Myrl Thompson\Spectrum
When the last real Alaskan finally resigns from the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, I hope that they will take the Alaska flag with them. At that point, the two agencies can raise whichever corporate banner they deem in the best interest of the Murkowski administration.
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Obviously, this is unpopular with just about everybody outside of the administration, the polluters themselves and some die-hard Murkowski apologists. The idea is so bad that Republicans and Democrats alike are joining a bipartisan effort to ban mixing zones in freshwater spawning areas.
House Bill 328, sponsored by Paul Seaton, R-Homer, hopes to right this wrong, at least to some degree. The proposed legislation has support on both sides of the aisle, including Republicans Carl Gatto, of Mat-Su, Kurt Olson, of Soldotna, Gabrielle LeDoux, of Kodiak, and Democrats Beth Kerttula and Les Gara, of Juneau and Anchorage, respectively.
The simplest thing would be to use the famous words of Nancy Reagan and “just say no.”
We brag to the world that our wild salmon is the best product of its kind. We accuse the farmed-fish market of peddling a product that has harmful chemicals. Now the Murkowski administration thinks that allowing the dumping of a witch's brew of the nastiest toxins and pollutants into our waters is going to be good for the salmon market, fishermen and Alaskans.
Administration officials also pretend that pollutants have little or no effect on our native trout, char, burbot, whitefish and landlocked salmon or the food chain that those species need to grow and survive. Their argument boils down to this: If you slowly add toxins and pollution to water, it's not bad for the fish.
In more graphic terms, let me list some of the toxins and pollution that can be dumped by just a few industries, mainly the oil and gas and mining industries: arsenic, fecal coliform, chlorides, sulfates, copper, zinc, dissolved oxygen, benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, xylene, mercury, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, selenium, vanadium. There is a whole host more associated with just those two industries, but you get the picture.
Now add the processed water from coal-bed methane production, which meets all the DEC standards, but has been proven to all but wipe out macro-invertebrate populations in the trout streams where the few baseline studies have been done. This caused the trout populations to crash in those streams. Those little spineless critters are what the young fish eat to grow.
No one, as of yet, has pointed out that loophole in the new regulations that allow discharges from the new CBM industry. I pointed it out when I testified last week on HB 328.
Another problem that the administration doesn't seem to grasp is that all these toxins and wastes flow downstream, then downriver and dump into the estuaries. Either salmon eggs, smolt or returning salmon are in the waters nearly all year, as are the other freshwater species.
The young fish often feed in the estuaries and mouths of streams. Young pink and chum salmon remain in the mix of salt and fresh water, where they undergo physiological changes used to adapt to their future marine environment.
Now add all the possibilities of what could go wrong, in addition to having no baseline data, almost no funds for monitoring and short staffs at DEC and Fish and Game, and you have a recipe for disaster. DEC says that industry could self-monitor. Right. That is like letting a wolf pack watch a moose calf while the cow takes a nap.
Seaton's bill is not perfect. But it is much better than the horrible changes that the Murkowski administration has already made. If our legislators do the right thing and not let this bill be watered down with exceptions and amendments, our fish might be wild and clean for future generations.
We can still have development, but reasonable and responsible development of our resources. Only then will we still be able to brag that our Alaska salmon product is world-class.
Our sports fishery and salmon industry are far too important to risk, just to allow a few extraction industries to make extra profits, in the short time that they operate in our state. If we play our cards right, the fish will be here forever, and our lakes, rivers and streams
will remain healthy and productive.
Myrl Thompson is a citizen lobbyist and former independent candidate for the state House.
Comments
12 comment(s)nexQuimimip wrote on Feb 14, 2009 3:07 PM:
Donna wrote on Feb 6, 2009 7:14 AM:
I would like to contact him if anyone can get him my e-mail address it would be greatly appreciated.
Donna J. Hoover (formerly Donna J. Groleau) "
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