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Upper Columbia River Group - Sierra Club
P.O. Box 413
Spokane, WA 99210
In Eastern Washington
And North idaho
by Rich Leon (Sierra Club’s Trail Guide editor)
In this book you will learn how Coffeepot Lake got its name. Where to find waterfalls in the desert scablands. The best place to find moose. Where to find the best views of the Palouse. The best places to find wild mushrooms. All this and much more as you go nature exploring with someone who has roamed the back country of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho for the past 30 years.
Learn about how Coffeepot Lake got its name, where to find waterfalls in the desert scablands, the best place to find moose, where to find the best views of the Palouse, the best places to find wild mushrooms and much more as you go nature exploring with someone who has roamed the backcountry of Eastern Washington and North Idaho for the past 30 years.
Rich’s book contains 50 photographs of nature throughout our region. You can find these books at Auntie’s, Hastings, Northwest Map Service, REI, and on the web.
Sierra Club endorses Move to Amend
Last April, the Board of Directors adopted a policy resolution in response to the US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, the case that struck down campaign finance reform provisions and protected corporate spending on political commercials as First Amendment speech. The board-adopted policy resolution called on Congress to take action that would "lead to overturning the holding in Citizens United, and offered reasons why this is important. http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/Citizens-United-Decision.pdf
In January, Sierra Club endorsed Move to Amend, a grassroots effort to get a constitutional amendment passed that would overturn Citizens United. We join a number of progressive organizations that have already endorsed. http://movetoamend.org/
Sierra Club Outings - 2011
explore, enjoy, and protect
Slide shows:
(1) Bicycling the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes
More information on Outings. If you are interested in becoming a Sierra Club Outings Leader, click here.
Cancer Rates in Quincy increased to allow for new Data Centers
On Monday local citizens, challenging some of the world’s largest technology companies over public health threats to Quincy, asked the state’s environmental court to reconsider a ruling in favor of Microsoft after new documents were revealed. Also in new developments, Microsoft asked the court to delay proceedings after the company completed emission tests on one of its massive diesel generators. Microsoft had planned to submit those results as evidence in court proceedings.
View - Quincy, Washington Server Farms website
PCBs: Spokane River needs a cleanup plan (TMDL)
PCBs pollute Washington’s waters. From the Duwamish to the Spokane, this group of industrial compounds associated with liver dysfunction and cancer is a risk to human life and wildlife. PCB manufacture is now banned in the U.S. EPA and Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) should be prompt in developing cleanup plans to protect the public interest. They are not – raising troubling questions. Click here for more.
Quincy, Washington Server Farms.
On September 29 a local citizen group appealed air quality permits issued by the State of Washington Dept of Ecology to Dell Marketing LP and Sabey Intergate-Quincy LLC. Citizen action is prompted by continuing public health concerns that the State is allowing nearly 150 locomotive-size diesel generators as part of unprecedented influx of datacenters. These appeals follow earlier appeals protesting the State’s pollution permits given to Microsoft and Yahoo!
View - Quincy, Washington Server Farms website
Water Rates, Conservation, and the Future of Water in the Spokane River & Aquifer
Cable 5 TV: Spokane Councilman Richard Rush interviews Robert Lindsay (Water Resources Manager for Spokane County), Rachael Paschal Osborn (public interest water lawyer), and Marnie Rorholm (City of Spokane’s Water Stwardship program).
View “City Council Connection”
River Advocates to EPA: Uphold the law, protect the Spokane River from toxic pollution
On July 18 Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CELP) filed a “60-day notice” directed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failure to require the Washington Department of Ecology to prepare a water quality cleanup plan for PCBs in the Spokane River. If EPA fails to act, the two organizations will file a federal lawsuit after 60 days.
for more, see: Sierra Club’s Spokane River Project
Deadline looming to save Mt. Spokane’s forests.
Please take a moment to write a letter and ask the Washington State Park Commissioners to protect Mt. Spokane's forests. The Commissioners will meet in Spokane on May 18. Their decision: protect these forests on the west and north slopes of Mt. Spokane -- or expand the ski area and clearcut ski runs into these forests visible from Spokane.
Points to make in your letter:
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•Support protecting the west and north slopes of Mt. Spokane as a "Natural Forest Area"
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•Point out that the ski area expansion will destroy native and ancient forests, as well as rare sub-alpine ecosystems.
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•These forests are important for wildlife (including wildlife corridors) and as watershed.
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•Views of Mt. Spokane will be marred by the clearcutting of ski runs.
Click here for your "pre-addressed" e-mail to Washington's Park Commissioners.
The Mt Spokane 2000 proposal can be found on the resources page of the web: www.savemtspokane.org. For a copy of the Sierra Club’s letter, click here.
A message and a warning
American Indian women aim to raise awareness of shared threat.
Spokesman-Review, April 23.
They were welcomed on Canada Island in Riverfront Park on Friday by the representatives of several Inland Northwest tribes, the sound of Native drumming and the roar of the raging Spokane River.
For full story, click here.
Links:
Conservationists head back to court to protect communities’ drinking water, challenge WSU water rights.
Water levels in the aquifer are dropping.
Conservationists have stepped in to protect the future of drinking water for 50,000 people in the Pullman-Moscow area. Click here for news advisory.
Dishman Hills hiking -- with Rep. Jay Inslee
Eastern Washington’s water and public land issues discussed
•Jon Snyder (Spokane City Council) who rode his bicycle to Disman Hills despite the snow,
•Chris Bachman, Sierra Club volunteer working to save native forests of Mt. Spokane (see story below),
•Sam Mace, SOS, working to breach the 4 dams on the lower Snake River to save the salmon runs from extinction (Judge Redden’s decision expected in June),
•John Osborn (lower photo), Sierra Club volunteer, standing between Rep. Inslee and Sam Mace, working to protect rivers and drinking-water aquifers.
(photos: Paul Fish, John Osborn)
Global Warming, Coal, and our Future
Historic agreement reached to phase out coal-burning in Washington state
In Washington State, Sierra Club volunteers are focused on Washington’s only coal plant in Centralia.
The Pacific Northwest is facing a series of pressing energy issues. If you have expertise or just committed to a sustainable energy future for the Inland Northwest, then please contact Brad Hash or John Osborn. Or for more information, contact Beyond Coal: Washington.
Dr. Rivers - Watershed Hero 2011
This year 130 people attended Winter Waters, co-sponsored with the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CELP).
A special thanks to all of you who attended to thank and honor Dr. Rivers. Special thanks to Eymann Allison Hunter Jones ps, to donors of auction items and food, and for students and the volunteers with the planning committee who made the event possible.
Sierra Club - restoring the beauty and power of Spokane Falls
The tests are the result of the settlement between Sierra Club / Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Avista Corporation on the management of dams on the Spokane River. The purpose is to evaluate possible modifications to water flows to restore the beauty of Spokane Falls on behalf of the public. for more on this historic effort, click here.
On Sierra Club’s work to restore the Spokane River in TIME Magazine
Going Green:
Greener Dishwashing: A Farewell to Phosphates
- Bryan Walsh (November 13, 2010)
Sierra Club Blasts EPA’s Approval of Spokane River Dissolved Oxygen Clean-Up Plan
On Friday, May 21, Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River Group criticized the decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve the Spokane River water quality cleanup plan for dissolved oxygen.
“After twelve years and four different versions of the Spokane River TMDL, you would hope that the agencies would finally get it right, but they did not,” said Rachael Paschal Osborn, Sierra Club’s Spokane River Project Coordinator. “This water quality plan is not sufficient to clean up the Spokane River.”
Sierra Club has participated actively in development of the TMDL since 2001 and commented on each of the four versions. Versions two and three of the TMDL were withdrawn due to Sierra Club concerns.
The EPA-approved version, issued today, contains several serious flaws:
•The plan contemplates issuance of a permit for Spokane County’s brand new wastewater treatment plant, which will allow additional pollution to be put into the Spokane River without assurance that existing pollution will be cleaned up.
•The plan contemplates use of a “septic offset” program that assumes that groundwater is contributing phosphorus to the River even though the scientific studies indicate it is not.
•The plan assigns a “responsibility” for dissolved oxygen improvement to Avista for Long Lake Dam, but does not quantify the amount of pollution that Avista must remove from the system.
•The Plan creates disincentives for polluters to tackle the problem of non-point source pollution.
•The plan is designed to allow a weakening of water quality standards in ten years.
“Various polluters on the River expect to buy “credits” for pollution from the County’s septic tank elimination program – it’s like three-card monte for the Spokane Aquifer,” continued Osborn. “Now you see it, now you don’t.”
More information can be found at Sierra Club’s website on phosphorus pollution and the Spokane River
