WIRT Monthly Meetings

November 5 & 12: Moscow

The Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) First Thursday Moscow Monthly Meeting and Potluck is happening at 7 pm on Thursday evening, November 5, and due to the work- and travel-induced lateness of this reminder, again on November 12. Gather at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow.  Along with southwest Idaho activists on November 15 and Sandpoint area residents on November 19, we are planning November Flood the System actions on both sides of the state.

November 20: Sandpoint

WIRT is holding our other monthly convergence, the WIRT Third Thursday Sandpoint Monthly Meeting and Pizza at 7 pm on Friday, November 20, at Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue in Sandpoint. Please email wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or call 208-301-8039 for meeting agendas, carpools, and directions, and visit the WIRT Events Calendar for ongoing updates on WIRT and allied events across the region.

November 5: Shell Anacortes Bomb Train Facility

Thursday, November 5, marks the last day to contribute your thoughts on the scope of an environmental impact statement (EIS) analyzing the effects of building and using a “rail spur from the existing, adjacent Burlington Northern Santa FE (BNSF) Railway line onto Shell Puget Sound Refinery (PSR) property.”  The proposed facility would receive and unload a maximum of six unit crude oil trains per week, each with 102 DOT-117 tank cars owned by Shell.

Replacing and supplementing currently ship-delivered crude, but not changing refining capacity, the project would also install equipment to pump rail car oil into existing refinery tanks, would construct several storm water retention ponds, and would institute other safety and spill response measures. Shell also says that it will restore a tidally-influenced Padilla Bay estuary from part of a nearby tree farm, to mitigate the on-site wetland impacts of this project.

Our amazing Washington comrades have been demonstrating and testifying at several scoping hearings over the last month.  But has anyone invited or offered input from Idahoans and eastern Washingtonians, about how increased oil-by-rail traffic threatens their lives, communities, and environments?  You know the bomb train talking points well by now: Tell Skagit County and the Washington Department of Ecology that the scope of their project considerations should include the concerns of their eastern neighbors.  These co-lead agencies, jointly overseeing State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA)-mandated EIS preparation for this fiasco, anticipate the EIS process taking approximately one year, depending on public comments, necessary studies and permits, and other factors.

November 7: Winter Market

WIRT is working to secure an outreach spot at the Winter Market this Saturday, November 7, from 10 am to 2 pm at the 1912 Center, 412 East Third Street in Moscow.  If you have ever contributed substantially toward WIRT, either physically or fiscally, please stop by and pick up your coffee-table-sized book, Energy, published by the Post Carbon Institute.  We would like all WIRT and allied activists to expand their energy/climate change literacy!

November 15: Idaho Flood the System Training

Due to popular demand, WIRT is hosting a sixth Idaho Flood the System Training, as we and associated groups continue to mobilize regional residents for coordinated, continent-wide, #FloodTheSystem, fall actions and agency hearings on Northwest coal and oil train terminals. Join us between 12 noon and 3 pm on Sunday, November 15, at the main, downtown Boise Public Library Gates Room, 715 South Capitol Boulevard in Boise, for another non-violent direct action training workshop led by Rising Tide network trainers.  Expect a free-standing event announcement soon!