About WIRT

The WIRT collective is part of an international, grassroots network of groups and individuals who take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change and to promote local, community-based solutions to the climate crisis.

ITD Clears New U.S. Highway 95 Route for Review

Posted on December 7, 2012 by WIRT

Public hearing on draft set in Moscow for January

The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and Federal Highway Administration (FHA) have approved a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) favoring an eastern realignment of U.S. Highway 95 from Thorn Creek Road to Moscow and will soon enter a public comment process.

ITD project manager Ken Helm said the impact statement was signed November 26 and will likely be published later this month or early January.

The transportation department identified the dangerous, curvy stretch of highway for realignment more than ten years ago. Since then, there have been 220 accidents along the 6.5 mile stretch, resulting in 138 injuries and six deaths.

The preferred realignment alternative starts at Thorn Creek and shifts about 2,000 feet east at the top of Reisenauer Hill and rejoins the existing highway at the Primeland Cooperative grain elevators at the southern end of Moscow. Continue reading →

Latest Pair of Megaloads Make It to Montana via U.S. Highway 12 Route

Posted on December 7, 2012 by WIRT

Two megaloads reached Montana after a 172-mile journey on U.S. Highway 12 in north central Idaho.

Both extra-big shipments left Idaho sometime late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, said Idaho Transportation Department spokesman Adam Rush in Boise.

One load started the night at Kooskia and the other was just 12 miles west of the Montana state line, Rush said.

“It did not have far to go at all,” he said.

One load was originally expected to leave the Port of Wilma just after 10 pm on Monday and reach the Montana state line by 5:30 am on Tuesday.

The other was supposed to follow, starting just after 10 pm on Tuesday. Continue reading →

Overlegal Shipments Planned to Travel U.S. 12

Posted on December 6, 2012 by WIRT

Overlegal equipment shipments were planned to move along U.S. Highway 12 on Monday and Tuesday nights, December 3 and 4, pending weather, according to the Idaho Transportation Department.

Omega Morgan is transporting two shipments – water purification vessels – to Montana from 10 pm to 5:30 am, scheduled to take one night each to reach the Idaho/Montana state line. One load will travel each night.

Activists with Wild Idaho Rising Tide were planning monitoring and protest activities during transport.

(By Idaho County Free Press, Grangeville)

Coal Shipment Opponents: ‘They’re the Dirtiest, Most Dangerous Trains’

Posted on December 5, 2012 by WIRT

Concerns over proposed rail shipments of coal through Montana, Idaho’s panhandle, and Washington state before being shipped to China drew more than 800 people on Tuesday to a public hearing at Spokane’s County Fairgrounds.

Boise Weekly first told you in February about how some of the globe’s biggest mining companies want to ship hundreds of millions of tons of coal through the northernmost sections of the United States.

This morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press reports that opponents of the shipments outnumbered supporters on Tuesday. Opponents waved signs that said, “Check the Facts,” and wore T-shirts that said, “Coal is a dirty, old source of energy, and its time has passed.”

Boise Weekly reported on similar protests on November 17, when members of Moscow-based Wild Idaho Rising Tide joined Occupy Spokane to rally in the Idaho panhandle town of Sandpoint, where many of the shipments would roll through.

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Schedule Changes for Latest Megaloads

Posted on December 5, 2012 by WIRT

First load has stopped at Kooskia; second load was scheduled to leave Port of Wilma on Tuesday night

Plans have changed for a pair of megaloads being hauled across Idaho on U.S. Highway 12 this week.

The first load left the Port of Wilma just west of Clarkston on Monday evening. It reached Kooskia early Tuesday. The transport of water purification equipment was originally scheduled to travel as far as the Montana border by Tuesday morning, and the Idaho Transportation Department had no explanation for what prevented the shipment from going farther.

Weather sometimes stops megaloads. Temperatures were in the low 30s with no precipitation at Powell, when the megaload was traveling. Powell is frequently the place where conditions are among the most extreme on the route to Montana, because of its high elevation.

The second load was still anticipated to start its journey on Tuesday night and reach milepost 160, just two miles west of Powell, before 5:30 am today, said transportation department spokesman Adam Rush in Boise.

If crews had extra time, they were going to go back to Kooskia and start moving the first megaload to an unannounced stopping point, Rush said. Continue reading →

Delays Expected on U.S. Highway 12 for Over-Sized Loads

Posted on December 4, 2012 by WIRT

Over-sized shipments will begin their move from the Lewis-Clark Valley to the Montana border on Monday night on U.S. Highway 12.

Omega Morgan is transporting two water purification vessels. The vessels, which weigh 80,000 pounds, are scheduled to take one night each to reach the state line.

Read more and view the video: Delays Expected on U.S. Highway 12 for Over-Sized Loads

(By Sophia Miraglio, KLEW TV Lewiston)

Two More Tar Sands Shipments Likely to Cross Idaho on US 12 Starting Tonight

Posted on December 3, 2012 by WIRT

Listen to the Monday, December 3, 2012, KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Assenberg Rejects Pot Plea, between 5:20 and 3:33, to learn about the second and third Alberta tar sands equipment shipments to traverse wild and scenic Highway 12, two wastewater evaporator components hauled by Omega Morgan.

Mini Megaloads

Posted on December 3, 2012 by WIRT

This is what the latest round of megaloads looks like (The Lewiston Tribune/Elaine Williams photo).

The latest round of megaloads are parked at the Port of Wilma, just west of Clarkston.

The first of the two is scheduled to leave tonight at about 10 pm and make it to the Montana border early Tuesday morning.

Assuming that happens without a hitch, the second will leave Tuesday also at about 10 pm. Like the other, it is expected to make it across Idaho on U.S. Highway 12 in a single segment of travel. That trip would end early Wednesday morning.

It is their width that makes these shipments megaloads. They are wide enough to consume almost two lanes of traffic, but at about 50 feet, they are about as long as a standard semi truck. Continue reading →

Megaloads Prep for Idaho Crossing

Posted on December 1, 2012 by WIRT

First oversized load could leave Clarkston on Monday

Two megaloads carrying water purification vessels may be traveling through north central Idaho soon if the weather cooperates.

Transport company Omega Morgan plans to move the first shipment from the Port of Wilma just west of Clarkston to the Idaho/Montana border on U.S. Highway 12, according to a news release issued Friday by the Idaho Transportation Department.

The journey would start as early as about 10 pm on Monday and end no later than 5:30 am on Tuesday.

It appears that road conditions could vary significantly on the trip. The National Weather Service predicts a 20-percent chance of rain and temperatures in the 40s on Monday in Clarkston.

The low at Powell, near the Montana state line, is expected to be 25 degrees on Monday evening under mostly cloudy skies, after a day where the possibility of snow is 80 percent.

The second shipment is expected to move on a different evening and take a similar amount of time to cover the roughly 170 miles between Clarkston and the Montana border. No information on a date for that shipment has been supplied by the transportation department. Continue reading →

Dana Lyons Concert & Workshop in Pullman 11-28-12

Posted on November 30, 2012 by WIRT

On Wednesday, November 28, performer and environmental educator Dana Lyons brought his Great Coal Train Tour to Pullman, Washington, and offered a free afternoon community organizing workshop and a live evening concert at Washington State University (WSU). Singer and guitarist Dana Lyons hails from Bellingham, Washington – ground-zero of Northwest resistance to coal exports, near the largest proposed coal port facility in North America. Best known for his comedy hit song Cows with Guns, Dana has recorded eight albums during his lifetime artistic career and worked around the Earth to raise awareness, activism, and funds for environmental and social justice issues. During his 40-plus-show tour, Dana has visited dozens of communities throughout four Northwestern states, from Billings to Bellingham and from Portland to Coos Bay, along the route of proposed coal export trains that could carry 160 million tons of coal per year from Montana and Wyoming to the Columbia River and West Coast and via supertanker to China. He has networked with local residents and organizers across the region, who are working to stop potential coal mines, trains, and ports for health, safety, traffic, economic, and environmental reasons. Hosted by the WSU Environmental Task Force and Environmental Science Club student groups, Dana’s fun, inspiring, and family-oriented Pullman concert intermingled with place-based storytelling catalyzed community interest and engagement in this significant regional issue among the 30 audience members. For more information about Northwest coal exports, see CoalTrainFacts.org, PowerPastCoal.org, Coal-Free-Bellingham.org, and WildIdahoRisingTide.org. Visit Dana’s website to explore his music, videos, merchandise, and tour schedule at CowsWithGuns.com and listen to his coal train song, Sometimes.

1128122004