Alta Mesa’s Little Willow Gathering Facility north of New Plymouth (Idaho Statesman photo/caption)

Stop New Little Willow Gas Well Drilling!

The 15-day public comment period closes on Friday, November 13, for providing your written opposition to yet another permit application for oil and gas well drilling, presumably on Simplot lands (in the Butch Otter family) up Little Willow Road in Payette County, Idaho [1]. Houston-based Alta Mesa has proposed a new well, ML Investments 2-3, about seven miles east of Payette, and has requested that application reviewers and permit issuers at the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) protect its 41 pages of application documents from public disclosure.  A company official contends that much, if not all, of the drilling application information is either confidential for security reasons (as stamped on multiple pages) or meets Freedom of Information Act and Idaho law exemptions prohibiting the disclosure of trade secrets.  Nonetheless, IDL posted the application with redactions on its website on Wednesday, October 28.

Alta Mesa last filed a drilling permit application in November/December 2014, when the Idaho Conservation League and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) separately contested the proposed Smoke Ranch 1-20 well, located only a few hundred feet from the Payette River, and caused application revision and re-submission [2, 3]. According to the IDL website, the company never drilled that well, but has brought five other wells into production during 2015, besides the State 1-17 well that Bridge Resources drilled with ten others in 2009-10, sold to Alta Mesa in 2012, and started up in March 2014 [4].  Alta Mesa is also now extracting gas from the Bridge Resources-drilled ML Investments 1-10 well, claiming that it and the State 1-17 well are wildcat wells drawing from an unproven reservoir.  Nine of the Bridge Resources wells have been shut in pending a pipeline; Bridge intended to frack four of these holes (the Espino 1-2, Korn 1-22, Tracy Trust 3-2, and White 1-10 wells from among the DJS Properties 1-14 and 1-15 and Island Capitol 1-19 wells).

The Texas company has flared several wells since early 2013, and is pulling gas from four of the eight wells that it has drilled since the heavily protested, now shut-in Smoke Ranch 1-21 well (farther from the river than 1-20) in July 2013 [5, 6]. Drilled into the Willow gas field and reservoir, in the hills surrounding Little Willow Creek and Road, the ML Investments 1-11 and 2-10 wells and the Kauffman 1-9 and 1-34 wells are now producing [7].  (The Kauffman couple bid as apparently agreed-upon underdogs in the most recent, May 2015 auction of oil and gas leases on Idaho state lands and minerals [8].)  Alta Mesa has shut in the DJS Properties 2-14 well and not drilled the ML Investments 1-3 well.  Despite numerous errors, missing information, and described harmful practices in seven of eight Alta Mesa drilling applications commented on by WIRT (except the DJS Properties 2-14 well), IDL has not rejected, or required Alta Mesa to revise and re-submit, any of its previous applications [9]. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

Friends and allies,

Monday, October 5, 5:30 pm

Authors Brooke and Terry Tempest Williams

1912 Center, 412 East Third Street, Moscow, Idaho

Hosted by BookPeople of Moscow, these renown writers and environmentalists from Utah will read from and talk about their joint book project, The Story of My Heart, with an introduction by Terry Tempest Williams, afterword by University of Idaho (UI) English Department Chair Scott Slovic, and essays by Brooke Williams alongside British nature writer Richard Jefferies’ original 1883 work exploring the existence of a travel-experienced “soul-life.” The authors will discuss the “dilemmas of modernity, the intrinsic need for wildness, and what it means to be human in the 21st century.”

Brooke Williams and Terry Tempest Williams Author Event: The Story of My Heart

Terry Tempest Williams and Brooke Williams, Monday, October 5, 1912 Center, 5:30 pm

Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm

Merchants of Doubt

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 South Main Street, Moscow, Idaho

Presented by the Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse Green Sanctuary Committee, and the Palouse Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), this award-winning documentary demonstrates how corporate-hired pundits, posing as scientific authorities, spin the truth and confuse the public about well-studied, industry-produced threats such as toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, fossil fuels, and climate change. Admission accepting donations toward the free, public screening of the movie, produced by filmmaker Robert Kenner and inspired by the acclaimed book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, starts at 6:30 pm. A concluding panel discussion will feature UI professors Tom Bitterwolf and Kenton Bird and CCL representative Mary Dupree.

Merchants of Doubt

PESC Presents: Merchants of Doubt Continue reading →

WIRT and allied agents of change, Please plan to participate in the following Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and associated events, and check the WIRT website Events Calendar often, for updates on upcoming happenings.

June/July: Climate Activist Training Workshops (Dates and times to be announced (TBA), Downtown Spokane Public Library, 906 West Main Avenue, Spokane, Washington; East Bonner County – Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar Street, Sandpoint, Idaho; The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho; and Main (downtown) Boise Public Library, 715 South Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho

June/July: Ongoing WIRT and allied mobilization of regional residents for 1) an August, Lake Pend Oreille, water-based, mass protest of expansion of rail bridges and fossil fuels train transportation, 2) agency hearings on Northwest oil train terminals, and 3) coordinated, region-wide, #FloodTheSystem, fall actions

JUNE 2015

June 18: WIRT Third Thursday Sandpoint Monthly Meeting and Pizza (Thursday 7 pm, Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue, Sandpoint, Idaho)

June 23: Coal Exports, Oil Transport, and Solutions Forum hosted by Earth Ministry, Gonzaga Environmental Law Caucus, Power Past Coal, Sierra Club, Sightline Institute, Spokane Riverkeeper, Stand Up To Oil, and The Lands Council (Tuesday 7 pm, Gonzaga University School of Law Courtroom, 721 North Cincinnati Street, Spokane, Washington)

June 24: Sandpoint Oil Train Forum, Pipeline on Wheels through North Idaho hosted by the Idaho Conservation League, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, and Sightline Institute (Wednesday 5:30 pm, The Heartwood Center, 515 Oak Street, Sandpoint, Idaho) Continue reading →

Please vote early and often throughout June 2015 for Rising Tide North America (RTNA) to receive tens of thousands of dollars in donations from CREDO Action.  As Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and comrades across the continental, grassroots network of volunteer activists organize frontline communities to escalate resistance to the fossil fuel industry and its government facilitators, radical climate justice advocates need your support more than ever.

During November 2013 through October 2014, $1000 in funding from RTNA advanced WIRT collective work against Alberta tar sands and Montana refinery megaloads and Idaho oil and gas extraction.  From eastern Oregon to western Montana, we staged region-wide informational programs like the Gasland 2 Idaho Roadshow, direct action trainings involving the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, and effective protests from Sun Valley to Sandpoint, Idaho, promoting locally organized confrontations of the root causes of the climate crisis.

Over the last month, Rising Tide chapters and core WIRT activists have blockaded Shell’s Arctic drilling equipment in Bellingham and Seattle and fracking sites in Texas.  For the summer and fall of 2015, we are already planning our largest endeavors yet, listening canvasses and assertive actions along Spokane and Washington rail corridors and on Lake Pend Oreille at Sandpoint, as we #FloodTheSystem of capitalistic, colonial perpetrators of oppression and climate change.

Each month, CREDO asks its members and customers to choose which groups will receive part of their revenue, contributing millions of dollars to a wide range of nonprofits.  As either a CREDO Action member (join by simply signing a petition) or CREDO mobile phone/credit card customer of the progressive communications company, you can provide crucial financial assistance for WIRT and Rising Tide activists.

With every vote for RTNA on CREDO Action’s ballot before the June 30 deadline, WIRT and our colleagues receive a larger percentage of this month’s CREDO funds.  So please share this request with your friends, families, neighbors, and co-workers and vote for Rising Tide at Credo Donations!  In sincere solidarity and appreciation for your activism and support…

As a reminder, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists are gathering at 7 pm tonight (Thursday, June 4) for our regular strategizing and planning convergence, the First Thursday Moscow Monthly Meeting and Potluck, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho.  Over the next few days, we are also updating our Events Calendar on the WIRT website with June and July WIRT and allied events.  Please note that, due to modified state agency schedules, the State Oil and Gas Lease Auction Protest at the Idaho Department of Lands in Boise has been postponed from Wednesday, June 10, until Wednesday, July 1 (when we really need your protest participation!).  A lone WIRT protester confronted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with every question she could muster, at its oil and gas lease auction on Thursday, May 28, in Boise, personally witnessing (rigged?) auction discrepancies and learning that allies had filed appeals of which no one is aware.  Burdened recently with other distracting work, WIRT will produce a protest report soon.  With a few WIRT activists, please consider attending the Oil and Gas Forum in Emmett, Idaho, at 6:30 pm next Tuesday evening, July 9.  Thanks!

Friends and supporters,

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists and allies are planning powerful convergences, training workshops, direct actions, and educational forums that expand the movement against extreme energy and for a livable future!  The Events Calendar page of the WIRT website lists and links to activities in the Northwest region that WIRT organizes and/or participates in, including emerging frontline and solidarity actions with our comrades across the continent.  Visit this constantly updated events page often and get involved in grassroots resistance to the root causes of climate change!

WIRT holds twice-monthly potluck/pizza meetings at 7 pm every first Thursday at Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue in Sandpoint, Idaho, and at 7 pm every third Thursday at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho.  Please call 208-301-8039 or email wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com for information about meeting agendas, event carpools, and volunteer opportunities.

MARCH 2015

March 19: WIRT Third Thursday Monthly Meeting and Potluck (Thursday 7 pm, The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho)

March 21: The Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community, and the Environment (Saturday 8 am to 8 pm, Longhouse Education and Cultural Center, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Olympia, Washington, co-sponsored by Backbone Campaign and Railroad Workers United)

March 28: Fourth Annual Celebration of Wild Idaho Rising Tide benefit concert with a potluck, beer and wine, and slide show (Saturday 7 pm to midnight, 1912 Center Great Room, 412 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho)  Please contact WIRT to volunteer.

March 31: Written protests of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Little Willow oil and gas lease auction due by mail or fax to Tracy Hadley of the BLM Idaho State Office (Tuesday 4 pm, 1387 South Vinnell Way, Boise, Idaho 83709, 208-373-3899)  For instructions, see page 5 of the Notice of Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale.

APRIL 2015

April 2: WIRT First Thursday Sandpoint Monthly Meeting and Pizza (Thursday 7 pm, Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue, Sandpoint, Idaho)  Please contact WIRT to carpool.

April 3: Screening of Wrenched film about Edward Abbey (Friday 7 pm, Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 South Main Street, Moscow, Idaho, co-hosted with Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition) Continue reading →

Please consider participating in the following events hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies, as described and linked through the constantly updated Events Calendar page of the WIRT website.

Thursday, February 19, 7 pm: WIRT Third Thursday Moscow Monthly Meeting and Potluck at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho

Monday, February 23, 7 pm: Last Rush for the Wild West: Tar Sands, Oil Shale, and the American Frontier, a Utah/Alberta tar sands documentary screening with filmmaker Jennifer Ekstrom, co-hosted with the Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, 420 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho

Friday, February 27 to Sunday, March 1: Northwest regional gathering of Rising Tide groups: WIRT will provide further, available information about the event and carpools upon your request

Saturday, February 28, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm: Tribal Environmental Summit hosted by Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment at the University of Idaho College of Law, Moscow, Idaho

Wednesday, March 4, 7 pm: WIRT First Wednesday Sandpoint Monthly Meeting and Pizza at Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue, Sandpoint, Idaho Continue reading →

Bakken shale oil trains in northern Idaho travel beside the Kootenai River, through downtown Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint, over and along Lake Pend Oreille, and adjacent to U.S. Highway 95, before heading west into Washington.  Within the nexus of Panhandle tracks carrying greater numbers of dangerous trains every month across crumbling bridges and the lake, residents truly wish to protect their lands, waters, and the future of their children and grandchildren.  They understand the toxic and transient nature of unsustainable fossil fuels among the life of this Earth, and some have been boycotting them at every opportunity for decades.  One derailment on a bridge or over the regional aquifer would ruin the drinking water of thousands of people.  Are the profits of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Montana Rail Link (MRL), and Union Pacific (UP) railroads so imperative that they would chance derailments and bridge collapses near rivers and lakes? [1]  As oil and gas companies scrape the bottom of the easily recoverable barrel to extract the largest possible revenues, they obviously are evading the burdensome infrastructure and operating costs associated with preliminary processing of tar sands and fracked crude.  Without these adequate precautions, Bakken crude oil contains extremely volatile constituents that ignite too readily to be safely transported in bulk.  But North Dakota regulators have only considered or required that crude be conditioned, instead of mandating the more thorough and expensive stabilization procedures and equipment that separate and remove volatile compounds prior to shipment, but that the oil industry has been resisting for years.

Through combinations of these factors, governments and oil and railroad corporations ensure that American citizens passively and endlessly bear (but not accept!) the physical and fiscal risks and costs of oil trains, while these industries and their pet politicians take all the profits.  Flammable oil and dusty coal are transported and stored on a regular basis within some of the largest population centers in U.S., mostly located around railroads.  A leak or spill of volatile Bakken oil constituents from a transfer pipe or railroad tank car could ignite and set the heavier compounds on fire and start an uncontrollable, days-long conflagration that no municipality has the experience or the gear to combat.  Are existing north Idaho politicians and environmental groups determined to safeguard local communities by insisting on prohibition of crude oil train shipments with highly volatile constituents?  The majority of conservation organizations advocate overdue removal from nationwide tracks of aging Department of Transportation (DOT)-111 tank cars – the “riskiest models on the rails for accidents and oil spills” – as demonstrated by a November 2014 trip to Washington, D.C. by Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper executive director Shannon Williamson and allied colleagues [2].  They also petitioned for other more rigorous oil train regulations during rulemaking sessions at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In early December 2014, the public interest environmental law organization Earthjustice, “on behalf of Sierra Club and ForestEthics, challenged the Department of Transportation’s denial in November of the groups’ petition for an immediate ban on the most hazardous DOT-111 rail tank cars carrying explosive Bakken crude oil” [3].  The legal action attests that this type of car, prone to punctures, spills, and fires during train accidents, represents two of every three tankers transporting oil throughout the U.S.  Asserting that it has sufficiently implemented measures to respond to the imminent hazards posed by these rail cars, by only issuing a safety advisory, the Department of Transportation faces growing legal opposition demanding further actions to protect communities susceptible to “bomb train” derailments, leaks, and explosions.

Lives will remain vulnerable until outspoken opponents of oil, coal, and tar sands together raise escalating, cooperating resistance to their transport, in any form or manner, past their homes and businesses.  The inherent dangers of Northwest fossil fuel passage persist, as apparent in the big rock slide that closed a main BNSF rail line in north Idaho, connecting Montana to Washington, and naturally shut down oil and coal trains for a couple days in late November 2014 [4].  Perhaps nature was sending a warning about not just these shipments but about an influx of Canada Pacific freight and tank cars (hauling tar sands oil?) recently seen by Sandpoint residents on local railroad stretches [5].  June 2014 protesters of four of five Montana megaload assembly plants also noticed some of these cars on the Montana High Line east of Glacier National Park, likely utilizing one of only a few international rail entrances into Idaho and Montana.

Upcoming Oil & Coal Train Challenges

The Sandpoint, Idaho area already suffers from both transient and stationary trains fully loaded with hazardous cargo like coal, oil, and tar sands.  Union Pacific has proposed closing the street at Eastgate Crossing, between Idaho Highway 200 and the Bonner Mall, “a highly utilized access point between the commercial and residential areas of Ponderay [6, 7].  While this maneuver may increase public safety, it would prolong response times of ambulance and fire emergency services by several critical minutes.  Concerned citizens and local businesses impacted by diminished highway access and storefront visibility distrust further division of the two sides of Ponderay and reduced public safety from Union Pacific’s subsequent “ability to stack trains…lingering in town while carrying possibly harmful or flammable cargo” [6]. Continue reading →