Sound Bites: Bite-Sized Bits of News From Around Puget Sound

Make a Global Difference Here in Bellingham: Does the recent carnage in Iraq disturb you? Do you want to bring the troops home permanently? Join a global boycott of companies that make significant financial contributions to the Bush administration. The boycott list includes: Kraft—Parent Company Phillip Morris (new name: Altria Group, Inc.)—made a contribution of $3,094,237 which represents 82 percent of their total contributions. Exxon Mobil: $1,226,331 which represents 89 percent of their total contributions. Pepsico Inc: $749,494 which represents 84 percent of their total contributions. United Parcel Service: $2,072,468 which represents 71 percent of their total contributions. Wal-Mart Stores: $610,748 which represents 88 percent of their total contributions. For more information, see: http://www.bethecause.org/writers/articles/nowar.shtml.

Hunters’ Deaths Invite Theories About Disease: Since late 2001, a human brain-wasting disease, similar to mad cow disease, has killed at least three deer and elk hunters with links to Washington state. Two of the men were acquaintances from the same Washington town. The third was an Alaska man, with no known connection to the other two, who was treated at a Seattle hospital. Doctors would not release the men’s names or home towns for privacy reasons. All three died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. (04/08/03), (Portland) Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/104980312150700.xml. From Tidepool.org.

The Proof Is in the Turbidite Pudding: The marine geologist set sail on a research ship as a skeptic about the theory that huge earthquakes have regularly rocked the entire Northwest coast over thousands of years. He returned a believer. What Chris Goldfinger found on the ocean floor quickly dispelled his doubts. Turbidites, which are deposits of mud and sand from earthquake-generated landslides, told the tale: The most powerful quakes that can be experienced—magnitude 9s—repeatedly strike the 600-mile shoreline from British Columbia’s Vancouver Island to Northern California. (04/09/03), (Portland) Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com/science/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/science/104980350950700.xml. From Tidepool.org.

Nooksack Dam May Go: Bellingham officials are considering ripping out the city’s 40-year-old diversion dam on the Nooksack River’s Middle Fork to make way for spawning chinook salmon. The city, Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe have worked for several years to come up with a design for a fish ladder that would allow salmon to wiggle and jump their way up a rock and concrete falls built in 1962. But cost estimates for the fish ladder range from $6 million to $9 million, said Clare Fogelsong. And the city is facing an additional $2 million worth of repairs to the dam. The dam forces water from the Middle Fork into a nine-mile tunnel and pipeline that empties into Lake Whatcom, helping to regulate the city’s water reserves. (04/11/03), Bellingham Herald. From Tidepool.org.

Senate Raises Prospect of Drilling Off Northwest Coast: The Senate Republicans’ national energy bill includes a provision that could lead to oil and gas drilling off the Pacific Northwest coast. The draft provision would give the U.S. Department of Interior six months to conduct an “inventory and analysis” of oil and natural gas resources in the nation’s outer continental shelf, which includes 72 million acres off Washington and Oregon. The study would utilize all available technology, including 3-D seismic technology, along with data from offshore areas of Canada and Mexico to develop estimates. It also would look at how legislative, regulatory and administrative programs and policies, including the existing moratorium on drilling and local zoning rules, restrict or impede development of offshore oil and gas supplies. (04/08/03), Tacoma News Tribune, http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/2908704p-2944178c.html. From Tidepool.org.

Red Tide Bloom Follows Population Boom: Blooms of algae that taint shellfish, endangering the people who eat them, are increasing around Puget Sound—mirroring the swelling number of residents. For the first time, researchers have drawn a correlation between population growth here and the blossoming aquatic scourge known as “red tides.” The blooms are turning shellfish more toxic than ever, and they are popping up in places where they’ve never been a problem before. During the last 50 years, the region’s population has more than doubled. That trend has been accompanied by increased volumes of fertilizer, sewage and pet waste being pumped into the Sound —a nutrient-rich soup gobbled up by the algae. (04/14/03), Seattle P-I, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/117413_redtide14.html. From Tidepool.org.

Spotted Owls: They Flew, Flew Away: After a decade of special protection for the northern spotted owl as a threatened species, new scientific data show the bird’s population is decreasing in Washington far faster than experts had expected. The decline could force the federal government to list the owl as an endangered species, which would complicate the already complicated politics of logging in the Northwest. Those studies, along with those of other owl experts, were presented at a conference sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Wildlife Society in Port Townsend April 15–17. (04/14/03), Seattle Weekly, http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0316/news-owls.php. From Tidepool.org.

Home for Herons Is at Stake: How much is a colony of 188 herons’ nests worth? On north Camano Island, the going rate is $510,000. That price includes 31 forested acres near Davis Slough that Island County environmentalists would like to purchase to protect the nesting colony. The colony is the largest in Island and Snohomish counties and among the largest in the Puget Sound region. (04/12/03), Everett Herald. From Tidepool.org.