Yakama Nation fishers and tribal leaders hopped on boats to the fishing site. As a protest, they dropped a net right next to the proposed Morrow Pacific coal export facility. | credit: Courtney Flatt
BOARDMAN, Ore. — Yakama Nation tribal members took to the Columbia River Tuesday to protest a proposed coal export facility in eastern Oregon. The tribe says the export facility would cut fishers off from treaty-protected fishing sites along the river.
More than 70 people held signs and waved flags on the banks of the Columbia River, just downstream from the proposed Morrow Pacific coal export terminal.
Fishers and tribal leaders rode boats to the treaty fishing site, dropping a fishing net right next to the proposed coal export facility to assert their treaty fishing rights.
Yakama Nation Chairman JoDe Goudy has fished the Columbia River since he was 6 years old. He said the proposed coal export terminal would threaten the river, fish, and the tribes’ treaty-protected fishing rights.
“We believe that an attack on these things is an attack on our very essence and our way of life,” Goudy said.
Ambre Energy, the company backing this export terminal, has said the project will not interfere with treaty fishing rights.
Goudy said the tribe isn’t concerned about whether any company chooses to acknowledge treaty fishing rights.
“[Our fishing rights] exist, regardless of what they wish to say on black and white, or on anything that they can document. We live it. We see it. We know it. We practice it on an annual basis. We practice it when the fish come. We go where the fish are,” Goudy said.
Yakama Nation fishers and tribal leaders hopped on boats to the fishing site. As a protest, they dropped a net right next to the proposed Morrow Pacific coal export facility. | credit: Courtney Flatt
Members from the Lummi Nation also traveled to the protest. The tribe is fighting another proposed coal export terminal near Bellingham, Washington.
Just before Lummi Nation council member Jay Julius hopped on a fishing boat, he said it’s tribal members’ responsibility to protect future generations and their fishing rights.
“The coal company said they don’t fish here anymore, and we’re going to prove them wrong. The treaty doesn’t say, ‘if they fish here sometimes.’ It’s pretty clear. It says all usual and accustomed areas,” Julius said.
Julius said a larger proposed coal export terminal at Cherry Point would directly impact fishing areas there.
The Morrow Pacific Project would transport about 9 million tons of coal per year from the Powder River Basin to Boardman in eastern Oregon. Coal would then be barged down the Columbia River to Clatskanie, Oregon. From there, it would then be transported to Asia.
Klamath Lake. New legislation in the U.S. Senate would enact a water-sharing agreement and authorize the Interior Department to carry out the terms of a new agreement signed by tribes, ranchers and other stakeholder groups in the Upper Klamath Basin. | credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. senators from Oregon and California introduced legislation Wednesday that’s aimed at restoring the Klamath Basin ecosystem and enacting a water-sharing agreement in this arid region that straddles the two states.
The legislation puts into law the Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement, an accord that was negotiated and signed last month by ranchers, tribes, and federal and state officials, according to a statement issued by Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
“The people of the basin have set aside their differences for the benefit of the region,” Wyden said in the joint statement from the four senators. “Congress should follow their example, pass this legislation and put the Klamath Basin on the road to recovery.”
The Senate bill gives congressional authorization to the U.S. Interior Department to act and achieve the agreement’s benefits. That includes a water-sharing agreement for ranchers and farmers, tribes, native fish runs and bird refuges. It also puts into law a plan to improve and protect streamside areas and provides economic aid for the Klamath Tribes and their members.
In all, the Klamath Basin restoration is expected to cost about $495 million in federal spending. The bill also clears the way for the removal of four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River, with the Secretary of the Interior making the final decision. Experts say that would be the largest dam removal in history.
Last summer, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden brought stakeholders together to rework the restoration agreements. They had been previously drawn up but never passed in Congress.
Several of those stakeholders signed onto a statement praising the new legislation. They included Trout Unlimited, the Karuk Tribe, the Klamath Water Users Association, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, PacifiCorp and the Upper Klamath Water Users Association.
Other conservation groups such as Oregon Wild and WaterWatch of Oregon say the Klamath Agreements don’t provide adequate water for the Klamath Basin’s wildlife refuges, or go far enough to reduce overall water demand.
The legislation will be referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Wyden is a member and the former chairman.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Tribal groups say a coal terminal in the Columbia River Basin would interfere with treaty rights, harm fish and put the health of tribal members at risk.
About 50 Yakama Nation members protested Tuesday at site of the project at the Port of Morrow in Boardman. They say the terminal proposed by Ambre Energy would destroy tribal fishing areas.
The Oregon land board is to decide by May 31 whether to approve the project. In a letter to the board, the company says tribes are currently not fishing at its dock. But treaty rights guarantee a site for tribal use whether it is in use or not.
The company also says its dock would not “unreasonably interfere” with fishing.
Environmental groups and business leaders have also rallied against the project.
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/20/3652857/tribal-groups-oregon-coal-terminal.html?sp=/99/101/369/#storylink=cpy
Alan Schreiber walks through rows of organic cantaloupe on his farm in Franklin County, Washington. Schreiber has applied to grow marijuana in Washington but is concerned about federal water resources. BOB BRAWDY — TRI-CITY HERALD
Nobody seems quite sure of the answer: Will the federal government withhold services to the state, given the conflict between legally grown marijuana in Washington and a national drug policy that finds marijuana illegal?
If the answer is no, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will allow federal water to be used to irrigate marijuana crops, and the Bonneville Power Administration will allow federal power to be used in the cultivation of marijuana, primarily indoors.
If the answer is yes, then they won’t, in line with federal law.
With something of a wink and a nod, the U.S. Justice Department has provided soft guidance that conditionally allows financial institutions to do business with the marijuana industry. In the same way, utilities and regulatory officials could allow the provision of water and power if Congress could pass legislation the recognizes the will of Washington voters.
Or not.
ENERGY USE
The manufacture of one joint – a marijuana cigarette – will produce 1.5 kilograms of CO2 emissions, equal to the emissions of a 44-mpg hybrid car driving 22 miles. The energy used is equal to that used to produce 18 pints of beer.
U.S. electricity use for cannabis production is the equivalent of 1.7 million average homes, or the production of seven average U.S. power plants.
Of the total wholesale price of U.S.-grown marijuana, 49 percent goes to energy.
“Current indoor cannabis production and distribution practices result in prodigious energy use, costs and unchecked greenhouse-gas pollution,” said Evan Mills of Energy Associates, a California energy consulting firm. The figures are his, offered in a recent study.
“While the implications of I-502 for the criminal justice system, land use, taxation and many other issues have been widely debated, the potentially significant changes in electricity and water use that are likely to follow I-502’s implementation have received almost no scrutiny,” wrote Eric Christensen, of the local firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell, in a blog post last month.
He goes on to say that because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, “legalization creates a new set of legal risks for utility service providers.”
Some utilities say they’re ready for the risks and implications. Maybe.
UTILITIES
More questions: Is Bonneville concerned about the draw on the electrical grid? Has the use of electricity by growers and processors been discussed? Have plans been developed? Will marijuana cultivation and sale have any effect on Northwest power?
“While we are beginning to look at what potential impacts might be, we are not prepared to discuss those issues at this time,” replied BPA spokesman Doug Johnson to an inquiry last week.
Will the utility continue to supply “federal” power to Washington utilities that serve the cannabis industry?
“We are currently exploring these issues. Again, it is too early to discuss the potential policy implications or details of those discussions,” Johnson wrote.
In reality, electricity is already being supplied to the industry.
The greatest effect so far has fallen on Pacific County, home to Raymond, Long Beach and the aptly named Tokeland.
There, an entrepreneur has applied to use 20 megawatts of electricity, which works out to 40 percent of the county’s entire electrical load.
“We have contacted Bonneville (Power Administration), and we are working with Bonneville to build a new substation,” said Jason Dunsmoor, chief of engineering and operations for the Pacific County PUD.
“They will have their own substation,” he said, estimating that the infrastructure cost for the facility and the transmission line will cost some $3 million.
“We’re just providing the service,” he said. “The concern of everybody who invests is that the federal government could change its mind.”
Including the Pacific County facility, by last week the state Liquor Control Board had approved license applications for marijuana processors in 17 counties.
CONSUMPTION AND GENERATION
“We are going to get together and do some inquiries. We haven’t had any specific inquiries. We’ll be taking a look at it and discussing it,” said Karen Miller, communications manager at the Benton County Public Utility District.
“We’re looking at it and trying to make sure we understand all the ramifications and impacts,” she said.
Deb Bone-Harris, Franklin County community and government relations manager, said her utility has “not heard a concern about federal power being an issue. We’d have to deal with that if the time an opportunity were to come up.”
“There has been no formal discussion or agenda item related to this issue at the board level,” said Neil Neroutsos, spokesman for the Snohomish County PUD.
“Puget Sound Energy has a duty and obligation to serve customers under Washington state law,” said Ray Lane, spokesman for Puget Sound Energy, which serves several counties in the state.
“We are confident we have the capacity and resources to provide energy to any new customers who need our service,” he said.
“There have been conversations about the topic,” said Chris Gleason, spokeswoman for Tacoma Public Utilities.
“The interesting thing for us, and for other utilities, the ones who buy power from Bonneville, is whether Bonneville can supply to customers who are supplying to a service that is illegal in most parts of the country,” Gleason continued. “Bonneville is having the discussion about it.”
The answer resides in the other Washington.
Said U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, “I understand there are multiple conflicts between state and federal law as it pertains to marijuana. The only way to ensure that state law is recognized at the federal level is by passing the Respect for State Marijuana Laws Act. I am a co-sponsor of this legislation and will continue to advocate for the federal government to recognize and respect our state law.”
Jared Leopold, communications director for Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, responded late last week, “Senator Cantwell is looking at the potential impacts of implementing Washington’s marijuana law.”
State Rep. Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, has followed the marijuana issue in the state Legislature.
“The unintended consequences continue to rise,” he said last week. “My overall impression, once 502 passed, was ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to have quite a mess on our hands.’ ”
Nealey said he has asked a Bonneville government liaison specialist about the threat to deny power to the industry.
“She gave me a straight answer,” Nealey said. “We are aware of that problem and the legal department is working with that right now.”
THE GRID
“Part of the question we’re all asking – is this a big deal or not?” said Chuck Murray, senior energy policy specialist at the state Department of Commerce. “That’s because we have no idea how much energy is being used by illegal grows that are hidden from us.”
“My big concern is how much power is going to be required, but it’s very uncertain,” said Chris Robinson, power management manager at Tacoma Public Utilities.
“As a practical matter, we all know there are a lot of illegal grow operations. A lot of them are using Bonneville power already. Many of them are stealing power,” said Eric Christensen, an attorney at Gordon Thomas Honeywell and author of a recent blog post concerning cannabis cultivation and the law.
Some of that theft may go away once a legal network has been established.
Still, he noted the presence of “a number of potentially serious pitfalls for providers of services to marijuana growers, including utilities and irrigation districts.”
Evan Mills of Energy Associates estimated the industry consumes 20 terawatt hours per year nationally, including illegal grow operations.
For off-the-grid operations that consume power from private generators, Mills estimated that one marijuana plant requires 70 gallons of diesel fuel, or 140 gallons of gasoline used with smaller, less efficient generators.
Indoor cultivation in California, Mills wrote, accounts for 3 percent of all electricity use, or the electricity that could power 1 million average homes. Greenhouse gas emissions are equal to those from 1 million average cars.
Sources of energy use include an obvious list with lighting, heaters, humidifiers, de-humidifiers and such, but also include other, less obvious sources, including vehicles, CO2 generators, pumps, filters, fans, security stations and ozone generators.
“Current indoor cannabis production and distribution practices result in prodigious energy use, costs and unchecked greenhouse-gas pollution,” Mills wrote.
In its 2013 report “Environmental Risks and Opportunities in Cannabis Cultivation,” BOTEC, the firm hired by the state to assist in developing rules regarding the implementation of I-502, said “environmental considerations should not be a major component of marijuana policy, but are worth explicit attention and policy design.”
Meanwhile, federal agencies could flummox the whole thing by threatening banks or by denying water or electricity.
“It’s clear that the federal approach to the war on drugs is a complete failure,” said Christensen at Gordon Thomas Honeywell.
“The federal government,” he said, “should at least give us enough space to see if the Washington experiment will work.”
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/05/20/3651758/power-and-water-will-feds-allow.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy
AUBURN, Wash. — 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.
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. 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.”
Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2014/05/19/5977165/muckleshoot-tribe-urges-rejection.html?sp=/100/773/385/#storylink=cpy
LUMMI ISLAND – The Lummi Island Heritage Trust wants to buy quarry land on the island for conservation and low-impact recreation with saltwater access.
“We’re interested in doing what we can to protect it,” said Rebecca Rettmer, executive director of the trust.
The land trust is negotiating with Resource Transition Consultants, the receiver for Lummi Rock quarry, to buy 105 acres on the southeast side of the island near Scenic Estates.
While receivership is an alternative to bankruptcy, it is similar in that creditors must line up to get paid under the direction of the receiver.
Lummi Rock and its operator, Aggregates West of Everson, have both turned their assets over to Resource Transition Consultants, which is charged with selling off those assets to pay the companies’ debts.
The companies have been in receivership since 2013.
Both sides declined to reveal the trust’s purchase offer. But Resource Transition Consultants’ Robert Nall said it was too low.
“We felt it was substantially below fair market value,” he said of the offer, adding that as receiver his company must by court order maximize the value of the companies’ assets.
Nall’s company had an appraisal done and then gave that to the land trust for evaluation.
Resource Transition Consultants would like to sell the property to the trust, provided it can get a fair-market value for the land or something close, Nall said.
“I think that would be a wonderful solution,” he said.
If the two sides don’t reach a deal, the property eventually will be listed for sale – primarily as a mining asset, Nall said.
When Lummi Rock’s receivership was filed last June in Whatcom County Superior Court, documents listed its most valuable asset as the 114 acres of property it owns at and near the quarry on Lummi Island.
The land was worth $1.55 million, and the company owed more than $10 million to shareholders, Union Bank and other creditors, according to those documents.
Lummi Rock’s mining operations were on 20 acres.
Rettmer went before a Whatcom County Council Natural Resources Committee in January to talk about the project and a possible partnership with the county, including its help in buying the 105 acres.
The land has more than 3,000 feet of saltwater shoreline that includes pocket beaches and critical nearshore habitat, with 80 acres of forestland and wildlife habitat in the upland, according to the trust.
Lummi Island Heritage Trust has conserved 853 acres of land on the island. It owns and manages three preserves that provide public access.
Shoppers enter the Bellingham Costco store Jan. 8, 2013. City officials are continuing to work on projects designed to clear the way for development of a West Bakerview Road site that could accommodate a new Costco store. THE BELLINGHAM HERALD |Buy Photo
By JOHN STARK
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD May 16, 2014
BELLINGHAM – Lummi Nation and Fred Meyer Stores have appealed the city’s preliminary approval of wetlands, stormwater and street modifications along West Bakerview Road to accommodate a new Costco store.
The appeals will trigger a city hearing examiner review of the development proposal. In technical terms, the review will determine whether City Planning Director Jeff Thomas was justified in issuing a “mitigated determination of non-significance” for the work in and around the proposed Costco store. Thomas’ finding meant that the project could move ahead without a more extensive review of environmental issues, as long as steps were taken to deal with traffic and other impacts.
Brian Heinrich, Mayor Kelli Linville’s executive coordinator, said there was no way to know how long that process might delay final approval of the project. The hearing examiner will set a hearing date after checking with attorneys representing the tribe and Fred Meyer.
“Any delay can have an impact, but we trust the process and are confident that city staff have acted appropriately in application of our land use and environmental regulations,” Heinrich said in an email.
In a press release, Lummi Nation Chairman Tim Ballew said the appeal was based on concern about the project’s potential impact on salmon and the Nooksack River.
“Filling wetlands that nourish salmon-spawning streams is significant,” Ballew said. “It is significant to the health of the river, the Lummi people, and everyone who calls the Nooksack River watershed home. As the steward of the environment, it is the Lummi Nation’s responsibility to protect these waters and the fish that live in them.”
In an email, Heinrich said the city shares the Lummi concern with the environment and salmon. Because of those concerns, the city is following the law in requiring the project to add wetlands to make up for those that will be filled, while restoring a salmon-bearing stream.
Heinrich noted that Lummi Nation also has offered developers the opportunity to compensate for wetland-filling projects by buying shares in the tribe’s wetlands bank to help cover the cost of creating new wetlands to make up for those lost to development.
Lummi Nation has its own long-term plans for major retail development on tribally owned real estate farther north. In the past, tribal leaders have negotiated with the city of Ferndale on division of tax revenues from major retail development of tribally owned property inside that’s city’s boundaries. So far that issue has not been settled, and no specific development plans for the tribal real estate have emerged.
Fred Meyer’s objections to the West Bakerview project are based on traffic impacts on its existing store on the other side of West Bakerview.
“The proposed development will significantly and adversely affect (Fred Meyer’s) interests by, among other things, substantially interfering with access to the Fred Meyer store by unreasonably increasing traffic on West Bakerview Road.”
Seattle attorney Glenn Amster, representing Fred Meyer, asks the hearing examiner to order preparation of an environmental impact statement, or the imposition of other measures to reduce the traffic impacts.
The city already has decided to impose the cost of some traffic improvements on Costco as a condition of city approval, including the construction of added turning lanes for cars entering the site. The city will require Costco to provide a right-turn lane into the store parking lot for westbound traffic, plus an additional left-turn lane for eastbound traffic.
Costco has agreed to pay for those improvements, Heinrich said, but as yet there is no cost estimate.
The 20-acre Costco site is on the north side of West Bakerview Road near Pacific Highway.
CALIFORNIA -New guidelines for safe consumption of fish and shellfish of interest to a Clear Lake-area Pomo tribe were released last week by the state Environmental Protection Agency.
The recommendations are based on the levels of mercury found in 15 species of fish and shellfish in Clear Lake, long known for contamination from extensive mercury mining from the 1870s to as recently as 1957.
The state EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment said it developed the food advisory based on requests from the Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians located in Finley, a small town near Lakeport.
Species added to the new guidelines based on the tribe’s interest include threadfin shad, prickly sculpin, mosquitofish, inland silverside, winged floater mussels and Asian clams, the EPA said.
Sarah Ryan, the tribe’s environmental director, said clams were the Pomos’ main interest. Tribal members who eat clams from the lake recall their parents and grandparents doing the same, she said, though it was unclear whether those clams were the same kind that are eaten today.
Beyond that, Ryan said it seemed right to assess the mercury in other species from the lake.
“We’re really glad they took on the task,” she said.
Dr. George Alexeeff, director of the environmental health hazard office, said in a press release that fish are “part of a healthy and well-balanced diet.”
“They are an excellent source of protein and can help reduce the risk of heart disease,” he said.
The guidelines are designed to help people balance the health benefits “against the risk of exposure to mercury from fish in Clear Lake,” Alexeeff said.
Mercury can harm the brain and nervous system of people, especially in fetuses and children, the EPA said.
Consumption standards for women age 18 to 45 and children under 18 are more restrictive than they are for women over 45 and men.
The advisory said that all people can consume seven servings a week of Asian clams or winged floater mussels, and that women over 45 and men can eat the same amount of inland silverside or threadfin shad.
Women 18 to 45 and children should limit silverside and shad to three servings per week, and should limit the other 10 species — blackfish, bullhead, catfish, crayfish, mosquitofish, bluegill or other sunfish, carp, crappie, hitch and prickly sculpin — to one serving a week.
Women over 45 and men can eat three servings a week of the 10 species, or one weekly serving of bass. Younger women and children should not eat bass.
Six other tribes — the Elem Indian Colony, Robinson Rancheria, Middletown Rancheria, Scotts Valley Rancheria, Koi Nation and the Habematolei Pomo — are also located in Lake County.
Mercury mining was prevalent in the Clear Lake area in the late 1800s, including a productive site, the former Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine, which operated on the lake’s shore until 1957, the EPA said.
The advisory on eating fish from the lake was originally issued in 1987 and was last updated in 2009.
For details on the advisory, go to http://www.oehha.ca.gov/fish/pdf/AdvyClearLake051514.pdf
(You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.)
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) has come out in favor of the bipartisan congressional conference report on pending legislation that would enable direct cooperation between the Army Corps of Engineers and tribes.
“The Columbia Basin tribes and the Corps have long mutually agreed that acquisition of such authority would substantially advance project expertise and efficiency and allow the Corps to meet its statutory obligations by accessing tribal expertise,” the CRITFC said in a statement, adding that the language in the relevant section, 1031, was “short and simple but will remedy prior inefficiency in projects such as cultural resources protection, water quality monitoring and lamprey passage research.”
Lamprey passage has been an issue for the tribes in the northwestern United States, to whom they are a cultural icon. Dam construction has impeded the fish’s ability to spawn.
Section 1031 “authorizes the Corps of Engineers to carry out water-related planning activities and construct water resource development projects that are located primarily within Indian country or impacts tribal resources,” the conference report stated. “Previous Water Resources Development Acts have authorized individual Tribes to carry out these activities. This section is intended to provide this authority generically so that all Tribes may benefit.”
The commission also gave a hat tip to Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, calling him “instrumental” in getting the Cooperative Agreement Authority language included in the bill that passed the Senate in 2013. The tribal organization also noted the contributions of House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster and Ranking Member Nick Rahall, who “were integral to affirming House commitment to the policy improvements.”
A final vote on the bill is pending.
“We look forward to swift passage of WRRDA in both the House and Senate and look forward to working with the US Army Corps of Engineers to quickly implement this authority,” said CRITFC Executive Director Paul Lumley in the statement.
Foul-smelling, silvery blanket covers waters off Marina Del Rey
May 19 2014
Tracy Bloom KTLA.com
Clean up efforts were considered over, but thousands of small dead fish remained in the waters off of Marina Del Rey on Monday morning, two days after they were first discovered.
Scores of dead fish, believed to be mostly anchovies, began washing up in a corner of the marina near Bora Bora Way on Saturday night, creating a foul-smelling, silvery blanket on top of the water.
“It’s horrible. There’s like a million dead anchovies floating around, as well as other fish,” said Lisa Lascody, a resident of the area. “It’s creepy and weird,”
Crews spent Sunday cleaning up, and although carcasses continued to litter the water on Monday, a supervisor with the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors said clean up efforts were over.
The supervisor estimated that about 3,000 to 4,000 fish carcasses were removed from the harbor.
The remaining dead fish floating in the water would either get eaten or eventually be pushed out into the ocean, the supervisor added.
It was unclear why exactly the dead fish washed up in the first place, but one marine expert speculates the amount of fish could have sucked the oxygen out of the water, and that could have caused them to die.
“The currents in here… it gets trapped in here, it doesn’t have a good flow. So it’s possible all these anchovies came in here, then all the other fish came in here, and all of that massive load of anchovies…sucked out all of the oxygen in the water. And through that, everything died,” said Eric Martin, the facility director and educational co-director of Roundhouse Aquarium, a marine studies lab in Manhattan Beach that teaches about the ocean and marine life.
The was not the first time numerous dead fish showed up dead in Southern California waters. In March 2011, millions of small fish turned up dead in King Harbor in Redondo Beach, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In that incident, it was believed that the fish used up all the oxygen after swimming into the marine en masse and eventually suffocated, the Times reported.
