Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced legislation Thursday to reauthorize the construction of a Native American veterans memorial on the Mall. A quirk of the original legislation, passed in 1994, allowed for the construction of the memorial but did not allow the National Museum of the American Indian to raise funds — a predicament for a memorial required to be built with private funds on the museum’s property. The new legislation allows the Smithsonian Institution to engage in fundraising and removes the responsibility from the National Congress of American Indians, a nonprofit organization originally tasked with finding resources. The legislation was first proposed by the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
(Oskar Garcia/AP) – U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz speaks at a news conference accepting an endorsement from the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union in Honolulu on Friday, May 3, 2013. Schatz introduced legislation Thursday to reauthorize the construction of a Native American veterans memorial on the Mall.
“American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians served in all of the American wars since the Revolutionary War,” Schatz said during a media call. “It is critical that we recognize their bravery and patriotism with a fitting memorial.”
Advocates noted that veterans memorials on the Mall do not recognize the contributions of Native Americans in American wars. Robert Holden, director of the National Congress of American Indians, said that while the Three Servicemen Statue at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial represents Caucasian, African American and Hispanic service members, it excludes Native Americans, and does not fully depict their contributions.
Planning for the size and scope of the memorial will begin if the legislation passes. The memorial would be on museum property, but the exact location has not been determined.
The Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle’s free four-day party, is a celebration of cultures where people can listen to music, try out dances and hear stories from all around the world.
Whether you are into the sounds of Bollywood, Celtic traditions, Asian music or hip-hop, you can listen, experience and learn during this 42nd annual festival at Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., which runs from 11 a.m. Friday until 9 p.m. Monday.
This year, Folklife focuses on the workplace with stories and personal histories shown in a multimedia program, “Washington Works.”
But let’s get back to the party.
Folklife features hundreds of performers, a Monday night reggae show, an urban square dance and music across all the stages. A complete schedule of entertainment can be found at www.nwfolklife.org.
The bands, just to name a few, include The Shed Players, who help kick off the festival action Friday. This folk group has performed at festivals and farmers markets throughout Snohomish County and are known for roots music and a jug band style.
Also Friday, you might want to check out The Terrible Lizards whose press material has them performing Celtic tunes and songs for 65 million years.
Also Friday, the LoveBomb Go-Go Marching Band of Portland play Indie-Balkan-funk-punk.
On Saturday the entertainment continues with Ancora, an a cappella women’s choir, among many other performers.
On Sunday you can check out the Northwest Junior Pipe Band, a traditional Scottish bagpipe band comprised entirely of kids from elementary through high school. There’s also Komplex Kai, a Native American rapper from Tulalip who performs hip-hop.
On Monday, you can hear the Everett Norwegian Male Chorus, which upholds Nordic culture through song.
The festival’s closeout band Monday night is the Fabulous Downey Brothers, who are reminiscent of The B-52s, a little more weird but definitely poppy.
Family activities are part of the party and are centrally located this year on the Fisher Terrace. The activities include the Seattle Family Dance Tent, open Friday and Saturday where the youngest visitors can dance, listen to stories and sing songs from many cultures.
There’s also toy boat building and knot tying Friday through Monday put on by the Center for Wooden Boats, which will supply traditional hand tools and show knot-tying skills and help kids make traditional rope sailor bracelets. There’s a $2 materials fee.
Another family activity is creating mosaic art with recycled glass Friday through Monday. Visitors can make and take home trivets, coasters and mirrors. There’s a $4 to $7 materials fee.
In addition to a complete schedule of events, the Folklife website provides a list of special attractions and a category called 28 Things to See This Year.
The website also offers tips on where to stay and where to eat and offers the best ways to get around the festival along with a Frequently Asked Questions section. The website is www.nwfolklife.org.
Fall of I-5 bridge span under investigation; major traffic disruption expected
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald Rescuers work in the water after the Interstate 5 bridge collapsed over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon on Thursday.
By Gale Fiege and Eric Stevick, The Herald
MOUNT VERNON — The four-lane I-5 bridge over the Skagit River collapsed about 7 p.m. Thursday, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said.
Rescue crews raced to the scene and after a frantic hour reported that there was no loss of life.
Marcus Deyerin, a spokesman for the Northwest Washington Incident Management Team, said there were only two vehicles involved: a pickup truck towing a trailer and a small passenger vehicle.
Two people were in the truck; one in the car. All were rescued and receiving medical attention, he said. Two people injured in the collapse were en route to Skagit Valley Hospital. A third was being transported to a different area hospital.
There was no immediate reason to believe anyone else was involved in the collapse, but crews were scouring the river to make sure, he said.
“Now we begin the recovery stage dealing with a major interstate highway that is nonfunctional at the moment,” Deyerin said.
“Our state bridge engineer is looking into the possibility that an oversize load may have struck the bridge. Still investigating,” the Washington State Department of Transportation tweeted.
To get across the Skagit River, southbound traffic is being rerouted at Highway 20 to Burlington Boulevard in Burlington. Northbound traffic is being rerouted at College Way to Riverside Drive in Mount Vernon.
“We were extremely lucky that it wasn’t worse,” Deyerin said.
That was especially true given the traffic volume Thursday night, and even more traffic that could have been expected on Friday, the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
He said for people to be prepared for major impacts on travel, particularly in the communities of Mount Vernon and Burlington.
Floyd Richardson, a Mount Vernon logger, was outside his home when he heard the bridge collapse.
“It was like 100 little kids crying. It was like ‘EEEEKKK,'” he said.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the collapse, said Jaime Smith, director of media relations for Gov. Jay Inslee. The National Transportation Safety Board plans to send a “full go-team” to investigate, according to the agency’s Twitter account.
The collapse comes just before the busy Memorial Day weekend.
A lot of Skagit Valley residents are wondering how the fallen span will affect their commutes to work.
“I’ll take the back roads,” Richardson said. “I know all the tricks.”
Homer Diaz, of Mount Vernon, was among the hundreds of bystanders lining the river bank. He crosses the bridge to and from work each day.
Thursday night, the inevitable inconvenience of the pending commute seemed a secondary concern. His fiancé crossed the bridge shortly before it collapsed.
“Thank God she wasn’t on it then,” he said. “I feel sorry for the people who fell in.”
Russell Hester, of Mount Vernon, is eager to learn how long it will take to replace the bridge.
“For the locals, there are not a lot of ways to get across,” he said.
Tasha Zahlis suspected something was wrong when there were two brief power surges at her home nearby and her dogs began barking.
She crossed the bridge 10 minutes before it collapsed on her way home from work.
“I absolutely had an angel over me,” she said. “I am so thankful.”
Michael Szagajek arrived in time to see debris from the collapsed bridged still raining onto the river.
“It was still crumbling,” he said. “It was unbelievable.”
When he spotted one of the drivers in the river standing atop a car, it took him a moment to convince himself what he saw was real.
Tandy Wilbur of La Conner was visiting a car dealership on the river’s north side when the lights suddenly went out.
He ran outside to see what was wrong and realized the bridge had collapsed.
When Wilbur reached the top of the dike he saw a man seated atop an orange Geo Metro in the river.
He began searching the banks to see if there was anyone he could help.
“It is a horrible thing,” Wilbur said about an hour after the collapse.
A crowd of about 1,000 people stood along the dikes as the sun set. Christie Wolfe, of Oak Harbor, was among those who raced to the river’s edge. She knew her truck-driving boyfriend was supposed to be on the bridge about the time it collapsed.
He finally got through on the phone to let her know that he had stopped in time.
Rescue boats and hydrofoils crisscrossed on the river while helicopters hovered above.
The Geo Metro was still in the river, its windshield wipers sweeping side to side.
A hovercraft crew surveying the scene reported there was a full-size pickup truck with a trailer and a smaller passenger car in the river.
Inslee was expected at the scene. He was to be joined by Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste and WSDOT Secretary Lynn Peterson.
The 1,111-foot, steel-truss bridge was built in 1955, according to the nongovernmental website nationalbridges.com, which offers a searchable database of the National Bridge Inventory compiled by the Federal Highway Administration. It was built before the freeway for U.S. 99.
The database classifies the Skagit River bridge over I-5 as “functionally obsolete,” which indicates the design is not ideal, but it is not rated as “structurally deficient.”
“‘Functionally obsolete’ does not communicate anything of a structural nature,” according to nationalbridges.com. “A functionally obsolete bridge may be perfectly safe and structurally sound but may be the source of traffic jams or may not have a high enough clearance to allow an oversized vehicle.”
In 2010, according to the database, the bridge carried an average of 70,925 vehicles per day. The substructure was deemed in “good condition,” and the superstructure and deck were described as in “satisfactory condition.”
The federal database says a structural evaluation of the bridge found it “somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is.”
According to a 2012 Skagit County Public Works Department, 42 of the county’s 108 bridges are 50 years or older. The document says eight of the bridges are more than 70 years old and two are over 80.
Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state’s bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington’s 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
Snohomish County emergency management crews were summoned to the scene,said John Pennington of the agency. Snohomish County sheriff’s office sent a helicopter and its technical water rescue team, which included divers and three boats. Arlington Rural and Silvana fire departments also were sending boats to the scene. Everett police sent their marine unit.
The American Red Cross was sending volunteers to provide first responders with water, food and other supplies, said Chuck Morrison, executive director of the Snohomish County chapter.
More volunteers were sent from Skagit and Whatcom counties because it was unclear if Snohomish County crews could reach the scene as quickly, he said.
Regional Red Cross leaders had just gotten off a plane when they heard the news, Morrison said. They’re working with state disaster officials as well.
“They’ve got it,” he said. “They’re in control. We’re staying in touch.”
Ken Paul performs the Eagle Dance at the unveiling ceremony of the Nevada Indian exhibit on May 3
Source: travelnevada.com
A new exhibit showcasing Nevada’s American Indians at Reno-Tahoe International Airport will be seen by the approximately 3.8 million travelers passing through the facility.
The display, on the airport’s second floor and accessible to the public, was unveiled at a ceremony May 3.
“This project will showcase and raise awareness of Nevada’s indigenous people,” Gov. Brian Sandoval said.
It consists of a wall of photographs on a background resembling a traditional American Indian basket, a tule duck decoy created by Mike Williams of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe, a cradleboard created by Bernita Tetin from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and a flat screen projecting videos about Nevada’s Indian culture. For a look at one of the videos, developed by Nevada Indian Territory, a nonprofit organization that promotes tribal tourism in Nevada, click here.
Sandoval added that he had talked to Krys Bart, president and CEO of the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority, and Sherry Rupert, executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission, about developing an Nevada Indian exhibit after seeing American Indian displays in other airports. An earlier, temporary Nevada Indian exhibit was on display at the airport from November 2011 to January 2012. The current exhibit will be permanent.
“It lets people know that we’re still here,” Rupert said.
Some daredevils are setting the Internet abuzz with breathtaking and death-defying photos taken from the top of some of Seattle’s tallest landmarks.
The most recent one shows a climber perched in the rafters of Safeco Field’s retractable roof, 21 stories above the playing surface. While the photo has just started making the rounds, it was actually posted about 10 months ago on the Reddit account of a user who goes by the handle “shuttersubversive.”
The guy is absolutely fearless, if not nuts. His other accomplishments include scaling the top of Century Link Field, the Space Needle, and the Columbia Tower. He’s also likely the same climber who scaled Seattle’s Great Wheel before it opened last summer.
There’s no confirmation of his identity, but links lead to a blog called “No Promise of Safety,” that identifies him as Joseph Carnavale, a sculptor, photographer and adventurer.
The blog has even more insane pictures of death-defying climbs up various buildings, construction cranes, and other ridiculously tall structures.
It’s clear he’s not the only one making the risky (and highly illegal) climbs. Somebody has to take the pictures. One conquest shows a pair of climbers sitting atop the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
On his Reddit page, the guy says he no longer lives in Seattle, but a lot of people around here sure would like to talk to him.
An unidentified climber sits atop the roof of the Space Needle in Seattle. Photo by Reddit/ShuttersubversiveAn unidentified climber sits atop the roof of Seattle’s Century Link Field Photo by Reddit/Shuttersubversive
An unidentified climber scales Seattle’s Great Wheel. Photo by Reddit/ShuttersubversiveDaredevils sit atop the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in this undated photo posted on Reddit Photo by Reddit/Shuttersubversive
They’re cute, they’re furry and they love to eat – your landscape that is. If you are battling with rabbits, deer, groundhogs or other wildlife, don’t give up. And if you are lucky enough to be wildlife-free at the moment, be vigilant and prepared to prevent damage before these beautiful creatures move into your landscape to dine.
Anyone who has battled wildlife knows the frustration and difficulty involved in controlling them. Your best defense is a fence. A four foot high fence anchored tightly to the ground will keep out rabbits. Five foot high fences around small garden areas will usually keep out deer. They seem to avoid these small confined spaces. The larger the area the more likely deer will enter. Woodchucks are more difficult. They will dig under or climb over the fence. You must place the fence at least 12″ below the soil surface with 4 to 5 feet above the ground. Make sure gates are also secured from animals.
Some communities allow electric fences that provide a slight shock to help keep deer out of the landscape. Another option is the wireless deer fence. The system uses plastic posts with wire tips charged by AA batteries. The plastic tip is filled with a deer attractant. When the deer nuzzles the tip it gets a light shock, encouraging it to move on to other feeding grounds.
Scare tactics have been used for many years. Motion sensitive sprinklers, blow up owls, clanging pans and rubber snakes strategically placed around a garden may help scare away unwanted critters. Unfortunately urban animals are used to noise and may not be alarmed. Move and alternate the various scare tactics for more effective control. The animals won’t be afraid of an owl that hasn’t moved in two weeks.
Homemade and commercial repellents can also be used. Make sure they are safe to use on food crops if treating fruits and vegetables. You’ll have the best results if applied before the animals start feeding. It is easier to prevent damage than break old feeding patterns. Look for natural products like those found in Messina Wildlife’s Animal Stopper line. They are made of herbs and smell good, so they repel animals without repelling you and your guests.
Live trapping can be inhumane and should be a last option. Babies can be separated from their parents, animals can be released in unfamiliar territory, and trapped animals can suffer from heat and a lack of food and water. Plus, once you catch the animal, you need to find a place to release it. The nearby parks, farms and forests already have too many of their own animals and therefore they don’t want yours.
The key to success is variety, persistence, and adaptability. Watch for animal tracks, droppings and other signs that indicate wildlife have moved into your area. Apply repellents and install scare tactics and fencing before the animals begin feeding. Try a combination of tactics, continually monitor for damage and make changes as needed. And when you feel discouraged, remember that gardeners have been battling animals in the garden long before us.
Gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening. She hosts the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV and radio segments and is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ web site, www.melindamyers.com, features gardening videos, gardening tips, podcasts, and more.
Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation has singled out several Indian country initiatives in honoring 25 government-related programs.
The center has recognized the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) of Anchorage, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, Fairbanks, Alaska and a Department of Housing and Urban Development program that is helping the Oglala Lakota tribe of South Dakota.
The Ash Center on May 1 named a total of 25 government programs as semi-finalists for awards which will be given later this year. Four finalists and the Innovation in American Government Award winner will be named in the fall.
Kate Hoagland, communications manager for the Ash Center, said the impetus for the program was “to shed a light on governments that are doing really good work.”
Does that include tribal governments? “Absolutely,” she said. Hoagland revealed that three tribal government programs have won the award since 1990.
They are Ho-Chunk Inc., the business arm of the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska, in 2001; the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Tribe of South Dakota in 1999 for its Cangleska Domestic Violence program, and the Northwest Arctic Borough of Alaska, in 1990 for its program Inupiat Ilitqusiat: Traditional Values.
Projects are judged on five criteria, Hoagland said—creativity, effectiveness, tangible results, significance, and transferability (being a model that can be used by other jurisdictions).
The ANSEP program, based at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, provides inspiration and guidance to Alaska Native youth on a career path towards the fields of science, engineering, technology and mathematics. The Center said.
According to ANSEP’s website, the program has been working for 18 years to aid Alaska Native students from the sixth grade to postgraduate work, and numbers 1,200 students and alumni.
“ANSEP students at every level are successful at rates far exceeding national and state numbers,” ANSEP said, adding:
– ANSEP Middle School students complete algebra 1 before graduating from eighth grade at a rate of 83%. The national average is 26%.
– More than half of ANSEP high school students graduate engineering ready. 4% of minority students nationwide do so.
– More than 70% of all ANSEP students who begin BS STEM degrees graduate.
The Yukon River group includes 70 indigenous governments in the United States and Canada that are focused on creating drinkable water for their communities. According to the Ash Center, “they are navigating complex jurisdictional challenges, historical conflict, and diverse partnerships with government agencies, private industries, research institutions, and communities.”
The council itself pointed to a five part vision “dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Yukon River Watershed” from the headwaters to the mouth of the river. The five parts of the vision are understanding; education; stewardship; enforcement; and organization, according to the council.
According to the center, the Sustainable Communities Initiative is targeting 142 communities in an attempt to link jobs with transportation and housing. HUD is partnering with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency on this effort.
HUD’s Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) noted that one community that will benefit from this initiative is the Pine Ridge reservation of the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota.
It said the Oglala Lakota nation “is leveraging a Regional Planning Grant to catalyze an economic transformation of their community while holding true to their cultural values.”
The end goal is a 34 acre development designed to promote homeownership among tribal members. Also, the Thunder Valley CDC (community development corporation) on the reservation will enhance programs for healthy food, active living, mental health and spiritual health, ONAP said.
The Innovations in American Government awards were created in 1985 by the Ford Foundation, and have to date recognized more than 400 programs that have received more than $22 million in grants, Harvard said.
Frogs, toads and salamanders continue to vanish from the American landscape at an alarming pace, with seven species – including Colorado’s boreal toad and Nevada’s yellow-legged frog – facing 50 percent drops in their numbers within seven years if the current rate of decline continues, according to new government research.
The U.S. Geological Survey study, released Wednesday, is the first to document how quickly amphibians are disappearing, as well as how low the populations of the threatened species could go, given current trends.
The exact reasons for the decline in amphibians, first noticed decades ago, remain unclear. But scientists believe several factors, including disease, an explosion of invasive species, climate change and pesticide use are contributing.
The study said the populations of seven species of threatened frogs, including the boreal toad and the yellow-legged frog, are decreasing at a rate of 11.6 percent a year.
More than 40 species of frogs, such as the Fowler’s toad and spring peepers, are declining at a rate of 2.7 percent. If that pace keeps up, their populations will be halved in 27 years, the study said.
“We knew they were declining and we didn’t know how fast,” said Michael J. Adams, a research ecologist for USGS and the lead author of the study, Trends in Amphibian Occupancy in the United States, published in the journal PLOS ONE. “It’s a loss of biodiversity. You lose them and you can’t get them back. That seems like a problem.”
The disappearance of amphibians is a global phenomenon. But in the United States, it adds to a disturbing trend of mass vanishings that include honeybees and numerous species of bats along Atlantic states and the Midwest.
Bees, which also are disappearing in Europe, serve nature and farmers by pollinating a wide range of plants and food crops. Bats, which have died by the millions from a disease called white nose syndrome, also are pollinators but, along with amphibians, eat many metric tons of insects each year, allowing farmers to cut back on insecticides.
Frogs and their like are much more than slimy animals that come alive in the dark and croak; they are deeply woven into the lives of humans. The offspring of frogs and toads, tadpoles, are the first organisms children watch in school as the creatures develop arms and legs. Adult amphibians are routinely dissected by many of those same children as they go through school.
Scientists have produced pharmaceutical drugs from chemicals found in the skin of frogs and toads, and large numbers of amphibians are collected for medical research.
For the USGS study, researchers pored over data collected at 34 watery and swampy areas from Sierra Nevada mountains to Louisiana and Florida over nine years. They traveled to sites and counted clusters of nearly 50 amphibian species, marking their decline year after year for nearly a decade.
Researchers carried a list of species – some thought to be faring well, others to be strugglng – compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which seeks solutions to environmental challenges. The data were studied by USGS’ Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative.
The loss of amphibians is occurring even in areas where animals are protected, in national parks and wildlife refuges, the study said.
The disappearance of frogs, toads and salamanders first got attention in 1989 when “my colleagues and I began reporting that in familiar amphibian haunts the numbers of frogs and salamanders were declining,” biologist James Collins wrote in an article for Natural History Magazine nine years ago.
“By the mid-1990s we were hearing reports that species were going extinct in only a few years,” he wrote. So “the search for the answer to our question – why are they gone? – was becoming paramount.”
It was hard to answer the question at the time “because there was very little monitoring going on,” said Adams, the author of the new study. “We were trying to convince ourselves there was really something going on with amphibians that wasn’t happening with other species, the disappearance of frogs around the world.”
The new research is the first to document the steepness of the decline. But others sought to answer why years ago.
A study of Minnesota’s northern leopard frog fingered farm chemicals as a contributor to its decline, according to the journal Nature. After studying more than 200 factors that led to infection, two stood out, a synopsis of the report said, an herbicide called atrazine and phosphate, a fertilizer.
Whatever the reason, the declines have led at least one activist group to call for an end to another practice that contributes to the mortality of frogs: dissections. Save the Frogs set an unlikely goal to get dissections out of every school by 2014.
“They are contributing to the depletion of wild frog populations and the spread of harmful invasive species and infectious diseases,” the group says.
A coalition of environmental groups is asking the federal government to step in and combine the environmental studies for three different coal export terminal proposals into one.
In addition to the Gateway Pacific terminal proposed for Cherry Point near Bellingham, export terminals also are proposed for Longview in southwest Washington and Boardman, Ore., on the Columbia River.
The letter was signed by 11 environmental groups, including Climate Solutions, National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and the Washington Environmental Council.
The Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports, a Seattle-based group of business organizations and others formed to support the export terminals, issued a counterstatement to the environmental groups’ request Wednesday.
“This is a stall tactic, pure and simple,” said Lauri Hennessey, a spokeswoman for the Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports.
“We continue to support the (environmental study) process as it exists today.”
Meanwhile, last week, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, a coalition of tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Northern California, issued a joint resolution opposing fossil fuel exports.
“We will not allow our treaty and rights, which depend on natural and renewable resources, to be demolished by shortsighted and ultimately detrimental investments,” said Tulalip Tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon, Jr., who is a vice chairman for the tribal coalition, in a written statement.
The environmental groups’ letter points out that while the terminals will be located only in those three towns, the trains will be carrying coal from Montana and Wyoming across Idaho and Washington state.
The Gateway Pacific terminal, proposed by SSA Marine of Seattle, would serve as a place to send coal, grain, potash and scrap wood for biofuels to Asia. Trains would bring coal from Montana and Wyoming across Washington state to Seattle and north through Snohomish County to Bellingham.
The terminal is expected to generate up to 18 more train trips through Snohomish County per day — nine full and nine empty.
Proponents, including U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., point to job creation. Opponents say the plan could mean long traffic delays at railroad crossings and pollution from coal dust.
More than 14,000 people registered comments on the Gateway Pacific plan last fall and winter. The comments are being used to determine the environmental issues to be studied. The process is expected to take at least a couple of more years.
Meetings were not held in Montana or Idaho despite the fact that trains will be rolling through those states, the groups point out.
The petition asks for the area-wide study to include the effects of increased mining in Wyoming and Montana; increased rail traffic throughout Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon; and the effect of coal exports on domestic energy security and pricing. The petition also asks for hearings to be held around the region.
On the positive side, the plan is projected to create 1,200 long-term positions and 4,400 temporary, construction related jobs, according to SSA Marine.
No hearings have been held yet for the Longview terminal, said Larry Altose, a spokesman for the state Department of Ecology. The Army Corps of Engineers has yet to require a study for the terminal in Oregon, according to Power Past Coal.
Common aspects of the two terminals in Washington state may be studied together as it stands now, he said. The ecology department and Army Corps of Engineers are working on both the Bellingham and Longview proposals, with help from Whatcom and Cowlitz counties, respectively.
For instance, if train traffic from the Longview terminal has a ripple effect on train traffic north of Seattle, or vice versa, then it may be included in both studies, Altose said. The same goes for any other issues, such as coal dust, that may be addressed in the studies, he said.
Washington’s ecology department, of course, does not have jurisdiction in Oregon.
Therefore “the unified approach is something that would involve the federal government,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers office in Seattle could not be reached for comment.
