Quote of the Day

If there weren't people here, we wouldn't have an aquifer problem.

- Allyson Beall, Instructor, Washington State University School of Earth and Environmental Science, "Researcher considers the 'what ifs' of water use; Model estimates effects with algebraic equations," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, August 4, 2008

And there you have it. The environmentalist argument, reductio ad absurdum

This statement also shows that it is the Aquinuts who have their collective heads buried in the sand. Even without "behemoth" Wal-Marts or the Hawkins "sprawl mall" the "pristine prehistoric" waters of the aquifers will continue to decline and eventually run out as long as people live on the Palouse, just like any other resource that is taken from the ground (oil, coal, precious minerals, et. al.), whether it's in 100 years or 1000 years. However, unlike oil or rock, water routinely falls on the Palouse from the sky. All we need to do is plan for the aquifers running dry and identify alternate sources of surface water.

"Change comes through education, not tax"

Brilliant Town Crier column in today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News from our very own Scotty Anderson. Very classy, Scotty, mentioning Don Pelton. I'd love to see some kind of memorial to him on Bishop Blvd. He did as much as anybody to see the growth there happen.

Stay tuned for my response to Mr. Civil Discourse's ludicrous attempt at recreating East Berlin on the Palouse.

Though I am thankful the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the right to keep and bear arms, I am disappointed that it even had to go to the Supreme Court.

There have been many laws that have assaulted the right to keep and bear arms. Many of the laws are advocated by people exercising their First Amendment rights to trample on Second Amendment rights, when it is because of the Second Amendment rights we have been able to secure the First Amendment rights.

When someone thinks back to the time when America was getting organized and people were fighting and dying to make this country work, you can't help but realize some of the issues we face today pale in comparison.

One such issue is a Seattle-like mandatory 20-cent tax added to each and every plastic bag someone uses when shopping at a Pullman-area store. To think that people have enough time on their hands to petition the government to tax its citizens even more is embarrassing when compared to the founding of a nation.

On the other hand, there is a group of individuals who wear a pager day and night ready to drop what they're doing to help someone in need. Sometimes at 3 a.m. these volunteer firefighters are needed to clean up somebody else's tragedy.

Several times a year I see people standing outside of local grocery stores volunteering their time to collect food for the food bank. Others volunteer hundreds of man-hours to put together the Fourth of July celebration at Sunnyside Park.

In their own way all these people are giving up something of their own in order to make our community a better place. In all cases what they give up is time. In some cases these volunteers also give up their own money to help pay for materials or gas to get around. They give up a good night's sleep, and when asked to do it again, they do.

In their own way each of the volunteers is helping to make our community safer, more comfortable, and more fun. Our community is a better place because of these people.

Those petitioning the Pullman City Council to make grocers charge 20 cents per plastic bag used at the store probably think they're helping to make our community a better place.

A recent article in the Daily News mentioned someone seeing 22 plastic bags on College Hill, but there was no mention of an effort to clean them up.

It was suggested that residents start to carry reusable bags and use those instead of plastic bags. No one, however, has volunteered to hand out these shopping bags.

It is argued that we shouldn't view the proposal as elitist, instead we are showing respect and care for our community. But no one is standing in front of the stores to educate people.

It is suggested that we can use the new tax to donate the money to the local food bank or help pay for community improvements.

I would like to see this group of people go to the community and try to change their habits through education. Educating people is better than forcing the government to tax its citizens.

Some people see a need and they volunteer their time, their sleep, and their money to the cause. Others see a need and they want to use the strong arm of government regulation to further the cause.

Why stop at charging for plastic bags? Maybe there should be a tax on glass bottles, aluminum cans, and even "keg" cups. That tax could be used to clean up the broken glass, empty aluminum cans, and keg cups that litter some of the streets in Pullman. This may seem far-fetched, but I would wager targeting plastic bottles is the next item on the list.

Is this group of citizens using Seattle as inspiration? If so, the city of Seattle is no longer buying plastic water bottles. How long until that is proposed in Pullman?

Final thoughts: Don Pelton - the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development is done holding Pullman hostage and Wal-Mart's coming. I wish you were here to see it.

T-85 goes the countdown.

"Washington stormwater rules hit state highway department; Department of Transportation permit will run about $16M to implement"

The out-of-control state bureaucracy is eating itself now. The headline should read, "Department of Transportation permit will cost taxpayers about $16M a year to implement," however, because WSDOT doesn't actually generate a profit. We pay the bills through our nationally-high gas taxes and vehicle registration fees. So who do you think will be picking up this new tab?

This stormwater monster needs to have a stake driven through its heart and fast, before it destroys the whole state.

From yesterday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

The Washington State Department of Transportation soon will expand its regulation of stormwater runoff from state highways, park-and-ride lots, ferry terminals, maintenance facilities and rest stops.

The state Department of Ecology has drafted a stormwater permit specific to WSDOT that likely will go into effect in July.

The permit is equivalent to one issued to the city of Pullman in February 2007, designed to manage the quality and quantity of runoff from development and to control stormwater discharge into waterways. Ecology also is pressing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue Moscow a similar permit because of its effect on area rivers and streams across the Washington border.

State Transportation Communications Director Lloyd Brown said how the pending permit will affect the Pullman area - and specifically the Pullman-Moscow Highway and the adjacent Paradise Creek - is unknown. The highway's recent widening project was constructed using best management practices and likely won't need to be retrofitted to meet the new permit's requirements.

"We're not new to stormwater management. We've had stormwater practices in place for two decades or more," he said. "We know the effect of stormwater on the local environment."

Brown said the new permit is expected to cost the transportation department nearly $16 million more per year to implement. Most of the costs will come from increased inspection and maintenance, along with the additional inventory and mapping duties to ensure stormwater runoff is managed and properly disposed of. The department has up to 24,000 discharge points into state waterways which will need increased monitoring.

Brown said the two state agencies are expected to work together with state legislators to find money to pay for the expanded permit program.

Bill Hashim, an environmental planner with the Department of Ecology, said most state highway infrastructure was built before the federal Clean Water Act was set in motion, which means that some older, existing highways may need to be upgraded to meet the requirements of new stormwater standards.

"A rule of thumb is if you own a place where water flows, whether or not you generate it, it's your problem," Hashim said. That means the stormwater that runs across the Pullman-Moscow Highway before it enters Paradise Creek "is their problem."

Brown said the new permit will replace the transportation department's existing National Pollution Discharge Elimination System. Many cities on the state's west side are expected to meet similar regulations as part of Ecology's municipal stormwater permit Phase 1. Cities in the eastern portion of the state were issued similar permits during Phase 2 in 2007.

Hashim said it makes sense to issue the transportation department its own permit.

"Since their highway system is so unlike any municipalities and their facilities are so unlike a municipalities, we wanted to tailor a permit for them," he said.

Hashim said the department will be required to increase its testing of stormwater into area waterways for both the type and amount of pollution found in runoff and the effectiveness of best management practices. Whether or not this testing will occur along Paradise Creek has yet to be determined. He said the transportation department will choose five testing sites statewide and have been asked to choose an eastern Washington location where traffic counts are between 30,000-100,000 vehicles per day.

"The potential could be that the urbanizing corridor between Moscow and Pullman could be chosen," he said. "My guess is that it will be the Spokane area or the Pullman area that they pick."

A comment period opened Wednesday to allow for public input of the drafted permit. It is available online at www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/stormwater/municipal/wsdot.html.

Written and oral comments on the drafted permit will be accepted through 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24 to Hashim at bhas461@ecy.wa.gov, or by mail to P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA. 98504. Two workshops also have been scheduled to further explain the permit and answer questions from the public. The workshop for this region will be at 1 p.m., June 4 in Spokane at the Spokane Shadle Library.

After the workshops, Ecology will weigh public comment and concern and draft a formal permit, which likely will go into effect by July, Hashim said.

"Legislator weary of west-side ideas; Mark Schoesler says Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is latest example of the problem"

It concerns me that Seattle senators say they know what's best for eastern Washington.

- State Senator Mark Schoesler

AMEN, Mark! A man that eloquent has to be reelected.

Senator Schoesler is our voice of reason in Olympia. I'm so glad my daughter is paging for him this week and gets to see that common sense in action.

From today's Lewiston Tribune:

OLYMPIA - Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, often has to hear west-side legislators preach about what eastern Washingtonians need. This session is no different.

A bill to promote the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in eastern Washington passed through the Senate Wednesday, though it received almost no support from eastern senators, Schoesler said.

"It concerns me that Seattle senators say they know what's best for eastern Washington," Schoesler said.

The bill would mandate that the Department of Fish and Wildlife work with other ecology groups on Yellowstone to Yukon conservation projects. Though the department would work inside or near Washington's borders, Yellowstone to Yukon project areas span 1,990 miles from Peel River in the northern Yukon to Riverton, Wyo.

Bill sponsor Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, said the legislation would also dub Spokane the nation's capital for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

Despite their distance from Spokane, Jacobsen was approached by Seattle residents passionate about Yellowstone to Yukon preservation projects. Schoesler, on the other hand, said no east side groups have an interest in the organization.

"Not a single person from my district has approached me about this," Schoesler said. "I'm in regular contact with sportsmen and landowners and this isn't even within their radius of interest."

Schoesler, along with other bill opponents expressed concern the bill would encourage Yellowstone to Yukon workers to tear down roads in eastern Washington in the name of wildlife preservation.

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Director Sean Britt stressed such action was only taken after ecology workers researched the area and made agreements with the community.

"We wouldn't be against decommissioning a road, but our practice uses working science," Britt said. "We're not about creating one big park or taking out the human species. We're more interested to work and promote coexistence with humans and other species." ["Human species?" Like the animals are equal to us. Unbelievable. - tf]

Britt said Yukon to Yellowstone once helped a fishing outfitter in Island Park, who complained of bears invading his trash cans. The outfitter was supplied with grant money to purchase bear-proof waste bins, so he and his furry neighbors could coexist. The solution harmed neither the bear nor the outfitter.

Terry Gray, president of the Palouse Audubon Society said though he didn't know of the Yukon to Yellowstone program, any conservation projects would greatly help the Palouse, which suffers from clear-cutting and overdevelopment. [The Palouse suffers from "clear-cutting and overdevelopment?" He's joking, right? - tf]

As a part of the conservation area, the Palouse and its dwindling numbers of birds, from the evening grosbeak and grasshopper sparrow, could benefit from the bill. [Hmmmmm. There is no "dwindling number of birds" at the Port of Whitman County Industrial Park where I work. There are Swainson's Hawks, Black-billed Magpies, Red-winged Blackbirds, Ring-necked Pheasants, and California Quail in great abundance - tf]

The Carnival of Moscow Water Hypocrisy

There was a lot of news about Moscow and its hypocrisy over water issues while I was in Mexico.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - For some reason, the Daily News does not have this article in their online archive, and the Moscow City Council minutes have not been published yet, but I the gist of the story was that the Moscow City Council refused to increase its funding to the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee, which puts the future of that water conservation organization in jeopardy.

This follows the Pullman City Council's move to INCREASE its funding to PBAC. And Queen Nancy "doesn't want any misunderstanding when it comes to her stance on water?"

Monday, June 18, 2007 - The Daily News reports that "Moscow officials say residents aren’t noticeably decreasing their water use as the city heads into its second summer with a tiered water-rate system."

No suprise there. As I pointed out in my last Town Crier column, residential use is the major factor in water usage, and new housing continues to go up in Moscow. Calls to halt retail development to conserve water are just disingenuous left-wing attacks on capitalism, like global warming. As long as people live on the Palouse, the aquifers will continue to be depleted. It's time to cut all the BS about "Yes Moscow, No SuperWalmart!" and finally get serious about finding alternative sources of water, such as graywater, rainwater, and reservoirs. It'll cost money, but that money can come from the sales, utility, and property, taxes generated by new retail stores. Commerical development pays for itself much better than housing growth.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - The Daily News reports that "Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney on Monday appointed Tom Lamar, 46, to fill Bob Stout's seat on the City Council.

[...]

Lamar has been the executive director of the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute for 17 years..."

It was entirely predictable that anti-Wal-Mart union/Democratic activist Stout was replaced by anti-development water activist Lamar. We can see where the fight over the Pullman-Moscow corridor is headed with this appointment.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - Daily News editorial states "Moscow must get tough on water use."

It would have been nice had Murf mentioned that Moscow should clean up its own act on water conservation before taking their act on the road to Pullman and Whitman County.

Department of Ecological Fallacies

I have been astonished (sarcasm intended) that none of the important developments concerning water in the corridor have been covered by the Daily News. Yes, I know the Moscow shooting coverage has dominated the news, but there have been stories this week about the Deary fire hall and the Garfield-Palouse prom.

I have stated before that we don't need Moscow trying to stop development in the corridor, our own state's idiot bureaucracy is doing a great job on that front already. Last Friday, KMAX reported that the Whitman County Water Conservancy Board meeting scheduled for two weeks ago Monday was canceled because it had been determined that the Hawkins Companies stormwater plan might reduce the flow of Paradise Creek below Department of Ecology limits. Hawkins' plan was to have no runoff by catching all the stormwater in a large basin. I guess DOE's concern is that whatever rain that falls in that field currently won't make it into the creek. Talk about damned if you and damned if you don't. On the one hand, DOE says Paradise Creek has too much turbidity from runoff. So when Hawkins mitigates that, now DOE says there won't be enough runoff. There will not be another Water Conservancy Board meeting until Hawkins revises its plan.

In another major development, KQQQ reported that DOE is recommending that the South Fork of the Palouse River in Whitman County be removed from "impaired river" status and DOE is taking comments on the decision until June 22. Unfortunately the city of Pullman will still be required to comply with the much stricter stormwater licensing requirements.

This decision ceomes out of the ongoing TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) study. DOE has found certain persistent chemicals are showing lower levels over the past decades. However, water temperature and fecal coliform continues to be an issue that DOE will require Whitman County to manage.

State Environmental Policy Act requirements are not expected to change significantly due to this particular report. And water availability issues will continue to be a more restrictive element to development in the corridor than water quality issues.

A quick analysis of the 117 page report brings up some screwy things:

The fish fauna in the Palouse River is limited with respect to species generally considered desirable as food. The predominant species of catchable size are large-scale suckers, northern pike minnow, smallmouth bass, and chiselmouth.

However, the Washington Department of Fish and Game PAYS people to fish for and kill the Northern Pikeminnow because they eat salmon eggs and young salmon!

We are cleaning up our river at great cost as directed by DOE to improve habitat for a fish that destroys salmon runs, which is supposedly DOE's biggest priority. Insanity.

Fish tissue concentrations of dieldrin and PCBs have decreased by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude over the past 10 to 20 years and will continue to decrease without further action being taken. However the actions outlined in the previous section will assure that the levels of these pollutants continue to decline and may even accelerate the timeframe when the Palouse River will reach water quality standards for dieldrin and PCBs.

So, we can do NOTHING and we will still achieve approximately the same results as with the restrictions and costly measures.

Water of the West

I have received reports from numerous Palousitics readers about a University of Idaho College of Natural Resources Palouse water supply survey in the mail (see image below). As far as I can tell, this is being sent randomly to Pullman and Moscow residents (I have not received one.)



From what I can gather, this survey is part of a new graduate water resources program at UI called "Water of the West." This program was approved by the State Board of Education on April 20, after after receiving a $1.6M Strategic Initiative grant last year.

According to the website:

As part of the Strategic Initiative grant, faculty in the Water Resources Program are applying an integrative process the issue of water resources sustainability in the Palouse Basin. Recent legal and political conflict over development of groundwater in the Palouse basin has increased awareness of potential water management problems that may threaten the sustainability of current water use levels and the potential for future population growth. Urban development is thought to threaten water quality by increasing storm water runoff and degrading wetlands and riparian corridors. Development of monocultural agriculture in the Palouse region may have altered patterns and quality of runoff and infiltration.

From a legal perspective, the Palouse Basin faces numerous issues ranging from jurisdictional issues related to ground and surface water boundaries, to the legal separation between water quality and quantity. The Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) recently held a public meeting in the basin to explore the public interest in adjudicating the Idaho portion of the basin (a process of determining and cataloguing water rights). At the interface between law and policy on the one hand, and science and engineering on the other, are questions concerning the degree of scientific certainty necessary to make decisions, the cost and feasibility of engineering solutions, the legality of their implementation, and the design of institutions to meet these challenges. From a social and economic perspective, the basin faces the problem of planning for future growth in the face of a divided public. Numerous scientists have described the basin’s hydrogeologic complexity and uncertainties in understanding of recharge and connections between the surface and groundwater systems. Finally, like so many water bodies in the West, development has come at the expense of its native habitat.

This survey would appear to be part of gathering the "stakeholder input." If you received one, be sure to let them know the only stake being held is the one being driven into Whitman County's heart by the City of Moscow.