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Earth Day
River may face threat of mussels A meeting Tuesday will focus on the potential invasion of zebra mussels in the Columbia River. By ANDY PORTER of the Walla Walla Union-BulletinWALLA WALLA -- A major new threat to the Columbia River system will be the topic of a meeting Tuesday at Walla Walla Community College.The danger of zebra mussels, a non-native species that has infested eastern waterways, will be discussed at the William A. Grant Water & Environment Center.Sgt. Eric Anderson of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will talk about how zebra mussels are viewed as the No. 1 threat to rivers and lakes throughout the West and what efforts are being taken to stop them."They are devastating," said Dave Karl, a WDFW biologist, about the impact of zebra mussels on ecosystems. "This is one of those things that if we are not proactive, it's going to cost us hugely."According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, zebra mussels are native to Russia and were introduced into the Great Lakes in 1985 or 1986 through ballast water discharged by one or more transoceanic ships.Since then, zebra mussels have spread throughout the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Basin and the Mississippi River Basin. Colonies have been found as far west as Oklahoma and live zebra mussels have been found attached to recreational boats transported to Washington state.The organisms can severely disrupt aquatic food chains, clog water intakes for power and water treatment plants and threaten human health by accumulating organic pollutants and passing them up the food chain.
Commissioner unhappy with M-F flood map revision meeting Umatilla County Commissioner Larry Givens took issue with the tenor of the meeting as well as methodology in building the new flood maps. By ANDY PORTER of the Walla Walla Union-BulletinPENDLETON -- A meeting on new flood maps for Milton-Freewater wasn't a high-water mark for Umatilla County Commissioner Larry Givens."I was very unhappy with the presentation," Givens said about the meeting Wednesday evening in the city's Community Building.The event, which drew about 160 people, was the first opportunity residents had to view new Flood Insurance Rate Maps which showed areas in the city expected to be inundated by a base flood, or a flood that statistics predict will happen once every 100 years.When adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency sometime next year, the revised maps are expected to significantly impact flood insurance premiums for city and county residents.Among presenters at the meeting were Denise Atkinson of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's District 10 office who spoke on the National Flood Insurance Program, and Ken Puhn, senior hydrologist with WEST Consultants Inc., who described the methodology used to produce the new maps.Other officials present were Christine Shirley of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development and Jeff Woodward of FEMA.Givens said Thursday afternoon that, as he saw it, residents came away feeling the event "was simply a ploy to get people to buy flood insurance." Instead of insurance, Givens said people "wanted to hear how we can fix this issue and what we can do.""As a county commissioner and a representative of the people in these areas, I was very disappointed with how FEMA presented that meeting," he said. "The community members are extremely frustrated ... many went away very frustrated."Givens questioned why the agency didn't use current techniques, such as a combination of aircraft-based LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and global positioning system technology, to determine the elevations used on the maps. "We're using that on the west side of the state, why aren't we using that technology on the east side?"The new maps were produced because to the levees along the Walla Walla River which protect the city from flooding have been de-certified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after inspections found defects in the structures.Shirley said Thursday that after legal ads are printed later this month calling for complaints or revisions to the new maps, people will have 90 days to submit information. An article Thursday gave an incorrect figure for the comment period. Final adoption of the new maps by FEMA is not expected to occur until early 2010.In conjunction with the federal process, Shirley said the city of Milton-Freewater will also have to write and adopt a new flood hazard ordinance.At Wednesday's meeting, Shirley said that although Wednesday's meeting was the only one required by FEMA, others will be held in the future to continue discussions about the new flood maps.
Putting NW's Snake River on endangered list political A group of environmental activists hopes the Obama administration will reverse Bush policy and seek removal of the four dams on the river. By the Union-Bulletin Editorial Board The environmental activist group American Rivers is at it again. Every year it releases a list of the nation's most endangered rivers. The Snake River was third on this year's list even though it wasn't even in the top 10 last year. That's not surprising since the list of endangered rivers changes dramatically from year to year. That's because this list has little to do with water quality, but everything to do with politics. The organization chooses its most endangered rivers from nominations made by environmental groups and considers the value of each river to people and the environment, the level of the threat it faces and pending decisions that could affect it in the next year, according to The Associated Press. The Snake is No. 3 on the list this year because this group of overzealous environmentalists is hoping the Obama administration will reverse Bush administration policy and seek removal of the four dams on the river. American Rivers apparently believes the dams are the cause of declining salmon populations, a position that is not universally held nor has it been proven. In fact, a few years back scientists tracked juvenile salmon migrating downstream to the Pacific Ocean and found that survival rates of the fish going over the eight dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers was about the same as that of fish in British Columbia's free flowing Fraser River. About 25 percent of the salmon survived the trip to the ocean. That doesn't necessarily prove dams do or don't harm fish, but it does cast doubt on the wisdom of calling for removal of the dams as necessary to save salmon. * We see breaching the dams as a foolish step that would hurt, not help, the environment. If the dams are breached, it will change the landscape of the Northwest and will likely cause a huge economic hit. The loss of clean hydropower, particularly at a time when we are trying to break away from oil dependence, would be a mistake. The dams allow wheat and other products to be barged down the rivers to market using only a small fraction of the fuel that trucks would have used. Yes, efforts should be made to save salmon, but it should be done in a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way using reason. American Rivers' approach -- just like its endangered list -- appears to be unreasonable and nonsensical.
zObama calls for new era of energy exploration By PHILIP ELLIOTT AND MIKE GLOVER ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS photo President Barack Obama delivers remarks at Trinity Structural Towers in Newton, Iowa, Wednesday, April 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) NEWTON, Iowa -- President Barack Obama, standing Wednesday in the shell of a once-giant Maytag appliance factory that now houses a wind energy company, declared that a "new era of energy exploration in America" would be a crucial to leading the nation out of an economic crisis. With pieces of wind turbine towers as a backdrop, Obama touted the small manufacturing firm as a success and as a step toward reducing the United States' reliance on polluting fuels. But as the president on Earth Day set a goal for wind to generate as much as 20 percent of the U.S. electricity demand by 2030, legislation to make that a reality faced a challenge back in Washington in the Democratic-led Congress. "The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy," Obama said in a state that launched him on the road to the White House with a surprise upset over one-time rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. "America can be that nation. America must be that nation. And while we seek new forms of fuel to power our homes and cars and businesses, we will rely on the same ingenuity - the same American spirit - that has always been a part of our American story." It's an American spirit, though, that has been damped with economic downturn and financial crisis. The president left Washington for a few hours Wednesday to visit this small Iowa town, which took a huge economic hit when Maytag Corp. shut its doors in 2007. The Maytag plant employed some 4,000 in a town of 16,000 residents in jobs that paid about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. In its place is Trinity Structural Towers, a 90-person manufacturing firm that makes parts of wind turbines the president hopes to expand on land and at sea through the government's first plan to harness ocean currents to produce energy. "Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy," Obama said. "The choice we face is between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy." In Washington, the president's plan to increase alternative energy sources and create environmentally friendly jobs hit some snags despite Obama's fellow Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reinforced Obama's message in testimony to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday. The administration's draft bill is designed to help stem the pollution blamed for climate change by capping greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the nation's reliance on fossil fuels. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by mid-century. The White House wants to see movement on the legislation by Memorial Day. To help that along, aides said the president plans to personally make his case that the costs of dealing with climate change can be reduced dramatically by adopting programs that will spur energy efficiency and wider use of non-fossil energy such as wind, solar and biofuels. In Newton, Obama proclaimed that "once-shuttered factories are whirring back to life," although the facility he toured is a shadow of what it replaced here about 30 miles east of Des Moines. "Today this facility is alive again with new industry," Obama said, while noting that "this community continues to struggle and not everyone has been so fortunate as to be rehired." Trinity now employs about 90 people - hardly the replacement Newton so desperately needs. "We'll never have another Maytag," said Paul Bell, a Newton police officer who also serves in the state legislature. "Maybe we shouldn't have had a company here that the majority of people worked for. We put all of our eggs in one basket." Recognizing the challenges remaining in Newton and scores of towns like it coast-to-coast, Obama quickly added: "Obviously things aren't exactly the same as they were with Maytag." With the same root in realism, Obama acknowledged the United States' energy policy will not change instantly, given the country's reliance on oil and natural gas. "But the bulk of our efforts must focus on unleashing a new, clean-energy economy that will begin to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, will cut our carbon pollution by about 80 percent by 2050 and create millions of new jobs right here in America, right here in Newton," he said. But it won't come quickly. The United States imports almost 4.9 billion barrels of oil and refined products annually. That is raw energy that cannot be replaced, one windmill at a time. Instead, Obama urged bold thinking - and spending - to address climate change and energy supplies. "So on this Earth Day, it is time for us to lay a new foundation for economic growth by beginning a new era of energy exploration in America," he said to applause. Obama also pushed personal responsibility, calling on every American to replace one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent. The president also said the leaders of the world's major economies will meet next week to discuss the energy crisis. In Landover, Md., on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing that $300 million in federal stimulus money will go to cities and towns to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Questions 1. One article did change my look on Zebra mussels by telling me that they are disrupt aquatic food chains and threaten human health by accumulating organic pollutants. 2. There was one piece in my articles that talked about a group of environmental activist’s hoping that Obama administration will reverse Bush policy and seek removal of the four dams on the river. 3. I read a very interesting article and in the article talked about the president's plan to increase alternative energy sources and create environmentally friendly jobs. 4. In an article the government’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by mid-century. 5. This one article gave me good advice about replacing incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent.
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