6/24/12

Eliminating the railroad tracks around Humboldt Bay to create a trail will be one of the topics of discus­sion Tuesday at the Hum­boldt County Board of Supervisors meeting.



At 9:30 a.m., the board will discuss whether it wants to ask the North Coast Railroad Authority — a group formed by the state Legislature in 1989 to protect rail infra­structure — to support form­ing a committee to examine the possibility of creating a trail around Humboldt Bay to replace the railroad tracks.



Second District Supervisor Clif Clendenen, who serves as a director on the North Coast Railroad Authority, is bring­ing the item before the board for discussion on behalf of a citizen group interested in the project. Clendenen said the idea of creating a trail where the rail lines run from Eureka to Arcata and Samoa is an idea that has been around for years.



“It’s a good time to have a good, larger discussion,” Clendenen said. “The rail isn’t being used right now.” According to supporters, the rail lines in Humboldt haven’t been used since 1997. As a way to both protect the rail corridor and make use of it, supporters are proposing to “railbank” the land. Con­gress created the term “rail­banking” in 1983 when it amended the National Trails System Act. When a railroad corridor is railbanked, the land is allowed to be convert­ed into a trail.



What’s special about rail­banking, Clendenen said, is that it preserves the railroad’s right-of-way, meaning the trail can be converted back to a railroad in the future.



“Were there ever to be a need for rail again, that rever­sion would be possible,” Clen­denen said.



Supporters are suggesting the right-of-way, which is owned by the North Coast Railroad Authority, be trans­formed into a paved, multi­modal path that could be part of the California Coastal Trail — an under-construction network of public trails stretching along the 1,200­mile California coast.



As part of the plan, sup­porters are also in favor of restoring the rail line from Arcata to Samoa/Fairhaven so a tourist train can be oper­ated on the existing tracks. The idea is that the attraction would support the Timber Heritage Association’s pro­posed Redwood Heritage Museum in Samoa. The non­profit association collects equipment and other items pertaining to the North Coast’s logging industry. Some artifacts are currently on display at the Samoa Roundhouse and nearby harbor shops.

Funding for such a plan has yet to be identified, and at this stage the citizen group — comprised of Dennis Rael, Rees Hughes, Judy Hodgson and Don Banducci — is look­ing to form a committee to figure out how to proceed.

Humboldt County Associa­tion of Governments Execu­tive Director Marcella Clem said the citizen group sought support from the HCAOG board Thursday to move for­ward with the committee idea. The HCAOG board is largely responsible for county transportation projects.

“Our board would like that the individual cities look at it first,” Clem said.

There are concerns about the proposed idea, including any potential impact to the wetlands surrounding the railroad tracks. If this moves forward, Clendenen said, the plan needs to include an alter­nate plan that addresses what happens to the trail if it reverts to a railroad. If this happens, it needs to be deter­mined whether the trail will simply disappear or be relo­cated next to the tracks — creating concerns about the need for wetland mitigation.

In addition to discussing future rail plans, the supervi­sors will likely adopt the final fiscal year 2012-2013 budget.

According to a county staff report, the total county budg­et up for adoption totals approximately $281.1 mil­lion. After the budget hear­ings June 11, the board direct­ed county staff to add an additional part-time position to the district attorney’s office.

The county administrative office worked with the DA’s office to unfreeze two office assistant positions by utilizing extra-help funding and sup­plemental funding, according to a staff report. Staff also dis­covered that a lieutenant position in the sheriff’s department should have been unfrozen but wasn’t. As a result, the final budget is about $420,000 more than the proposed budget.

Changes in grant funding and building maintenance needs contributed to the increase.

For the complete board of supervisors meeting agenda and supporting documents, go online to www.co. humboldt.ca.us/board/ agenda/questys/.

For more information about the Humboldt Bay rail and trail group, go online to www.baytrailplan.org.

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6/20/12

Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed move Wednesday to scrap EPA regulations on mercury and toxic chemical emissions from coal power plants, not swayed by the contention that the rules are killing jobs, not saving lives.

The measure, sponsored by Sen.James M. Inhofe(R-Okla.), failed, 53 to 46.

Picking an election-year fight over the wisdom of instituting new environmental regulations in a weak economy, Republicans argued that the rules would force older power plants to close, putting people out of work, and would drive up the cost of electricity.

Inhofe warned senators that by voting against his measure "you are effectively killing coal in America."

Opponents of the measure said the regulations were needed because of the hundreds of thousands of Americans made ill by toxic chemicals spewed by coal-fired plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the rules will prevent 11,000 premature deaths a year.

Environmental groups praised the regulations when they were announced in December as a historic step that was more than two decades in the making.

Congress ordered the EPA to regulate the chemicals as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act, but delays and aGeorge W. Bushadministration U-turn meant mercury and other toxic chemicals from coal plants were not controlled until the rules were announced last year.

There was little chance that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards would be repealed. Even if Congress had passed Inhofe's measure, the White House had threatened to veto it. But the vote allowed senators to attempt to capitalize on the issue ahead of this fall's election.

Some Democrats from energy-producing states voted for the measure. But New England Republicans, whose states do not use much coal and are in the path of airborne chemicals from Midwestern plants, voted against it.

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said the regulations would harm miners in his state, which is a major coal producer. "These people are scared to death because all they hear every day is they're going to lose their jobs," he said.

But West Virginia's other Democratic senator,John D. Rockefeller IV, argued that the rules would help clean up the coal industry, giving it a viable future.

Manchin is up for reelection in November; Rockefeller is not.

Power companies have four years to meet the rules, which the EPA estimates will cost the industry almost $10 billion a year. But the agency also estimates that the regulations will save between three and nine times that amount as a result of better health. The EPA also estimates that although some jobs could be lost as plants closed, others will be created to install the required equipment.

The rules require all coal plants to meet the same standards as the cleanest coal plants now operating. The EPA estimates the regulations will cut mercury emissions by 90% and acid gases by 88%.

Power plants are responsible for 50% of mercury emissions in the United States. Mercury gets into water, where it is turned into a highly toxic chemical by microorganisms and accumulates in fish.

Mercury can cause developmental problems in children who eat contaminated fish. Other chemicals emitted by coal plants are linked to cancer and respiratory illnesses.

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6/19/12

A healthy fishery is more than a pastime, childhood memory, or the makings of a meal, it is a major indicator of the health of our waterways, watersheds and the economy. Recreational angling is one of the most popular outdoor activities and one of the most solid industries in the U.S. Each year, “nearly 40 million anglers generate more than $45 billion in retail sales, with a $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy, creating employment for over one million people.”

Unfortunately, our state and federal governments have given industrial polluters a free bar tab for polluting; only, the public suffers the hangover. Coal-fired power plants across the U.S. have poisoned our fish with mercury, industries have willfully dumped PCBs and chromium in our waters, and industrial aquaculture and other kinds of unsustainable fishing have depleted already stressed fish stocks.

For example, in August 2011, based on a citizen complaint, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper discovered that a paper mill on the Pearl River in Louisiana had discharged untreated and partially treated black liquor into the river, causing a massive kill of fish and other aquatic life. Water and mussel samples collected after the discharge revealed the presence of toxic chemicals in the mussels and water. These toxic substances are associated with the pulping process and flow freely in the wastewater from the offending paper mill. The concerned citizen’s life revolves around the swamp. He makes his living there. In fact, he catfishes to raise extra money to help offset expenses incurred mentoring troubled youth in his community. The outlook for catfish in the Pearl River over the next couple of years is bleak. In response to this destruction, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network have filed a notice of intent to sue against the mill for failing to comply with the Clean Water Act, Louisiana state law and the Endangered Species Act.

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Wiyot Tribe searching for additional project funding

6/13/12

The Wiyot Tribe has almost finished restoring Indian Island to a place where its members can continue their traditions.


But after a dozen years of removing lead batteries, con­taminated soil and other debris, tribal representatives are searching for additional funding to complete the envi­ronmental cleanup.



Environmental Director Stephen Kullmann said he had hoped the island restoration, part of the Tuluwat Restora­tion Project, would be finished this summer, but an estimated $350,000 is needed to cover the contaminants that couldn’t be removed. The tribe has spent roughly $2 million in grant funding and volunteer work on the environmental cleanup and restoration work, Kullmann estimated.



Much of the contaminated soil has been removed, but there are still various metals and other low-level contami­nants, Kullmann said. The per­meable cap will protect the public from anything that might still be in the soil, he said. It will also be used to dif­ferentiate from historical material and material that’s been brought to the island from the outside, Kullmann said.



“Every shovelful needed to be sifted and gone through by hazardous waste-trained archeologists,” he said. “That’s someone that doesn’t come cheap. The tribe wanted to dis­turb as little as possible.” Indian Island’s entire 275 acres is sacred to the Wiyot people, who consider it the center of their universe, said Cheryl Seidner, the tribe’s cul­tural liaison. It is the site of the tribe’s World Renewal Cere­mony, an annual dance cere­mony that lasts seven to 10 days. All people are welcome to attend the ceremony, which is the Wiyot people’s way of putting the world right, Seid­ner said. Since 1860, the dance has not been completed, she said. There has not been a World Renewal Ceremony since then.



Under cover of darkness fol­lowing a ceremony in Febru­ary 1860, a group of Eureka men, armed with hatchets and knives, went to the island and killed the sleeping men, women and children, accord­ing to the tribe’s website. Seid­ner said the massacre inter­rupted the World Renewal Ceremony.



“Why does anyone harm anyone,” Seidner said. “It’s over greed. Over money. And things of that nature — prop­erty. In the end it’s all greed.” Robert Gunther, who pur­chased the land in 1860, took possession of the island fol­lowing the massacre and the Tuluwat Village site was leased to Duff Shipyard Dry­dock, which ran a ship repair facility well into the 1970s and 1980s, Kullmann said. In the process of repairing those ships, the wood would be treated with preservatives and chemical paint, which seeped into the soil, he said.

The tribe purchased 1.5 acres of the original village site in 2000, Kullmann said. They thought they’d just be able to clean it, but what they found was highly contami­nated debris including a paint shed with chemical barrels and a retaining wall made out of old marine batteries, he said. “There wasn’t much concern for the health of the area,” Kullmann said, refer­ring to the people who had leased the land prior to the tribe purchasing it.

“Someone else let amateur archeologists dig up bones and artifacts. It takes a lot of work to try and repatriate remains and artifacts. It’s a hugely complicated process.” In 2004, the city of Eureka returned more than 60 acres of island north of the Samoa Bridge back to the Wiyot Tribe, Seidner said. “That was a fabulous day,” she said.

Since 2000, the tribe has removed some of the old buildings and rebuilt a bulk­head to allow barges to land, Kullmann said.

Remnants of the rails the ship repair facility used to bring boats on shore are still visible at low tide.

The tribe has also had to deal with trespassers and homeless encampments, Kull­mann said.

The tribe has also worked to convert much of the land Eureka gave to them to saltwa­ter marsh, Kullmann said.

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