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.

Flushing Away Another Editorial

This editorial from Doug Bauer appeared in yesterday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

OUR VIEW: Quality of water just as important as quantity

Most everyone by now knows not to dump oil, antifreeze and other toxic substances down city storm drains.

Flushing expired pills down the toilet is no better.

Scientists performing tests on streambeds around Portland have discovered traces of a variety of commonly used drugs, prescription and otherwise. The list of chemical compounds includes those found in Prozac, Tagamet, Benadryl, Micatin and caffeine.

Unless the fish that live in those streambeds are depressed or stricken by acid reflux, the findings constitute a serious problem.

The most troubling revelation to date centers around endocrine-disrupting compounds found in drugs and other chemicals. Scientists have discovered that young male and female salmon from the Willamette River around Portland hold traces of an egg yolk protein usually found only in adult female fish beginning to develop eggs.

The artificial endocrine disrupters are among the suspected culprits.

"They're being exposed to something, we just don't know what it is," said Lyndal Johnson, head of reproductive toxicology at the federal Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "It's quite interesting, and a little disturbing."

To say the least.

Pacific Northwest salmon face an arduous journey as it is, what with all the dams to navigate and the seals, seagulls and killer whales to avoid once they reach the ocean.

Such threats could pale in comparison to those posed by improperly disposed pharmaceuticals, which have the potential to cause long-term and potentially irreversible damage to salmon and aquatic life in general.

Conserving water has become a hot topic over the last several years, one Palouse residents are well aware of.

If the recent streambed studies prove anything, it's that conservation practices shouldn't be limited to use alone. Preserving the integrity of our waterways is equally important.

Wow, Bauer just blew the lid off the whole "Portland Prescription Pills in the Potty Pecadillo" 400 miles away (sadly, with no mention of all the illegal drugs flushed away to avoid police searches), but how is that relevant to the Palouse? A much more timely and RELEVANT editorial on water pollution would have been one that took the City of Moscow to task for its 950 violations of the federal Clean Water Act. We're still waiting for that one. And we'll keep on waiting. The Daily News can leave the toilet seat up, but they're not about to rock the boat.