Stalled Payette Riverside Well Needs Comments Today

As Alta Mesa continues to pursue a permit to drill an oil and gas well a few hundred feet from the Payette River, recent comments from a handful of citizens and two organizations have delayed the permit and postponed drilling of the proposed Smoke Ranch 1-20 well, as described in the following chronology shared on facebook and with Idaho gasland area activists.  Since drilling began again in June 2013, the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) has dismissed Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) comments about six incomplete or insufficient Alta Mesa applications for well drilling permits.  (We missed only one comment period of eight and did not previously send our comments to other agencies.)  Like the WIRT comments that influenced the Federal Highway Administration to deny the Idaho Transportation Department/Mammoet proposal to build a “temporary” Interstate 90 megaload on-ramp east of Coeur d’Alene in February 2014, WIRT copied our comments on Alta Mesa’s Smoke Ranch 1-20 well drilling application to pertinent federal, state, and local agencies [1].  For the first time in the history of 19 oil and gas wells drilled or planned in southwest Idaho since 2009, the big state green group so fond of negotiated compromise, the Idaho Conservation League, also commented on this well permit application, but Alta Mesa still dismissed collective floodplain concerns [2].  In response to all of this resistance, IDL atypically forced well drilling application revision and comment period extension to December 7 [3, 4].

November 19: WIRT offers our gratitude for feedback, encouragement, and donations provided by members, who have called these comments “excellent,” “tremendous,” and “thorough, comprehensive, and expert work,” the result of several quiet, fresh, peaceful (but exhausting) all-nighters that re-wrote every possible desperate argument to every perceived authority, drawing again on most of the intellectual capacity and knowledge we could muster.  While this loving piece of resistance may represent “intense advocacy for our planet” and the best, last-minute shot that Mama Earth has to stop the industrial madness of a proposed oil and gas well next to the Payette River, we always hope for better possibilities for WIRT and associates.  We would greatly appreciate your suggestions of southern Idaho and allied support, pro-bono legal assistance, and Payette County WIRT members with resident status standing to effectively stop this well.  Who is up for this effort or referrals of lawyers and citizens who can engage and together move forward with legal and on the-ground opposition to oil and gas companies with much larger capacities?

November 20: Hmmm, yesterday, WIRT sent this note to the IDL: “When can we anticipate your response to the enclosed and attached comments and their posting on the Idaho Department of Lands website?”  Today, IDL replied with “Your comments and documents have been received and have been forwarded to the appropriate staff members.”  The Smoke Ranch 1-20 well drilling permit application and several other citizen/organization comments have disappeared from the IDL website.  Permit?  No permit?

November 21: TEMPORARY VICTORY!  Today, the Idaho Department of Lands posted “a revised [Alta Mesa] drill permit application for the Smoke Ranch 1-20 well.  Comments on the application are due December 7, 2014.  Send comments to comments@idl.idaho.gov or through the IDL website” [3].  A thousand thanks to everyone who forced revision of the original application with their comments and thus postponed drilling.  Despite similar WIRT comments (not sent to other agencies) on six of the seven Alta Mesa well drilling permit applications since development restarted in June 2013, its current application marks the first time that IDL has required application revision and a re-opened comment period.  WIRT doubts that the new application, proposing a 4000-foot-deep oil and gas well in a floodplain island near a wildlife refuge and upstream of the Fruitland drinking water intake, has comprehensively satisfied legal requirements.  So we will attempt earlier research and comments this time, to assist and integrate with yours.  We appreciate your ongoing assistance with these shared efforts to halt further fossil fuel infrastructure in Idaho, as we extend our invitation for integrated, co-signed comments with legal teeth to stop this floodplain development.

Please write to oppose this second Smoke Ranch gas well drilling misadventure!  As WIRT continues to closely watch and refute this proposed development, we are formulating and working on a second set of comments, posted soon, to meet the comment period deadline at midnight on Sunday/Monday, December 7-8.  We are also researching legal grounds for possibly revoking prior permits with similar flaws that we noted in previous comments, and wondering if Payette County ever granted a floodplain variance on the other, nearby Smoke Ranch well drilled during summer 2013, as required by county and federal laws.  Meanwhile, searching for all the legal ammunition that we can find to stop this development, WIRT asked a Colorado comrade – and a core WIRT member volunteered – to refer us to collected information about the impacts and damages caused by and to oil and gas wells and facilities during the September 2013 eastern Colorado floods.  They have provided articles depicting examples of spills associated with oil and gas development near rivers [5-7]. Continue reading →

Giving Tuesday

On this worldwide day dedicated to giving back to various causes, December 2, we received news that a generous contributor will match year-end donations to Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) in your honor before December 31, 2014.  By helping to meet this challenge, your gift to WIRT doubles, for instance, from $25 to $50, or $50 to $100, etc.  Please consider donating so our grassroots collective can continue to confront the root causes of climate change through direct actions and locally organized solutions that protect Idaho’s world-renowned clean water, fresh air, and rural and remote environments from dirty energy schemes like coal, oil, gas, and tar sands extraction and transportation.  Your contributions and participation support WIRT’s climate activism and outreach and legal expenses for fossil fuel opposition with frontline resistance communities and an international activist network.  WIRT appreciates, celebrates, and honors such generosity and solidarity in joining protests and/or supporting our work through the electronic, website “Donate to WIRT” button, or by check to the group mailbox at P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843, or by calling us at 208-301-8039 [1].  Thanks for your gracious assistance!  We could not do this work without you!

Four December Giving Events

WIRT is seeking volunteers and donors for four public events over the next few weeks.  From 4 to 8 pm on Wednesday, December 3, meet us outside the 2014 Alternative Giving Market of the Palouse at the 1912 Center, 412 East Third Street in Moscow, Idaho [2].  We will distribute donation envelopes and accept contributions for holiday card index-card-sized inserts that sustain WIRT activism and outreach.  WIRT will also offer these cards in any number and dollar amount outside the Buy Local Moscow Seventh Annual Winter Fest at the 1912 Center from 5 to 8 pm on Thursday, December 4 [3].  Please additionally find the WIRT information table among other community groups in the 1912 Center Fiske Room, during the 10 am to 2 pm Winter Markets on December 6 and 13, February 7, and March 7 [4].  Visit WIRT at these appreciated opportunities to enhance winter holidays with climate activism and provisions.  THANKS!

Gas Processing & Train Loading Facility Appeal Hearing

Please attend a public hearing of three appeals of Alta Mesa’s industrial hydrocarbon processing and rail transfer facility at 7 pm on Thursday, December 4, at the Payette County Courthouse [5].  The Payette County Planning and Zoning Commissioners, who have mostly leased their mineral rights to Alta Mesa, rubber-stamped a conditional use permit for this project, located less than one mile from New Plymouth High School, in early September.  Nearby landowners Joli and Pete Eromenok, Joe Morton of Gem County Concerned Citizens, and Alma Hasse of Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment have filed initial and amended appeals and supporting documents disputing this fossil fuel infrastructure that would degrade public health and safety, private property rights, uses, and values, and the local economy of the area.  We all greatly appreciate their work on this opposition, as we wish that we could participate in this distant Payette County meeting more than any other (except a few public, pre-permitting, private property site visits), but WIRT travel funds are depleted and two fundraising event times conflict.  At the hearing, please tell Payette County officials that their unacceptable approval decision on this gas plant does not benefit southwest Idaho citizens and sets an adverse precedent for other Idaho gas processing facilities. Continue reading →

Please comment by Friday, November 14, the day after Alta Mesa Services plans to drill a 4000-foot-deep, vertical, natural gas well, surrounded by casing that will eventually or immediately leak into Birding Island, only 385 feet from the Payette River, upstream from its confluence with Big Willow Creek and closely downstream from the impacted Payette River Wildlife Management Area, composed of braided river channels, wetlands, ponds, and riparian habitat to the southeast. Imagine and witness the destructive scene from NW Fourth Avenue, New Plymouth, Idaho, across the river and a short distance up the right side of the floodplain dirt road in the following photo.  Before drilling the nearby, temporarily capped Smoke Ranch well 1-21 in July 2013, Alta Mesa pumped standing water off and later spilled diesel and/or drilling mud on the square well pad off Highway 52 to the northeast.  In the next few weeks or months, Alta Mesa could complete gathering line installation from a dozen other idle wells to the Highway 30 processing plant, and could unfortunately further initiate and achieve full production.  Check these two previous Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) facebook posts for links assisting your comments to the Idaho Department of Lands at comments@idl.idaho.gov and brjohnson@idl.idaho.gov.

Facebook Photo Post (November 6, 2014 Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

Facebook Photo Post (November 9, 2014 Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

Also plan to attend and fill the courtroom for the Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) public hearing at 7 pm on Thursday, November 13. On the agenda, Alta Mesa proposes constructing tank farms on six existing well sites and one radio tower, all on Simplot land in the bluffs surrounding Little Willow Creek, above the Payette River and Fruitland and Payette, Idaho.  See the following agenda and event links and visit the Payette County Courthouse at 1130 Third Avenue North in Payette.

Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Agenda (Payette County)

Payette County Planning & Zoning Commission (Alma Hasse facebook event)

Please join Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies in these upcoming September and October 2014 activities! Expect separate announcements about the Global Frackdown, oil and gas lease auction protest, and other events soon.

Friday, September 26, 4 pm: Ellen and “Pops” Roskovich Bench Dedication Ceremony, East City Park, Third and Monroe Streets, Moscow, Idaho

Sunday, September 28, 2 pm: Hail and Farewell to Ellen Roskovich, D. Willy’s Blues Brew and BBQ, 112 West Sixth Street, Moscow, Idaho

A stalwart, core WIRT activist and supporter of peace and environmental justice, Ellen is soon departing Moscow for Portland, Oregon. Moscow, WIRT, local groups, and grateful friends will miss Ellen’s impressive community spirit, direct activism, and helpful contributions to many causes.  Please join in the festivities at the Friday bench dedication, as the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band offers musical inspiration, and at a Sunday reception to offer Ellen a fitting bon voyage to her new life among close family members.  (information link)

Wednesday, October 1, 1 pm MDT: Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission special public meeting on Alta Mesa’s integration application, Idaho Capitol Room WW55, 700 West Jefferson Street, Boise, Idaho (Live audio-streamed at this link)

“The Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, October 1, 2014, in the Capitol, Senate Hearing Room WW55, Lower Level, West Wing, 700 West Jefferson Street, Boise, Idaho,…at 1 pm MDT. Topic: Alta Mesa Services, LP application for integration.  This meeting will be streamed live via audio at this web site address…”  (information link)

Saturday, October 11, 11 am MDT: Global Frackdown, Boise Farmers Market at Eleventh and Front Streets, through Capital City Public Market, to the Idaho Capitol steps on Jefferson Street, Boise, Idaho

In conjunction with the third Global Frackdown worldwide day of action on October 11, concerned citizens and climate activists are staging another public demonstration calling for a ban on looming fracking and all toxic oil and gas practices in Idaho and around the Earth. WIRT, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), and other groups will march with protest signs, banners, and chants, through farmers markets to the Idaho Capitol and rally on its steps, to publicly oppose fracking and fossil fuels that poison people and the planet and to demand a future powered by clean, renewable energy.  (information link) Continue reading →

GASLAND 2 IDAHO ROAD SHOW: BOISE & ONTARIO

Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), and allies are hosting the Gasland 2 Idaho Road Show, providing community screenings in eight cities across Idaho and plenty of updates about the current oil and gas situation in Idaho [1, 2]. Gasland Part II, the 2013 sequel to independent filmmaker Josh Fox’s Oscar-nominated, movement-building documentary Gasland, reveals the implications for environmental, climate, and human health and American democracy and rights of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil and one of the most important environmental issues currently troubling our nation.

As residents of Payette and surrounding counties and southeastern Idaho face impending fracking, concerned, knowledgeable Idaho activists staging these free, public events will discuss with audience members local initiatives against oil and gas leasing, drilling, processing, and transporting in Idaho. This tour encourages citizen comments on recently revised state oil and gas rules before and/or at a Wednesday, September 24 hearing, as well as participation in grassroots protests during the Global Frackdown on the Capitol steps in Boise on Saturday, October 11, and at statewide Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) offices on Wednesday, October 15, opposing another state lands and minerals lease auction.

Please attend one of these movie showings and conversations on Sunday, September 21, in Boise and/or on Monday, September 22, in Ontario, Oregon. As we mobilize Idaho communities against corporate/government dirty energy inroads and demand protection from the impacts of oil and gas development, please consider generously supporting the Gasland 2 Idaho Road Show, online through the WIRT website “Donate to WIRT” button or at the address on the WIRT facebook and website pages [3].  Thanks to Arlene, Claire, Ellen, Jane, Judith, Pat, and Rob, we have raised $110 and donated dinner and lodging toward our $400 goal of offsetting film and travel costs, a small amount compared to the thousands of volunteer hours and dollars spent on a dozen regional campaign trips over the last year.  Please also help us promote this crucial road show and statewide fracking resistance by sharing the email, website, and facebook event announcements, printing and widely posting the event flyer, and participating in one of these community screenings and talks [4].  Thanks!

[1] Gasland 2 Idaho Road Show (Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction) (facebook event)

[2] Learn about the Dangers of Fracking in the Film ‘Gasland Part II’ Monday (September 17, 2014 Argus Observer)

[3] Support WIRT (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

[4] Gasland 2 Idaho Road Show Flyer (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

OIL & GAS RULES COMMENTS

Please participate in the September 3 through 24 public comment period on the Idaho Rules Pertaining to Conservation of Crude Oil and Natural Gas (IDAPA 20.07.02), recently revised during four June and July negotiated rulemaking sessions. At 5 pm MDT on Wednesday, September 24, the Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will hold a public hearing on these proposed rules at the IDL office, 300 North Sixth Street, Suite 103, in Boise [5].  Although WIRT intends to develop talking points to prompt your comments, limited electricity and internet access for writing during the statewide Gasland 2 Idaho Road Show may delay or impede this project.  See the dozens of comments posted on the Idaho Department of Lands website, previously submitted IRAGE and WIRT letters, and the following editorial for ideas for your comments.  Please also speak out at the hearing and possible protest on September 24, and send your thoughts to the Idaho Department of Lands at rulemaking@idl.idaho.gov or P.O. Box 83720, Boise, Idaho 83720-0050 [6-7].

[5] Oil and Gas: Rulemaking for IDAPA 20.07.02 Rules Pertaining to Conservation of Crude Oil and Natural Gas (Idaho Department of Lands)

[6] Comments on Proposed Negotiated Idaho Oil and Gas Rules (August 1, 2014 Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction and Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

[7] Our View: Don’t Skimp on Gas Oversight (September 3, 2014 Twin Falls Times-News Editorial Board)

“No fracking in Idaho [good luck with that!] means that dangerous, secret chemicals won’t be shot into the ground and potentially the state’s groundwater. But new industrial sites mean more chemicals to keep the machines working.  Gas drilling means potential widespread environmental contamination and even fires and explosions.”

STATE LEASE AUCTION

The Idaho Board of Land Commissioners received applications for state lands and subsurface minerals potentially leased for oil and gas exploitation at the next auction on October 15, where IRAGE and WIRT plan to display public objection [8]. With these proposals, tracts in Cassia County would join the thousands of acres already leased by Alta Mesa and other gas drillers in Canyon, Gem, Owhyee, Payette, and Washington counties [9].  Possibly affected citizens in the Magic Valley and all of these places are raising concerns about explosive chemicals migrating from faulty conventional, fracked, or acidized wells into drinking water and about earthquakes from gas reservoir fracturing and waste injection wells.  The Idaho Department of Lands accepted written comments and held a public, evening hearing on Wednesday, September 10, about these lands and minerals proposed for auction.  We nonetheless encourage overdue comments to IDL at publichearingcomments@idl.idaho.gov or P.O. Box 83720, Boise, Idaho 83720-0050.

[8] Public Comment Period for Oil and Gas Lease (September 3, 2014 Emmett Messenger-Index)

[9] Cassia County Land for Lease in State Oil and Gas Auction (August 29, 2014 Twin Falls Times-News)

BOMB TRAIN RAIL SPUR & MINI-REFINERY

At a public hearing held by the Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) on Thursday evening, September 11, at the Payette County Courthouse in Payette, commissioners rubberstamped an Alta Mesa application for a conditional use permit (CUP) to build and operate a New Plymouth processing plant and loading facility for liquefied natural gas “bomb trains” a little over one mile from New Plymouth High School [10]. The Houston, Texas company currently drilling another four wells in Payette County ground-zero covered all of its legal bases and used every loophole in county ordinances by submitting two other applications, a rezoning request to convert prime, irrigated, agricultural land to industrial uses, and an attempt to amend the Payette County comprehensive plan [11, 12].  On the previous Tuesday, September 9, P&Z held a noontime, no-host luncheon, to discuss these applications at Jimbo’s in Payette, and conducted a viewing of the site, both open to the public.  IRAGE activists warned that if the commissioners approved any of these applications, they would allow the “hydrocarbon transportation and ancillary processing” industrial facility to proceed, imposing bomb trains rumbling through communities on nearby city residents and other towns down the rail line.  Although P&Z displayed ignorance of potential impacts by rolling out the CUP red carpet, Alta Mesa scrambling local zoning regulations and comprehensive plans perhaps made P&Z “authorities” uneasy: They tabled the other two applications.  Whether the new rail spur and compression station – and associated natural gas exploitation reliant on this fossil fuel infrastructure – are “done deals” remains to be seen. Continue reading →

Calumet Refinery Megaloads

Thanks to Julian Matthews of Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) Protecting the Environment for photos of the completely assembled and prepared Calumet tar sands refinery megaload awaiting an Idaho permit and travel at the Port of Wilma near Clarkston, Washington [1].  Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) public involvement coordinator Adam Rush stated late on Friday that the Bigge Crane and Rigging/Mammoet-hauled megaload will not move from the port until late during the week of August 3 or “early” on August 11 (Sunday night?) [2].  The bottom hydrocracker section, attempting Highway 95 and 200 passage across Idaho to Great Falls, already received an ITD permit for unused July 27 to 31 transport (so it could obtain a Washington permit?), according to ITD public records received by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) on Thursday [3].  It represents the heaviest and longest, climate- and Earth-wrecking, fossil fuel machine to ever cross our region, weighing 1,605,152 pounds and stretching out 441 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 16 feet, 4 inches high.

On Monday afternoon, August 4, one of WIRT’s amazing Montana allies posted a question on the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) website and received this polite and prompt reply: “Thank you for visiting our website and your inquiry concerning Mammoet Company or Bigge Crane and Rigging.  They have been working through the process, and no permits have been issued at this time.”  In his email reply, our friend asked MDT’s Dan Kiely if he could please notify him if MDT grants a permit for this megaload.  He is also keeping his Flathead Reservation tribal council friends and other neighbors apprised of the situation.  WIRT will issue a report and petition on this issue this week…

Idaho Oil and Gas Rules

Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide harbor myriad concerns about the proposed, draft Idaho oil and gas rules as currently rewritten at four June and July 2014 negotiated rulemaking sessions at the Capitol in Boise.  With the assistance of an attorney, we compiled and submitted extensive comments on these rules, but unfortunately, we did not finish these endeavors in time to share them with all of you to support your comments [4].  As demonstrated by regulator discussion and behavior at these recently-concluded sessions, we believe that state commissions and agencies will largely ignore our requests for stronger IDAPA 20.07.02 rules that could significantly improve protections of Idahoans’ democratic participation, property rights, and air and water quality.  As the Idaho Department of Lands presents these rule changes, governing development of the state’s modest oil and gas play, to the Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday, August 5, we assume that decision makers may once again favor industry over the best interests of Idaho citizens.  Although the proposed rules will again undergo (YOUR!) public scrutiny through a hearing and 21-day comment period in early September 2014, we suspect that few citizen-suggested alterations will occur before commission approval and Idaho Legislature consideration and enactment. Continue reading →

WIRT Co-Activists,

Please attend the emergency, potluck, protest-planning meeting at the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) Activists House at 7 pm on Tuesday evening, July 29, instead of on Thursday this week.  Thanks to the vigilance of four WIRT scouts over the last five days, including today (Monday, July 28) at 2 pm, we have obtained photos of Bigge Crane and Rigging crews loading on trailers one of the three Port of Wilma megaloads, a hydrocracker section essential to production expansion of its Great Falls refinery destination [1].  WIRT anticipates that heavy haulers, including prior nemesis Mammoet, may attempt to move the half-million-pound module, via similarly heavy, on-site trailers and three semi-trucks, up Highways 95 and 200 before WIRT receives Idaho Transportation Department public records about the transports, due by Thursday, July 31.  WIRT activists and our community must prepare for this onslaught with more than a sign-waving protest…

With plenty of potential road and rail blockades on the near horizon, Wild Idaho Rising Tide is holding weekly potluck meetings every Tuesday at 7 pm at the WIRT Activists House in Moscow.  Please see the WIRT Events Calendar and recent newsletters posted on the WIRT website, for further information about these topics of upcoming strategizing and planning sessions [2, 3].

* Coordination and tactics for scouting, protesting, monitoring, and solidarity demonstrations against the three Mammoet/Bigge Crane and Rigging-hauled hydrocracker parts embarking in late July/early August from the Port of Wilma via river, rail, and/or road, through Moscow, Spokane, and Sandpoint to Great Falls

* Carpools and registration with the Occupy Spokane Scholarship Fund for the Tuesday through Tuesday, August 5 to 12, sixth annual Northwest Localize This! direct action training camp hosted by Backbone Campaign allies on Vashon Island, Washington

* Local publicity and participation in the 6 pm Tuesday, August 12, Fight or Flight Northern Rockies Tour stop and direct action training workshop co-sponsored by The Bunny Alliance, Earth First! Journal, Resistance Ecology, and WIRT at the Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow

* Regional support and involvement in the Saturday, August 16 coordinated direct actions against coal export, Northwest Communities Oppose Coal Exports, organized by Idaho and Montana groups in Bozeman, Missoula, Sandpoint, and possibly Spokane, Oregon, and Washington locations Continue reading →

Port of Wilma Megaloads on the Move!

Borg Hendrickson of the People of Highway 12 Fighting Goliath wrote this week that observers noticed on Tuesday, July 15, that California heavy-hauler Bigge Crane and Rigging has placed two of the three megaloads parked at the Port of Wilma on relatively short, 12-axle trailers.  The third behemoth continues to rust on jacks.  Originally proposed for transport by Mammoet, from the port to the Calumet tar sands refinery in Great Falls, Montana, via U.S. Highway 95 and either Interstate 90 or Idaho Highway 200, the tremendously heavy but not particularly large or long parts of a hydrocracker have remained stalled at the port across the river from Clarkston, Washington, by logistical problems and regional resistance since December 2013.  Mammoet had planned to carry them each on interconnected trailers propelled by one pull truck and two push trucks, together stretching over 450 feet and weighing 1.6 million pounds, the longest and heaviest megaloads to ever crush Highway 95.

As chronicled by late-May, Idaho newspaper articles and June WIRT scouting trips, photos, and newsletters, two of these loads could possibly travel by rail and the other by road through the Moscow, Idaho, sacrifice zone for all failed Highway 12 attempts [1].  Because the short Bigge trailers under two colossal loads likely do not meet state requirements for distributing load weights over numerous axles during cross-state highway journeys, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies anticipate that Bigge is preparing them for their departure either by rail, on Watco Companies’ Great Northwest Railroad, or by barge, shipped back down the Snake River probably to the Tri-Cities, Washington, for transport by rail or highway through eastern Washington and northern Idaho.

On Thursday, July 17, WIRT unsuccessfully tried to reach by phone Jason Minzghor, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) District 1 operations manager in Coeur d’Alene, because he was curiously in Sandpoint, Idaho.  So, in response to Port of Wilma megaloads on the move, WIRT sent another public records request to ITD director Brian Ness, public involvement coordinator Adam Rush, and Mr. Minzghor, asking for “information about proposals to transport three loads currently parked at the Port of Wilma, Washington, on any highway, street, or rail route in Idaho to Great Falls, Montana, or alternative destinations,” dating back to April 2014 material that ITD refused to acknowledge and release to WIRT.  Please stay alert to movement of these megaloads on regional rivers, roads, or rails, remain prepared for last-minute calls to stage a riverside bon voyage celebration and rally, and share any updates or photos that may quickly arise from this situation. Continue reading →

WIRT & ALLIED SUMMER EVENTS

Thursday, June 26:

Public Hearing Set on Allowing Heavy Trucks on Idaho Highways

The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) is holding a public hearing on applications allowing trucks weighing up to 129,000 pounds on state highways, from 4 to 7 pm on Thursday, June 26, at the ITD office at 2600 Frontage Road in Lewiston.

Saturday, June 28:

Indian Peoples Action Non-Violent Direct Action in Great Falls, Montana

In solidarity and support of First Nations people and allies participating in the Tar Sands Healing Walk in Alberta, Canada, on Saturday, June 28, please join Indian Peoples Action for a 1 pm MDT non-violent direct action at the corner of Tenth and Smelter Avenue NE, near the Montana Refining Company in Great Falls, Montana.  Indigenous comrades in Montana are organizing this picket to confront the entire dirty tar sands industry represented by the Canadian-owned Calumet refinery, the destination of three megaload parts of a hydrocracker stranded at the Port of Wilma, Washington.  These transports would assist the proposed facilities expansion in tripling its production along the Missouri River banks, where current operations pollute the Great Falls air shed with emissions from processing toxic tar sands received via truck and rail.

Motivated by various ways of expressing concern and compassion for all life rather than attacking Calumet, this protest event mainly focuses on the devastating effects of Alberta tar sands mining on forests, water sources, and the health of the mostly indigenous, regional people closest to this massive, multi-corporation oil extraction project.  Besides these direct victims, tar sands exploitation also impacts the Earth’s atmosphere, climate, and ultimately all of its life, as well as the Montana refinery workers who destroy interconnected life “for a living.”

Consider variations of these ideas for single- and double-sided picket signs for this peaceful demonstration, but please design your own slogans:

Oil Jobs: Short Term Gain, Long Term Extinction

There Is No Cure for Extinction

Alternative Energy = Jobs, Health, and Life

We’re Over the Limit for Carbon in the Atmosphere

Life is Better than Oil & $

What Are We Leaving for Our Grandkids?

Shut Down the Tar Sands

Switch to Alternative Energy NOW

We Can Do Better than Fossil Fuels – We Must

Event organizers suggest bringing plenty of drinking water and sun cover, if the protest day is hot, and informational leaflets for curious bystanders and media personnel who may attend.  For more information, please see the linked facebook event and/or contact Debbie McShane at lakotawoman2011@hotmail.com.

Tuesday to Monday, July 1 to 7:

Earth First! Round River Rendezvous

Wild Idaho Rising Tide is forming carpools to and from the southern Cascadia/Klamath Knot region (northwestern California near the southern Oregon border) from Boise and Moscow, Idaho:  Contact WIRT at wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com.

Sunday, June 6 & ongoing:

Twitter Oil Train Watch – Ongoing Action

Allies of Vancouver Action Network in Vancouver, Washington, suggest that when you see a 100-percent oil train, tweet the time (am/pm), city, direction of train travel, along with a hashtag, the two-letter state abbreviation, and oiltrainwatch (for example, in Washington state: #waoiltrainwatch).  Search for webcams pointed at railroad tracks in your city, and start a train watch in your community.

Monday, July 7: Direct Action Skill-Share with Blue Skies Campaign

This summer, Blue Skies Campaign of Missoula, Montana, and allies like WIRT are holding a series of skill-shares in communities along Northwest coal and oil transporting rail lines, to discuss tactics and strategies that they have learned about direct actions on railroad property.  Through the process of staging two acts of non-violent civil disobedience on Montana Rail Link (MRL) property in the last nine months, Blue Skies comrades have acquired plenty of practical lessons that other groups may find useful for similar actions.  They are eager to share insights about MRL security, coal train movements, and the unique logistics of direct actions on or near train tracks.

At this skill-share, a few Blue Skies volunteers will give a brief presentation on what happened during their direct actions, what they learned from the experience, and how security and law enforcement could likely respond to future actions on railroad property.  Inter-group conversations about participants’ experiences and opportunities to work together will follow the presentation.  Please join Blue Skies Campaign and WIRT on Monday, July 7, from 5 to 6:45 pm in the Jameson Room of the East Bonner County – Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar Street in Sandpoint, Idaho, for this significant discussion.

Monday, July 7 & ongoing:

Request Oil Train Information from Your State Emergency Management Agency

Vancouver Action Network is calling all allies to file for public information from your state Emergency Management Agency about the U.S. Department of Transportation emergency order of May 7, 2014, requiring railroads to provide information about crude oil shipments through each state.  Northwest citizens have the potential to cost the railroads, primarily Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific, extensive funds and at least $300 to seek a court injunction against every person who files a request for this public information.  In Washington, BNSF recently declared that it will not impose injunctions against the 100-plus people who pushed for records requests; thus, the states will release these records to the public.

Also see States, Railroads at Odds over Oil-Train Information in the June 6, 2014 Columbian Continue reading →

Dear fellow WIRT activists, friends, and supporters,

Please accept our apologies for the lateness of this Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) newsletter.  Expect an action alert soon, describing ways that you can affect the outcomes of the situations described here, through petitions, meetings, travels, and protests.

SHUT DOWN TAR SANDS!

At the Idle No More World Day of Action Idaho Solidarity on Sunday, January 27, 2013, Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Moscow Volunteer Peace Band activists chanted “Shut Down Tar Sands!” and “[Port of] Wilma, Turn That Damn Thing Around!” [1]  Like on-the-ground, region-wide resistance to tar sands megaloads that WIRT has been working to instigate since January 2011, both vocalized WIRT goals are manifesting years later!  As reported by an online stock investors journal, narrowing profit margins could spell “game over” for more than two tar sands mining ventures, as the costs of exploiting tar sands deposits continue to inflate, while the price of oil and the net financial gains from tar sands extraction remain stable or worse [2].  French energy giant Total and lead tar sands producer Suncor recently abandoned a proposed tar sands project, Joslyn, symbolizing the world-wide challenges to industry and investors of the cost overruns of  tar sands operations, likely escalated by the resistance of indigenous and grassroots activists not mentioned in the article.

But, of course, the profiteers of slow, industrial genocide – powerful Big Oil companies, Canada’s economic elite, and their apologists – would never reveal such vulnerabilities of tar sands ventures, necessary pipeline easements, and extreme energy export, nor would they concede moral victory to First Nations’ legal agency, the target of extensive 2012 legislation that disenfranchised environmental and tribal protections and aggravated the rise of the Idle No More movement.  Such indigenous power makes tar sands development projects vulnerable to litigation and long-term liability.  Nor would Big Oil interests admit the poisoned forests, lands, and waters, deformed fish, and the higher rates of cancer and associated subsistence and social crises predominantly among First Nations and largely due to the atrocities attributable to tar sands exploitation.

One of the Total/Suncor project’s steam-injected wells initially exploded, and both companies quit upgrader construction in the same Fort Hills, Alberta, area.  But the most daunting logistics had not yet commenced.  Once underway at a tar sands mining site, oil corporations house, feed, and entertain workers in huge camps, and pay them two to three times regular wages and fringe benefits for similar jobs, more than $200,000 per year after taxes.  But time away from families, boredom, and drug and alcohol use (not to mention health risks) create turnover, and tar sands producers still encounter problems attracting employees to frigid northern Alberta.  With the cheaply and easily obtained tar sands gone, the higher expenses of new projects, and the almost prohibitive costs of labor, “any sustained drop in oil prices could majorly curtail oil sands production.  The days of oil sands operations being low-cost are largely over.  Look for more of these projects to be suspended in the future.” [2]

HIGHWAY 95 MEGALOAD RETREAT

After obtaining game-changing, late-May 2014 news about megaload shipments proposed for transport through northern Idaho, Wild Idaho Rising Tide activists have scouted the Port of Wilma, across the Snake River from Clarkston, Washington, as well as adjacent river and rail transportation systems [3-6].  Since mid-December 2013, Mammoet USA South of Rosharon, Texas, has sought Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) permits to haul three hydrocracker sections stored at the port to Great Falls, Montana, where Calumet Specialty Products Partners would triple the tar sands production capacity of its Montana Refining Company.  After cancelling its permit requests on April 23, Mammoet and now Bigge Crane and Rigging of San Leandro, California, are vying to carry one of these megaloads, presumably the heaviest, 661,000-pound, 40-foot-long behemoth, up U.S. Highway 95 through Moscow and Sandpoint, Idaho, and over Idaho Highway 200 instead of Interstate 90 [7, 8].  The other two components, 504,000 pounds and 573,000 pounds respectively, could travel by rail to Montana, maybe back down the Snake River on barges to the Tri-Cities, Washington, or via Watco Companies Great Northwest Railroad west from Lewiston to eastern Washington [9, 10].  As oncoming rail traffic to all of the potentially explosive but fragile DOT-111 and DOT-111A tank cars of unit “bomb trains” headed from the fracked Bakken shale region to the West Coast, the megaloads could creep north on either the Union Pacific or Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) rail lines to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, then eastward on the BNSF railroad to a spur line heading south from Shelby to Great Falls, Montana [11]. Continue reading →