Bellingham Bay in Distress; Neighborhood Project Works Toward Solution

by Wendy Steffensen

COURTESY TO THE BELLINGHAM HERALD, March 14, 2014

The rains have returned to Whatcom County, signaling the warmer weather of spring and reminding us of what it takes to makes our region so lush and green – water. We can hear it tapping at our windows and rushing in our rivers, lapping on Lake Whatcom’s shores and trickling into storm drains. The cloudbursts of spring bring us more than flowers and seedlings; as the water falls on our roofs, lawns, and streets it carries with it all the chemicals and grime on those surfaces. Metals are eroded from our roofs, pesticides collected from our lawns, and oil and brake pad dust washed away from our streets.

For decades, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities has worked to protect the Salish Sea from the harmful contaminants in our stormwater with our North Sound Baykeeper program. The Baykeeper Team is charged with protecting and enhancing the marine and nearshore habitats of the northern Puget Sound region. At the end of last year, the Baykeeper Team conducted sampling at stormwater outfalls that drain to Bellingham Bay. Unfortunately, we have discovered high levels of metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs) in our stormwater.

Why is this important? Metals, like copper and zinc, are common in stormwater but are toxic to marine life.  According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, copper is toxic to many of the organisms in the fish food web and disrupts salmon sensory systems. PAHs, also common in stormwater, are complex organic pollutants that are found in fossil fuels, and are formed by incomplete combustion of wood, coal, and diesel fuels. They are carcinogenic to laboratory animals and acutely toxic to some fish species. 

The content of our stormwater is not unique to Bellingham. Urban areas throughout the developed world struggle with similar issues. The difference for Bellingham is that our stormwater is discharged to Bellingham Bay. As we learned in January’s Bellingham Herald article, “Decline in Bellingham Bay marine life eludes quick diagnosis”, a recent study of the health of our bay showed that this water body is in serious trouble. The causes are still under speculation but the metals and PAHs in our stormwater may be contributing to a decline in diversity of species and contamination in sediment.

We all agree that the health of Bellingham Bay is important to our community. That’s why RE Sources is launching the Neighborhood Clean Water Project to coordinate the neighbors of Lower Whatcom Creek and Squalicum Harbor watersheds to identify the sources of pollution and find ways to remove contaminants from our stormwater. The kick-off meeting for this project will be Tuesday, March 18 from 6:30-8 pm at RE Sources’ Sustainable Living Center above the RE Store. This meeting is free and open to the public.

During the project’s first year, we will focus on data collected from the C Street and Broadway Street outfalls on Whatcom and I & J Waterways, respectively. These outfalls drain portions of the Lettered Streets, Columbia, and Cornwall Park neighborhoods.  RE Sources will work with watershed neighbors to identify the sources of this pollution and, where possible, attempt to fix some of these sources.  We also hope to expand this project to include other watersheds in the years to come.

Over the years, we have learned that the more people know about a water quality problem, the more empowered they are to fix it. We developed this project because there are things we can do as a community to improve water quality and we know there are people in Bellingham that want to help. We can’t control the rain falling from the sky, but we can make the stormwater it creates cleaner before it reaches Bellingham Bay.

For more information, visit www.re-sources.org/programs/baykeeper.

              

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Wendy Steffensen is RE Sources’ North Sound Baykeeper, responsible for protecting and enhancing the marine and nearshore habitats of the northern Puget Sound region.  North Sound Baykeeper is a program of RE Sources for Sustainable Communities. RE Sources promotes sustainable communities and protects the health of northwestern Washington’s people and ecosystems through application of science, education, advocacy, and action.

The demand-side question: Is all that coal to make stuff for us?

By Crina Hoyer & John de Graaf

COURTESY TO THE BELLINGHAM HERALD, March 8 2014

If Whatcom’s proposed coal port is approved as many as 18 more trains per day will pass through Bellingham, all to feed the coal-fired power plants of Asia. In exchange for all this coal we get flat screen TVs, plastic bags, toys, and millions of other disposable products being made for the “consumers” in our “market”. But that’s not all! We also receive a growing volume of polluted air blown here from Asia, and the related toxic deposits in Lake Whatcom, the drinking water source for most of Whatcom county.

An undiagnosed disease lies beneath this exchange, the single-minded pursuit of money and stuff regardless of the costs to our fellow Americans, our communities, our health, our democracy and our environment. We call that disease “affluenza”. It’s a contagious virus with symptoms ranging from “feverish expectations,” to chronic congestion, chilled communities, killer stress, resource exhaustion and industrial diarrhea, all exacerbated by our dogged pursuit of “more.”

But before we cast stones, we’d do well to examine the glass house of affluenza that America has become.  As the virus spreads among us, we pay little attention to consequences. Since World War II, Americans have consumed more resources than everyone who ever lived before then. We have reduced our fisheries, soils and fossil fuels by half, caused the extinction of countless species and dramatically changed the climate.

Already, according to the Global Footprint Network, if everyone were to suddenly consume as Americans do, we would need four more planets to provide the resources and absorb the wastes.  Technological improvements alone will not change this; we need to consume less.

To ensure our right to all the stuff we have come to expect, we are cutting off food stamps for the hungry while reducing the taxes of millionaires and subsidizing our wealthiest farmers.  To ensure the resources to continue our binge, we mine coal from the Powder River basin and poison its waters, frack recklessly for natural gas, and haul fossil fuels through our cities, leaving a trail of danger and pollution in the wake.

As a community of consumers we have a responsibility to look at the connection between the coal and oil trains we’re concerned about and the demand for products that necessitates them. We have discovered there is enough supply of carbon based fuels – enough to choke the planet. Now it’s the demand side, and our part in it, that we need to question.

The message of AFFLUENZA: HOW OVERCONSUMPTION IS KILLING US AND HOW TO FIGHT BACK is simple: we don’t need to engage in this reckless behavior in order to live well and be happy.  We don’t need to poison our drinking water in order to have a green lawn.  We don’t need to threaten Whatcom county’s environment to provide jobs.  We don’t need to compromise our parks and waterfront to transport coal.  We don’t need to strip the planet of its natural resources in order to feed the insatiable appetite for more and more stuff.

 

What we need most in the age of affluenza is not more stuff but more time, not more work but satisfying low-carbon leisure, not the right to get rich but the right to live securely in modest comfort and good health, with pure food, air and water, connected to community and friends and nature.

Join us Thursday, March 13, at the YWCA 1026 N. Forest in Bellingham, for a community discussion, action planning, and vaccinations against affluenza in our community.

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John de Graaf is a documentary filmmaker of dozens of prime-time national PBS specials, co-author of the books Affluenza and What’s the Economy for, Anyway?, and a noted public speaker.

Crina Hoyer is the executive director of RE Sources for Sustainable Communities.  RE Sources promotes sustainable communities and protects the health of northwestern Washington’s people and ecosystems through application of science, education, advocacy, and action.

Associated Students Vote Unanimously to Urge WWU Foundation to Divest from Fossil Fuels

Student voice is clear: Get Western’s money out of fossil fuels – now.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2014

Contacts:

Eddy Ury: 206-972-2001, edwardury@gmail.com

Jenny Godwin: 406-241-1082, westernsre@gmail.com 

Students for Renewable Energy
Jill MacIntryre Witt: 360-201-3093, 350bellingham@gmail.com
350 Bellingham

Student government leaders and environmental groups
joined together to urge WWU to end its endowment
holdings in coal and oil companies.

BELLINGHAM, WA – Student government leaders at Western Washington University (WWU) sent a clear message Wednesday night, agreeing unanimously to urge the WWU Foundation to cease its investments in fossil fuel companies. Among the concerns the Associated Students (AS) Board highlighted were the urgent crisis of climate change and Western’s history of being a leader on sustainability issues.

The recommendation results from nearly a year of study conducted by a committee of University administrators, WWU Foundation staff, student environmental groups, and student government leaders. The AS Board called on the Foundation to freeze new investments in fossil fuels by the end of 2014, and to sell off remaining investments within five years. 

“We are proud of our AS Board for representing student voices by adopting a strong position in favor of fossil fuel divestment,” said Eddy Ury, an organizer of the student divestment campaign and member of the divestment committee. “Together with the student vote last year to start this process, we expect the Foundation will take this recommendation as a clear indicator of where Western’s students stand.”

In May 2013, 86% of WWU students voted in favor of a ballot measure to advance the effort to divest the Foundation endowment from fossil fuels. The divestment campaign is aiming to end investments in companies that own the vast majority of the world’s coal, oil and gas reserves. Some 5% of WWU’s $49 million endowment is invested in the fossil fuel sector. 

In their deliberations, AS Board members stressed the urgency of climate change and broad student support as key reasons to offer the recommendation. In addition to the national divestment campaign, heightened local awareness of major proposals like the Cherry Point coal terminal has led to increased student interest in Western’s role in financing the fossil fuel industry and its projects.

“As students who will inherit the climate crisis, we believe it’s time to stop putting money into polluting energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas.” said Jenny Godwin, assistant president of the Students for Renewable Energy, a on-campus group leading the divestment campaign. “When the WWU Foundation takes into account the impacts these investments are having on our air, water, and climate, they will have a moral obligation to simply say no.”

The text of the final recommendation from the Associated Students Board of Directors follows:

“The Associated Students of Western Washington University urge the Western Washington University Foundation Board of Directors to freeze all further investments in fossil fuels by the end of 2014, and to divest within five years from the top 200 fossil fuel companies that together own the majority of known fossil fuel reserves. The AS also requests that an amendment be made to the WWU Foundation Endowment Investment Policy under clause 2.3.8 regarding Social Responsibility, to prohibit future investments in companies that extract fossil fuels (additional to the present restrictions on alcohol and tobacco).”

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The STUDENTS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY is an Associated Students chartered club of Western Washington University that works to affect the local, national and global community to move toward sustainability through the use of renewable energy, primarily by setting an example at Western Washington University.

350 BELLINGHAM is the local chapter of 350.org, a national grassroots organization building support for decisive action to combat climate change. 350.org launched the national campaign to divest major institutions from fossil fuels in late 2012, which has since expanded to over 350 college campuses nationwide.

RE SOURCES FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES is a non-profit conservation organization in Bellingham, Washington, working to support the students' divestment campaign and other efforts to stop coal exports from the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the regional Power Past Coal Coalition.