region forward toward shared solutions, it also rolls back spill – water released over the dams to help young migrating salmon reach the Pacific Ocean more safely. A basic level of spill has been in place under court order since 2006.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A team of federal, state and Tribal scientists studying spill for nearly two decades concluded it is boosting salmon survival and adult returns. These same scientists predict that expanding spill above current levels could help recover many Columbia Basin salmon stocks.

But instead of looking for ways to test that finding, NMFS’s plan moves in the opposite direction – ignoring sound science and allowing dam operators to cut spill below current levels.

“A 17-year scientific study demonstrates that spill is our most effective immediate measure to increase salmon survival across their life-cycle,” said Liz Hamilton, Executive Director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, the region’s largest trade association of sportfishing businesses. “The court-ordered spill in place since 2006, combined with recent years of even higher spill due to heavy spring run-off, has resulted in more adult fish returning to the Columbia. That’s helped salmon businesses and the jobs they support, plain and simple.

“Despite the proven benefits of spill, expanding it to help recover fish has been largely opposed by Bonneville Power Administration and other federal agencies for nearly 20 years,” added Hamilton. “Fish returns are telling us that enhanced spill works. The salmon are talking, and it’s hard to fathom why NMFS, the science agency charged with restoring them, isn’t listening.”

The plan also fails to identify any new or additional measures to address the intensifying harm of climate change. “Climate change isn’t some future threat on the distant horizon – it’s here and harming already-endangered salmon as we speak,” said Bogaard of Save Our Wild Salmon. “Yet NMFS – an agency that certainly knows better – didn’t include a single additional new action to help salmon better survive the warming waters and altered river flows that climate change is bringing to the Columbia Basin. That’s more than a missed opportunity – its negligence.”

Idaho Rivers United Salmon Program Coordinator Greg Stahl added that the ongoing federal failure in the Columbia Basin underscores the need for a change in direction, away from expensive gridlock and toward solutions that work for the people of the Northwest and the nation.

“After two decades of creatively reinterpreting the Endangered Species Act, the federal agencies have shown their eagerness to protect the status quo trumps their interest in ensuring long-term protection and recovery of salmon and steelhead,” Stahl said. “Pacific Northwest residents, American taxpayers and our endangered salmon deserve more.”

Today’s legal challenge was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the following conservation groups, sport and commercial fishing organizations, and clean energy advocates: National Wildlife Federation, Washington Wildlife Federation, Idaho Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, American Rivers, International Federation of Fly Fishers, Salmon for All, NW Energy Coalition, and Columbia Riverkeeper.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 B.C. chief: We'll do 'whatever it takes' to stop Northern Gateway Watch, Listen, Learn HERE June 15, 2014 First Nations and other opponents will "do what's necessary and whatever it takes" to stop the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, a British Columbia chief says days ahead of the project's expected approval.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The federal government is expected to give Enbridge's $7-billion pipeline project the green light early this week, just as the House rises for the summer break.

The pipeline would carry Alberta bitumen across British Columbia to a port in Kitimat, where it would board tankers for shipment to Asian markets.

The project is facing fierce opposition in B.C. over concerns of potential environmental devastation in the event of an oil spill. Coastal residents, First Nations communities and the province are also seeking a share of the project's economic benefits.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Chiefs, says if the project gets the goahead, opponents are considering options to block it, including as many as a dozen lawsuits and civil disobedience.

"We fully expected the Harper government to make every effort to ram this project through," Phillip told CTV's Question Period in an interview that aired Sunday. "But…there's enormous solidarity here in British Columbia between First Nations people, British Columbians, Canadians, and we'll do what's necessary and whatever it takes to stop this project."

Workshops are underway to teach opponents civil rights and "legal rights with respect to arrest procedures," Phillip said.

Despite strong opposition in B.C., some three-dozen business leaders touted the project in an open letter that appeared as a full-page ad in newspapers across the country late last week.

Former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Tobin, one of the letter's signatories, called such projects "possible," but acknowledged that "they're not easy."

Tobin was in power when the provincial government was working out agreements for the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose offshore oil projects.

While such projects can have a profound impact on Canada's economic prosperity, they should go forward only after stakeholders' concerns are met, Tobin told The Canadian Press.

"I'm saying let's see if we can work together and rise to the challenge and make this thing happen in an environmentally safe way, in a manner that shares the benefits across British Columbia, Alberta and, in particular, makes equity participants -- ownership participants -of First Nations communities," Tobin said.

D'Arcy Levesque, vice president of public and government affairs at Enbridge, said the company has signed equity agreements with 26 First Nations partners that represent more than 60 per cent of the aboriginal population along the pipeline's right of way.

Editorial Comment:

 Given

the international scope of the irreversible risks associated with this illadvised, diluted bitumen pipeline – tanker project, other nations and entities (especially along North America’s west coast) should collaborate to determine project risks and a comprehensive benefit to cost ratio.

 Doing

so will guide policymakers away from the madness of this proposed project.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters "We remain committed to working with and to try earning the trust and respect of other First Nations along the right of way," Levesque told Question Period. "We know that's a long process, but we're very committed to doing that."

Former federal cabinet minister Jim Prentice had been helping Enbridge tout the project to B.C.'s First Nations communities. Prentice stopped that work to run in the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race, but he left behind "an excellent team that continues to work on our behalf," Levesque said.

Asked about Enbridge's claim to be engaging in meaningful dialogue with First Nations, Phillip replied: "No, absolutely not. Nothing could be further from the truth. In many ways, the Enbridge file is a case study in how not to engage First Nations people."

He also rejected the claim that the company has reached equity agreements with First Nations, and that Prentice had made progress in talks.

"Mr. Prentice was here for a short while and in spite of donning the buckskin vest, so to speak, the opposition to Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline proposal is deeply entrenched," Phillip said.

When a National Energy Board panel approved the project last December, it attached 209 conditions.

Enbridge is "working on what it will take to meet all 209," Levesque said. The company also wants to meet the five conditions set out by the B.C. government, and "try earning the trust and respect of other First Nations" along the pipeline's right of way.

It will be impossible for the company to placate everyone, he said. But "most fair-minded Canadians recognize that it's critical that we open up new markets for our most valuable commodity: crude oil."

But for Phillip, the talk of job creation and other economic benefits does not outweigh the project's risks of pipeline ruptures and other problems.

"This line traverses thousands of kilometres of a very crucial watershed, rivers and streams that are essential to our wild salmon fishery," he said, adding that a tanker spill "would be catastrophic to the marine life along the coast."

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Coastal First Nations Declare Northern Gateway Pipeline “Effectively Dead”

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Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A group of protesters gathers outside the Northern Gateway hearings in Prince Rupert in 2012. By comparison, oral hearings will play a minor role in regulatory study of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain proposal, which is being heard under streamlined federal rules.

ď ś Scientists' letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Reject Northern Gateway June 3, 2014 VANCOUVER - Hundreds of scientists are asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reject a federal panel report recommending approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline.

In an open letter, the scientists say the joint review panel report that recommended approval of the project is fundamentally flawed.

Among the problems, they say the panel did not look at the overall increase in global greenhouse gas emissions that will result from the expansion in oil sands production.

The letter says the panel also failed to properly weigh the risks to whales and other marine species in the event of a spill.

The federal government will announce its decision this month on the 1,200-kilometre pipeline that would link the Alberta oil sands with a tanker port on the B.C. coast.

The letter is signed by 300 scientists from universities from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, along with colleagues from international institutions including Stanford, Cornell and Oxford.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Petition: Enbridge Honor Your Commitment

Enbridge just convinced the Canadian government this isn’t worth saving

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 The Real Reason Keystone XL Might Fail Widespread welding defects have been detected by U.S. regulators on another part of the Keystone project, the Gulf Coast Pipeline May 30, 2014 Radically revised jobs numbers (from tens of thousands to, say, 50). Misleading ad campaigns (“energy security” that translates to Canadian exports to China). Ass-covering bureaucrats at the U.S. State Department. A president who can’t seem to decide, yes or no, despite evidence that the project fails his own criteria for approval. The battle over the proposed fourth and final leg of the Keystone oil pipeline complex—the Keystone XL—long ago became something of a farce. But whereas much of the debate has been based on projections of one form or another (including this magazine’s analysis of the oil price point ($65 per barrel) at which the Keystone becomes a big old boondoggle, or the amount of carbon humans can add to the earth’s atmosphere before it’s “game over,” according to a NASA scientist)—that all seems a bit hypothetical compared with the news this week, news that had been hidden in plain sight, and only gained a wider audience on Tuesday, when Joan Lowy of the Associated Press published on it.

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) sent its inspectors to check on the progress of the third, Southern leg of the Keystone, the Gulf Coast Pipeline. This is the line that TransCanada (TRP) Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling called the “world’s safest pipeline” when it began moving crude in January, and the same one that President Obama flew to Cushing, Okla., to champion back in March 2012.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Well, the inspectors were so disturbed by the defective construction they found—in particular, the crap welding—that they stopped construction for a day just to get TransCanada’s attention; sent two severe warning letters to the Calgary oil company; and slapped two “special conditions” on top of the 57 already required of TransCanada for the proposed Keystone XL—right there in the State Department’s Jan. 31 Final Environmental Impact Statement that we and scores of others combed through and missed.

The first stipulates that if State approves the Keystone XL, TransCanada has to implement a quality management system for the entire construction process to “ensure that this pipeline is—from the beginning—built to the highest standards.” Second, and more notably, TransCanada must hire an independent, third-party inspection company to go behind it and double-check all its work: the welding, the trench-digging, the laying of pipe, etc. For a company as large as TransCanada, that is rare, pipeline analysts say. Something usually required of a company only after a catastrophe like the one in 2010 in Kalamazoo, Mich. It’s also a major practical challenge. Imagine Ford being required to hire a third party to inspect each and every one of its cars as it builds them. Oh, and the PHMSA gets the final OK on this chaperone.

Now, before anyone howls “here we go again” about regulators sticking it to business, consider the source (the PHMSA is hardly an activist agency), and consider a sample of what the PHMSA called TransCanada out on.

“From the start of welding,” the PHMSA wrote in a Sept. 26, 2013, letter (PDF), “TransCanada experienced a high weld rejection rate.”

(That is, ultrasonic testing on the welds holding the pipes together determined they were not up to snuff.) “During the first week 26.8 percent of the welds required repairs, 32.0 percent the second week, 72.2 percent the third week, and 45.0 percent the fourth week. On September 25, 2012, TransCanada stopped the Spread 3 welding after 205 of the 425 welds, or 48.2 percent required repairs.”

During one week in September, 72 percent, or almost three-quarters, of the welds on the “safest pipeline in the world” required redoing. (TransCanada, for its part, says it has addressed the PHMSA’s concerns, and you can read its response in writing here [PDF].) Throughout the Keystone XL fight, TransCanada has maintained that the chance of a spill is remote, and that its pipelines are state-of-the-art. But the implications of TransCanada’s inferior welding on its Southern leg are precisely why the Keystone XL has met with such fierce resistance on the ground in Nebraska. It’s there the planned pipe will pass over the Ogallala aquifer, which irrigates much of the Great Plains, and directly and indirectly supports millions of American jobs—and that’s not counting all the drinking water.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Plains Midstream Fined $1.3 Million After Guilty Plea In Alberta Spills RED DEER, Alta. – A pipeline company has been fined after pleading guilty in two spills that sent a total of nearly five million litres of oil into Alberta rivers and wetlands.

Plains Midstream Canada faced three environmental charges in a courtroom in Red Deer, Alta., on Tuesday and was ordered to pay a total of $1.3 million for the spills, one of which was the second largest in Alberta history.

Greenpeace spokesman Mike Hudema said the figure represents about five hours worth of profit for Plains All American, the company that owns Plains Midstream, which has about 1,250 employees in Canada.

“A $1.3-million fine for Plains Midstream is hardly a signal to the company or Alberta’s problemplagued pipeline industry that they need to start solving their ongoing spill issues,” he said.

According to an agreed statement of facts, a poorly welded and highly stressed section of the 48-year-old Rainbow pipeline cracked on April 28, 2011. About 4.5 million litres of oil leaked into low-lying marshlands near the northern Alberta community of Little Buffalo.

Only the lucky location of a beaver dam prevented the oil from flowing beyond the low-lying spot where the leak occurred.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “A beaver dam was present that stopped the vast majority (and probably all) of the oil from escaping,” said the statement.

The beaver did not survive.

The statement describes the damage as significant, although small in area. A chemist with the Alberta Energy Regulator reported that the cleanup had been successful, and that frogs and insects had returned to the site by the following year.

Although school in Little Buffalo was cancelled for several days over odour concerns, “no information exists to show if anyone in the area was at risk of any harm or suffered any health effects,” the statement says.

“The Rainbow release appears to have resulted in relatively little effect to humans due to the remoteness of the release point.”

The pipeline was shut down for 122 days before it was allowed to reopen.

The board then responsible for overseeing Alberta pipelines cited the company for not properly digging the pipeline, for inadequate operating and maintenance and for inadequate leak detection and response.

Plains Midstream was ordered to assess all of its other pipelines of the same type.

The company also pleaded guilty to a June 2012 spill into the Red Deer River near the community of Sundre in central Alberta. Under the pressure of water flows more than 10 times normal, a length of the 48-year-old Rangeland pipeline running underneath the river failed.

Several Sundre residents went to hospital with respiratory complaints. People with homes along that stretch of river had to leave. Five members of one family were taken to hospital and others were not able to return to their homes for weeks.

Gleniffer Lake, a downstream reservoir popular with anglers and boaters, was closed for three weeks at the height of summer. Drinking water in the area was also affected.

A report by Alberta’s energy watchdog released earlier this year was critical of the company’s actions.

The regulator concluded Plains Midstream didn’t inspect its pipeline often enough and didn’t pay enough attention to government warnings. It also said the company failed to enact adequate mitigation measures once the leak occurred and communicated poorly with hundreds of people affected by the spill.

Although dead fish and wildlife were found in the area, the agreed statement of facts says “no cause of the death of such wildlife was conclusively determined.”

Alberta Environment reports in the statement that the company’s cleanup of the Rangeland leak was “exemplary.”

The section of pipe that failed has since been abandoned.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 U.S. Court win for endangered killer whales stands May 22, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Whales rely on their hearing to survive in the dark ocean environment. That’s why Ecojustice and our clients take noise pollution in whale habitats seriously.

And that’s why we’re celebrating some good news from south of the border this month: A U.S. Court decision that requires the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to reconsider its biological opinion on the impacts of naval activity will stand.

Earlier this month, the NMFS withdrew its appeal of the decision, meaning it can get down to the work of properly evaluating how navy testing impacts at-risk marine mammals. The NMFS is now required to consider the impacts of naval testing over a longer time frame and — among other things — the cumulative impact of years of naval noise on whale hearing.

Navy testing, which includes the use of explosives and sonar, can disrupt marine mammals like whales and dolphins. The loud sounds can scare them from an area and harm their hearing. Whales and dolphins have adapted to survive in the vast expanse of darkened ocean through their highly evolved ability to hear and communicate over long distances. If they can’t hear, they can’t survive.

Five species of whales are found in the area where the naval testing at issue takes place: the southern resident killer whale, and the humpback, blue, fin and sei whales. All five are transboundary species, meaning that the whales and their habitat cross the border between Canada and the U.S. All five are also listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. Ecojustice lawyers helped the Georgia Strait Alliance, Wilderness Committee, David Suzuki Foundation and Raincoast Conservation — organizations long-committed to conserving Canada’s marine species — appear as friends of the Court (or amicus curiae). We helped these groups provide the Court with information about Canadian efforts to protect these whales, including the only legal protection for acoustic quality of the marine environment, a result of our successful resident killer whale lawsuit.

We are pleased by this turn of events, and look forward to seeing the NMFS’ revised biological opinion in August.

Not the only threat Unfortunately, naval testing is just one source of noise pollution degrading the marine environment’s acoustic quality. It’s estimated that underwater noise levels in the world’s oceans have increased an average of 15 decibels during the past 50 years, largely as a result of increased shipping traffic. It’s no surprise then that increased traffic along tanker routes that cross through whale habitat continues to be a pressing concern in Canadian waters, especially with proposed projects like Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on the table.

The Northern Gateway tanker route overlaps with important humpback whale breeding and feeding areas along B.C.’s north coast while tanker traffic through the Burrard Inlet and Strait of Georgia from Kinder Morgan’s Westridge terminal intersects with the critical habitat of the southern resident killer whales.

We’ve been working within the regulatory process for these pipeline projects to ensure the threat they pose to whale habitats are considered and addressed. The Kinder Morgan review is currently underway and Federal Cabinet’s decision on Northern Gateway is expected mid-June.

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 $26

Million and 2 Years Later: DFO must respond and implement the Cohen Recommendations May 23, 2014

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver – May 23, 2014) “The Harper Government established the Cohen Commission in 2009 at a cost of $26 million which heard from over 170 witnesses, over 3 years of study and resulted in a voluminous report with 75 recommendations. We are simultaneously appalled and deeply troubled by the Harper government’s deliberate destruction and refusal to implement the recommendations of the Cohen commission,” stated Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “Justice Cohen got it right when he prioritized the conservation and protection of wild salmon and placed this firmly as the top priority of DFO; at the same time concluding that fish farms along wild salmon migration routes have the potential for serious and irreversible harm to wild salmon. However, instead of implementing Cohen’s recommendations, the reverse holds true. DFO is making the expansion of the fish farm industry the priority at the risk and peril to wild salmon.”

Recently, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea revealed that the Harper Government and specifically the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) have only implemented one recommendation in its “day-to-day” operations of Commissioner Cohen’s exhaustive study into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River.

“Canada must not ignore the call for a formal investigation into Canada’s failure to protect wild salmon from disease and parasites from fish farm sites on the coast of BC made by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a key NAFTA body which oversees signatories’ enforcement of environmental laws and standards. Unequivocal evidence points to the failure of DFO to keep harmful pollutants, viruses and parasites out of water used by wild salmon. DFO must stop their destructive policies and remove from their mandate aquaculture management and solely focus on the protection of wild salmon as recommended by Cohen.” stated Chief Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.

Chief Bob Chamberlin, Vice-President of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs stated, “Wild salmon is integral to our cultures, communities and Nations and with the continued expansion of fish farms into our territories we have witnessed the devastating impact fish farms have on wild salmon and this is simply unacceptable.” Chief Chamberlin continued, “The First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, a coalition of approximately 80 First Nations have been turning their collective attention and expertise to the protection of wild salmon and we call on the Harper Government to immediately respond and fully implement Cohen’s recommendations.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters DFO does not have the best interests of the health and sustainability of wild salmon as a priority in their policies. This is clear as they continue to disregard Cohen’s recommendations and continue on with the promotion and expansion of the aquaculture industry.”

Media inquiries: Grand Chief Stewart Phillip (604) 684-0231 Chief Bob Chamberlin (604) 684-0231 UBCIC is a NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Alexandra Morton:

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Here is what we have been waiting for!

This is very significant.

An alliance of 80 First Nations that are not going to let salmon farms destroy wild salmon!

Finally a powerful body putting wild salmon first.

Let the Union of BC Indian Chiefs know that we stand with them: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/contact/#axzz32dyixtFB

Eddie Gardner

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Protecting wild salmon from industrial fish farms is everybody's business It is in the best interest of biodiversity, and, folks, that includes us human beings!

Editorial Comment:

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We at Wild Game Fish Conservation International thank the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the people of the First Nations they represent for this courageous statement to remove ocean-based salmon feedlots from wild Pacific salmon migration routes.

We and our associates around planet Earth fully support this sorely-needed action - an action that will unite those who truly care for iconic wild Pacific salmon.

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 Muckleshoot Tribe Urges Rejection of Genetically Engineered Salmon Application May 19, 2014 AUBURN, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe has joined with the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) in calling on the United States Food and Drug Administration to deny any application for the introduction of genetically engineered salmon into the United States until a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and further scientific review is completed and formal consultation with Northwest Treaty Tribes undertaken.

“The Coast Salish people have organized their lives around salmon for thousands of years” AquaBounty, a large Boston-based biotechnology company, has proposed to produce genetically engineered salmon eggs in Canadian waters, ship them to Panama where the engineered salmon would be raised to maturity in inland tanks, then slaughtered and processed in Panama and shipped to the United States for human consumption.

AquaBounty has patented a process whereby the DNA of wild Chinook salmon and an eel-like pout fish are fused and injected into Atlantic salmon. That engineered salmon is said to grow to full size in half the time of a wild fish and, according to AquaBounty, “increase the efficiency of production.”

According to federal guidelines, not only would the genetic engineering process and resultant salmon be owned by a corporation, but the fish would not be labeled as genetically modified so consumers wouldn’t know if they are buying it.

Northwest Tribes share a number of serious concerns about genetically engineered salmon, including the possibility of escape into the wild habitat and competing with wild salmon for food and rearing locations, or inbreeding with wild salmon which could result in the destruction of the species upon which all Indian people of the Pacific Northwest depend. Studies have not ruled out those possible impacts.

“From time immemorial salmon has been central to the culture, religion and society of Northwest Indian people,” said Virginia Cross, Muckleshoot Tribal Council Chair. “Genetically engineered salmon not only threaten our way of life, but could also adversely affect our treaty rights to take fish at our usual and accustomed places.”

In opposing FDA approval, the Muckleshoot Tribe and ATNI cite the precautionary principle, which states that habitat modification should not be undertaken until the full impacts are known and the natural and human environments are protected - and that the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls upon those proposing the action.

“The Coast Salish people have organized their lives around salmon for thousands of years,” said Valerie Segrest, Muckleshoot Tribal member and Native Foods Educator. “We see them as our greatest teachers, giving their lives for us to have life. Corporate ownership of such a cultural keystone is a direct attack on our identity and the legacy our ancestors have left us.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Absent indisputable evidence that there is no harm in human consumption, wild fish habitat or the treaty-protected fishing rights of Northwest Indians the FDA must not permit the promised increase of production efficiency to trump sound science or fishing rights and culture of Northwest Indians.”

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 Oil-by-rail protests planned to mark Canadian disaster Access interactive map HERE May 28, 2014 WASHINGTON — A new interactive online map of rail routes shows how oil is rumbling across the nation’s train tracks, as federal regulators consider new requirements for tank cars carrying the crude and opponents plan vigils commemorating last year’s devastating derailment in Canada.

Oil Change International, a group that encourages a move from fossil fuels to other energy sources, debuted the interactive map on Wednesday, ahead of protests planned around the July 6 anniversary of the derailment that killed nearly four dozen people and destroyed downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

In a rainbow of colors, it shows the flood of oil being transported by trains from North Dakota, West Texas and other states to rail terminals and refineries in the Northeast and along the Gulf Coast.

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 A 'poem' to Create Awareness about Fish Farms What we do today affects tomorrow

Hi everyone, I've made this video for my Biology Action project, my action being to bring awareness to the Fish Farms on our coast. It would be much appreciated for you to watch it and share.

Thank you.

Mckaylee Rae Catcher

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Burnaby

Chevron Fracking Protest: It’s all over with for now, Power to the

people May 30, 2014 Early Friday morning the 30th of May 2014, three activists (Dan Wallace, Mia Nissen and Adam Gold) locked themselves to the gate of Chevron in North Burnaby to protest exploitative resource extraction in Canada.

They used bicycle D-locks and chains to secure themselves to the metal posts of the gate to stop truck traffic into the Chevron North Burnaby in order to draw attention the Federal and Provincial government’s complete disregard for the earth, Indigenous sovereignty, and the reality of climate change.(Read More)

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters It’s all over with for now. At approximately 10:30pm the three protesters who were chained to the Chevron station gate, Dan Wallace, Mia Nissen and Adam Gold were arrested. The police cordoned off the growing crowd, draped the protestors with protective blankets, then sawed off the bike locks while sparks shot into the air. To the chants of “if you ship it – we will stop it, if you build it, we will block it”, the crowd cheered as the arrested finished their day’s work, and were led into police vehicles. This observer will remember the silent resolve the three maintained throughout the day until the final moments, the seriousness of the intension behind their motives, the humour that provided relief as the day wore on.

The optics of the situation made the power relations in our present society transparent. The beautiful but increasingly threatened Vancouver/Burnaby landscape was the backdrop; the bright blue sky hid the invisible knowledge that greenhouse gases are building and leading to catastrophic changes in weather systems. In our midst, the gated fossil fuel corporation stands seemingly invulnerable to attempts to respond to threats to the very existence of humanity. The state, in the form of police and the judge’s injunction, come to defend corporate interests. Business-as-usual and the corporation’s profit imperative in the form of a steady train of fossil fuel delivery is to be protected above all else.

On the side of humanity and nature are the good people being arrested, those in the audience, and all the allies expressing support throughout the day. Risking their daily routine, their reputation with coworkers or acquaintances, or possible financial penalty, they soldier on throughout the day in the shared understanding that this is a time of clarity, of vitality, of being awake to ourselves as people and as community. We will remember the words of one of the arrestees. “We can do this. We are doing this now”.

Good night, comrades. Thanks for following this story. Until tomorrow…

Westcoastnativenews would like to give a big shout out to Dan Wallace, Mia Nissen, and Adam Gold, for there brave and honorable acts, standing up for the people of B.C, and to Brad Hornick from systemchangenotclimatechange.org for the GREAT coverage of the event. We thank you all for defending the land and standing for the people. till next time. It’s all over with for now, Power to the people

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Oil Change:

Stop the Killer Oil Trains

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Louisville Utility Faces $68 Million Penalty for Hidden-Camera Captured Coal Ash Dumping Watch Slideshow HERE May 30, 2014 Two months have passed since hidden-camera images exposed Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) for dumping toxic coal ash into the Ohio River—a practice the company has engaged in for two decades.

The utility has done nothing in response, so two environmental groups figure it’s time to pay up.

The Sierra Club and Earthjustice filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to order LG&E to stop the illegal dumping. The company could face up to $68 million in penalties to account for the last five years of its illegal dumping, plus $37,500 for each day moving forward, until the violations are eliminated.

The groups notified the company that they intended to sue in March, but that seemed to have no impact on LG&E. Sierra Club and Earthjustice are armed with a year’s worth of footage from a camera that was strapped to a tree. They also have proof from Google Earth satellite images that date back to 1993.

“This is not a mere trickle, it’s a gushing flow of toxic coal ash pollution directly into the Ohio River,” Earthjustice attorney Thom Cmar said in a statement. “LG&E has tried to hide this contamination for too long, but now we’re taking action to keep these dangerous pollutants out of the Ohio River. We can’t allow LG&E to put nearby communities at risk.”

The Ohio River is a water source for about 3 million people

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OLYMPIA CHAPTER OF TROUT UNLIMITED JUNE 25, 2014 7:00PM NORTH OLYMPIA FIRE STATION 5046 BOSTON HARBOR ROAD NE

BUOY 10 FISHING FOR FALL CHINOOK

Matt Chandler

Happy client

Program: Buoy 10 Fishing for Fall Chinook The public is invited to the June 25, 2014 meeting of the Olympia Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a presentation by Matt Chandler on Buoy 10 Fall Chinook fishery. Matt will share with you the appropriate gear, bait prep, rigging, trolling techniques and his favorite locations based on tide and running time. This August we are predicted to get one of the biggest returns of Fall Chinook since the Bonneville Dam was built. 1.6 million Chinook, and 800,000 Coho are predicted to return this season to the Columbia. This has always been an action packed fishery that everyone should experience.

You don't want to miss this opportunity to learn from Matt the best techniques and methods to have a successful day at Buoy 10.

Refreshments and a fishing equipment raffle will follow his presentation.

Bio: Matt Chandler: Matt has been fishing in the Northwest his entire life. He currently guides full time all over Washington State. His guide service, “Get Hooked NW” is his full time activity and spends several months on the Columbia River. Fishing for salmon at Buoy 10 is Matt's favorite fishery due to the high numbers of fish caught and the warm weather.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio with Jay Peachy – Tuesday Mornings “Streaming like wild Pacific salmon”

CJSF 90.1 FM is Simon Fraser University's arts, public affairs and indie music radio station!

CJSF strives to provide points of view that are rarely expressed in mainstream media.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Wild Salmon Warrior Radio – Recent Archives May 20, 2014: Dilbit export – National interest questioned May 27, 2014: Threats that BC based Nova Gold's Donlin Mine has to the Kuskokwim River June 3, 2014: Ancient Forests, FIPA Hupacasath Legal Challenge June 10, 2014: Mossom Creek Hatchery Rebuild Update, NEB/Kinder-Morgan TransMountain Pipeline Process Opposition June 17, 2014: Imperial Metals Mining project - Ruddock Creek, Adams River Sockeye

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Petition to Governor Inslee: Moratorium on Oil by Rail Permits Sign petition HERE

PETITION BACKGROUND I see mile-long Bakken oil trains, each carrying approximately 3 million gallons of volatile crude oil roll through my small Skagit Valley community nearly every day. If all oil-by-rail permit requests are approved, many more potentially explosive oil trains will travel through Washington state every day. The dangers to the health and safety of our communities and our environment of transporting oil by rail, given the flammability of Bakken crude oil, the poor safety record of the tank cars currently carrying the oil, and the increased number of derailments as more trains transport oil, need to be studied and addressed before allowing more oil-by-rail trains to travel through Washington state.

Editorial Comment: The amazing people and uniquely-productive natural resources of Washington State deserve to be protected from the madness of transporting highly-explosive, fracked Bakken shale oil or toxic tar sands diluted bitumen.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Salmon feedlots

Some say that the ocean-based salmon feedlot industry is analogous with the parasites in the industry’s open pens The industry and its parasites suck every bit of life out of their unsuspecting hosts

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Chief Bill Cramner of ‘Namgis First Nation and Renée Hopfner, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Safeway Operations, Sobeys Inc. with Kuterra salmon.

 B.C. operation ecologically sound Fish are tasty, moist and, most importantly, sustainable June 13, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters And now for a completely different take on farmed salmon which has its share of critics: Go for it!

Kuterra, the first large-scale, ecologically sound, cutting edge salmon farm in North America, opened last month on Vancouver Island, a kilometre away from the ocean, near the little town of Port McNeill.

“Kuterra salmon has a milder flavour than other farmed salmon; it’s a little moister and has higher fat content. It’s been described as buttery,” says Guy Dean, of Albion Fisheries, which is distributing the salmon.

“It’s our goal to establish brand recognition as a new part of the industry. They’re not competing against open-net farmed salmon; it’s for people who are interested in a sustainable, healthy alternative. I haven’t heard of any chef who hasn’t liked it. They’ve tried it and couldn’t believe the quality.”

Editorial Comment:

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

We applaud this courageous effort to remove salmon feedlots from wild salmon migration routes.

We are concerned with the source of feed for these fish (ie wild forage fish, animal byproducts, plants) and any risks it introduces to public health and safety, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies.

We are concerned that this industry, like its ocean-based cousin, introduces Atlantic salmon and their risks into Pacific salmon ecosystems.

The retail cost of Kuterra salmon is less than wild sockeye and more than wild coho, says Albion Fisheries vice-president Guy Dean. The retail cost will be about $3.97 per 100 g, or about 30 per cent higher than conventional farmed salmon.

Kuterra is owned and operated by the ‘Namgis First Nations and uses cutting edge technology and methods to produce sustainable, eco-friendly farmed Atlantic salmon. They were assisted by Save Our Salmon Marine Conservation and Tides Canada (a philanthropic financial and project management service for change makers).

The first of Kuterra salmon is available at Safeway in B.C. and chefs, especially in mid- and Eastern Canada, are contacting Albion Fisheries daily. West Coast chefs still prefer to serve wild salmon but highly sustainable seafood restaurants like Yew at Four Seasons were the first to jump on board with Kuterra.

“The 1,700 member ‘Namgis First Nation is very connected to salmon,” says Jo Mrozewski of Kuterra. “It’s always been part of their culture and Kuterra was born out of their concern for the marine environment. They want to show industry there’s a better case for farming on land than in the ocean and they’re keen to show a business case for it.”

The company is ready to move to the next stage, she says.

“Eventually, we’ll grow to five times our current capacity to achieve the right economies of scale for profitability and to persuade the industry.” The ‘Namgis traditionally either barbecued salmon over a beach fire or smoked it and ate it with seaweed and oolichan oil (an acquired taste).

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “We’re the first such operation in North America,” says Mrozewski. Kuterra is a mash-up of kutala, which means salmon in the language of the ‘Namgis people, and terra, or land. Kuterra is the first to produce Atlantic salmon in a closed system. (Sturgeon and Arctic char are produced in similar landlocked, ecologically sound facilities in B.C.) “We’re exploring more markets and approaching chefs at the moment. We’re at very, very early stages,” says Mrozewski. “We’re harvesting 1,300 fish a week right now. It’s the first cohort and we’ve deliberately kept it small. The goal is to work up to getting that to three cohorts or about four and a half metric tonnes a year. It’s commercial scale and that’s what makes it distinctive.” She said Albion Fisheries did a taste test with the sales staff and they uniformly chose Kuterra over other farmed salmon.

Mike McDermid, one of the founders of The Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program and marine biologist, applauds Kuterra.

“Everything’s controlled and it’s not interacting with the environment at all. This is really a first, moving from open ocean net pens to a true, recirculating, closed containment system,” he says.

“With open net farming, it’s no secret: there’s effluent. You can’t control the waste from fish. There can be disease, parasites, localized epidemic outbreaks, escapes. There’s even concern that even if the open net farmed salmon don’t interbreed with local salmon, they can try to go up river and could take away spawning grounds and compete for breeding space. The potential is there. My personal feeling on aquaculture is, if we’re going to keep up our passionate demand for salmon, we have to figure out a way to do it truly sustainably. Otherwise, there’s a risk of depleting wild stocks. We’re only scratching the surface of what that really means.”

The salmon farm is landlocked and uses no antibiotics, pesticides or other chemicals. It doesn’t contaminate marine or land environments and requires 30 per cent less feed than conventional fish farming methods. Bio-security protocols keep the fish disease free. The salmon, Mrozewski says, are not stressed.

“Our containers are designed to give fish closeness as they are schooling fish but they have plenty of swimming room.”

Water is recycled and reused with bio-filters (colonies of bacteria that feed on waste from fish). Heat from the fish are reused and there are no diesel generators, except as emergency backup.

“We have the newest energy-saving technologies throughout our farm,” says Mrozewski. “BC Hydro’s Power Smart program has recognized this and supports our initiatives.”

McDermid says research is proving salmon’s larger ecological benefit. It has provided nitrogen to the coastal rainforest as eagles, wolves, bears scatter the remains.

“As much as 40 to 60 per cent of nitrogen in coastal trees is from salmon. That’s significant,” he says.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

This image shows 0.3 mm foraminifera made up of a single cell surrounded by a limestone shell.

ď ś Using genetics to measure environmental impact of salmon farming May 4, 2014 Determining species diversity makes it possible to estimate the impact of human activity on marine ecosystems accurately. The environmental effects of salmon farming have been assessed, until now, by visually identifying the animals living in the marine sediment samples collected at specific distances from farming sites.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A team led by Jan Pawlowski, professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, analysed this type of sediment using a technique known as "DNA barcoding" that targets certain micro-organisms. Their research, which has been published in the Molecular Ecology Resources journal, reveals the potential of this new genomic tool for detecting environmental changes as accurately as with traditional methods -- but more quickly and at lower cost.

Salmon farming is one of the most widespread activities in marine aquaculture. It has a considerable impact on the environment, which is largely due to three factors: the accumulation of food waste and faecal matter; the toxicity caused by the chemicals employed to clean the cages; and the drugs that are used.

The impact of such farms on the coastal environment is traditionally assessed by monitoring some of the small species that live in the sediments beneath the cages. The visual identification of these animals under a microscope is time consuming and extremely expensive. It also requires highlytrained taxonomy specialists, which renders the method unsuitable for large-scale use. But, as Jan Pawlowski, professor in the Department of Genetics and Evolution at UNIGE, explains: "It is now possible to address this problem using sophisticated tools that analyse the DNA and RNA extracted from sediment samples."

Genetic barcodes Working alongside researchers from the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences (UK) and the University of Aarhus (Denmark), Pawlowski collected sediment samples at specific distances from two salmon farms in the heart of the Scottish fjords. "We used genetic barcodes that recognise specific fragments of DNA and RNA extracted from the sediment samples," explains researcher Franck Lejzerowicz, a PhD student in the professor's team: "These 'genetic hooks' consist of DNA sequences that vary between species but remain stable within a given species."

The DNA barcodes used make it possible to identify the different foraminiferal species that are present in the sediments. These single-celled micro-organisms, which have a great diversity, are already recognised environmental bioindicators. As a result, the geneticists were able to process a large number of samples using high-throughput DNA sequencing. "Our study revealed large variations between foraminiferal species collected near farms and those from remote sites. In addition, species diversity diminishes on sites affected by the farms."

Monitoring the quality of the environment This type of highly-accurate ecological analysis allowed to establish a correlation between species richness and distance from the cages, a correlation that is even more pronounced if the farm is only stirred by weak sea currents. The same type of correlation was also established based on the degree of oxygenation of the sediments.

As Jan Pawlowski states: "The vast amount of organic compounds on the farming sites can even sometimes generate anoxic sediments, which makes it impossible for most species to survive." The biologists were also surprised to discover a new species of foraminifera, which could serve as a bioindicator of organic enrichment.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters This technology, known as "metabarcoding," is spreading rapidly, and can be used to supply information on the overall diversity of the micro-organisms found in all samples. The method is suitable for large-scale tests because it is much quicker, more reliable and easier to standardise than the processes that are used at present. This study is one of the first attempts to use environmental genomics as a tool for assessing the impact of industries such as marine aquaculture or offshore drilling.

Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Université de Genève. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference: Jan Pawlowski, Philippe Esling, Franck Lejzerowicz, Tomas Cedhagen, Thomas A. Wilding. Environmental monitoring through protist next-generation sequencing metabarcoding: assessing the impact of fish farming on benthic foraminifera communities. Molecular Ecology Resources, 2014; DOI:10.1111/1755-0998.12261

Cite This Page: MLA APA Chicago Université de Genève. "Using genetics to measure environmental impact of salmon farming."

ScienceDaily.

ScienceDaily, 8 May 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140508121357.htm>.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Andy Oudman (1290 AM CJBK, London ON) and Pam Killeen first speak with biologist, Alexandra Morton, about the problems with farmed salmon. LISTEN HERE --http://tinyurl.com/qj6v4df (May 29, 2014)

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 NAFTA

Body Recommends Full Investigation of Canada’s Failure to Protect Wild Salmon From Industrial Fish Farms May 21, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A key NAFTA body today recommended a formal investigation into Canada’s failure to protect wild salmon from disease and parasites from industrial fish farms in British Columbia.

The decision by the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, an environmental dispute body established under NAFTA, responds to a 2012 petition by Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society and Kwikwasu’tinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation in Canada, and the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

“NAFTA absolutely should investigate why Canada has failed to enforce the Fisheries Act to keep harmful pollutants, viruses and parasites out of water used by wild salmon, and the damage being done to wild salmon in British Columbia by the aggressive Norwegian salmon farming industry,” said biologist Alexandra Morton with the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society. “The fate of our wild salmon runs is an environmental, economic, social and trade issue of international concern.”

The Secretariat’s decision identified “central questions” raised by the petition that should be investigated, including whether Canada is effectively enforcing section 36 of its federal Fisheries Act in relation to salmon aquaculture operations in British Columbia that allow “deleterious substances” in waters frequented by fish. Today’s recommendation by the commission is an important step in moving the petition forward under NAFTA’s environmental dispute process.

“Wild salmon shouldn’t continue to be subjected to viruses, toxic chemicals and parasites from openwater industrial fish operations in their migration routes,” said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Canada’s own Cohen Commission recommended moving finfish farming off wild salmon migration routes but that still hasn’t happened. An investigation by NAFTA would shine a spotlight on Canada’s refusal to protect wild salmon habitat as required by its own Fisheries Act.” The petition challenged the Canadian government’s violations of its Fisheries Act in permitting more than 100 industrial salmon feedlots in British Columbia to operate along wild salmon migration routes, exposing ecologically, socially and economically valuable salmon runs to epidemics of disease, parasites, toxic chemicals and concentrated waste.

The petition documents the proliferation of industrial aquaculture and its impacts on British Columbia ecosystems that support wild salmon. Salmon feedlots are linked to dramatic declines in wild salmon populations worldwide and spread of lethal salmon viruses.

Background When a country that is signatory to the North American Free Trade Agreement fails to enforce its environmental laws, any party may petition the Commission for Environmental Cooperation for investigation. Canada’s Fisheries Act prohibits harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat or addition of “deleterious substances.” The petitioners seek a finding that Canada is violating its Fisheries Act with regard to industrial aquaculture. Such a finding could push Canada to protect wild salmon, ideally by relocating fish aquaculture into contained tanks on land.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Following today’s decision, the Commission’s governing body, composed of high-level environmental authorities from Canada, the United States and Mexico, will consider the issue. The body has 60 days to make a final decision. If the review goes forward, the Commission will initiate a full factual investigation into Canada’s lack of enforcement of the Fisheries Act. Scientific evidence of threats to wild salmon swimming through B.C. waters from fish feedlots has been mounting, as has public concern that feedlots could spread epidemic diseases. This is a threat that jeopardizes the health of every wild salmon run along the Pacific Coast, since U.S. and Canadian stocks mingle in the ocean and estuaries.

Since the petition was filed, Atlantic salmon farms around Vancouver Island suffered a virus outbreak in May 2012 that led to a quarantine and the cull of more than half a million fish. More recently scientists documented a devastating Norwegian virus that attacks the heart of salmon—called the piscine virus—infecting nearly all farmed salmon raised and for sale in British Columbia.

In fall of 2012 the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River issued a final report concluding that salmon farms along wild salmon migration routes have the potential for serious and irreversible harm to salmon through introduction of exotic diseases and to aggravate endemic diseases, with a negative impact on Fraser River sockeye. The Cohen Commission recommended a freeze on net-pen salmon farm production along part of the Fraser sockeye migration route until 2020, at which time all farms should be removed unless Canada has hard evidence that the farms are doing no harm. The commission also suggested revising siting criteria to protect all wild salmon migration routes, and that Fisheries and Oceans Canada should no longer promote salmon farming as an industry or farmed salmon as a product.

Yet in January 2014, Canada opened the British Columbia coast to more salmon farms and is considering removing section 36 of the Fisheries Act to accommodate the salmon farmers’ needs for more effective salmon de-lousing drugs.

The Kwikwasu’tinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation is a native tribe whose territory off northern Vancouver Island is being used by 27 Norwegianowned salmon feedlots.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations is the largest trade association of commercial fishers on the west coast, representing family fishing men and women.

The University of Denver Environmental Law Clinic helped prepare and submit the petition.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Salmon Farming Slips Net Yet Again Wild Fisheries Review ignores lice-infested salmon farms June 3, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Ullapool, Wester Ross – The Scottish Government’s ‘Wild Fisheries Review‘ blindly ignores the threats posed by Scotland’s disease-ridden salmon farms to wild fish despite the increasing problems of sea lice parasites, chemical resistance and mass escapes. “Salmon farming is not in the remit of the wild fisheries review,” admitted the Secretary of the Wild Fisheries Review in a letter to Protect Wild Scotland [1].

The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, launched the review in January claiming that the Scottish Government was “committed to supporting and protecting Scotland’s famous and valuable salmon and freshwater fisheries”. The Chairman of the ‘Wild Fisheries Review’, Andrew Thin, is today in Wester Ross at an “invitation-only” private meeting with another meeting tomorrow in the Western Isles. Today’s meeting in Wester Ross is the tenth of 18 ‘round table discussions‘ which end on 3 July in Lochaber with a final report due in early October.

“With the ever increasing evidence it is not possible to fail to ignore the growing problems posed by Scotland’s lice-infested salmon industry,” said Jenny Scobie, Director of Protect Wild Scotland. “The policy of Scottish Ministers to expand salmon farming production by 50% by 2020 is shamefully short-sighted. Here in Wester Ross, sea lice from salmon farms are quite literally eating wild fish alive yet the Scottish Government is blind to the risks. It would appear that Norwaybased companies exporting farmed salmon to China have relevance in the review whilst the serious polluting concerns they bring to the West coast salmon and sea trout are deemed irrelevant by Mr Thin.”

“To omit salmon farming from the remit of the review is seriously misguided,” said Mike Stanners, Chair of Protect Wild Scotland. “The question still has to be answered as to why the West coast salmon, sea trout and their environment which are now in the most perilous condition we have seen for years are to be deliberately excluded from this review. By dismissing Scotland’s West coast problems of salmon farming Mr Thin’s ‘look over’ cannot be seriously considered as an authentic review of any meaningful measure”.

Protect Wild Scotland, despite requests to attend Mr Thin’s meetings, have not been invited to the private meeting today in Wester Ross. Protect Wild Scotland will be giving weekly talks in Ullapool throughout the Summer to enable a sense of awareness for locals and visitors as to what is being hidden beneath the sea and how it may have far reaching consequences on the local environment.

For more details visit www.protectwildscotland.org

Notes to Editors:

[1] Read the letter and other correspondence online here

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 N.L. outfitters say farmed salmon hurting wild fish, industry May 31, 2014 Newfoundland and Labrador’s outfitters say the province’s aquaculture industry is decimating its industry.

“There’s a number of issues,” said Tony Tuck, chairman of the Outfitters Association’s fishing committee, who presented his concerns at a senate hearing on aquaculture earlier this week in Gander. “Probably the one that’s escalating the most here lately is escapees. They’re showing up a lot in a lot of our south coast rivers, and probably going to show up farther away as time goes on, because obviously they’re not restricted. They can swim wherever they like.”

Tuck’s concerned about what interbreeding between wild and farmed salmon will do to the strength of wild stock, as well as the effect of the competition for food.

“Then there’s an issue with disease in sea cages, which can be passed through to the wild fish as they swim past the cages,” he said. “That seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. … There’s huge numbers of fish that have to be destroyed.”

Aquaculture producers are compensated for fish that need to be destroyed, said Tuck. As previously reported by The Telegram, the federal government has paid $33.1 million to two companies, Gray Aqua and Cooke Aquaculture, for five outbreaks dating back to July 2012.

“That should be everybody’s concern, not just people who are concerned about wild fish, but just the waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Tuck says the provincial government isn’t doing enough to protect wild salmon stocks.

“They have no idea of the impact and they’ve done no science to see just exactly what the relationship is,” he said.

Not so, says provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Hutchings, who points to containment practices the province began implementing in 2000.

“Prior to 2000, we had about 568,000, I think, salmon in the water,” he said. “When you look at today, we have almost 15 million. Look at the percentage of escapes — I think out of that 15 million today, we see something like around 28,000. So since we brought in the Code of Containment, we see really good success in terms of release of wild salmon into the wild.”

Editorial Comment:

 Crowding

15 million fish into ocean-based feedlots increases forage fish harvest, disease outbreaks and sea lice infestations.

 28,000

escaped salmon into wild salmon ecosystems is like playing Russian roulette.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans plays a big part in regulating the interaction between wild and farmed salmon, said Hutchings.

“They’ve done significant work in that and found no significant evidence to date in regards to issues in that interaction,” he said.

“We’re always concerned about all industries — certainly the wild fishery and the farmed, we want to see both be successful and continue to be sustainable and profitable for all concerned.”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Climate Change

 Kilmer introduces ocean acidification bill May 24, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters A bill introduced by Congressman Derek Kilmer would encourage federal agencies to contribute more funding to ocean acidification research.

Kilmer, a Gig Harbor Democrat, introduced the legislation with fellow Washington state Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Camas. The Ocean Acidification Innovation Act wouldn’t provide any new funding sources for the research, but instead encourage agencies, such as the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, to funnel existing funding into ocean acidification research.

Scientists from universities and private groups would submit research proposals. Winning proposals would be awarded prizes to carry out research.

Ocean acidification is the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the water, which increases the ocean’s acidity. That’s bad news for sea creatures, such as shellfish. Thousands of jobs statewide, including the Grays Harbor area, depend on the shellfish industry.

“Ocean acidification poses a threat to our coastal communities and to key industries in our state,” Kilmer said. “Changes to the ocean chemistry are putting entire livelihoods at risk while endangering the chance for future generations to grow up in a state still connected to a healthy Pacific Ocean.”

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Energy Generation: Oil, Coal, Geothermal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Solar, Tidal, Wind

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Petroleum – Drilled, Refined, Tar Sands, Fracked  Petropolis - Rape and pillage of Canada and Canadians for toxic bitumen Watch video HERE

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Tanker carrying jet fuel crashes near the Columbia River June 14, 2014 VANCOUVER – No one was hurt when a tanker carrying jet fuel crash near the Columbia River Saturday morning.

The B-Train tanker overturned between Radium and Golden on Highway 95, about 45 kilometres from Bugaboo Lodge.

The hatches of the tanker were leaking jet fuel before they could be fixed.

The Ministry of Environment says none of the fuel got into the waterways.

There is no word on how the tanker rolled, or which company the truck was working for.

Editorial Comment: This unrecovered jet fuel will leach into the area’s groundwater and will be washed into local water bodies – public health, fish, wildlife and plants will be impacted for decades.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 'Runaway Oil Trains': A Metaphor for Our Fossil Fuel Failure New report documents unprecedented rise of crude-by-rail industry and the broader dangers it represents A newly published report this week raises the alarm over the nation's expansion of crude-by-rail transportation as it makes a broader and direct warning about the threat of the Obama administration's "all of the above" energy strategy that seeks to expand fossil fuel production in the U.S. despite the climate emergency on the nation's doorstep.

The report by Oil Change International, titled Runaway Train: The Reckless Expansion of Crude By Rail in North America, is the first major exposé of the dangers inherent in the expansion of crude-byrail industry on the continent.

“This is what the 'All of the Above Energy Strategy' looks like – a runaway train headed straight for North American communities.” Lorne Stockman, report author Following violent and deadly disasters like the derailment and explosion in the town of Lac Megantic, Quebec last year and the continued fight to stop major oil pipelines, the report goes out of its way to argue that the debate between rail transport vs. pipelines is a false one.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters It shows that spills and disasters both methods of transport are on the rise, a fact which proves that the fossil fuel paradigm should be relegated to the history books, replaced with a new energy system that invests in conservation and efficiency as well as renewable resources such as wind, geothermal, and solar.

Complete with an online interactive map, the study details where crude trains are being loaded and unloaded, how many oil trains are crossing North American, and names of the companies involved.

"Our analysis shows just how out of control the oil industry is in North America today. Regulators are unable to keep up with the industry’s expansion-at-any-cost mentality, and public safety is playing second fiddle to industry profits,” said Lorne Stockman, Research Director of Oil Change International and author of the report. “This is what the 'All of the Above Energy Strategy' looks like – a runaway train headed straight for North American communities.”

Among the report's key findings:

    

Today there are 188 terminals in Canada and the United States actively loading and unloading crude oil onto and off of trains. A t least 33 of these terminals are expanding their capacity to handle more crude. An additional 51 new terminals are under construction or planned.

Over 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil were shipped o n U.S. railroads in 2013, a 70fold increase from 2005. Including Canada, total North American crude-by-rail shipments are currently around one million bpd.

If all the operating, expanding, under construction, and planned terminals were utilized to full capacity, it would entail some 675 t rains with 100 cars each, carrying a total of around 45 million barrels of oil through North American communities every day.

BNSF, owned by Warren Buffet, carries up to 70 percent of all t he crude-by-rail traffic in North America today. This railroad alone expects to load one million barrels per day onto its network by the end of 2014.

Many of the U.S. crude-by-rail terminal operators operate as Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). These companies avoid corporate level income taxes entirely and distribute cash to shareholders on a tax-deferred basis. This translates into a massive subsidy for crude-by-rail operations.

The report comes ahead of a nation-wide week of action planned for early July in which national and local groups opposed to the industry—including Oil Change International, ForestEthics, 350.org, the Sierra Club, and residents of Lac-Mégantic—will rise to challenge these dangerous trains and their cargo as they pass through communities and fragile ecosystems.

“Communities are already waking up to the dangers of oil trains barreling through their backyards, with spills, explosions and derailments happening all too often. This report and online tool will help provide the critical information that’s been sorely missing in order to shine a light on what’s really going on, and to help stop the runaway train of crude-by-rail in its tracks before more damage is done,” Stockman said.

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 Washington Residents Rail Against Oil Shipments SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Numerous speakers told a state Senate committee Tuesday that they oppose the rapid increase in railcars carrying crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota and Montana through the state.

The Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee met in Spokane, a major railroad hub for the northern United States, to take testimony on a bill that seeks to improve the safety of those oil shipments.

But nearly all the members of the public who spoke attacked the measure as too friendly to the oil and railroad industries.

Numerous people referred to last year's explosion of a rail car in Quebec, Canada, that killed 47 people, and worried that could happen in Washington.

"I personally don't believe we should send these 'bomb cars' through our community of almost half a million people," said Mike Petersen of The Lands Council, a Spokane environmental group.

An explosion like the Quebec blast would be catastrophic in downtown Spokane, where elevated railroad tracks run near or adjacent to office towers, hotels and hospitals, speakers said.

But officials of the BNSF Railway noted there hasn't been a rail accident involving hazardous materials in the Spokane region in decades, and said rail traffic is getting safer.

Editorial Comment: Deceitful – Green Washing: Petroleum products are not categorized as hazardous material

Patrick Brady of BNSF said the railroad has had one flammable release this year in 900,000 shipments of hazardous material.

"It's pretty rare for them to occur," he said.

The oil boom in North Dakota and Montana has created a sharp increase in rail shipments to West Coast refineries and ports. There were no crude oil shipments by rail through the state in 2011, but that increased to 17 million barrels in 2013 and is projected to reach 55 million barrels this year.

That has raised concerns in communities across the state about a derailment and explosion in a populated area.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters A bill to regulate crude oil shipments failed in the Legislature last year, but Senate Bill 6582 will be introduced in the next session. The measure calls for the state Department of Ecology to study the safety of the shipments. It also seeks to train emergency responders, and create caches of emergency gear in rail communities. It would be funded by an extension to rail of a 5-cents-per-barrel tax that currently applies only to oil shipments by sea.

"We want to prevent something catastrophic, and to be prepared if something happens," said state Sen. Mike Baumgartner, R-Spokane, a sponsor of the bill.

Baumgartner noted the state's ability to regulate the shipments is limited because interstate commerce is a federal issue.

Critics of the bill included Katie Evans, of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, who said it spends too much money on accident response and not enough on accident prevention.

"We want a moratorium on any increase in crude oil shipments," she said.

Bonnie Mager of Cheney worried that if an oil tanker exploded near her home, "we'd be incinerated."

Other speakers complained that BNSF should be forced to use only the most up-to-date rail cars for the shipments, and should be required to alert local leaders when shipments are coming through their towns.

Kari Cutting of the North Dakota Petroleum Council told lawmakers that rail tankers are safe to contain the Bakken crude, which is not more volatile than other crude oil. But she acknowledged there was no way to ensure that an accident did not punch a hole in a tanker car.

"You can't reach zero percent probability," she said.

She said about 40 percent of the oil shipped by rail is transported in older cars that are not as safe as newer models.

Johan Hellman of BNSF said about 5 percent of the railroad's cargo was crude oil.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 U.S. Development applies for permits for oil facility U.S. Development has completed its application to build a new facility at the Port of Grays Harbor to ship and store crude oil. They plan to go through the same project review process as Westway Terminals and Imperium Renewables rather than skipping to the environmental impact statement, where the other two companies ended up after a lengthy appeal process.

Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay said the company, which plans to operate locally as Grays Harbor Rail Terminal, submitted its application and fees Tuesday.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “They are requesting the lead agency to make an environmental determination,” Shay said.

“They’re basically leaving it up to the city and (the Department of Ecology) to determine if an EIS will be necessary.”

“Grays Harbor Rail Terminal has submitted permitting applications to the appropriate regulatory agencies, and they will determine the correct process for our facility,” spokeswoman Charla Skaggs said.

It’s the same process Westway and Imperium went through last year, where the co-lead agencies initially issued a mitigated determination of non-significance under the State Environmental Protection Act. That meant the city and Ecology felt at the time the mitigation efforts proposed by Imperium and Westway would make up for any environmental impacts.

Editorial Comment: Crude by rail storage and export via terminals sited along the shoreline of Grays Harbor is a non-starter whether the product is chemical laden, diluted bitumen from Alberta's tarsands or highly explosive petroleum from the Bakken shale formation that stretches from Montana and North Dakota into Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada..

Public safety and health, wild ecosystems, cultures, communities and economies are far more important than any purported benefits of storing and exporting this hazardous material via Grays Harbor terminals where homeland security and incident response are woefully under-resourced.

The Quinault Indian Nation and a coalition of environmental groups — Friends of Grays Harbor, the Grays Harbor Audubon Society, Citizens for a Clean Harbor, the Surfrider Foundation and the Sierra Club — each filed appeals with the state Shorelines Hearings Board.

In November, the board sent the permits back to the city and Ecology. The ruling also ordered the companies complete rail and vessel traffic analyses before moving forward. The studies were in progress at the time of the application.

The ruling didn’t expressly say the companies had to do an EIS, and initially they said they would not, but both companies decided in January to do the full review.

Kristen Boyles, an attorney for Earthjustice representing the Quinaults, said it’s good news that Imperium and Westway have decided on the more rigorous analysis.

“I think that was the course laid out for them by the Shorelines Hearings Board,” she said. “I think for a project with these sorts of impacts and potential risks, that’s precisely what needs to happen.”

The companies estimate the EIS will take about a year to complete.

The first phase was completed May 27. Hoquiam and Ecology received more than 22,000 comments on the scope of issues the EIS should cover, and are currently in the process of reviewing the comments.

As for U.S. Development’s proposal, a new project manager will be assigned and the city and Ecology will have to come to a new agreement on working as co-lead agencies.

“Based upon the volume (of oil proposed), Ecology would be the lead agency under statute, but we have discussed being co-leads again,” Shay said.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Dead Babies and Utah's Carbon Bomb A sudden and extreme spike in neonatal mortality in Utah's rural Uinta Basin is most probably related to the toxic air pollution related to the fossil fuel drilling/fracking frenzy in Eastern Utah.

And the local poobahs want to kill the messenger.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Donna Young is a midwife in Vernal, Utah, with 20 years experience managing home births in Idaho and Utah. She lives in the Uinta Basin, the heart of the fossil fuel drilling/fracking frenzy in Eastern Utah. On May 8, 2013, she had her first stillbirth. At the funeral service a few days later, she noted what seemed like an extraordinary number of infant graves with recent dates at the cemetery. She decided to investigate.

She didn't get any help from local authorities, but eventually information gleaned from obituaries and mortuaries revealed 12 cases of neonatal mortality (most of them stillborn, or death shortly after birth), in 2013. Looking back to 2010 revealed a modest upward trend, but then a huge spike in 2013.

This is sparsely populated rural Utah. Vernal is a town of fewer than 10,000 people. But per capita, this is a neonatal mortality six times the national average. It is actually worse than it appears.

National infant mortality rates have been dropping slowly and steadily for almost 50 years, including about a 10 to 15 percent drop in the last decade. Furthermore, most of Utah is about 50 percent Mormon, so the rate of drinking and smoking is less than the national average throughout the state.

The minority population in rural Utah, like Vernal, is very low, and the percentage of Mormons is even higher, both of which should lower the infant mortality rates, all other things being equal What is going on in Utah's Uinta Basin to explain newborn babies dying? An abrupt surge in teenage mothers, drug, alcohol use? No evidence of that. Is there a genetic explanation? Genes don't change that quickly. Is there a sudden onset of medical incompetence by the area's health-care providers?

No reason to think so. That leaves one other possibility. Is there something happening in the environment? As a matter of fact, yes.

Major cities with pollution problems have either high ozone, like Los Angeles, or high particulate pollution, like Salt Lake City, depending on the time of year. But the Uinta Basin has both simultaneously, making it unique and the most polluted part of the state.

Studies suggest that the two may act synergistically to impair human health. Add to that high levels of the by-products of every phase of the oil and gas fracking extraction process - diesel emissions and hazardous compounds like benzene, toluene and naphthene, and you have a uniquely toxic air pollution brew in Vernal.

Inhaling air pollution has the same systemic health consequences as cigarette smoking, only to a lesser degree - unless you're doing your inhaling in Beijing, China, then eliminate the "lesser." The signature physiologic consequence of air pollution, be it from smoke stacks, tail pipes, fracking or cigarettes, is an inflammatory response that reduces blood flow.

Diseases of virtually every organ system can follow. Strokes, heart attacks, every type of lung disease, cognitive impairment, cancer, accelerated aging and sudden death, including infant mortality, all occur at higher rates among people exposed to air pollution. In the case of a pregnant mother, the placenta is compromised for the same reason, and it should be easily understood then that pregnancy complications and impaired fetal development - think birth defects, miscarriages and stillbirths - can be the result.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Many epidemiological studies show that to be the case. That increased infant mortality in the Uinta Basin could be the result of the increased air pollution is suggested by medical research. It is not only plausible, but very likely.

But there is more to the story, much more. If you do a Google search for "pollution in Vernal, Utah" you will see a picture of a man at a street corner holding up a sign that says, "Honk if you love drilling." Vernal politicians certainly do. With jobs, increased tax base, new community recreation centers, burgeoning store fronts on Main Street, people with money to spend - what's not to like?

Well, dead babies perhaps. What else is not to like? Someone who calls attention to the dead babies - a concerned midwife for example.

Young has been targeted by the community's power brokers as whistleblowers often are. She received a threatening "legal" letter from the local hospital. She's been told by one of the local doctors that everyone wants to take her down "politically" and ruin her career. She has also received ominous, threatening phone calls. But others are starting to speak out with worrisome observations of their own.

Since Young stepped forward, a mother in Vernal contacted us about a rare birth defect her sixmonth old has that threatens her baby's ability to breathe. Two houses away, her neighbor's threemonth old baby has the same birth defect. Checking with the local pediatrics clinic has revealed 30 patients with the same rare birth defect. It amounts to a prevalence rate of at least seven times the normal rate of one in 2,100 live births.

This drama is also a larger metaphor with global implications. Eastern Utah could be considered ground zero for the battle to keep the world's fossil fuels in the ground. In addition to the fracking frenzy for oil and gas in the area, Utah is also "blessed/cursed" with the largest unconventional fossil fuel reservoir in the United States and perhaps the world - oil shale and tar sands deposits are 25 times larger than those in Alberta, Canada. Using geology-based assessment methodology, the US Geological Survey estimated a total of 4.285 trillion barrels of oil in the oil shale of the three principal basins of the Eocene Green River Formation, near Vernal, Utah.

If those deposits are extracted and burned (and the process would be much more carbon intensive than conventional oil and gas drilling), Utah would become home to the largest known carbon "bomb" on the planet. More "game over" for the planet than the Keystone pipeline.

The international medical community has called the climate crisis, "the biggest global health threat of the 21st century and . . . could put the lives and well-being of billions of people at increased risk."

Throughout the world the most vulnerable will be infants and children.

Apparently that is just fine with Utah's governor and the majority of our legislature. It is certainly not only fine with, but enthusiastically promoted by, Uinta County commissioners and local politicians. It is also fraught with irony because numerous projections on global warming predict that Utah will become North America's greatest warming "victim" outside the Arctic. Projections from 2008 suggested that temperatures may rise by 9 degrees F in Utah by 2100. Global warming calculations have only become more alarming since.

A rise of this magnitude will decimate the ecosystems that are necessary to support human life - it means dramatically more drought, shrinking snow pack and water resources, more wildfires and dead forests, unsustainable agriculture, and apocalyptic dust storms - a complete collapse of the human carrying capacity of the Western United States. And it means more dead babies, a lot more.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

From the First Nations perspective, the Northern Gateway project is dead. It’s never going to receive the social license it needs from First Nations or British Columbians to move forward, writes Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations.

 Opinion: Oil-spill cleanup is a myth Let’s hope for truly world-class leadership and a clear ‘no’ from Harper and Clark on Northern Gateway June 4, 2014 A recent Bloomberg-Nanos poll shows a majority of British Columbians want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to either delay or kill the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.

Their No. 1 concern is oil spills, and for good reason: no technology is capable of cleaning up more than 10 per cent of diluted bitumen from an ocean spill, much less in the treacherous waters of B.C.’s North Coast.

This should be a wakeup call for Premier Christy Clark. One of her five conditions for approving the construction of heavy oil pipelines and tanker projects in B.C. is “world-leading marine oil spill response, prevention and recovery systems” to “manage and mitigate the risks and costs” of pipeline and oil tanker spills.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Pipeline companies and politicians like to use words such as “world-leading” and “world-class” at their press conferences to describe oil spill-response and tanker-safety announcements, but what do those words actually mean?

By its admission, the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation says containment and recovery of an oil spill at sea is nearly impossible, with a removal rate “at best only 10-15 per cent and often considerably less.” Is this “world-class?”

BP was able to cleanup about three per cent of the oil in the much calmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. Is that “world-leading?”

Oil-spill cleanup technology has barely changed since the Exxon Valdez oil spill 25 years ago, and there is still oil on the beaches in Alaska that is just as toxic as if it was spilled only weeks ago.

As Harper’s government prepares to announce its decision on Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, it’s clear that a “world-class” oil spill recovery system doesn’t exist.

If no technology exists to clean up more than 10 per cent of an oil spill, does it really matter how quickly responders get to the spill site? We don’t think so, and that’s why the Coastal First Nations are standing firm on the oil tanker ban in our territories.

It’s also why whatever decision the federal government makes on the Northern Gateway project is irrelevant. From our perspective, the project is over, dead. It’s never going to receive the social license it needs from First Nations or British Columbians to move forward.

But we won’t be surprised if the federal government approves the project. Harper and former natural resources minister Joe Oliver have made it abundantly clear they wanted to see Northern Gateway go forward even before the joint review panel assessment began. To clear the way to become the final decision makers, they changed National Energy Board legislation so the joint review panel could only make a recommendation, and that recommendation, with its 209 conditions, can hardly be regarded as a ringing endorsement of the project.

The federal government must make its decision on Northern Gateway by June 17 and all eyes are now on Harper and his government, and Clark, to see how she reacts to whatever decision the federal government makes.

Will Clark some day stand beside Harper and tell us that B.C. has a “world-class” oil-spill cleanup recovery system in place? The logical answer is no. It’s inconceivable she believes a 10-per-cent recovery rate can be described as “world-class.” To do so would be a slap in the face of First Nations, whose traditional territories and marine resources would be forced to absorb and be polluted by the 90 per cent of oil that is never recovered. Therefore we fully expect her to honour her five conditions and to say “no” to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project.

An approval of the project would be regarded as an act of betrayal by all First Nations and British Columbians, and it would mean First Nations and our allies would be forced to protect our rights and the interests of future generations through direct and legal action. It’s not our preferred route, but it’s one we’re fully prepared to take. In doing so we’d be standing for the health and safety of all British Columbians.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters If politicians can’t muster the world-class leadership necessary to protect B.C.’s coastal waters and marine resources, we will.

 Apache Canada’s pipeline just keeps spilling: Another

leak in Zama Alberta,

Amount Unknown On May 28, 2014, 12:00:00 PM. Apache Canada had a release of Emulsion from there pipeline 10KM south east of Zama Alberta, it was discovered following a pressure test that the company was performing. As of now the amount that was released is unknown. But the report does say “Dykes have been built to prevent migration” The official AER report: Release was discovered following a pressure test and staining discovered on ground. Dykes have been built to prevent migration and cleanup is underway. No reported impacts to wildlife or water bodies.

Line is shut in.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Apache Canada pipeline is no stranger to spills, Back in November 18th, 2013, Apache spilled 15.4million litres killing off all of the trees and vegetation it touched .

The spill was reported to the Alberta government on June 1st , but how long it had been spilling we don’t know. The Dene Tha think it may have been weeks, perhaps even months before.

It was only on the June 6th, thanks to a local resident reporting it to a TV station, that the spill became public knowledge, in fact, the first written statement from the Alberta government’s energy regulator, the ERCB, wasn’t released until June 12th – 11days after the massive spill.

Then to top it off on November 29th, 2013, Apache Canada spill yet another 1.8 million litres of toxic wastewater.

I leave you with this, If the Alberta Government didn’t inform you about one of the largest spills in the province’s history – How many other spills don’t we know about? And where is the mainstream media now?

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

This handout picture taken and released by Japan's Coast Guard on May 29, 2014 shows black smoke rising from a 998-ton oil tanker off the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Tokyo. Japan's coastguard was rushing on May 29 to deal with an explosion and subsequent fire aboard a tanker off the country's coast, officials and the prime minister said.

 Japan oil tanker explodes off SW coast; 1 missing May 29, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese oil tanker exploded Thursday off the country's southwest coast near Himeji port, leaving one of the eight people aboard missing, the coast guard said. Four others were severely injured.

Photos and video from the scene showed billowing clouds of black smoke as coast guard vessels sought to douse the fire, which gutted the middle of the Shoko Maru, a 998-ton tanker based in the western city of Hiroshima.

Seven people were rescued, though four suffered severe burns, public broadcaster NHK reported. A search was underway for the missing man, the tanker's captain, it said.

The cause of the explosion was unclear, said coast guard spokesman Koji Takarada. NHK said crew members were working on the deck of the tanker at the time of the blast.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Oil tanker explodes in Japan, stirs worries in B.C. (BREAKING) On eve of a Northern Gateway decision in B.C., an oil tanker explodes off the coast of Japan May 28, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters An oil tanker explosion Thursday morning off Japan's coast is stirring fears on this side of the Pacific, where British Columbia is facing multiple oil and LNG gas proposals to rapidly increase tanker traffic.

A petroleum-soaked environmental disaster will likely be avoided this time in Japan's waters, because the tanker was not filled with oil at the time.

"Thank goodness the tanker in Himeji wasn't loaded," said Kai Nagata, Energy & Democracy Director for the Dogwood Initiative in Victoria.

The Japanese tanker burst into billowing flames, prompting the rescue of its eight-person crew. The captain is still missing, and four people are seriously injured, according to several news reports.

Hundreds of oil and gas tankers proposed for B.C.'s coast While oil tanker accidents have been rare off North America's western shorelines, the risk is expected to rise.

British Columbia on the eve of a major federal decision regarding the Northern Gateway Alberta-toKitimat oil sands pipeline, which would add 220 oil tankers per year. Kinder Morgan's Edmonton-toBurnaby expansion pipeline would, said a spokesperson Thursday.

Many environmental groups say the spill risk is too high.

"Every month, five loaded oil tankers leave the Kinder Morgan terminal in Burnaby, sail through the Vancouver harbour and out past the Gulf Islands and Victoria. Are we ready to deal with an accident?

The people who work on the spill cleanup boats will tell you we're not even close," said Nagata.

"Now Kinder Morgan is asking to triple the capacity of that pipeline, which would triple the existing risk. Enbridge wants to build a whole new tanker facility in Kitimat. The majority of British Columbians are asking, 'why should we swallow those additional risks just so pipeline companies can ship more of our oil to refineries overseas?'"

If an oil tanker spill were to occur off B.C.'s coast, the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) would respond.

"If there is a marine spill, we have the ability and capacity to respond immediately 24/7 and we have been doing so for nearly 40 years. Our crews train constantly for this type of event,” said WCMRC spokesperson Michael Lowry on Thursday.

LNG tanker

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The province is also heavily pushing LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) proposals -- there are now nine coastal LNG facilities that have been granted export licences, for the Kitimat, Prince Rupert and the Sunshine Coast areas.

The District of Kitimat recently said if current LNG proposals and the Northern Gateway pipeline were to go forward, tanker traffic would spike to 900 per year in the Douglas Channel.

The Harper government recently announced federal measures designed to improve marine oil spill cleanup and prevention, and to involve First Nations expertise in these matters.

Editorial Comment:

 Impact

is double (1,800 tankers) given that these are round trips.

 Tankers

up to and including VLCC class will carry condensate, diluted bitumen and Liquefied Natural Gas.

 Catastrophic

spills will occur in the often treacherous Douglas Channel.

 Spill response will be inadequate no matter the conditions

VLCC have a size ranging between 180,000 to 320,000 DWT. VLCC are very large shipping vessels with dimensions of up to 470 m (1,540 ft) in length, beam of up to 60 m (200 ft) and draught of up to 20 m (66 ft)

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Pacific Ocean

Hecate Strait

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Railroads Seek to Limit Disclosure on Oil Trains SEATTLE (AP) — Two railroad companies want to prevent the public from getting ahold of details about oil shipments through Washington state, a disclosure the federal government ordered be given to state emergency managers in the wake of several oil train accidents.

But restricting that information violates the state's public records law, so the state has not signed documents from the rail companies seeking confidentiality, said Mark Stewart, a spokesman for the Washington Military Department's Emergency Management Division.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency order last month requiring railroads by Friday to notify state officials about the volume, frequency and county-by-county routes of trains carrying 1 million or more gallons of crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada.

Federal transportation officials said they expected the states "to treat this data as confidential, providing it only to those with a need-to-know, and with the understanding that recipients of the data will continue to treat it as confidential." That includes emergency workers who need access to the information to form response plans.

BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad last Friday sent the state confidentiality agreements aiming to restrict the information to emergency response groups for planning purposes only. The companies called it "security sensitive."

Stewart said the state Emergency Response Commission sought legal advice and determined that those agreements "require us to withhold the information in a manner that's not consistent with the state public records act."

The commission instead presented alternative agreements to the railroads, noting that the information may be subject to disclosure. That proposal said a state official would notify the railroads if the public sought the information so the companies could seek a protective order or other remedy.

Courtney Wallace, a spokeswoman for BNSF Railway, said Wednesday that the railway is reviewing that proposal.

She said the company would comply with the federal order but believes the information is "considered security sensitive and confidential, intended for people who have 'a need to know' for such information, such as first responders and emergency planners."

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters The state commission last month approved a plan to post the information online. But Stewart said Wednesday that the data would be posted only after any legal issues from a disclosure request are resolved.

The federal order applies to railroad carriers with trains carrying roughly 35 tank cars or more of oil.

Late Tuesday, Union Pacific Railroad told the state it does not transport Bakken crude oil trains at the order's reporting threshold. Company spokesman Aaron Hunt said Union Pacific moves 163,000 carloads of crude oil across its national network, and less than 1 percent comes through Washington.

In Washington, crude oil shipments went from zero in 2011 to 17 million barrels in 2013, according to rough state estimates. Those numbers are likely to increase if proposed oil terminals at the ports of Grays Harbor and Vancouver and at the state's refineries get built.

Earlier this year, some state lawmakers and groups unsuccessfully pushed for legislation that would give the public information about oil train movements through their communities.

Deadly Weapons of Violent Destruction

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Firefighters spray fire suppressant foam to douse flames on a tanker truck in a simulated oil-spill fire during a drill on May 7, 2014, in Albany, N.Y

 In North American rail towns, some try to stop oil trains May 25, 2014

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Firefighters have been training to combat railcar fires with foam, and evacuation plans are detailed in a 500-page emergency response plan, Apple told residents in a May 12 address.

But he was blunt about the potential impact of a larger derailment: "Look, let's face it, there's going to be mayhem."

Albany's tracks handle as much as a fourth of the oil pumped from North Dakota's booming Bakken Shale, or up to several 100-car trains per day, each carrying 70,000 barrels.

It is one of several spots along North America's new oil-by-rail corridors where residents and officials are restless, following six fiery derailments in the past 10 months. Some want to limit or halt the traffic, fearful that existing precautions will not prevent deadly blasts, air and waterway pollution, or nuisances including nasty odors.

Since trains play a growing role in getting oil from landlocked North Dakota and central Canada to mostly coastal refineries, efforts to stop them could boost shipping costs or slow the pace of North America's oil boom. This could hit the bottom line of drillers like Continental Resources or refiners like Phillips66.

The opposition extends beyond traditional hotbeds of environmental activism, to oil shipping or processing hubs like Albany, Philadelphia and St. John, New Brunswick in Canada, home to the country's largest refinery.

Efforts to stop oil trains are a new battle front for several major environmental groups that have campaigned to block the Keystone XL pipeline from bringing crude south from Canada's oil sands.

With Keystone in limbo, U.S.-bound rail shipments of Canadian oil have risen 20-fold since 2011, the U.S. Congressional Research Service estimated.

With U.S. oil production at a 28-year high, new pipelines in booming shale areas like North Dakota's Bakken have not kept up. This has also pushed more crude onto trains.

Opposition movements have scored a few small victories. Albany County has temporarily halted plans by energy logistics firm Global Partners to install boilers at its rail terminal to make oil flow faster out of tank cars.

The Port of Portland, Oregon issued a blanket rejection of any proposals for crude oil transfer or storage facilities, and states including California, Washington and New York are reviewing oil-train safety. One project, a $110 million rail terminal proposed by refiner Tesoro Corp and Savage Cos. in Washington, is over budget and behind schedule, in part due to an extended state review.

Oil-train opponents are adopting tactics that helped to stall Keystone XL, including street protests and demands for detailed environmental studies.

But curbing oil trains may prove far trickier. Rail hubs face much less red tape than major new pipelines, and unlike pipeline operators, railroads usually are not required to submit comprehensive oil-spill response plans.

OIL ABOARD U.S. cargoes have risen more than 50-fold since 2008, to around 1 million barrels a day.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters Volumes may reach 3 million barrels a day in 2016 -- more oil than OPEC member Venezuela pumps daily -- unless pipeline construction speeds up, Matt Rogers, a director at business consultancy McKinsey, told an energy conference last week.

California may receive 25 percent of its oil by rail in 2016, up from 1 percent now, according to the state's Energy Commission.

About 60 oil-train terminals already exist along the 140,000 miles of U.S. rail tracks, and at least 30 more are planned, including eight in California.

Phyllis Fox, a well known U.S. air quality expert, said many hubs won quick approval in towns or cities that did not recognize potential hazards.

"They get the district to rubber stamp it," Fox said.

The shipping trend drew little public scrutiny until a runaway oil train killed 47 people in Lac Megantic, Quebec last July.

That and subsequent derailments have ignited a debate between regulators, railroads, drillers, refiners and railcar makers about who is responsible for preventing more disasters.

Railroads say older tank cars known as DOT-111s, which have gained a reputation for exploding during derailments, should be "aggressively" phased out. Shippers say railroads must improve their infrastructure. Others suggest that volatile Bakken shale crude may be to blame.

In January, the U.S. Department of Transportation warned of Bakken crude's fire risks, drawing rebukes from oil companies who say it is as safe as other U.S. varieties. This month, DOT issued a statement "strongly urging" shippers to use newer, safety-enhanced railcars for Bakken cargoes. But regulators did not ban older cars from handling it.

The DOT has ordered railroads to inform states about large rail cargoes of Bakken crude traveling through, following complaints about lack of disclosure.

"I don't think anyone has fully addressed the safety of these things," said Read Brugger of environmental group 350 Maine, which wants to ban oil trains in the state. "People don't think they should be coming through our towns and cities and along our bodies of water."

Derailments have continued. A fiery April 30 oil-train accident in Lynchburg, Virginia was the worst yet to affect a U.S. city. Tank cars carrying Bakken crude toppled into the James River, a source of regional drinking water, leaking 25,000 gallons and setting the river ablaze. The exploding cars included newer models with enhanced safety features like reinforced steel plates.

In January, oil-laden tank cars derailed on a rail bridge in Philadelphia, prompting a local protest.

Hours before Sheriff Apple's speech in Albany, four tank cars derailed at low speed in a rail yard near the city's bustling Ezra Prentice housing complex.

Canadian Pacific, the yard's operator, said there was no oil leak or fire. The railroad was fined $5,000 for failing to report the incident until five hours later.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, a former firefighter, said he will seek jail time for rail workers who fail to report future incidents within an hour.

SCARY FOOTAGE, CRUDE ODORS North American railroads are among the world's most efficient. The Association of American Railroads says 99.997 percent of hazardous material cargoes arrive without incident.

Editorial Comment:

 Crude oil and other petroleum products are not classified as hazardous material

But video from Lac Megantic shows the town center reduced to rubble, and images from derailments this year in North Dakota and Virginia feature fireballs up to 60 feet high.

Some worry about more insidious risks. In St. John, the site of Canada's biggest refinery, air quality incidents have risen since operator Irving Oil built about 145,000 barrels per day of rail unloading capacity three years ago, regulatory filings show.

Julie Dingwell, who lives nearby, said foul smells from the new terminal - the destination for the illfated Lac Megantic train - have kept her indoors several times over the past year.

Weeks after the Quebec disaster, St. John residents called the fire department as Irving unloaded a batch of high-sulfur Alberta crude from rail cars, filings show.

"You immediately think disaster," Dingwell said. "I've lived in this industrial city most of my life, so I know bad smells. That smell was beyond."

This February, Irving sent scores of apology letters to homes nearby. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience these odors may have caused you and your family," they say.

The terminal has begun using a liquid product called Ecosorb, made by Omni Industries, to neutralize the odors, an Irving official said in an email obtained by Reuters in April.

An Irving spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

MOVING WEST Some 3,000 miles to the west, oil-by-rail is gathering steam along the Pacific Coast, a region long reliant on sea-borne oil imports with no pipeline links to the Bakken.

Tesoro Corp., which already ships oil by-rail to its Anacortes, Washington refinery, is seeking approval for a 360,000 barrel per day facility in Vancouver, Washington, population 165,000. It faces a months-long delay during a state environmental review. Its approval rests with Democratic Governor Jay Inslee, who has not taken a position on the project.

Tesoro has participated in more than 100 community meetings, a company spokeswoman said, adding that the project would boost energy independence and create hundreds of jobs.

Further north in Washington's Grays Harbor County, fishermen, tribal groups and environmentalists oppose plans by three firms to inaugurate oil-by-rail terminals. Their proposed sites are on an estuary in an earthquake zone, opponents say.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Three trains carrying grain have derailed in the county since late April, prompting a Federal Railroad Administration probe.

"We got lucky this time," said Arthur Grunbaum of the Friends of Grays Harbor group. "We won't be if crude oil is permitted."

Ed Johnstone, a fisherman who represents the Quinault Indian Nation on policy matters, said that allowing oil-trains would violate the Quinaults' land rights treaty. They have appealed to federal officials to nix the projects.

With each new derailment, the opposition to oil trains is coalescing, said Diana Bailey of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the leading national environmental groups and a major opponent of Keystone XL. "It's no longer ‘not in my backyard.' Now it's ‘not in anyone's backyard,'" she said.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Endangered orcas swim along Kinder Morgan's oil tanker route Initially it all sounds amusing: those pesky killer whales are getting in the way of oil tanker shipping routes. But the gravity of Kinder Morgan’s arrogance becomes chilling when we look below the surface.

May 13, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Most of us are aware of Kinder Morgan’s spin on oil spills. Sure, an oil spill is a problem, but if we would just think of it as a business opportunity, it's not so bad.

“Spill response and clean-up creates business and employment opportunities for affected communities, regions, and clean-up service providers,” the company states. The net overall effect? That’s up to us.

It depends on “the willingness of local businesses and residents to pursue response opportunities”.

This “intelligence” was extracted from the depths of Kinder Morgan’s 15,000 page National Energy Board application. The company wants to triple its Trans Mountain Pipeline System’s capacity and increase annual Aframax oil tanker transits across the Salish Sea—including English Bay and Burrard Inlet—by 580 per cent.

Well, get ready. There are more bon mots in Kinder Morgan’s Application.

Kinder Morgan believes its project “will not have a significant adverse effect on any biophysical…element except the potential effect of sensory disturbance on southern resident killer whales that use the shipping lanes…”

Kinder Morgan may not be aware, but southern resident killer whales have been in existence for about 11 million years. As for mechanized ships through B.C.’s coastal waters? Not even 150 years, and oil tankers only since the 1930s. Shipping lanes did not exist before ships relied on them. It is therefore not possible for resident killer whales to use the shipping lanes --rather, it's oil tankers that use the migratory paths of killer whales.

Initially, it's a bit amusing. Those pesky killer whales, getting in the way of oil tanker shipping routes.

But the gravity of Kinder Morgan’s arrogance becomes chilling when we look below the surface.

Killer whales under threat Southern resident killer whales are a particular population of Orcas also known as the “J” Clan. This marine mammal is identified as endangered under the Species at Risk Act. The Act defines an endangered species as a “wildlife species that is facing imminent extirpation or extinction” and its “critical habitat”—the habitat necessary for its recovery or survival—must be protected. In fact, the preamble to the Act describes the preservation of the habitat of species at risk as being “key to their conservation”.

The four risks to Orcas’ habitat are reductions in the availability of salmon, environmental contamination—even without an oil spill—and physical and acoustic disturbance.

Today, there are only about 82 J-Clan members left. They travel in three pods and rely primarily on salmon as their food source. Their critical habitat already has an oil tanker superhighway running through it.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Current crude oil exports from Kinder Morgan’s Westridge marine facilities means as many as 120 transits a year crossing the Salish Sea. Kinder Morgan plans to construct three new berths to allow up to 816 Aframax transits a year—more than two a day.

Noise from ships are known to cause sensory disturbances for whales who rely on their heightened sonar to communicate and forage for food. The Orca’s ability to rely on their sensory system is critical to their survival.

More than just sensory disruptions, ship strikes and propeller cuts are constant threats wounding and even killing whales. Kinder Morgan’s take? Whales just aren’t being careful enough. The “probability of a strike… depends in part on the success or failure of any avoidance measure by either the marine mammal or vessel.”

Once a species is endangered, the federal government is supposed to protect the species’ critical habitat. The Government of Canada has been slow to get with the program.

Orcas were identified as endangered when the Species at Risk Act came into force in June 2004. It wasn’t until March 2008 that the Department of Fisheries finally tabled a Recovery Strategy and identified the Orca’s critical habitat as, pretty much, the Salish Sea. Ways and means to protect Orcas and bring about the species’ recovery were to have been set in motion.

Then, the backtracking began. DFO tried to make protection a matter of Ministerial discretion—read: optional and responsive to commercial interests. Ecojustice, on behalf of a number of environmental groups, took the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Minister of the Environment to court. In 2010, Ecojustice won; DFO appealed. In 2012, Ecojustice won again. The Minister was ordered to stop breaking the law and start getting those Orcas protected under the Species at Risk Act. So we should be seeing less marine vessel traffic, but all signs point to more.

Kinder Morgan behaves like a bully. After acknowledging their project has a “high magnitude, high probability and significant adverse effect” on Orcas, the company justifies its right to contribute to their extinction because everyone else is doing it.

Kinder Morgan says: “With or without the Project, the southern resident killer whale population continues to be adversely affected by sensory disturbance caused by all types of marine vessel traffic.”

Kinder Morgan assures us that “Port Metro Vancouver is developing a collaborative multi-stakeholder program to look at the current levels of underwater noise in the Strait of Georgia and surrounding waters and to consider options for reducing potential cumulative environmental effects of noise from marine vessel traffic on marine mammals. Trans Mountain is strongly supportive…and will continue discussions with Port Metro Vancouver to establish how to best participate in current and future initiatives on this topic aimed at reducing the existing effects on southern resident killer whales.”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters This is the same Port Metro Vancouver that is not only in favour of Kinder Morgan’s expansion, but is in favour of dredging Burrard Inlet so even larger Suezmax supertankers capable of carrying 1 million barrels a day of oil sands heavy crude can call at Westridge.

If Kinder Morgan is strongly supportive of reducing potential cumulative environmental effects from marine vessel traffic on marine mammals, you’d never know it. They’ve done nothing since 2008 when DFO tabled their original recovery strategy. That report is clear that the migratory paths of killer whales is adversely affected from the ongoing volume of marine vessels including oil tankers calling at Westridge.

It seems benign when words, phrases and names like “biophysical”, “sensory disturbance” and “southern resident killer whales” are used.

What Kinder Morgan means—and should have the guts to say—is that the oil tankers needed for Trans Mountain’s expansion will significantly contribute to the extinction of Orcas in the Salish Sea.

Editorial Comment: It’s been suggested by many that the sooner wild Pacific salmon and Orcas go extinct, the sooner environmental protection can be totally ignored by government-enabled, greed-driven corporations such as Kinder Morgan.

“in favour of dredging Burrard Inlet so even larger Suezmax supertankers capable of carrying 1 million barrels a day of oil sands heavy crude can call at Westridge”   

Barrel: 42 US gallons Heavy Crude: diluted bitumen from Alberta, Canada’s tar sands fields VLCC tanker size: Very Large Crude Carrier – to be used to transport heavy crude from Kitimat, BC through Douglas Channel to Pacific Ocean

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Canoeists paddle canoes past the Kinder Morgan facility in Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, on May, 22, 2014. There are concerns about the safety of oil storage if Kinder Morgan receives approval to triple the capacity of its pipeline

 Kinder Morgan oil storage plan for Burnaby criticized Plan before NEB to expand existing pipeline capacity reroutes through sensitive areas May 28, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Kinder Morgan is rerouting and expanding the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline, even as it faces concerns in Burnaby, B.C. about how it will store the oil that reaches the end of the line.

The company is in the midst of a National Energy Board review of a $5.4-billion expansion of the pipeline, an Edmonton-to-Vancouver oil pipeline that has existed for 60 years.

Most of the new pipeline would be built in the existing right of way, but the company has proposed changes to the route that would take the new pipeline through environmental sensitive areas such as North Thompson River Provincial Park, Lac Du Bois Grasslands Protected Area and Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area and McQueen Creek Ecological Reserve.

The routing change included in a May 15 NEB filing includes boring a hole through Burnaby Mountain, the company has announced.

Kinder Morgan's proposal includes plans to increase the daily capacity of its pipeline from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day, by running a second pipeline beside the existing line.

Oil tank farm in Burnaby a concern That means it will need more storage capacity at Burnaby, B.C., where it would load oil onto tankers for overseas markets.

A proposal to build 14 new tanks at its tank farm in the community has run afoul of local firefighters, who fear increasing the tank capacity could set up conditions for a disaster if one of the tanks catches fire.

There are currently 13 tanks in Burnaby, and the Burnaby Fire Department says there is an elementary school nearby.

NEB hearings into the proposal begin in August. If approved, construction could begin as early as next year.

Although that proposal is in the midst of a review, Kinder Morgan is designing its proposal with the idea that it could increase pipeline capacity to 1.13 billion barrels a day.

A Kinder Morgan spokesman said line 2 — the new line being built — would have a "theoretical expanded capacity" of 780,000 barrels per day.

"Trans Mountain has not made any assessment if it is possible or practical to transport expanded volumes," the company said in an email statement.

The revised plan would require the addition of more pumping capacity and some new pipeline segments, as well as a fresh round of regulatory reviews.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

The Kinder Morgan tank farm on Burnaby Mountain. A Burnaby Fire Department official is warning that increasing the number of tanks increases the risk of a catastrophic explosion, but Kinder Morgan says such a worst-case scenario is very unrealistic.

 Kinder Morgan dismisses Burnaby fire department’s worst-case spill scenario Deputy fire chief says more tanks increases danger of explosion, warns toxic fumes and molten crude tide possible May 28, 2014 OTTAWA — The Burnaby Fire Department warned of a terrifying scenario Wednesday involving a potential explosion at Kinder Morgan Canada’s Burnaby Mountain tank farm that could result in toxic fumes and a tide of molten crude rolling down toward nearby residents and an elementary school.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters But the company shot back that the scenario is unrealistically based on a worst-case event in which the company, which has had no tank farm fires in 60 years of operation, has taken no steps to contain the fire at the storage facility.

Deputy Fire Chief Chris Bowcock said in an interview he’s concerned about the company’s plan to add 14 larger storage tanks to the 13 already located on the side of the mountain.

It’s part of the company’s proposal, now before the National Energy Board, to increase pipeline capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Edmonton to Burnaby’s Westridge Marine Terminal.

Bowcock said the higher number of tanks within a confined area increases the risk of a catastrophic fire, spewing toxic fumes, that could be caused by welding operations, a lightning strike or an earthquake.

He said that spilled crude from a burning tank wouldn’t likely reach the Forest Grove Elementary School, which he estimated to be 400-600 metres from the nearest tank.

Editorial Comment:

 The diluted bitumen (dilbit) stored in these tanks is an unpredictable mix of condensate (kerosene-like material mixed with sand and unspecified chemicals added to tar sands bitumen.

 Dilbit is highly corrosive, toxic and flammable.  Dilbit spills and leaks are impossible to clean-up

–

This hazardous material sinks in water

“But you’d be within 100 metres. That’s pretty close,” Bowcock, a former emergency management consultant specializing in tank-fire suppression in the Alberta oilsands, told The Vancouver Sun. A Kinder Morgan executive said the fire department’s warning is portraying an unrealistic scenario.

“This is a worst-case scenario with absolutely no mitigation or response. So basically we don’t react at all,” said Hugh Harden, the company’s vice-president of operations.

In fact, the company’s application to the NEB addresses response plans to both minor spills that can be contained by company responders and their contractors, to a major — though unlikely — major spill that would require help from local police, fire and ambulance services.

“Design criteria, leak detection and containment systems, fire detection and suppression systems, operations management, and emergency response planning will be utilized to minimize risk,” the application states.

Because storage tanks contain “trace amounts” of sulphur, the application notes, the risk of those fumes impacting human health is also part of the emergency planning process.

Harden said the company is now working hard to answer numerous questions from the City of Burnaby, and its fire department, that have been posed through the NEB process.

(Shortly after the interview the company issued a statement saying it has asked the NEB to give it an extension beyond its June 4 deadline to respond to thousands of questions from the City of Burnaby and other interveners.)

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Harden, however, added that Kinder Morgan has struggled to arrange face-to-face meetings to deal with such concerns.

“We’ve reached out to them, and we’ve had a hard time engaging with them. And it’s hard to work together when they won’t engage.”

Asked if Burnaby residents would be safer if the two sides worked together, he replied: “No doubt. I mean everybody is better served if we’re all working with accurate information and understand what each other’s concerns are, and are able to work together to understand them.”

Bowcock first voiced his objections in a news release issued last week by the office of Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, a prominent member of the New Democratic Party and one of B.C.’s most outspoken critics of Kinder Morgan’s $5.4-billion project.

Bowcock said Wednesday his public stand has nothing to do with the city’s political battle against Kinder Morgan.

“I’m not approaching this at all from a political position,” he said. “We believe the fire department has to be a strong advocate for safety in the community.”

Bowcock, who listed a number of major tank farm fires (see below) over the past decade (none were in Canada), said the addition of more tanks in a confined area necessarily increases the risk due to potential for intense heat exposure from a burning tank.

But Harden said even with the additional 14 tanks, the distance between each one will still meet the requirements of the Canadian Standards Association.

Editorial Comment:

 Burnaby’s

mayor is serving responsibly by acting on the recommendations from his community’s professional first responders.

 Were

the requirements of the Canadian Standards Association specifically developed for storage of dilbit and responding to associated fires and explosions?

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Trains and crude oil are too often an accident waiting to happen May 19, 2014

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters The fiery derailment in Virginia recently of a train transporting oil was the latest in a series of alarming accidents involving oil transport in North America in the last year. In 2013, more oil spilled from U.S. trains than in the previous four decades combined â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that doesn't include a Canadian spill that incinerated the downtown core of Lac-Megantic in Quebec last year, killing 47.

We can expect such serious accidents to continue if immediate changes are not made.

Nationally, the transport of oil by rail is on a steep upward trajectory, largely due to fracking in North Dakota and to drilling in Canada's Alberta tar sands. And much of the oil being transported is especially dangerous, containing high levels of extremely volatile and combustible vapors. In recent testimony before Congress, the rail industry made clear that many of the cars carrying this type of crude are not equipped to do so safely.

California is in the cross hairs of this dangerous situation. The state is projected to receive up to 150 million barrels of oil by rail by 2016, compared with just 2 million barrels in 2011, and much of that oil will be volatile crude from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Canada.

According to the California Energy Almanac, the state's refineries unloaded 1.41 million barrels of oil imported by rail in the first quarter of this year, twice as much as in the same period during 2013.

Already the third-largest oil refining state, California faces six potential new rail offloading terminals, as well as refinery expansion to accommodate the increase in North American oil production.

North Dakota's Mineral Resources Department estimates that as much as 90% of that state's crude is expected to move by rail this year, much of it to California's refineries and ports in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and the Central Valley. The freight routes pass through populous parts of cities including Richmond, Oakland and Berkeley in the north and Los Angeles and Long Beach in the south.

The federal Department of Transportation has ordered railroads to alert state officials about large shipments of Bakken crude moving through their states. It also has urged railroads to use their strongest rail cars for carrying the volatile oil.

But more is needed. Many local governments and citizens feel powerless to prevent these trains from moving through their towns. While some cities, such as Berkeley and Richmond, have passed resolutions intended to protect residents from crude being transported by rail, the ability of states and cities to directly regulate rail transportation is limited by federal law, which trumps conflicting or overlapping state and local rail regulations. States and cities have no authority over routing or rail car design, for example.

The Department of Transportation is working on more stringent regulations for rail car design, but it should also consider other rules and policies, including rerouting oil trains to avoid population centers, sources of drinking water and fragile ecosystems.

California also has a role to play. The state should begin taxing all oil imports, delivered by any mode of transportation, and use the revenue to support emergency response equipment and training at the state and local levels, particularly in areas most affected by rail traffic. The state should establish a system to convey this new railroad shipment information to local emergency personnel.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters The state should also call on the California Public Utilities Commission to identify areas of railroad track that qualify as "essentially local safety hazards," a narrow exception to the preemption provisions of the Federal Rail Safety Act that allows for more stringent state regulation in areas with unique, high-risk characteristics.

The state should also clarify the responsibilities of multiple agencies involved in safety and environmental oversight, including the Public Utilities Commission, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

Local government and permitting agencies in the state should also consider denying land-use and other permits for refineries and offloading facilities if they find safety risks or improper environmental mitigation under statutes like the California Environmental Quality Act. And community members should become involved, commenting in environmental review processes for proposed refinery and terminal expansions and supporting the ultimate remedy: reducing reliance on fossil fuels by promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and smart growth.

The increase in oil transported by rail is a symptom of our ongoing dependence on oil; we need to make changes that both enhance short-term safety and pave the way for a clean energy future.

Jayni Foley Hein is executive director of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Weapon of Mass Destruction

Rolling Chemical Bomb

 Centralia Train Derailment Fourth on Rail Line in Month Discussion: Supporters of Rail Improvement Cite Accident as Evidence; Opponents of Oil Trains Fear Potential Damage May 23, 2014 Several train cars derailed Wednesday night, blocking Foron Road north of Centralia, just outside a railyard owned by Genesee & Wyoming.

The accident has further ignited the debate over the overall state of the rail and its potential future use as a carrier for trains pulling highly flammable crude oil.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters According to a statement made by Genesee & Wyoming, an 85-car train came to a halt when 11 train cars — two empty lumber cars and nine tank cars full of vegetable oil — came off of the tracks. No one was injured and none of the cars tipped over. No material spilled, but a significant portion of the rail was mangled and torn from the ground.

The cause of the accident is under investigation by Genesee & Wyoming, but there is no suspicion of sabotage, according to the company’s Director of Corporate Communications Michael Williams.

The derailment is the fourth to occur in about a month on the Puget Sound & Pacific rail line. The Federal Railway Commission recently announced it would be investigating the cause of previous accidents, which occurred in Grays Harbor County.

According to the statement by Genesee & Wyoming, the incident involved less than $10,000 in damage, which is the threshold to report to the FRA. The Chronicle reached out twice to the FRA on Thursday after the accident, but the agency made no comment.

Darin Faber and his family live one house away from the tracks on Foron Road. They said they didn’t hear or see anything the night the train derailed.

“The only way we knew there was a problem was the train was sitting there when I left Thursday morning and it was still sitting there when I came home for lunch,” he said.

Crews worked through the night Thursday into Friday afternoon cleaning up the tracks and making repairs. Six car-lengths of track were completed on Thursday.

The road was still blocked by the railcars on Friday.

Genesee & Wyoming and the Port of Centralia recently applied for a $9 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Grant, as part of a plan to improve the aging rail tracks and bridges between Centralia and Aberdeen. The company predicts a steady rise in rail traffic as Asian demands on American exports increases.

While oil trains are not mentioned in the port’s TIGER grant application, they would likely utilize the rail should three proposed oil terminals be built in Grays Harbor County.

Centralia Mayor Bonnie Canaday said the recent accident only proves how badly the funds are needed as rail traffic grows.

“They know they have some issues with the rail,” she said. “That’s what they were going to use it for was to improve the tracks. They need the help, the tracks need to be in good shape.”

But, for the people who don’t want crude oil shipped by rail through Centralia, the recent derailment only bolsters their argument.

"This (fourth derailment) underscores we're in no way prepared to transport enormous quantities of explosive crude through Centralia or Lewis County," crude-by-rail critic Phil Brooke said in an email. “Most of the (crude oil train) explosions are happening on poorly maintained short lines, like this one."

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

An oil train passing through Spokane, Washington

 The Inland Northwest Fight to Avoid Becoming the Next Bomb Train Story May 16, 2014 When it comes to crude by rail, "If we don't have the body count to justify the cost of the rule vs the benefit, DOT hasn't been getting rules through." That's according to National Transportation Safety Board safety expert Deborah Hersman. Unlike a congested Federal bureaucracy, Spokane doesn't have to wait for that body count to take action.

You'd be hard-pressed to find another scenario so ripe with risk, uncertainty and horrific examples of failure, while simultaneously unimpeded by regulators or even common sense safety measures.

New proposed crude by rail terminals in Washington, Oregon and California -- each capable of receiving five to 35 giant unit trains a week -- mean that Spokane's rail funnel, and communities like Spokane Valley, Spokane and Cheney, are facing a concentration of risk never before witnessed.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Washington and Oregon's terminals alone would add up to nearly 14 fully loaded bomb trains (aka: weapons of mass destruction) each day, traveling south in to Spokane Valley from Sandpoint, then west along the Spokane River, through the University District, next to two major hospitals, right through downtown Spokane, over I-90 and Hangman Creek, then off through Cheney en route to west coast facilities.

Are we prepared? Just ask Karl Alexy, of the Federal Railroad Administration, who said "Hazmat regulations never contemplated unit trains (of crude and ethanol)." Or Chief Edinger of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), who said "Oil by rail transport exceeds emergency response capacity."

And accidents are guaranteed. Even as you read this, the ink is still drying on a news story out of Colorado where six oil tank cars derailed in the town of Milliken, spilling crude oil into a ditch; by all accounts, a near miss for a far worse situation.

The Milliken "accident" pales in comparison to the other similar stories out of towns across North America over the last year, in what can only now be presumed is a very nervous waiting game for communities that sit along the rail lines.

To recap a few of those crude by rail accidents: 

Lac-Megantic, Quebec, July 2013: 47 people were killed and a downtown destroyed by fire after a crude oil train derailed and exploded.



Aliceville, Alabama, November 2013: More than 750,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil spilled into fragile wetlands.



Casselton, North Dakota, December 2013: People within five miles evacuated due to caustic smoke from a Bakken crude oil train crash.



Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, January 2014: An explosive fire resulted from a Bakken crude oil train derailment.



Lynchburg, Virginia, April 30, 2014: Downtown Lynchburg evacuated. The James River contaminated with at least 50,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil forcing cities downstream to switch to alternate water supplies.

When the IAFC head was asked about emergency response to unit crude train derailment, he said they didn't have a specific code -- they just use NFPA 472. That's the standard for responding to weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, elected officials from municipal to federal, regulatory officials, emergency response officials, news agencies, special interest organizations and citizens have repeatedly questioned (to little avail) the safety of this process and the safety of the tank cars, the response plans currently in place or the lack thereof, the preparedness for a disaster and disclosure of what is coming through our communities and when. Yet down the tracks these ticking bomb trains go.

The big question still remains; what needs to happen or how bad does an accident have to be until we can say, "NO, not through our town?"

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Back in December, Spokane hosted a public hearing at which agencies heard citizen concerns and suggestions on the scope of an environmental impact assessment for one of the aforementioned proposed projects, a facility planned for Vancouver.

Now two more proposals are making their way through the regulatory process, slated for Grays Harbor, yet this time no hearing or meeting is planned to take citizen questions or comments here in the Spokane region.

Citizens of the Inland Northwest deserve to have their voices heard. To that end, there will be a People's Hearing at the Rotary Fountain in Riverfront Park in Spokane on Wednesday, May 21st at 5:30 p.m., where community members and community leaders will be making a few public comments for the press as well as having an opportunity to sign official comments for the record for the Grays Harbor proposals.

We as the Inland Northwest community will continue to press for answers, to show concern, and demonstrate our unwavering determination to stop Spokane, Spokane Valley or Cheney from being entries on a list of rail disasters. Just as the oil companies and BNSF have been steadfast in their push to turn our nation's rail lines in to conveyances for dirty energy, corruption, greed and disasters, we will be steadfast in our push to create a safe, prosperous and clean Spokane.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Railroads

claim national security in keeping oil train routes secret, but feds

say not so As crude oil shipments have proliferated and raised safety concerns across the country, railroads have refused to acknowledge their routes and frequencies, details that anyone patient enough to stand trackside could learn.

Railroads companies have claimed that they’re prohibited by federal law from divulging those details for national security reasons.

But they’re not.

Oil trains are big and obtrusive. They’re a mile long or more. They haul more than 100 tank cars, labeled on all four sides with placards that identify what’s inside. They’re moving in the open in growing numbers through Portland, Vancouver, Wash., and other Northwest cities.

And while they carry flammable, dangerous oil — five oil train derailments created sky-high fireballs since last July, the worst killing 47 people in Quebec — no accidents have been caused by terrorism.

Asked about where oil trains go, companies including Union Pacific and BNSF Railway Co. have said federal law classifies crude oil as “sensitive security information,” information that’s not classified but not public, part of a post-Sept. 11 security push.

Those rules limit public disclosures of a narrow set of risky commodities including poisonous gases, radioactive material and explosives like dynamite.

Crude oil isn’t classified as a sensitive security commodity, a U.S. Department of Transportation spokesman, Michael England, confirmed.

Union Pacific representatives, meeting recently with The Oregonian’s editorial board, claimed it was, saying they were legally prohibited from publicly sharing information about oil train routing, volumes or schedules.

“There’s terrorist issues, identifying what’s a train carrying that people could do something to,” said Scott Moore, a Union Pacific spokesman. “Right or wrong, that’s one of the ways we think we’ve helped deliver things securely is people don’t always know what’s going on. We’re not going to tell him or her when and where.”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The claim has had legs. The Oregon Department of Transportation cited public safety risks in March when it unsuccessfully fought The Oregonian’s efforts to make the state’s oil train routes public. The agency was later overturned by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s office.

Some aspects of moving hazardous materials are considered restricted: Vulnerability assessments, the names of railroad security employees, security plans.

In practice, Union Pacific has talked about some oil train routes, relying on national security claims when the company didn’t want to comment.

In late April, when a hiker photographed a mile-long crude oil train moving on Oregon’s side of the Columbia River Gorge, Union Pacific acknowledged the train was moving oil. The company, which had previously said it wasn’t moving mile-long oil trains through the gorge, said it was the first to ply the Oregon side.

Shortly after, a reader of The Oregonian said he thought he saw an oil train on the Oregon side of the gorge weeks before. The reader, Daniel Highkin, said he was taking his kids on a spring break trip March 22 when he spotted a train hauling at least 50 to 60 black tank cars through the gorge, a month earlier than the railroad said they moved.

If true, the report would undercut Union Pacific’s claim. But the company wouldn’t discuss it. “For competitive and national security reasons, we do not disclose to the general public details regarding train movements,” a Union Pacific spokesman said.

In a subsequent statement, the company said its interpretation of federal law was “conservative” and that it was evaluating whether the information ordered to be disclosed by the U.S. Department of Transportation “should be released without restriction, or whether its release is subject to legal protections that prohibit further unrestricted disclosure.”

BNSF has also refused to talk about specific oil train routes. When the Washington state legislature pushed a bill earlier this year to increase oil train disclosure, BNSF opposed it, telling lawmakers that national security was an important consideration. A BNSF spokeswoman reemphasized that point.

“Although BNSF does not publicly release this data, it does and will continue to share pertinent information with emergency planners and responders,” BNSF spokeswoman Courtney Wallace said.

State Rep. Jessyn Farrell, a Washington Democrat who sponsored the disclosure bill there, said she found it disingenuous that railroads refused to talk about oil routes when the location of ships moving oil on waterways are disclosed in real time and available online.

“We know there are safety risks,” Farrell said of oil trains. “But I don’t think it’s the risks they’re saying.”

Michael Eyer, a former Oregon rail safety inspector, said the railroads’ tendency toward secrecy was institutional. “Part of it is that we’re the railroad and we run on private property and that’s the way we’ve done things,” he said.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Eyer said crude oil trains are too prominent to move surreptitiously. “There’s no reason to keep this material secret,” he said. “You try and hide a mile-and-a-half long train. It’s really an odd argument.”

The federal government recently moved to increase transparency, issuing an emergency order May 7 calling oil trains an “imminent hazard” and directing railroads to tell first responders where crude moves so they can prepare for accidents.

Railroad companies moving oil from North Dakota now have 30 days to tell state officials where they haul crude, the volume and number of trains they expect to move weekly through each county.

Companies that refuse to provide the information will be prohibited from hauling large amounts of North Dakota crude. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Oregon Democrats, are pushing for the restriction to apply to all crude, not just North Dakota oil.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Pipelines and Oil Tankers, Economic Cost and Environmental Risk Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 The Best Intro to Tar Sands in 3 Minutes Watch, Listen, Learn HERE

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Four years ago 210 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. It took nearly 5 months to stop the oil from leaking into the Gulf.

Four years later, the oil is still washing ashore and so are dead sea turtles and dolphins. Bluefin and Yellowfin tuna are also experiencing heart and liver problems, which are directly linked to the oil at the bottom of the Gulf.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

The ship's cargo has been emptied, but it is feared that pollutants could spill over

 Galapagos emergency over stranded cargo ship May 15, 2014 Ecuador has declared an emergency in the Galapagos Islands, saying that a cargo ship which ran aground last week still poses a threat to the archipelago's fragile ecosystem.

The ship's cargo has been offloaded, but the authorities said pollutants, like motor oil, inside the vessel could spill and cause environmental damage.

They were working to remove the ship.

The Galapagos are home to unique animal species such as the giant tortoise, marine iguana and flightless cormorant.

In 1978, the chain of volcanic islands were declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters The Ecuadorean freighter, the Galapaface I, became stranded off the rocky coast of the island of San Cristobal last Friday.

It was carrying more than 70,000 litres (15,400 gallons) of diesel fuel.

'Environmental risk' The governor of the Galapagos said that, despite having emptied all the fuel, some pollutants remained inside.

"The ship is stranded and continues to present an environmental risk for the Galapagos Marine Reserve and must leave the area," Jorge Torres told the Efe news agency.

The Galapagos are home to unique animal species such as the giant tortoise In a statement, the Ecuadorian government said the emergency measure would free up resources to remove the vessel.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters "As a result of the emergency declaration the Risk Management Secretariat will be able to directly carry out the purchase of goods, the procurement of services and the work that are required to overcome this emergency."

It did not say how long it would take to complete the removal of the vessel.

Darwin's finches This is not the first ship accident in the Galapagos.

In 2001, an oil tanker also became stranded off the coast of San Cristobal, spilling fuel and decimating the marine iguana population.

In 2001, an oil tanker became stranded, spilling fuel and killing marine wildlife The archipelago, about 1,000 kilometres (625 miles) off the South American continent, is a major tourist attraction in Ecuador.

It first became known for its endemic finches, which were studied by the British scientist Charles Darwin in the 1830s.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Coal

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

The Coal Alliance has provided this graphic which the group says shows the industry’s contributions to the B.C. economy.

 Coal industry highlights economic contributions to B.C. Sector has contributed $584 million to province since 2009, says alliance May 27, 2014 The Coal Alliance is combating growing public opposition to expanded coal shipments through the Lower Mainland with claims its area terminals directly pump tens of millions of dollars into cities throughout B.C. annually.

The Lower Mainland’s three main shipping terminals collectively spent more than $584 million buying goods and services in B.C. since 2009, according to the Alliance.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The figures do not include money spent on the direct operations of terminals, said Alliance Spokesman Alan Fryer, but do include spending they do outside of their gates.

Overall, B.C.’s coal business, with 26,000 people employed at mines, terminals and in transportation, accounted for about $3.2 billion of the province’s overall economy in 2011, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by the Coal Association of Canada. That amounted to about 1.5 per cent of B.C.’s $215.1 billion gross domestic product that year.

“We thought it would be interesting to spin out some of the smaller numbers,” Fryer said.

The numbers include spending on services such as environmental monitoring and even catering.

“It’s not just the jobs (at facilities) that the industry supports,” Fryer said. “It supports a lot of smalland medium-sized businesses in communities that provide goods and services. And they employ people, too.”

Coal is Port Metro Vancouver’s biggest commodity export, with terminals shipping a record 38.2 million tonnes in 2013, up from 32.7 million tonnes the year before. About two-thirds of that volume is steelmaking metallurgical coal, with the remainder thermal coal, burned to produce electricity.

Residents’ groups and health authorities have been vocal in their opposition to the coal industry, citing concerns about issues such as local health effects from coal dust and train emissions to greenhouse gas emissions from coal burned to produce energy in Asia.

The largest share of the industry’s spending — about $115 million since 2009, according to the alliance — was spent in Vancouver. North Vancouver and Surrey each saw about $100 million in spending, with Burnaby ($66 million) and Delta ($46 million) rounding out the top five.

Cities with a coal terminal are not the only ones raking in terminal dollars and a wide array of business benefits from the cash, claimed the Coal Alliance.

Interior cities from Kamloops south to Osoyoos and east to Nelson saw about $16.6 million in terminal spending, the bulk of that in Kelowna. In the north, Prince Rupert and Prince George each benefited from nearly $500,000 apiece.

The Coal Alliance says the spending mostly goes to small- and medium-sized businesses on such things as equipment, materials and services — everything from consultants to catering and coffee.

The Coal Alliance’s public offensive comes on the heels of significant opposition to a proposed $15million Fraser Surrey Docks facility that would expand the shipments of thermal coal from U.S. mines, complementing the port’s existing coal terminals: Neptune on the North Shore, and the massive Westshore facility at Roberts Bank at Tsawwassen.

The campaign also comes about a month after the province quietly approved an amended permit at a Texada Island coal-handling facility that allows Lafarge to store twice as much coal on site and enables it to handle thermal coal from the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks coal-handling facility.

The Surrey project, which has not yet been approved by Port Metro Vancouver, would take four million tonnes of thermal coal annually from the U.S. Midwest, load it on barges and ship it to Texada Island for loading on to large cargo vessels.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Various groups — including the Dogwood Initiative, Voters Taking Action on Climate Change and Communities and Coal — have opposed the project, and the prospect of coal trains running through Surrey had officials at Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health calling for a comprehensive health impact assessment last September.

Fraser Surrey Docks commissioned SNC Lavalin for an environmental assessment and the study, released last November, concluded the project would “not likely cause significant adverse effects to the environment or human health.”

But the health authorities, Metro Vancouver regional district, Lower Mainland municipalities and coal opposition groups panned the report, saying it fell short of even a basic health assessment.

Opposition to the project was bolstered in March when a University of Washington study found residents near rail lines face increased exposure to harmful microscopic particles from diesel emissions and larger particles, possibly from coal dust. Further research is planned for the summer to address the study’s limitations, including sample size and duration.

Key companies in the coal business — Teck Resources Ltd., Neptune Bulk Terminals (Canada Ltd.), Westshore Terminals and the railways Canadian National, Canadian Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe — founded the Coal Alliance about a year and a half ago to make sure they had a focal point and a spokesperson to respond to general industry issues.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Glacier-fed Hoh Lake, in a bowl on the slope of Bogachiel Peak in Olympic National Park, was found to be home to fish whose mercury concentrations approached unsafe levels for humans and fisheating birds.

 High levels of mercury found in fish at Olympic National Park's Hoh Lake May 27, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters PORT ANGELES — High levels of mercury have been found in fish from a lake in Olympic National Park and in remote areas of other Western national parks, proving that even the most isolated lakes and streams in the U.S. aren't immune to mercury pollution.

The finding was included in a recently published study by the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service.

But overall, the report had fairly good news for sport anglers.

Researchers said that most fish they caught had “acceptable” mercury concentrations below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's fish tissue criterion for safe human consumption.

But 4 percent exceeded healthy levels — including those from one of five lakes sampled in Olympic where mercury, a cumulative neurotoxin that can cause brain damage, approached levels unsafe for humans and fish-eating birds.

Hoh Lake was the only spot sampled in Washington's three national parks — Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascades — where the study found fish “are likely to approach or exceed the Environmental Protection Agency criterion for protection of human health” and for “reproductive impairment” of fish-eating birds.

The Geological Survey and National Park Service don't regulate health guidelines, but they are working with officials in Washington and the nine other states studied on possible fish consumption advisories.

Western parks were selected because of the significant role atmospheric mercury plays in remote places, and the lack of broad-scale assessments on mercury in fish in remote areas of the West, said Colleen Flanagan Pritz, a Park Service ecologist in Denver and coauthor of the study.

While previous studies documented mercury at the Olympic and Mount Rainier parks and other places in the West, this latest study “is a wake-up call,” Flanagan Pritz said.

“We need to see fewer contaminants in park ecosystems, especially contaminants like mercury where concentrations in fish challenge the very mission of the national parks to leave wild life unimpaired for future generations.”

Olympic National Park fish were sampled from five lakes — Gladys, Hagen, Hoh, Sun Up and Upper Lena lakes.

Researchers took samples from rainbow, cutthroat and brook trout.

Samples from the five lakes showed mercury concentrations averaging 85 nanograms per gram wet weight, slightly higher than the mean for the study.

Size-adjusted concentrations at Hoh Lake were 253 ng/g ww. The EPA's human risk threshold is 300 ng/g ww.

At the low end of the spectrum was Gladys Lake, with a concentration of 71.5 ng/g ww.

Hagen was 109.1 ng/g ww; Sun Up, 99.4 ng/g ww; Upper Lena, 81.1 ng/g ww.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The National Park Service has blamed the Centralia Big Hanaford power plant in Lewis County, 55 miles from the southern borders of Olympic National Park, for mercury emissions as well as causing serious haze in the park.

Editorial Comment:



It is a major coal-fired power plant supplemented with newer natural-gas-fired units.

Concerned about emissions of nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, mercury and sulfur dioxide, state and federal regulators in early 2011 struck a deal with the plant's owners that will result in both coal boilers being shut down by 2025.

Editorial Comment:



Mercury is also believed to arrive in Washington state from pollution blown across the Pacific Ocean from coal-fired industries in China.

In two Alaskan parks, the average level of mercury in fish found bypassed the federal standard for human consumption.

In addition to Hoh Lake, the amounts of mercury also exceeded healthy levels at parks in California, Colorado and Wyoming, the study found.

It’s more likely that coal emissions from the Centralia plant are responsible for the mercury and haze at Mt. Rainier National Park, not Olympic National park given the prevailing winds



The more fossil fuels (coal, oil, LNG, etc) that North America exports to Asian markets, the more toxic chemicals will fall into the Pacific Ocean (acidification) and on the land and water on North America’s west coast Pollutants such as mercury accumulate over time and when they are consumed.

Generally, the older and larger the fish, the more mercury they contain.

The fish study was the first of its kind to incorporate information from remote places at 21 national parks in 10 western states.

From 2008-2012, researchers sampled 1,486 fish from 16 species from 86 individual sites in the parks.

High mercury concentrations in birds, mammals and fish can result in reduced foraging efficiency, survival, and reproductive success.

Mercury concentrations in fish exceeded the most conservative fish toxicity benchmark at 15 percent of all sites, and levels exceeded the most sensitive health benchmark for fish-eating birds at 52 percent of all sites.

There were three sites in sampled in North Cascades National Park.

Results showed the mean mercury concentration below the average of all fish sampled in the study.

After standardizing the fish to 200 mm in length, the mean mercury concentration was 73.3 nanograms per gram wet weight.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters At Mount Rainier, fish were sampled at 17 sites.

The average mercury concentration was 71.5 ng/g ww, similar to the study-wide mean for all the fish in the study.

When adjusted to the 200 mm standardized size, concentrations ranged from 8.5-193.2 ng/g ww.

That large variation “emphasizes the need to sample from multiple locations in order to accurately characterize mercury risk to park resources as a whole,” the report said.

Among the most widespread contaminants in the world, mercury is distributed globally from natural sources such as volcanic eruptions and from human sources such as burning fossil fuels in power plants.

Mercury is distributed at local or regional scales as a result of current and historic mining activities, the report said. These human activities have increased levels of atmospheric mercury at least threefold during the past 150 years, the researchers wrote.

Mercury, whether naturally occurring or in pollution, easily enters the food chain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure to high levels of mercury in humans can damage the brain, kidneys and a developing fetus. Pregnant women and young children are particularly sensitive to mercury.

In birds that eat fish, the effects of mercury can range from reduced nest success rates – a bird might not return to a nest to incubate its eggs – and reduced ability to forage.

In fish, there are levels where changes in behavior are noticed, while higher levels could be lethal.

The full U.S. Geological Survey at http://tinyurl.com/natparkfish.

and

National

Park

Service

report

is

available

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Geothermal

 Canada’s high temperature geothermal reserves are in British Columbia

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Neal Hot Springs: Oregon’s first commercial geothermal power facility

As Oregon's first commercial geothermal power facility, Neal Hot Springs -- Enbridge's entry into geothermal energy -- is a state-of-the-art, zero-emission project that uses heat from the Earth to generate electricity.

With a net production of 22 megawatts (MW), the project, located in Malheur County, Oregon, produces enough power to supply the energy needs of about 24,000 homes.

Developed and constructed by U.S. Geothermal, in partnership with Enbridge, Neal Hot Springs began commercial operations in November 2012 and delivers electricity to the Idaho power grid.

Our Geothermal Investment - Key Facts:

  

22 MW - Zero-emission power capacity from our geothermal investment (35 MW gross).

24,000 - Number of homes that can be powered each year by the Neal Hot Springs project.

375,000 tonnes - Annual greenhouse gas emission reductions, in comparison to emissions generated by a similar-sized, coal-fired generation facility.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Hydropower

 “DamNation” Watch movie trailer HERE 2014 DamNation Screening Schedule HERE

Sam Mace Inland Northwest Director Save Our Wild Salmon “Congratulations. I am so excited for this film!”

Editorial Comment: “Congratulations. Thanks to Patagonia and project partners for DamNation”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Much of the remaining 30 feet of Glines Canyon Dam is covered in water Saturday, when the Elwha River was flowing at 1,500 cubic feet per second, after running between 1,390 cfs and 1,960 cfs last week. Demolition crews must wait for the flow to decrease and a “fish window” to close before they can blast out the last portions of the dam.

 Dam work, fish, sediment: Researchers keep track of Elwha River restoration plan June 14, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The once-towering Glines Canyon Dam's days are numbered.

The final 30 feet of the concrete goliath, which once stood 210 feet tall along the Elwha River, are expected to be gone by this fall as the dam removal portion of the $325 million Elwha River restoration project prepares to draw to a close.

Park contractor Barnard Construction Co. Inc. cannot blast any more of the dam remnant during predetermined fish-spawning periods, known as “fish windows,” or when the Elwha's flow exceeds 1,100 cubic feet per second, or cfs, said Barb Maynes, Olympic National Park spokeswoman.

The current fish window, in place to protect spawning fish in the river, ends July 1, Maynes said, with another set between the beginning of August and the first half of September.

Crews need river flows between 1,000 and 1,100 cfs to be able to access the remaining bottom portion of the dam, Maynes said; otherwise, it will be underwater.

“They just need for the river to drop,” she said.

She estimated that two or three individual blasts will be needed to remove the lingering 30 feet.

Glines viewpoints Once demolition is finished, Maynes said, park staff will begin work installing fences around the remaining top-most portions of Glines Canyon Dam so they can be used as visitor viewpoints.

Removal of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams began in September 2011 as the centerpiece of the Elwha River restoration effort.

The century-old Elwha Dam near state Highway 112 west of Port Angeles was removed by March 2012.

Both dams were built without fish ladders and for decades locked up miles of fish-spawning habitat.

The project also includes monitoring several species of salmon and steelhead trout as they return to the river and studying the impacts of millions of cubic yards of sediment once locked behind the dams as it's released into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Fish nests counted This spring, fish biologists counted 24 steelhead trout nests, or redds, in tributaries of the Elwha upstream from the former site of Elwha Dam, Maynes said.

Counts completed last fall logged 3,528 adult chinook seen in the river and its tributaries between the remnants of Glines Canyon Dam and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, according to park officials.

“It is continued good news that fish are returning and returning to new areas and reaching areas on their own that have been closed off for decades,” Maynes said.

Pat Crain, a fisheries biologist with the national park, said this past spring is the first time steelhead redds have been seen in river tributaries other than Little River and Indian Creek.

No counts of individual steelhead have been completed yet this year, he added.

Crain said park biologists have spent the past few weeks capturing steelhead and tagging them with radio transmitters so their movements can be tracked as they make their way up the river.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “This is the first effort, now that the dams are out, to do a major tagging operation and track fish,” he said.

The number of fish and redds seen so far and the timing of fish returning have roughly tracked with predictions made before the project began, he added.

“I think we're on track, definitely moving toward recovery,” he said.

Mouth of Elwha Somewhat below expectations, however, is the amount of sediment deposited at the everchanging mouth of the Elwha between last September and April, said Ian Miller, a coastal hazards specialist with Washington Sea Grant.

A spring survey of the mouth in collaboration with scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey found about 392,000 cubic yards of sediment had been added to the mouth since fall, Miller said.

“I was expecting quite a bit more,” he said.

Between November 2012 and September 2013, about 3.3 million cubic yards of sediment once locked behind the two massive dams built up at the Elwha's mouth, forming new beaches where once there were only the azure waters of the Strait.

Miller said he has seen the river's maw change in recent months from a few large channels of water flowing into the Strait to dozens and dozens of smaller ones braided across the new beaches. “[The channels] change daily in response to the river pushing material out and waves [from the Strait],” Miller said Millions of cubic yards of sediment have been released from the bottom of the lakes that once bore the names Aldwell and Mills.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Rep. DeBolt Now Seeking $3.4 Billion for State Water Projects Request: Plan Would Fund Flood Reduction, Water Storage and Stormwater May 22, 2014 State Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, is now planning to ask the Legislature for help with flood reduction and other water issues by providing $3.4 billion, more than double the amount he requested in the Legislative session earlier this year.

DeBolt’s $1.5 billion Flood Hazard Reduction Act of 2014 failed in March during the last Legislative session. The new proposal for $3.4 billion includes a more statewide approach that addresses stormwater runoff and water storage along with flood reduction, according to the 20th District legislator.

“I went into this to fix flooding in Western Washington,” DeBolt said. “As I moved forward, I brought in more flood people and it grew a little. Then stormwater people came in and we said we should look at water as a whole. It was more of a coalition concept. It gives us a better chance.”

DeBolt estimates about $400 million to $700 million would go toward the Chehalis River Basin, similar to what was requested in the failed flood bill.

Editorial Comment:

 Once

again, Representative DeBolt is attempting this state-wide, water retention legislation to include the estimated cost of constructing the ill-advised, Chehalis River dam.

 Wild

Game Fish Conservation International continues to oppose this ineffective cash cow that puts residents, businesses and natural resources in harm’s way at the expense of taxpayers and benefit of elected officials.

 Also opposed to the proposed Chehalis River dam are the Quinault Indian Nation and Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

 Additional

statewide fees (taxes) will be levied to fund this money grab for yet-to-bedesigned projects.

The local allocated money would fund the results of a recommendation from the Chehalis Work Group — a flood-policy group appointed by the governor two years ago— on whether or not to build a dam on the Upper Chehalis River Basin.

The work group is scheduled to make its recommendation to the state Legislature by November.

“I don’t know what the (flood) solution would be yet,” DeBolt said. “That is not my part.”

The House Capital Budget Committee held a workshop last week to discuss financing options for the $3.4 billion proposal. The committee considered various options including extending sales tax to bottled water, which was eliminated in 2010. The group also researched a statewide stormwater fee, utility fees and redirecting public utility revenue.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “They were just options that have been explored in the past,” DeBolt said. “I don’t think the bottled water (tax) will go forward. We just want to do this as a statewide effort.”

DeBolt said the committee is attempting to fund the bill without raising taxes.

"We are looking at cash options too,” DeBolt said. “Literally, we are moving forward to do this without raising taxes. It depends on how much money is needed. We have to figure it out. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

J. Vander Stoep, an alternate to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority and a member of the governor’s work group, said the budget committee is trying to split the funding in thirds between flood reduction, water storage and stormwater runoff.

“It happens that there are several water-related needs that are evident now around the state,” Vander Stoep said. “We are not the only place in Western Washington that floods, that is what has brought a number of different (people) together to say it’s time for another water package."

Statewide, floods have cost more than $2 billion in direct and indirect cost since 1980, according to the budget committee.

Previously, the region has received $5 million in 2012 and $28.2 million last summer from the state for flood relief.

DeBolt, ranking Republican on the budget committee, plans to hold statewide stakeholder meetings and public hearings before writing the $3.4 billion bill for the next Legislative session in 2015.

Keeping the scope of the bill statewide gives it the best chance to pass and bring funding to the local Chehalis River Basin, DeBolt said.

Editorial Comment:

 Floods

provide billions of dollars of ecosystem services each and every year as they freely distribute ocean-derived and other nutrients downstream, across floodways and into estuaries.

 The billions of dollars in “costs” associated with naturally—occurring floods could easily be avoided via wise land use practices - sorely lacking in Lewis County and elsewhere throughout the Chehalis River basin.

“We are not going to try to do this on our own,” he said. “We are going to try to do this as a statewide initiative.”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 Water

Retention, Levees and the Impact on Aquatic Species: Flooding the Focus of Two-Day Workshop in Chehalis

Strategize: Leaders Discuss Wide Array of Topics While Building Toward a Report to Gov. Jay Inslee May 23, 2014 Watch May 28 Meeting HERE Flood experts from around the region gathered in Chehalis this week for a two-day workshop as leaders prepare to submit a plan to Gov. Jay Inslee by November that would potentially propose a water retention structure on the Upper Chehalis River The gathering at the Veterans Memorial Museum Thursday and Friday, the second of three such workshops scheduled, focused on the potential benefits and pitfalls of building a dam on the Chehalis River and the possible impacts to the aquatic life in the river.

“All of these are important variables to put into the next stage of analysis,” Jim Kramer, Chehalis Basin project manager, said.

Kramer said the workshop — organized by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority and the Governor’s Chehalis Basin Work Group — laid the groundwork for the leaders to create an economic analysis at their final workshop in September.

Three dam structure options were presented, which included a flood retention dam, a multipurpose dam and a multipurpose rockfill dam. The multipurpose dams — two to four times larger than the flood retention-only dam — would offer fish passage both upstream and downstream.

Editorial Comment:

 Each

of the designs for the proposed Chehalis River dam will negatively impact fish passage (upstream and downstream)

 The reservoir resulting from each design for the proposed Chehalis River will result in inundation of key spawning and rearing salmonid habitat

The flood prevention dam is projected to cost less, between $265 million and $421 million. The multipurpose dams would cost between $369 million and $708 million.

J. Vander Stoep, an alternate to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority and a member of the Governor’s Work Group, said the large ranges in cost are something the leaders will settle before submitting the proposal in November.

“The big variable is how much of the rock on this location they can use,” Vander Stoep said. “There is some testing going on right now.”

Bob Montgomery, of Anchor QEA, an environmental and engineering consulting firm, said his group has worked hard with other state agencies to pursue the multi-purpose dam options.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “We have been through a very exhaustive process of looking at alternatives and vetting those with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington Department of Natural Resources, all of our engineering team and we believe this is the feasible alternative to meet all the objectives, including fish passage and water retention,” he said.

The impact on aquatic species, specifically spring chinook, fall chinook, coho and winter steelhead, were evaluated during the workshop.

John Ferguson, of Anchor QEA, shared data that showed the population of fish species, especially the spring chinook, were most negatively impacted near the Upper Chehalis River, if a dam was installed.

Editorial Comment: It’s obvious statements like this that cause us to question the value of this work – of course, the salmonids that that rely most on the upper river will be impacted the most by a dam sited in the upper river.

Some fish species, such as spring chinook, not common around the Upper Chehalis River, did not show an impact, Ferguson said. ????????

“The flood retention structure would impact salmon and steelhead populations,” Ferguson said. “The degree to which that occurs depends on how you look at it, which stock and which species and where.”

The final day of the workshop on Friday stemmed around the possibility of Interstate 5 being protected with walls and levees.

Bart Gernhart, of the Washington State Department of Transportation, said the department has nixed raising or relocating I-5 and put the potential for express lanes and by-passes on hold, leaving walls and levees as the most viable option to explore.

Gernhart released a preliminary study Friday that shows walls and levees around I-5 would add up to 6 inches of water to 571 homes or businesses in the Twin City area during a 100-year flood event, similar to the 2007 event.

“I feel bad about the number as far as impacts, but as far as feeling confident that this is closer to reality, we are more confident that this is closer to what is actually happening,” Gernhart said.

A total of 118 homes or businesses, such as Walmart or Home Depot in Chehalis, would go from wet to dry if walls or levees were installed during a 100-year flood event, according to the findings.

The estimated cost to I-5 travelers is $10 to $15 million when I-5 is closed for 120 hours, the finding showed. The cost does not include social costs, such as missing work or the hospital.

If proposed wall and levee projects move forward, many flood experts agree it needs to be a part of a larger basin wide solution that also protects the communities.

“If at the end of this process, all we end up with is walls and levees for I-5, there are going to be a lot of upset people, including me,” Vander Stoep said. “There are some places where walls make some sense to protect I-5. If it is part of a basinwide solution then I’m OK with that.”

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Liquefied Natural Gas

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

 This Fracking Study Should Scare Livestock Farmers Senseless June 10, 2014 Popular fears about hydraulic fracking might not be as far-fetched as critics have claimed.

A professor at Cornell University has documented dozens of cases of animal deaths in several states that may have been caused by fracking.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Fracking may also be causing illnesses and reproductive problems in both human beings and animals, molecular medicine Professor Robert Oswald says. Oswald was so alarmed by what he found that he told a British newspaper that he thinks Great Britain should limit fracking.

“Farmers living in intensively drilled areas should be very concerned about potential exposure of their crops and herds to shale gas contaminants in the water, air and soil,” Oswald told the British journal The Ecologist.

Oswald said that fracking in Britain and Northern Ireland should be halted until its effects on farmland, livestock and food supplies are determined.

Study Provides Evidence of Fracking Danger Oswald’s opposition to fracking stems from a study of animal deaths in six states he and colleague Michelle Bamberger, a veterinarian, conducted. The study was published in New Solutions: a Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy.

Some of the highlights of the study include:

   

There were 24 cases in which animals, including livestock, pets and fish, were possibly affected by fracking.

A rancher reported that half of one of his herds, 70 out of 140 cows, died when exposed to fracking fluid that drained onto their pasture. The rancher reported a high number of stillborn and deformed calves were born to the surviving cows.

A farmer in Louisiana reported that 17 cows died within an hour of being exposed to fracking fluid. An autopsy revealed that the cows died of respiratory failure.

Another farmer reported that 21 of 60 cows that drank water from a creek — where fracking wastewater may have been dumped — died. Sixteen of the surviving cows were unable to have calves the next spring.

Animals potentially affected chickens, dogs, fish and cats.

by

Oswald and Bamberger don’t know exactly how fracking affects animals. Oswald suspects that chemicals in the fracking fluid affect the animal, although he doesn’t know which ones do that.

“We are reporting short-term health changes, but no one knows what the long-term health changes may be,” Oswald told The Ecologist, “especially those caused by low doses of chemicals.”

fracking

include

goats,

llamas,

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

A Jan 2012 handout photo of an artist´s rendering of the proposed Kitimat Apache Canada’s LNG facility.

 Calgary's project June 4, 2014

TransCanada to build $1.9 billion pipeline link for Kitimat LNG

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters CALGARY - TransCanada Corp. has announced plans to build a $1.9-billion pipeline to help deliver natural gas to an LNG project proposed by Chevron and Apache near Kitimat.

The Calgary-based company now has four major natural gas pipelines planned in the region totalling $12.6 billion in investment.

The Merrick Mainline Pipeline Project will run 260 kilometres from Dawson Creek, in BC 's resourcerich northeast, to Summit Lake, where Chevron and Apache's Pacific Trail Pipeline begins.

Pacific Trail will deliver gas the rest of the way to the coast, where the resource will be chilled into a liquid state and exported abroad via tanker.

Chevron and Apache's Canadian subsidiaries have signed an agreement for TransCanada to deliver about 1.9 billion cubic feet per day on the Merrick pipeline.

The project could be up and running in the first quarter of 2020.

While early work is underway on the Merrick project, construction will only go ahead if it gets the green light from regulators and if Chevron and Apache decide to move ahead with their Kitimat LNG project. TransCanada expects to file an application to the National Energy Board late this year.

With the latest project, TransCanada now has four natural gas pipelines under development in the region totalling $12.6 billion in investment.

Editorial Comment: Plying the deadly, often treacherous Douglas Channel with 900 more freighters carrying hazardous material (condensate, diluted bitumen and Liquefied Natural Gas) is nothing short of madness at the expense of residents, businesses and natural resources – this is an irreversible catastrophe in the making.

Legacy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Honoring Sacred Waters

Solar

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters

California’s Mojave Desert is home to a 26-megawatt solar farm. The developer, San Franciscobased Recurrent Energy, has announced plans to build a 150-megawatt facility in West Texas. It will be the state’s largest solar plant.

 Solar power gains momentum after long struggle in Texas June 4, 2014

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Solar developers have eyed West Texas’ combination of cheap land and lack of cloud cover for years.

Now vast swaths of ranch land have been optioned for the large-scale solar developments usually seen only in California. Already a solar farm more than three times the size of anything that currently exists in the state is being built.

Whether solar will take off the same way wind power has remains to be seen. But the recent developments represent the strongest foothold the solar industry has achieved in a state that does not offer the lucrative subsidies that drive development in other parts of the country.

“We have a large land portfolio in Texas. … For the last couple years we’ve had teams driving around, knocking on doors to option land until we’re ready to build,” said Arno Harris, CEO of San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy. “Texas is a large market. And it’s a growing market. … It’s really just economics. The solar industry has driven prices down to where solar can compete.”

Recurrent announced plans last month to build a 150-megawatt solar farm in West Texas after signing a 20-year power purchase deal with Austin Energy. That comes just months after First Solar, one of the world’s largest solar companies, began construction on a 22-megawatt farm near Fort Stockton with plans of eventually expanding to 150 megawatts.

From small rooftop systems to Texas’ largest installation, a 39-megawatt solar farm in San Antonio, the state counts less than 220 megawatts of solar power. On a per-capita basis, that is nearly the lowest in the country.

But with almost 350 megawatts of new capacity scheduled to be built by 2016, that is likely to change.

And an even more dramatic acceleration could be ahead. Solar developers have been flooding the state’s grid operators with applications for more solar farms, close to 2,000 megawatts worth, said Warren Lasher, director of system planning for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

“It’s hard to say how much will actually get built,” he said. “It’s been this way for more than a year. But it’s a significant increase from before.”

Pricing advantage Driving the recent interest are environmental mandates from Austin’s and San Antonio’s city-owned utilities to vastly expand how much electricity they get from solar in the decade ahead. At the same time the cost of solar has come down dramatically over the last two years — Harris estimated between 60 and 70 percent.

Recurrent is reportedly selling power at the rate of around 5 cents per kilowatt hour, roughly 25 percent above the current wholesale rate in Texas.

But considering the 20-year contract and that power prices are prone to rise in the decades ahead, solar seems close to winning contracts on pricing alone.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “On the surface it looks like a very attractive deal,” John Fainter, president of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, said of the Recurrent contract. “With all this coal being retired, you’re probably going to replace it with gas [plants]. And that will probably move the price of gas up and the price of power here. … If the price of the equipment keeps coming down, solar is going to be more and more attractive.”

For residential customers, solar remains a tough sell in Texas.

Retailers like TXU Energy and Reliant Energy are marketing rooftop solar leasing programs more aggressively and buying excess solar power from customers. But so far interest has been modest.

“It’s not my expectation half of Texas customers will go solar overnight. We think this is the beginning,” said Reliant president Elizabeth Killinger.

Last year solar accounted for a fraction of a percent of total generation. Even so, Texas regulators are studying the potential implications were solar to play a significant role on the grid.

Solar panels rely on direct sunlight. Even thin cloud cover can play havoc with their electrical output, necessitating precise weather forecasting. ERCOT engineers are already developing a forecasting program specifically for solar.

Connecting cities Then there’s the matter of getting the power to the population centers in the eastern half of the state.

Last year, transmission companies completed $7 billion worth of high-voltage lines running to West Texas. Known as the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone project, it was intended to connect cities to the flood of new wind farms. Because most wind power is generated at night, ERCOT believes the lines could easily handle any demand for daytime solar transmission.

“It could work out well,” Lasher said. “Solar is much more consistent than wind, especially on hot summer days when it’s not windy and you don’t have a lot of clouds moving through. That’s when we really need the power.”

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Tidal

“The oceans contain a huge amount of energy so logic dictates that we need to learn to extract energy where possible bearing in mind that future use of fossil fuel is going to be inhibited both by the effects of pollution induced climate change and by resource depletion,” he said. “So my message is that although extracting energy from the oceans is more difficult and perhaps less successful so far than some people might have wished, it has been shown to be possible and will no doubt become increasingly important in future.”

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Wind

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Forest Management

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The Opinion Pages | OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

 Fish Need Trees, Too May 21, 2014 AS a resident of Sitka, in southeast Alaska, I’ve worked in the local commercial fishing industry on and off for the past 17 years. This summer I’ll go out on the boat once more, in search of salmon, which have become one of the drivers of the region’s economic recovery.

This year, though, the fishing fleet in southeast Alaska will work under the shadow of an announcement by the United States Forest Service that it intends to approve the Big Thorne timber sale, which would allow the logging industry to harvest about 6,200 acres of remnant old-growth trees in Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest remaining temperate rain forest. It would be the most destructive old-growth cut in the forest in the past 20 years.

The salmon need those trees to spawn. This means we need those trees.

Here’s how a salmon forest works. In a healthy system, the old-growth western hemlock and Sitka spruce provide a moderating influence for the stream environment; large trees along the banks help cool water in the summer and warm it in the winter. The forested hillsides absorb rainfall and snow melt, ensuring a steady flow of current for the hatching and spawning fish.

But when timber companies arrive, punching in their roads and clear-cutting, gone are the trees and root wads that create a diverse stream environment. Now the water runs in flash floods down the bare hillsides, washing away the fish eggs and silting up the spawning grounds.

It’s sad, and it’s bad business. Fishing — and tourism — are directly responsible for the recovering economy in southeast Alaska. Jobs and people trickled away for 10 years, from 1997 to 2007. But in the past two years alone, 1,800 new jobs were created, largely because of good fishing. Population in the southeast is at an alltime high, with more than 74,000 residents, and employment increased by 10 percent over the two-year period from 2010 to 2012.

Last year, the salmon harvest set a record at 272 million fish. (Juiced up on coffee and peanut butter bars, my skipper and I caught about 25,000 of these.) That’s good business, and the fishery, managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has proved sustainable.

But the Forest Service, buffeted by lobbying pressures and subject to a 1990 Congressional mandate to seek to meet demand for Tongass timber, is stuck in an outdated “get out the cut” mind-set that made sense back when timber was southeast Alaska’s economic backbone. The era of clear-cutting old-growth stands, however, is over. Once accounting for some 3,500 jobs, timber now provides fewer than 300 jobs a year. This includes sawmills, logging, logging support and wood-product manufacturing. At one point, pulp mills and sawmills hummed away throughout southeast Alaska. Now only one major sawmill remains.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Today, the Tongass National Forest — at 17 million acres the largest national forest in the country — produces exponentially more value in fish than it does in timber. Salmon alone generate nearly a billion dollars. As for logging, it actually costs taxpayers more than $20 million annually for timber programs and logging roads, even after timber sales receipts are taken into account.

To be clear, I’m not anti-logging. The harvesting of young growth and second growth could play an important role in the southeast’s recovery. But when the Forest Service makes a timber sale, it’s geared toward larger, out-of-town companies that can exit the state quickly. Small-scale local operations can’t afford the large tracts the Forest Service makes available, nor do they have the equipment to complete the cut by the required deadline.

In more depressing news for the local economy, in February the Forest Service released a newsletter that concluded that as a result of a 42 percent cut in funding in the past five years, it can “no longer maintain” the current recreation and trail infrastructure and must reduce its inventory.

There goes the tourism.

The Forest Service itself has identified more than $100 million in unmet “watershed restoration work” (Forest Service-speak for “we really jammed this stream up good and should probably do something about it”). The agency has estimated that it will take more than 50 years to redress the problems logging in the Tongass has already caused wild salmon.

Here’s a crazy idea: Instead of prioritizing large-scale timber sales, what if the Forest Service protected the Tongass? What if it joined up with local groups like the Sitka Conservation Society and became a willing partner in aggressive stream restoration and cabin and trail maintenance? Salmon would have their spawning grounds, and tourists who come to Alaska to see one of the last wild places on earth wouldn’t find in its place a moonscape.

In a few weeks I’ll pack my dry-bag with my fishing bibs and ratty Carhartts and sweatshirt with the cuffs lopped off, whistle the dog onto a salmon troller named Saturday and head out with my skipper into the open waters. Word is it’s already shaping up to be a good summer.

But if we get down to Prince of Wales Island, near those 6,200 acres of spruce and hemlock slated to be cut, I’ll want to spend an afternoon following those majestic salmon upstream, right up to where they lay their eggs, in the shadows of those ancient trees. And I’ll be thinking about the narrator in Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road,” observing fish in a stream: “On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again.”

I hope the Forest Service chooses to become a partner in southeast Alaska’s economic and ecological restoration, instead of its enemy, while things still can be made right.

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Genetically Engineered Atlantic Salmon: aka FrankenSalmon

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Government action

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 Still

in Bed Together: BC Salmon Farmers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Nearly twenty months since $26 million Cohen Inquiry recommended actions Beyond Corruption!

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-$26,000,000 Commissioner Bruce Cohen addresses the media regarding the findings of the Cohen Commission into declining salmon on the Fraser River during a news conference in Vancouver on Oct. 31, 2012.

 Ministers say salmon not being restored in Fraser River May 21, 2014 Almost none of the 75 recommendations B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen made on how to restore sockeye stocks in the Fraser River have been acted on by Ottawa, two federal ministers indicate.

Critics have long accused the government of failing to follow up on the $26-million Cohen Commission report in a meaningful way.

But it wasn’t until Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay recently asked detailed questions about which recommendations were adopted that the government verified the extent of its actions.

In written replies earlier this month, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq states most of the Cohen recommendations “are directed solely” at the department of Fisheries and Oceans and only 10 were aimed at her ministry. Of those, seven were accepted and three, dealing with marine spills and pollution monitoring responsibilities, were rejected.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Fisheries Minister Gail Shea also states in writing that DFO “has and will continue to implement Cohen recommendations as part of our day-to-day operations.” But she gives only one example of a recommendation (related to restrictions on salmon-farm expansion) that has been followed.

She does list four “new investments,” which “highlight support for Cohen recommendations,” but none of those programs, such as $54-million promised over five years for aquaculture sustainability, were requested in the Cohen report.

Mr. MacAulay, vice-chair of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, said “Mr. Cohen is probably the most knowledgeable person in Canada” on B.C.’s sockeye problem, and he is perplexed by the government’s failure to follow his advice.

“It’s impossible for me to understand why a government would put a Cohen Commission together, spend that amount of money and then not adhere to anything they had to say, and not even have the man come before the fisheries committee,” said Mr. MacAulay. “It would look to me like they do not want to hear what he has to say.”

In his questions, Mr. MacAulay also asked for “all briefing documents prepared for all departmental officials” related to Mr. Cohen’s recommendations, but DFO blanked out the titles of 17 of the 19 reports it listed, indicating the documents were under cabinet confidence.

“Has conservation become a secret in this country?” asked Mr. MacAulay.

“This is very disappointing,” said Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “All of this would be laughable, if tears weren’t rolling out so much.”

Dr. Orr said the Cohen Commission provided the government with a blueprint for restoring the Fraser River’s sockeye run, but the government ignored it.

“Shea is just promoting aquaculture. She’s not protecting wild fish, which is what Cohen called for,” said Dr. Orr. “It’s just a PR thing [for her] to say DFO is consistent with the Cohen recommendations.

Nobody sees that happening in the Pacific Region.”

Otto Langer, a retired DFO employee who has become an outspoken critic of the department on the West Coast, agreed with that assessment.

“Really a bafflegab response,” he stated in an e-mail. “The DFO response is much more evasive than the [Environment Canada] one and is overly generalized and is nothing but an attempt at spin doctoring.”

Mr. Langer couldn’t understand how Ms. Shea could say her department is implementing Cohen’s recommendations, when DFO has undergone staff and budget cuts since the report came out in 2012.

Alexandra Morton, an independent researcher and environmental advocate, was critical of DFO, saying Mr. Cohen called for restrictions on salmon farming along the migratory route of sockeye salmon, but that has not been done.

Environment Canada and DFO were not able to immediately to respond to questions.

In his report, Justice Cohen called for the government to adopt a policy that put wild salmon first, to do more research on diseases and to ensure that salmon farms don’t impact wild stocks .

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 Ottawa withholding data on B.C. salmon farms: report June 16, 2014 The federal government is hampering scientific research on fish diseases by refusing to release all of the data gathered from salmon farms on the West Coast, a new report by the University of Victoria has concluded.

“The basic issue is that government fails to disclose exactly where diseases have broken out, and only releases such extremely generalized information when it’s too late to be useful,” the report says.

“This needs to change.”

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters B.C. has about 114 salmon farming sites, and they are required to report disease incidents. But while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency makes some of that data public, it withholds the specific locations of reports, and the data are released too slowly, the report states. “Public reporting of even the most serious reportable diseases is routinely delayed – and does not identify where the disease took place, other than to generally identify that it took place at some unspecified location in a named province,” states the report by Sam Harrison, a law student, and Calvin Sandborn, legal director of UVic’s Environmental Law Centre.

“Canadian independent scientists who want to research a disease outbreak get no useful information from these public reports,” the study says. “The lack of site specificity and the delayed nature of the reporting make the information in the reports virtually useless to independent parties. …

Unfortunately, this seriously limits society’s ability to identify and contain disease outbreaks originating on fish farms.”

Mr. Sandborn called it another example of how bad Canada’s environmental laws are compared to those of other countries. “The Norwegian companies that run B.C. fish farms face full disclosure of disease outbreaks at their Norwegian operations – but in Canada, the government keeps such outbreaks secret,” he said.

He called on Ottawa to match the data release standards in major fish farming countries such as Norway and Scotland.

Mr. Sandborn said the study was done on behalf of the Wuikinuxv First Nation, which is concerned that diseases may have spread from fish farms to wild stocks in its territory on the Central Coast.

“The Wuikinuxv are very concerned that they can’t get the very kind of basic information about where disease outbreaks are happening, so there’s no opportunity for independent scientists to look into the issues and to see if there is possible transmission to migrating wild salmon,” he said.

Dave Rolson, fisheries manager for the Wuikinuxv, said there are “unconfirmed reports” infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) was detected in wild salmon that return to Owikeno Lake. And he said ISA was also reported among fish in the Fraser Valley’s Cultus Lake.

Although the two lakes are far apart, both have severely depressed sockeye runs, and Mr. Rolson said it raises questions about whether ISA is to blame and if it might have originated in farms. He said if the government released more immediate, site-specific data, First Nations in regions where a disease was reported could look for it in wild salmon. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency declined to make a spokesperson available, but said in an e-mail that while it has not seen the UVic report, the government agency “is committed to enhance transparency and will take the report’s recommendations under consideration.”Jeremy Dunn, executive director of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said his group endorses the call to make disease data public.

“We support the release of fish health information. We’ve asked our regulator to release that information and we understand that DFO’s working on releasing a greater detail of fish health information,” he said. “Obviously the CFIA has their own release [standards] with respect to just certain diseases and we support being transparent and putting up the information for the public.”

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 Chinese vessel carrying half ton of salmon seized in Pacific June 5, 2014 COMOX, B.C. - A Chinese-registered vessel accused in an illegal fishery in the north Pacific Ocean has been seized as part of an international operation that included Canadian military and fisheries' personnel.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada says Chinese authorities captured the vessel in an area of the ocean where salmon fishing is banned, and that up to 540 kilograms of the species was found onboard.

The department says the vessel is suspected of violating international fishing laws with its use of an illegal driftnet and is on its way back to China, where authorities are expected to conduct an investigation.

A Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau boarding team member inventories salmon aboard the fishing vessel Yin Yuan in the North Pacific Ocean on May 31, 2014. (U.S. Coast Guard)

The seizure was part of a two-week Canadian-led operation.

The Fisheries Department says its members joined officials from the Canadian military, the U.S. Coast Guard, Japan and China.

A long-range surveillance aircraft from a military base on Vancouver Island was involved in the seizure.

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 Vancouver opposes oil terminal plan; now what?

The Vancouver City Council officially opposes Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies’ plans for the largest oil-by-rail facility in the Northwest at the Port of Vancouver.

Now what?

The impact of the council’s decision, reached early Tuesday morning at the end of a seven-hour meeting, won’t be known for months, if not longer.

Gov. Jay Inslee’s communications director said Tuesday he couldn’t comment about how much weight Inslee may give a resolution calling on him to deny a permit for the project.

By law, the governor can’t comment on the city’s resolution during the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council’s adjudicative process, said David Postman. EFSEC will make a recommendation to Inslee, who has the final say.

Major energy projects can take more than a few years to obtain construction permits. The developer of a controversial wind farm in Skamania County first proposed that project in 2008. The wind farm was given a green light — in a scaled-back form — by EFSEC in 2011, and the project was approved by then-Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2012.

Opponents appealed it. The state Supreme Court upheld the wind farm’s approval last summer. Even so, the project has languished.

The council approved two resolutions at the end of this week’s meeting, which was attended by about 700 people. The first vote, to formally intervene in the EFSEC process, was what Mayor Tim Leavitt called a “no-brainer.” Even port commissioners and executives from Tesoro and Savage urged the council to intervene, a legal maneuver giving the city the right to present evidence and appeal.

The second resolution was a broad policy statement opposing not only the Tesoro-Savage proposal but any proposal that would result in an increase of Bakken crude oil being hauled through Clark County. It passed 5-2. Leavitt and Councilor Bill Turlay voted no. Leavitt said the resolution went too far in singling out a project. Turlay said he would only be swayed by facts, not politics.

Of the 101 people who spoke, two-thirds urged the council to oppose the project, citing safety and environmental concerns.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Other speakers told the council to let the EFSEC process play out and not be governed by fear.

Turlay said he didn’t have enough facts to sort out what he was hearing from both sides, and he didn’t want to make a political statement.

“It’s kind of like back in the Old West, Judge Roy Bean said, ‘We’re going to have a fair trial and hang the guilty bastard.’ Now, that’s not exactly how I want to present this,” Turlay said.

Councilor Bart Hansen, gesturing to his own suit, told Turlay he didn’t get “all dressed up for subjectivity.”

“People have died. That is a fact. There have been derailments. That is a fact. There have been gallons spilled into the environment. That is a fact,” Hansen said.

Turlay said people have also died in airplane accidents.

“Bill, those folks got on the plane. These folks didn’t get on the train,” Hansen said.

Leavitt wanted to delay voting on the second resolution, saying if the decision was unanimous, it would make a stronger statement. When pressured by Councilor Jack Burkman, however, Leavitt acknowledged that unless the resolution was rewritten to only address general concerns about oil-byrail, he wouldn’t support it.

Hansen served on a subcommittee with Burkman and Larry Smith that was formed in March to draft the resolution. He criticized Leavitt for waiting until 12:45 a.m. to discuss proposed revisions.

“We’ve heard a lot of testimony,” Hansen said. “We’ve gone through this issue for quite some time.

It’s like ordering when you go to Burgerville,” he said. “You think about what you want when you drive over there, you sit through the drive-through, you think about what you want, you look at the menu, you figure out what you want, and then when you finally get up to order, you know what you’re going to do. It’s time to order,” Hansen said.

Councilors Alishia Topper and Anne McEnerny-Ogle joined Hansen, Burkman and Smith in the majority.

Bronson Potter, the chief assistant city attorney, said Tuesday that the council’s resolution opposing the project will be filed with EFSEC and become part of the official record.

Savage’s Jared Larrabee, who would be general manager at the facility, wrote in an email Tuesday he’s confident the EFSEC process “will show that the Vancouver Energy Distribution Terminal can be designed, constructed and operated in the most safe and environmentally responsible manner.”

Larrabee said he’s disappointed the council took a position “before having all the information,” but said the resolution will have no effect on the EFSEC process.

Some speakers who urged the council to not adopt the resolution said it would give the city a reputation for not being business-friendly.

Mike Bomar, executive director of the Columbia River Economic Development Council, encouraged the city council to “work closely and respectfully together” with the port.

On Tuesday, Bomar said he didn’t think the resolution would automatically give the city a bad reputation.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “While I don’t anticipate that it will have an immediate impact on the majority of our business growth and recruitment efforts, it sets a concerning precedent that should not be taken lightly,” Bomar wrote in an email. “Businesses rely on a predictable, fair and steady process. I am confident the City understands this and will work with its partners to ensure that applicants can trust its processes moving forward.”

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Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the CBC in Vancouver on Tuesday, June 17, shutting down traffic, to take a stand against the federal government approval of the Enbridge pipeline.

 Northern Gateway pipeline approved by Harper government June 17, 2014 With the Harper government’s approval of Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline on Tuesday, the project passed a critical hurdle that could see construction begin as early as the fall of 2015.

But the stage has also been set in British Columbia for a colossal environmental battle that could delay the mega-project.

Legal challenges by First Nations and environmentalists could drag on for years. There is even the potential for civil disobedience by opponents who have said they will do whatever is needed to stop the project, evoking the memory of logging protests two decades ago in Clayoquot Sound.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters Hours after the announcement, hundreds of protesters blocked Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver, holding signs and shouting down the project.

The B.C. government has also hinted it may try to hold up the project if its five conditions for oil pipelines have not been met.

Enbridge, the Canadian oil industry, and the Alberta and federal governments want to loosen the stranglehold of the U.S. as Canada’s only export market for oil. Northern Gateway would open new markets for diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands in Asia, particularly China.

That, they say, will have huge economic benefit for Canada, diversifying the country’s markets and providing higher oil prices. The project will also provide thousands of construction and hundreds of permanent jobs, as well as tens of millions of dollars annually in taxes for the province.

In British Columbia, where opposition is strongest, First Nations, environmental groups and some municipalities argue any economic benefits are outweighed by the risks of an oil spill into B.C.’s salmonbearing rivers or the ocean. Opponents also criticize the project because it will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions.

In approving the project Tuesday, the federal government said it accepted the National Energy Board-led review panel’s 209 conditions that must be met by Enbridge, 113 of which must be complete before construction can start.

“The proponent clearly has more work to do in order to fulfill the public commitment it has made to engage with aboriginal groups and local communities along the route,” Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said in a written statement.

Speaking in Terrace on Tuesday, Premier Christy Clark said Enbridge has not met B.C.’s four of B.C.’s five conditions for heavy oil pipelines. The conditions include a world-leading oil spill response system, First Nations support and a fair share of economic benefits for B.C. “They are trying to set an environmentally sound path for it,” Clark said. “But they are not there yet ... (and) we don’t support it until they get there.

The NEB delivered its verdict just before Christmas last year when it concluded the “project’s potential benefits for Canada and Canadians outweigh the potential burdens and risks.”

The conditions include Enbridge carrying $950 million in spill insurance coverage, thicker pipelines at rivers crossings, a plan to offset losses in Caribou habitat and its promised enhanced tanker safety plan. That plan includes the use of escort tugs, a new advanced radar system, and an increased spill-response system.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government did not add any additional conditions on Tuesday.

Rickford noted the project required permits and authorizations from Ottawa and the B.C. and Alberta governments. B.C. would be responsible for issuing about 60 permits.

READ ENTIRE VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE HERE

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Weapon of Mass Destruction

Oil containers wait at a train yard near Williston, North Dakota before transporting crude oil across North America. Shippers and carriers often mislabel their cargo, which leads to improper handling and potentially dangerous accidents

 Official Tipped Off Hess Rail Yard About Oil-Carrier Inspection Emails cast doubt on the integrity of a federal crackdown on unsafe shipping practices.

April 29, 2014 Emails obtained by In These Times show a cozy relationship between North Dakota’s oil industry and a chief federal inspector charged with monitoring the safety of shipping crude oil by rail.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The emails cast serious doubts on the integrity of the federal government’s supposed crackdown on the industry’s shoddy shipping practices—a subject of growing concern in the midst of a largely unregulated, and in some cases, deadly, transport boom.

Last August, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Agency (PHMSA) and Federal Railroad Administration announced they were rolling out the “Bakken Blitz”—a crackdown on shippers and carriers that mislabel their cargo. Federal hazmat regulations require trains carrying oil to properly classify and identify their shipments with placards. These practices are supposed to ensure that oil is safely packaged before being shipped. They’re also aimed at informing railroad personnel and, in the event of a mishap, any emergency responders. Regulators introduced the Blitz just one month after the Lac Mégantic disaster, when a runaway freight train carrying oil exploded in the small Quebec town, killing 47 people. In that case, Canadian safety investigators found American shippers in North Dakota’s Bakken region had understated the volatility of the oil that ignited and destroyed much of Lac Mégantic’s downtown area. Improper classification caused the shipment to be transported in an improper package. Emergency responders, too, were caught by surprise at how quickly the fire spread and how long it burned.

As part of the Department of Transportation’s new enforcement effort, PHMSA officials show up unannounced at rail facilities to conduct classification inspections—at least that’s what an agency spokesperson told In These Times at first. An email obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request strongly suggests that Kipton Wills, Central Region Director of PHMSA's Office of Hazardous Materials Enforcement, pre-arranged at least one of his agency’s visits to a Hess Corp. rail yard in Tioga, North Dakota, last October.

“We will accommodate your request to inspect trucks at the Tioga Rail Terminal,” Jody Schroeder, the rail terminal supervisor, wrote in an email to Wills dated October 3, 2013—five days before the inspection took place. “At your convenience please let me know your schedule for this event.”

Schroeder later confirmed that Wills reached out to him about the visit.

Earlier this month, PHMSA spokesperson Gordon Delcambre told In These Times that such inspections are impromptu. “They’re unannounced,” he said. “[Inspectors] figure out who they’re going to visit ahead of time, make plans, go to the area and then start knocking on doors.”

Indeed, this is normal procedure. The agency’s handbook notes “the policy of the PHMSA hazardous materials enforcement program is to conduct unannounced inspections.” Exceptions can include cases of “apparent imminent danger to enable the company to correct the danger,” instances where special preparations, records and equipment are necessary, and cases where “giving advance notice would enhance the probability of an effective and thorough inspection.”

Delcambre said he would follow up with PHMSA’s Central Region director Wills to confirm the crudeby-rail inspections were unannounced. “Our field hazmat inspector procedures have not changed with our Bakken region effort,” Delcambre wrote later that day in an email. “PHMSA inspectors still do ‘unannounced’ visits to hazmat shippers and offerors and have been taking crude oil samples as needed at the facilities they call on.”

But when asked to respond for this story, Delcambre qualified that answer.

“Because we were conducting inspections on Hess Property of other entities (highway carriers) and in order to do that safely, in some cases such as this one, prior open coordination for facility orientation and confirmation of appropriate personal protective equipment was needed,” he wrote in an email.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters The inspection of the Hess facility, which also services other oil and gas companies like Marathon, did turn up “probable violations.” Out of 18 oil samples that PHMSA collected and tested at the Tioga plant, the labeling on 10 of them understated how flammable the cargo was. In each of those cases, Hess and Marathon misclassified Packing Group I oil as belonging to Packing Group II. Packing Group I is the highest risk designation, reserved for crude oil with an initial boiling point lower than 95 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the most explosive kind of crude.

Months after the inspection took place, on February 3 of this year, PHMSA slapped Hess with a proposed $51,350 fine and Marathon Oil with a proposed $30,000 fine for the improper classification.

Whiting Oil & Gas was hit with a proposed $12,000 fine for misclassifying Packing Group II oil as Packing Group III. But Martin MacKerel, an environmental activist with the Bay Areabased Sunflower Alliance, says that these fines could have been much higher. “It's clear that announcing the inspections gave the oil company the opportunity to reduce their fines,” says MacKerel. “These kinds of inspections need to be unannounced to have any real value.”

As he announced the slew of fines, the only federal enforcement thus far to stem from the “Bakken Blitz,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx sounded a stern warning: The fines we are proposing today should send a message to everyone involved in the shipment of crude oil. You must test and classify this material properly if you want to use our transportation system to ship it.

But emails from the top PHMSA official on the ground to Hess strike a much friendlier tone.

On February 4, the day that the fines were publicly announced, Schroeder reached out to PHMSA’s Wills asking if he knew anything about the violations that the inspector’s higher-ups had just announced. Wills replied to Schroeder that he had just learned about the fines, but said that he hoped PHMSA and industry leaders could “get it all on one page working together as a coordinated effort not an enforcement effort.”

Avoiding “enforcement” would appear to contradict the point of the Bakken Blitz, not to mention the very mission of PHSMA—whose job is to enforce existing regulations. After all, federal hazmat regulations are nothing new. The Department of Transportation’s crackdown is only supposed to make sure that North Dakota oil shippers are following the same practices that other truck drivers and railroad operators across the country have to comply with every day.

The emails may indicate a disconnect between federal priorities and those of local regulators. Just before the fines were issued, safety concerns over crude-by-rail shipments had again taken the national stage. On December 30, 2013, a derailed grain train collided with an oil train in Casselton, North Dakota, sending 400,000 gallons of Bakken crude up in flames, and forcing residents to evacuate. Days after that, PHMSA issued a safety alert warning, noting “the type of crude oil being transported from the Bakken region may be more flammable than traditional heavy crude oil.” And later that month, Secretary Foxx issued a “Call to Action” and met with railroad executives and major players in the oil and gas industry like the American Petroleum Institute.

Referencing this meeting in his email to rail supervisor Schroeder, Wills appeared to suggest the impetus for the fines came from agency superiors in Washington “Once the results came back and the Secretary of Transportation met with the energy companies and railroad CEO’s [sic], it left the control of field staff and became a larger issue,” he wrote.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters “In my mind, the solution is getting the bosses from both sides around the table and discussing feasible testing schedules, etc. I will be in North Dakota next week and I am hoping to have a lot more information from my own agency by then on what the [Notice of Proposed Violation] means and what we can do as far as working in partnership.”

Those bosses eventually did sit around the table. PHMSA spokesperson Gordon Delcambre tells In These Times that officials from the agency’s Hazmat Safety Office met with representatives from the North Dakota Petroleum Council on April 1 to discuss “joint interest in the safe transportation of crude oil.” The Council does not publicly disclose all of its members, but the board of directors includes Hess, Marathon, Whiting and other major energy companies such as Enbridge Pipelines and ConocoPhillips.

There have been no fines announced since February, although Delcambre says that Bakken Blitz is still ongoing.

Safety advocates say the emails illustrate a business-friendly regulatory approach that runs counter to the core mission of the agency.

“It's telling that PHMSA has no interest in enforcement,” says Matt Krogh, Tar Sands Free West Coast campaign director at ForestEthics, an environmental group based in the Pacific Northwest.

“Their goal appears to be to work together with industrial violators, not to provide the enforcement mechanism provided for in the law, and requested by higher ups in the Department of Transportation.

Companies that routinely misclassify hazardous materials destined to transit America's main streets and urban centers should be prosecuted, not coddled.”

It’s a familiar critique of what’s been referred to as a “sleepy, industry-dominated organization.”

PHMSA routinely comes under fire for being too friendly with the energy industry that it regulates and for taking too long to issue much-needed rules. The small-budget agency also has oversight of the nation’s interstate oil and gas pipelines. Its 151 inspectors cover more than 2 million miles of pipeline across the country. And the unexpected shale-drilling boom has left the agency in charge of another daunting task—monitoring crude-by-rail shipments. Grappling with a dearth of pipelines, North Dakota oil producers have found rail to be the easiest, cheapest means of getting their product to market.

Railroads carried more than 400,000 carloads of crude oil last year, according to the Association of American Railroads—compared to only 9,500 in 2008.

As shipments have increased, so, too, have accidents. The industry’s safety practices—from the tank-cars and routes it uses to the way it tests and classifies its shipments—garner increasing national and international attention.

Last week in Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board convened a “Rail Safety Forum,” bringing together different government agencies and industry officials to discuss growing challenges.

And in an unprecedented move, earlier this month, a United Nations panel on hazardous materials agreed to weigh in to the matter. The panel reportedly accepted a request from American and Canadian authorities to examine whether existing shipping rules in North America properly account for how dangerous and volatile Bakken-drilled crude actually is.

Washington may well be making moves to beef up safety practices and enforcement efforts. However, the emails obtained by In These Times raise questions about how successfully that message is being transmitted to inspectors on the ground.

Legacy – July 2014 Wild Game Fish Conservation International 2014 – Honoring Sacred Waters