Category Archives: Issues

Local Groups to Host Highway 95 Forum and Field Trip

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The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition, Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, and concerned Moscow area citizens and groups will hold an informational meeting on Saturday on new routing proposed for U.S. Highway 95 from Thorn Creek Road north to Moscow, followed by a site visit.

On November 26, the Idaho Transportation Department approved a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and technical reports on three alternatives for realignment.

From noon to 2 pm in the Great Room of the 1912 Center, 412 East Third Street, community members will summarize the DEIS, present arguments against the state-preferred eastern alternative, and hold a discussion.  Between 2 and 5 pm, event organizers and participants will carpool to locations along and near the proposed “E2” alternative.

Concerned about Safety

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David Hall, Moscow

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News, 1/18/13

Regarding Wayne Olson’s letter, Time for U.S. 95 Realignment (Letters, January 16, 2013):

Members of the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) do not believe that the proposed eastern alignment is the safest option.  One reason for doing the environmental impact study (besides that it is required by law) was to include a good analysis of the relative safety of each proposed alignment.  It is apparent to most residents that the weather is “worse” in winter up on the ridge than it is along the current alignment – there is often more snow and fog up on the shoulder of the ridge, which makes driving more hazardous.

The highway could have been completed years ago if the Idaho Transportation Department had upgraded the highway along the present alignment, just as they did for the section to the south.  And they could have put measures into place to make the existing road safer in the interim.  They chose to do neither but instead insist on moving the highway into an arguably less-safe location.  Part of their rationale for the eastern route is that it is the shortest, but it is a mere 0.09 of a mile shorter than the central alignment – a few hundred feet.

It is misguided to lay blame on PRDC and other folks who are as concerned about the public safety as is everyone else.

Anyone who wishes to learn more about this issue is invited to attend a forum at noon on Saturday at the 1912 Center in Moscow.

U.S. Highway 95 DEIS Opinion

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Through excerpts of an interview originally aired on the Monday, January 14, Climate Justice Forum radio program, a local conservationist describes the flaws of a recently released draft environment impact statement (DEIS) proposal by the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to widen and reroute U.S. Highway 95 over Paradise Ridge south of Moscow.  Listen to Al Poplawski of Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition Critiques ITD Draft EIS Preferred Alternative Route on U.S. 95 Re-Alignment South of Moscow, broadcast between 9:45 and 1:43 of the Wednesday, January 16, 2013, KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, U.S. 95 EIS Opinion.

Highway 95 Forum and Field Trip

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Don't Pave Paradise

On November 26, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) approved a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and technical reports on three alternatives for proposed realignment of U.S. Highway 95 between Thorn Creek Road and Moscow.  It published the DEIS in early January 2013 and scheduled a public information/comment hearing between 2 and 8:30 pm on Wednesday, January 23, at the Best Western University Inn, 1516 Pullman Road in Moscow, and a public comment period ending on February 23.  Of the three DEIS alternatives of 11 options considered by ITD – an eastern route climbing the western shoulder of scenic Paradise Ridge (E2), a central corridor realigning the middle section of the present 6.5-mile stretch of road (C3), and a western, longer route veering close to Washington (W4) – the ITD-preferred eastern alternative shifts the highway up 400 to 500 feet in elevation and 2,000 feet east, between the Primeland Cooperative grain elevators south of Moscow and the top of Reisenauer Hill.

This E2 route in the recently released DEIS mirrors alternative 10A in a previous environmental assessment (EA) of Highway 95 re-construction plans.  That 2002 version provoked regional citizen concerns for climate-related highway traveler safety, urban sprawl, area aesthetics, wetland preservation, and protection of rare remnants of native Palouse Prairie habitat and wildlife.  The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) emerged and, along with the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club and the Idaho Conservation League, successfully challenged the EA, secured a 2003 injunction from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, and forced ITD to complete the current DEIS review process mandated for all federal highway redesign projects that widen or re-route roadbeds.

A reactivated group of prior and new PRDC members have identified many potential environmental, economic, and social consequences of the purportedly shorter, faster, and safer eastern realignment of Highway 95.  Besides the same ongoing objections, they note that the DEIS E2 alternative would impose the greatest detrimental effects on pine stands, ungulate (deer, moose) conservation and collisions, endangered species, and ecosystem restoration.  It would also create more stream tributary crossings, impervious surfaces, and pollution runoff and challenge flood control.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have strongly recommended against this eastern Highway 95 corridor, likely advanced by ITD to accommodate international industrial traffic like tar sands megaloads. Continue reading →

Snake River Oil and Gas Could Start Drilling in Payette County this Spring

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Snake River Oil and Gas is testing three of its gas wells in Payette County.  Gas left over from the testing is flared off.

While 2012 was a year of acquisition and information gathering for Snake River Oil and Gas, 2013 is poised to be a year of drilling for natural gas in southwestern Idaho.

“We will probably start drilling in the spring,” said Richard Brown, CEO of Snake River Oil and Gas.  His company has close to 130,000 acres of gas and oil leases in Payette and Washington counties as well as seven productive wells.  Snake River bought the wells last year from Bridge Resources, which initially drilled the productive wells.

Along with buying the wells and negotiating leases with landowners, Snake River spent $14 million last year exploring its new holdings, using large, earth-shaking trucks and high tech sensors in the ground to get three-dimensional data on how natural gas is situated underground.  That data is still being analyzed.  It looks promising, according to company officials.  Now the company is testing three of its seven wells to learn more about the gas reservoir underneath the wells.  After that could come drilling to extract that gas.

If all goes well, the next step for the drillers would be building a pipeline to connect the wells.  They are close to the multi-state gas pipeline as well as Idaho Power’s new Langley Gulch gas-fired power plant near New Plymouth.  Brown speculates that pipeline work could start in the summer. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Al Poplawsky 1-14-13

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On the Monday, January 14, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes Al Poplawsky, former treasurer of the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition and current executive committee chairperson of the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club in Moscow.  Al will discuss the draft environmental impact statement and technical reports recently released by the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), proposing to expand and reroute U.S. Highway 95 south of Moscow through native Palouse Prairie remnants on more weather-exposed Paradise Ridge, likely to accommodate international industrial traffic like tar sands megaloads.  Please share your issue insights and resistance stories during the show broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PST live at 92.5 FM and online, by calling the station studio at 208-892-9200.  For more information about this ITD scheme, see the Highway 95 Re-Route section of the WIRT website.  Thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as his KRFP DJ, the show also covers regional and continent-wide dirty energy developments and climate activism news.  Visit the station website soon to learn how you can adopt our inspiring fellow DJs.

Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition Summary of U.S. 95 Thorn Creek DEIS

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Paradise Ridge 2 Revised

U.S. Highway 95 Thorn Creek Road to Moscow

Draft Environmental Impact Statement

Comment by March 25 to: Comments@ITD.Idaho.gov

Office of Communications, Idaho Transportation Department

P.O. Box 7129, Boise, ID 83707-1129

Sign the Petition and Get Comment Suggestions:

Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC)

Website: Paradise-Ridge-Defense.org

Email: PRDC@Paradise-Ridge-Defense.org Continue reading →

Fracking Brothers Buy Chunk of Idaho County

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With latest purchase, Texans own 35,934 acres

GRANGEVILLE – The recent purchase of a 17,947-acre ranch on the Doumecq Plains southwest of Grangeville likely makes the two Texas billionaire brothers who bought it the second-largest landowners in Idaho County.

Farris C. Wilks, 60, and Dan H. Wilks, 56, of Cisco, Texas, bought the Delos Robbins Ranch in December.  In January 2011, the brothers bought the 17,987-acre Hitchcock Ranch in the same area.

With a total of 35,934 acres, that ranks the brothers just behind Western Pacific Timber Company in total county holdings, Idaho County Assessor James Zehner said.  Western Pacific owns about 38,000 acres in the Upper Lochsa region of Idaho County. Continue reading →

Megaloads: Quiet Rides through Montana

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A host of activist groups may have won the battle against Imperial Oil last year, but companies looking to ship oversized loads through Montana to the Alberta tar sands are far from done with the war.  Megaloads are still rolling across Montana’s highways, with the latest traveling as recently as last week.

Missoula used to be the leader of boisterous opposition to what many dubbed the “heavy haul.”  Not quite two years ago, more than 100 protesters lined Reserve Street as two massive ConocoPhillips loads passed through.

Read more: Megaloads: Quiet Rides through Montana

(By Alex Sakariassen, Missoula Independent)

Natural Gas Well Testing in Payette County

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Natural Gas Flaring [Larger] - Argus Observer

Natural gas is burned off at a test well on Friday morning, January 4, 2013, just outside New Plymouth (Argus Observer/Cherise Kaechele photo).

People looking or driving northeast of New Plymouth or east of Payette need not be concerned about fire they are seeing, as the flames are the result of natural gas well testing, the latest step in an effort to begin getting production started in Payette County.

Richard Brown, CEO of Snake River Oil and Gas, said the testing will go on for two to three weeks.

Snake River Oil and Gas, in partnership with Alta Mesa Holdings, purchased the assets of Bridge Resources last year, including 11 wells, seven of which have production capability, Brown said.

Three of the wells are now under intensive testing, which will help company officials understand the size of the reservoir and will be indicative of the production of the other four wells, Brown said.

The companies have approximately 300 to 400 oil and gas leases on about 130,000 acres with a number of landowners, he said.  Seismic work was conducted in the area last fall, ending in November, Brown said. Continue reading →