What Makes the River Run?

Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

One only needs to look at the Grand Canyon to get a glimpse of what a river is capable of doing. The power generated by a millinea of roaring water, eating away at granite and stone, was coveted by man and with little regard for what he was doing to the whole eco system that it supported he took it, river by river by river. And the ecology of each spot was ravaged, the chain of events taking place devastatingly apparant to any with a discerning eye to see it. The discord of an eco system so out of balance it is evidenced by salamandars evacuating quicker than rats from a sinking ship.

There are violent uprising and changes in the earth’s movements throughout its billion+ years of existence and throughout that time creatures, great and small, have come and gone. Usually at a very gradual pace nothing has quite equaled what takes place when humans enter the equation.

A dam displaces water without creating another eco system of transference. Without using biodegradable materials, without allowing things to decompose and add to the silt and the rot of the river to grow and sustain further life then all that can possibly take place is permanent planting and restocking of a fish population that has no hope of sustaining its own multigenerational life. The problem has never been over fishing, it has been the wiping out spawning grounds, of breeders and broodstock and fishfood and healthy waters for it all to live in. It has been the deliberate manipulation of a species in trade for the all-mighty dollar.

And while we can weep for our fish it doesn’t end there. With each fish that doesn’t come back to the river, that doesn’t spawn, laying its eggs or fertilizing with milt, that doesn’t die with its stinking carcass sinking to the bottom of some isolated shoal, that is one less spot on the river that is not fertilizing life. It is not nurturing the ecological system that feeds all of this area and makes it rich in everything that we hold dear whether you like fish or have never had a piece of that rich, moist, delicacy with its slightly gray underside, caress your tongue or not. The fowl of the air, the plants in the fields that are eaten by you or the beef or the deer that you call dinner are sustained by that biomass in the river. And we are about to lose it all.

In exchange, someone, somewhere is about to make some moey. In return we will get to pretend for a little while longer that we have fish while someone makes pretend we have fish programs that are saving our salmon. They don’t tell you how these salmon will procreate without their spawning grounds or without a healthy river in which to do it, however they are sure if there could just be a few more limitations put on the fishermen then the whole species could be recovered.

We have sustainable energy. We have the wind, we have the sun. We have hemp, we have soy. We have geothermal power, we have biofuel. We need to close down our dams and take stock in our energy needs. We need to understand what our river’s purpose is. How we can live WITH the river as well as the life within it and the lives it sustains outside of it.

Vote wisely for those who understand that a dollar saved today, in finding cheap energy, may cost us ten dollars tomorrow in paying for the consequences of that short lived bargain. This is not the time to bring in corporations who preach one thing but do another and whose track record is opposite of what they promise or they have no track record at all. Our salmon are dying on the river and don’t let any con job tell you they are being poached! Aside from a new recipe, alongside an egg or two, the only poaching that occurs with salmon on the Columbia happens when someone steals a bad idea for a project from one corporation to the next.

Next Step is up to each of us

A gas pipeline explosion in Quebec and its aftermath

What was the next step from last week's post? A brief synopsis of the meeting was LNG bad, river good. Salmon spawning grounds will be jeopardized with anything placed on the river and with any displacement of the river bed or with the water and its temperature. All those who want to save the Columbia River from LNG corporations building along its banks must write to FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) stating, specifically, why they oppose the corporation and its placement of an LNG holding tank on the river. Bradwood Landing connotates a warm, fuzzy feeling that should not be used so everyone is encouraged to always refer to the site as the Bradwood Proposal or simply Northern Star. We say: envision the Landing (and the warm, fuzzy feeling it conjures up) engulfed in a flash of flames, the countryside of trees devastated all around, the local emergency crews unable to cope with the outcome of a incident of any magnitude.

This is not supposition, it is reality. It is concerns that the Department of Energy has written to FERC concerning LNG corporations building in remote areas, and specifically Bradwood, where emergency response teams are not adequate to respond to any degree should any sort of breech of safety arise.

Perplexing is that there are so many state departments that just don't have anything to do with one another. One state department can be concerned with one aspect while another, blithely unaware or apparently uncaring, issues permit after permit. The fact that the State of Oregon has issued water permits to Northern Star before it has been leased or sold any land, or permitted to build is a vexing problem. However, these permits have been issued. In order to counter those permits, what can and does need to happen next is that businesses need to write to FERC and let that agency know how they will be impacted should Northern Star be allowed to build at Bradwood.

The Coast Guard has written a letter that has gone unanswered by Northern Star regarding other ship traffic being totally limited when a tanker hauling LNG is on the river. On the average there will be three tankers per week on the river. This will curtail the cruise ship industry that many of our community businesses have recently committed themselves to during much of the year. A severely crippling effect that must be taken into consideration when Northern Star touts its numbers of bringing in $$ to the local economy. They do not bring an additional amount to the table. It is an either or, sadly, as the nature of the beast tends to knock the other income makers (mainly tourism through cruise ships and the fishing industry) out of the picture.

We would like the reader to understand that we do not have a vested interest in whether or not an LNG corporation comes in to Clatsop County. Northern Star people have a vested interest and they are not going to give you "both sides". We, frankly and forthrightly, do not see Northern Star's or any LNG corporation's side to putting a facility on the Columbia River except that they are in it for the money and it doesn't bring enough money to Clatsop County to make up for the damage done to the river, the potentially colossal damage done to salmon and sturgeon as well as the tourist industry.

The salmon project is a complete waste of time and money. From the studies done by Bonneville Power Administrations' own scientists these programs and projects do not restore the spawning grounds and hatcheries are a dismal failure in bringing back the salmon runs. We, frankly, need to get rid of the dams, but that is another day another fight another post. For now, we need to not even allow another mistake to happen much less then use 50 years trying to correct it.

To top it off, this is gas that is being imported from other countries when we aren't even using our own resources! Furthermore, this liquid gas, for which we are loosing our economy and our river is being changed and our fish our going extinct isn't even for us, it is for California! And inland! NONE of it stays local! We don't get special rates or discounts for taking the risks associated with hosting a energy plant which are targets as well as pipelines which have leaks and cause surrounding lands to be jeopardized with fireballs from mishaps.

You can contact local businesses and tell them about your concerns. Share with them how they need to contact FERC re their Environmental Concerns on the Bradwood Landing Project Docket #CP06-365 Magalie Roman Salas Secretary Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 888 First Street, N.E.Washington, DC 20426. Businesses, at this point, are crucial to the process because they have a different perspective on the impact that having these tankers on our river will have to our environment and our economy. The businesses, locally, have only been told by Northern Star of the supposed benefits bought through its initial outlay to build the facility. Someone needs to tell them of the draw backs. The impacts that dredging will have on our river's ecology and the fish habitat that is already so desperately out of balance. The impact once tankers are on the river and the loss of cruise ships and fishing boats on the river so that the tankers are safe.

This is something you can do tonight to ensure our river, our community and our children have a safer and healthier tomorrow.

STOP LNG on the Columbia River

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

And so, of course, begins Charles Dickens' classic, A Tale of Two Cities. It is that time, isn't it? Especially now, when so many would rather just not know and let their freedoms float away than face what is happening and fight a daily battle of mind and determination.

What is going into your mouth? Who picked it? Are they being paid fairly? Do they have adequate housing, health care, food for their table tonight? Your clothing that you wear, where did it come from? Who wove it? How about those tennis shoes are they worth the effort someone put into making them for you?

Our air, our water our natural resources that we are merely the stewards of for future generations. How will they grade your efforts to keep a peice of it safe for them? You, again, have the chance to do something to keep our county safe and clean. Come to the STOP LNG meeting, Tuesday, Dec 19, 6:30pm at #10 Basin St. Astoria, Union Fish Meeting Room at the Cannery Pier Hotel. Speak up and out!

Say it, Believe it, Become it!

Last week a nice woman wrote into the nice local paper and thanked the nice new corporation that wants to put a nice new liquified natural gas holding tank on our river for being such nice environmentally friendly people and contributing many millions of dollars to the local environment. This nice lady noted that "no other" corporation has contributed to the environment like this corporation wants to, if given the chance to put their terminal in at Bradwood.

WHAT?

Lets take this one spin at a time. For this post let's just address that according to Northern Star they are going to have a salmon program, similar to the one provided by good ole Bonneville Power Administration.

According to documents that Northern Star submitted to the state of Oregon, Northern Star Natural Gas has proposed the Bradwood Landing LNG receiving terminal to be built on about 55 acres of a 420-acre site at Bradwood, located between Astoria and Clatskanie at about River Mile 38 on the Columbia River. The facility would be designed to have a peak sendout capacity of 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas and would be capable of continuous operation. The project also would include a 34-mile long pipeline that would run from the site to Port Westward and then under the Columbia River into Washington.

One point three billion cubic feet of natural gas per day! Even if running at half peek, say 65 million cubic feet per day calculate that at the price of natural gas. Northern Star is proposing approximately 50 jobs for Clatsop, Columbia and Wahkiakum Counties to share. It is donating "up to 59 million" to environmental causes, less than the amount it will make in one day of operation.

This great environmental organization has optained permits to use 4400 gallons PER MINUTE from the Columbia River and 150 gallons per minute from a well for the purpose of hydrostatic pressure testing of storage tanks and associated pipelines. [Where does this water go, how often is this done, is there a pond that returns this water to its natural temperature before it is dumped back into the river?]

Northern Star has obtained permits to use 133.7 cubic feet per second from the Columbia River for the purpose of suction dredging of Columbia River sediments for construction of ship berth and turning basin. [Bye, bye salmon! Spawning grounds? Oh yeah, were going to make fake ones for them to use. Maybe some test tubes. LNG & BPA bring this salmon to you ... or maybe we can raise them for 4-H.]

Northern Star has obtained an additional permit to use 4.456 cubic feet per second from the Columbia River for the purpose of hydrostatic pressure testing of a transmission pipeline. [So this is shot down the pipeline after it is connected at the plant and the Columbia River water ends up where? Because we have so much of it being wasted by BPA so now it can be used to clean out pipes and be used to test them, instead of as spawning waters for our fish?]

THIS is what kills salmon! Taking COLOSSAL amounts of water out of the river and returning it in an altered state! Dredging our river bottom! These are extremely bad ideas! Read more about them and then protest by writing to your congress person.

There are sincere people in some salmon programs that believe they have the answer for the diminishing salmon population, however, these hypothesis have not been proven out. In most cases the salmon recovery projects have been proven to be dismal failures, as all of Bonneville Power Administrative's environmental salmon projects have shown.

Similar to the sacrifices Thugs brought to their multi-armed god, Kali, local thugs will sacrifice what is left of our salmon and sturgeon to the multi-facilities of the "environmentally friendly," power hungry, energy companies the Bonneville Power and Northern Star, unless we speak up and out, often and loud.