On Tuesday night, 11/12/13, three Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and Occupy Bellingham and Spokane monitors observed and documented the Interstate 90 passage of an Omega Morgan-hauled evaporator core en route to Alberta tar sands mining-induced ecocide and genocide.  The convoy slowly, closely squeezed the 15.9-foot-tall megaload under several overpasses, while questionably allowing highway traffic to pass on all the other lanes, and arduously traversed on- and off-ramps to circumvent bridge collapses under its weight.  By the time that the colossal load, trailer, and three push/pull trucks, together weighing 644,000 pounds and stretching out 297 feet, exited the interstate to avoid all of the bridge structures over Wallace, convoy workers had complained to police that monitors (not they?) were imposing travel dangers.  Two Shoshone sheriff officers reminded monitors that they were in their territory and that there are ‘certain ways to protest.’  The megaload monitors recorded but missed documenting some of the most salient parts of this ignored warning, like the capacity of Omega Morgan staff for citizen’s arrest.  But during passing conversations with the convoy and these local police, monitors sparked the beginnings of their understanding of the destructive consequences of their work. Continue reading →

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies need you on the road again tonight, to dog and document Omega Morgan megaload passage over and under some precarious Interstate 90 bridges and up some steep inclines, and to encourage General Electric to keep this hopefully last tar sands equipment out of northern Idaho!  On Monday night, the transport and convoy rolled from Highway 95 milepost 405, north of Worley, to Interstate 90 milepost 18, a few miles east of Coeur d’Alene.  We witnessed many conveyance snafus, such as striking and/or barely fitting under the Highway 95 bridge over Northwest Boulevard and around the curves of on/off ramps in Coeur d’Alene, and transport interaction problems, like visibly angry truckers tailgating convoy vehicles blocking and slowing interstate traffic behind bridges to 5 miles per hour.  WIRT and Spokane Rising Tide are still recruiting Tuesday night megaload monitors and hoping to post more photos/videos soon.  A Moscow participant and a Spokane volunteer each need a traveling partner, and a Bellingham comrade currently visiting Coeur d’Alene will also monitor and protest with us tonight.  See the following links, especially the Monday and (posted soon) Tuesday KRFP Evening Reports, for more information about recent megaload occurrences, and contact WIRT SOON to participate tonight. Continue reading →

On Sunday night, November 10, between 10 pm and 6 am, the Washington and Idaho activists and allies of Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) monitored and protested the heaviest and longest megaload of tar sands extraction equipment to recently traverse U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 90 in Idaho (photos and videos available on Tuesday) [1].  Like the controversial oversize evaporator that met four nights of fierce resistance from Nez Perce, Idle No More, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, and allied activists on Highway 12 in early August, this core of a second shipment that also arrived at the Port of Wilma on July 22 weighs up to 644,000 pounds.  But unlike the earlier 255-foot-long megaload, this mammoth transport stretches 297 feet long, crowds out other traffic on mostly two-lane Highway 95 with its 16-foot width, and barely clears standard 16-foot-tall overpasses with its 15.9-foot height.  Permitted by the Idaho Transportation Department, the partial evaporator designed by General Electric subsidiary Resources Conservation Company International of Bellevue, Washington, and manufactured in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, is being hauled by the push and pull trucks and specialized trailer of Hillsboro, Oregon-based Omega Morgan.  Accompanied by a convoy of pilot cars, flaggers, and police vehicles, the inexplicably divisible and unstranded evaporator traveled on Sunday night from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Washington, on Idaho Highway 128 to Lewiston, and on Highway 95 to the northbound former weigh station between Worley and the Coeur d’Alene Casino.  On Monday night, November 11, between 10 pm to 6 am, this megaload will move from its currently parked and unguarded layover space north on U.S 95, through Coeur d’Alene, and east on Interstate 90 to the Montana border.  En route to the Hangingstone steam assisted gravity drainage tar sands mining operations of Athabasca Oil Corporation, southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the evaporator must safely pull over at previously identified locations in Idaho, to clear traffic “delayed” (fully stopped) no longer than 15 minutes under state laws.

Join with Wild Idaho Rising Tide, Spokane Rising Tide, and family, friends, and co-workers to protest and monitor another megaload builder of the largest industrial project on Earth!  Meet WIRT collective members at the corner of Second and Washington streets, on the north side of city hall in downtown Moscow, on Monday evening, November 11, at 8:30 pm, to document the safety and traffic violations of this largest of Highway 95 tar sands machines between Worley and Montana, with still and video cameras and written and audio notes of observations.  Converge with tar sands/megaload protest signs and banners, musical instruments and voices, to head north and/or east, scrutinize this fossil fuel onslaught, and demonstrate continuing opposition to tar sands traffic on ANY Northwest or northern Rockies highway.  Contact Wild Idaho Rising Tide at 208-301-8039 or Spokane Rising Tide at 509-879-7470 to learn how you can plan, prepare, and participate in the ongoing non-violent direct actions of this tireless, grassroots, frontline defense of indigenous and public lands, waters, air, and climate.

[1] Highway 95’s Largest OmegaLoad MoreAgain

The General Electric subsidiary Resources Conservation Company International evaporator core at the Port of Wilma on Friday, November 8, prepared for Omega Morgan transport to the Athabasca Oil Corporation’s Hangingstone in situ Alberta tar sands mining operations southwest of Fort McMurray (Rob Briggs photo)

On Friday, November 8, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) issued a permit for the heaviest and longest megaload of tar sands extraction equipment to recently traverse U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 90 in Idaho and degrade Idahoans’ roads and rights on Sunday and Monday nights, November 10 and 11, between 10 pm to 6 am [1].  Like the controversial oversize evaporator that met four nights of fierce resistance from Nez Perce, Idle No More, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, and allied activists in early August, this core of a similar shipment that also arrived at the Port of Wilma on July 22 weighs up to 644,000 pounds [2].  But unlike that 255-foot-long transport, this behemoth stretches 297 feet long.  Its 16-foot width crowds out other traffic on mostly two-lane Highway 95, while its 15.9-foot height barely clears standard 16-foot-tall overpasses along the Idaho route.  Hillsboro, Oregon-based Omega Morgan will haul the partial evaporator, designed by General Electric subsidiary Resources Conservation Company International (RCCI) of Bellevue, Washington, and manufactured in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, on a specialized trailer conveyed by push and pull trucks.  Accompanied by a convoy of pilot cars, flaggers, and likely police vehicles, the inexplicably divisible and unstranded evaporator will travel from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Washington, on Idaho Highway 128 to Lewiston, north on U.S. 95 to Coeur d’Alene, and then east on Interstate 90 to the Montana border, over the course of two nights.  En route to the Hangingstone steam assisted gravity drainage tar sands mining operations of Athabasca Oil Corporation, southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the corporate parade must safely pull over at previously identified locations in Idaho, to clear traffic “delayed” (fully stopped) no longer than 15 minutes under state laws. Continue reading →

With a mid-afternoon media release, the Idaho Transportation Department confirmed that likely Alberta tar sands equipment shipments with unknown ultimate destinations will travel through the Highway 12 sacrifice zone: northbound on U.S. Highway 95 between Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene and eastbound on Interstate 90, starting on Tuesday night, October 15.  Omega Morgan is hauling four sump sections in two pairs from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Washington, embarking on Idaho Highway 128 at 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm, and reaching the Idaho/Montana state line at 5 am and 6 am on Wednesday morning.  Each oversized cylinder measures over 20 feet wide, 15 feet tall, 75 feet long, and weighs under 80,000 pounds.  Due to the width of these modules, three flagging teams, two pilot vehicles, and portable signs will travel with each pair of transports that cannot legally delay other vehicles for more than 15 minutes and must pull over to let such traffic pass.  State and city officials have advised that these ‘mini-megaloads’ are not pieces of the 21-foot-wide, 255-foot-long, 644,000-pound evaporator currently stranded at the Port of Wilma, with plans to cross U.S. Highway 12 scuttled by Nez Perce and allied protests and federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s preliminary injunction.  Resources Conservation Company International (RCCI) has filed an appeal of this decision with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) members and regional activists are coordinating local, anti-megaload actions in downtown Moscow starting at 8:30 pm, to confront Big Oil’s return to Moscow streets and Highway 95 in north central Idaho.  We will continue to defend the community of life and climate of Earth with our full participation tonight, as we together raise our voices and impose our bodies against General Electric, RCCI, and Omega Morgan.  The ecological, human, and global climate consequences of their dirty energy mining degradation of the boreal forests and peat bogs in First Nations homelands are too dire to not act against this transportation venture.  We encourage everyone to bring your friends, family, signs, banners, and musical instruments, and if so moved, practice civil disobedience and initiate blockades to counter corporate oppression and bolster our regional resistance.  Please join WIRT activists at the corner of Second and Washington streets, near Moscow City Hall, at 8:30 pm and beyond, to monitor the megaloads south of Moscow and/or to replace and create megaload protest signs lost on Highway 12, before convoys enter Moscow at approximately 10:30 pm.  We heartily welcome your spontaneous expressions of anti-tar sands passion and force on every Northwest/Northern Rockies megaload route!