Idaho Fractivist Arrested Requesting Public Information

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At the Payette County Courthouse in Payette, Idaho, police arrested Alma Hasse of Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction after the 7 pm Thursday, October 9, Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing about the proposed expansion of the first of two natural gas processing plants and bomb train loading facilities still under construction.

Ms. Hasse was within her rights as a Payette County and Idaho citizen to insist on obtaining public official contact information before departing after the meeting. Denied such access and allegedly refusing to leave, she may be charged with trespassing and possibly disorderly conduct or resisting arrest, according to the Payette County Detention Facility where she is being held.

Multiple calls to the jail (208-642-6006, extension 2) with questions from family and fellow activists revealed that staff will not allow incoming communication and that they claim that Alma is not cooperating with booking procedures. They also state that she will be spending the night and allowed one phone call and, if the judge is willing to see her, she will be arraigned and released at a 1:30 pm hearing on Friday, October 10.  If not, she could remain jailed until Tuesday, over an upcoming “holiday.”

Because Alma has served as the preeminent, outspoken opponent of nascent Idaho oil and gas development over the last four years in the Payette County ground-zero countryside surrounding her home and business, her friends and allies fear that she is being detained by excessive force in a rural prison. We are unsure of her bail amount, but her eagerly anticipated court appearance on Friday may not require it.

Please send Alma your best thoughts and energies throughout Friday morning and beyond, and call the detention center to ask about her situation and to convey that the world is watching. If you can, attend her hearing in solidarity and ensure that she knows to plead “not guilty” and ask for a public defender.  Share this report via email, facebook, Twitter, and phone, and consider donating to Alma’s legal expenses (she has also appealed the second gas processing plant) at P.O. Box 922, Fruitland, ID 83619-0900.  Thanks for supporting our climate heroes!

Statewide Gas Lease Auction Protests

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On Wednesday, October 15, 2014, beginning at 9:30 am MDT, the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners will offer oil and gas leases of state lands and sub-surface mineral rights for sale to the highest bidder, at a public auction in the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Trophy Conference Room 101, at 600 South Walnut Street in Boise, Idaho [1]. The Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) periodically conducts these auctions and administers subsequent leases, with oversight and approval of the Land Board.  The 12.5-percent royalty derived from extracted oil and gas raises funds from lands held for the public trust and state wildlife and transportation departments and for specified beneficiary institutions through the state endowment trust.  Of the 11 tracts in Cassia, Gem, and Owyhee Counties, 600 acres in Cassia County and 160 acres in Gem County constitute state lands, while the nine parcels totaling 4,479 acres located in Owyhee County involve split estates of private landowners and state mineral holders [2].

Minimum, competitive bids by drilling companies at the oral auction open at only $0.25 per acre for the 5,279 acres available for leasing [3]. Successful bidders must pay their bid and the first year’s annual rent of $1.00 per acre for leases lasting up to ten years.  If these leases are not drilled or productive, IDL assesses additional drilling penalties of $1.00 per acre per year starting in the sixth year.  The state requires a $1,000 bond for exploration on each lease, which increases to $6,000 prior to drilling, in addition to a drilling permit bond issued by the Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.  Before entry on state lands for seismic exploration, companies must acquire IDL permits costing $100 per mile across contiguous tracts or a minimum of $100 per section.

At the last of several state lands and minerals auctions in Boise, on April 17, 2014, activists raised concerns about drilling under rivers and fossil fuel effects on climate change, demonstrating outside IDL headquarters and quietly occupying the auction room filled with gas company executives and attorneys who bid more than $1,148,435 to the state of Idaho [4]. The Idaho Department of Lands leased 17,700-plus acres for oil and gas drilling, including 1,415 acres of state public trust lands and minerals under or adjacent to Boise, Payette, and Snake river beds.  AM (Alta Mesa) Idaho of Houston, Texas, and Trendwell West of Rockford, Michigan, paid an average of $76 per acre for the 150  tracts in Ada, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, and Washington counties.  The April 17 auction doubled the previously largest amount of Idaho public lands and minerals leased in one period, bringing the total to nearly 98,000 state acres, leased for as low as $2.35 per acre on average, besides the thousands more private acres leased in six southwestern counties [5].  Eighteen drilled but capped wells, awaiting pipelines and production and transportation infrastructure currently proposed or under construction, surround the first producing well in Idaho in February 2014, on the Teunissen Dairy near New Plymouth.  The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality found toluene from drilling mud in a water well several hundred feet away in fall 2012 [6]. Continue reading →

Not Yet, Calumet! Megaload & Refinery Protests

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Dell Montana Megaload

According to various Montana media accounts, the third, final, and top Calumet Montana Refining hydrocracker section, bound for Great Falls, Montana, and hauled by recent Oregon megaload-dropping Bigge Crane and Rigging, left the Dell, Montana area on Wednesday evening, October 1 [1, 2].  Its arduous trek traversing Interstate 15, U.S. Highway 287, and Montana Highway 200 may require seven or fewer nights, like the second, heavier load.  Ongoing news breakdowns, if not blackouts, suggest that it may have entered Montana over Monida Pass by road, not by rail like the second such transport that crossed two Indian reservations [3, 4].  Uncritically publishing the September 29 Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) press release, the local, weekly Dillon Tribune newspaper finally printed front-page news of the move, but claimed no previous knowledge of these two heaviest-ever, regional megaloads weighing over 1.3 million pounds [5].  Despite MDT statements to the media, veterans of four-plus years of megaload opposition cannot trust MDT’s assertion that “there are no more expected ‘megaloads’ on the calendar, using any of the routes through Montana” [1].

As Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies prepare for anti-megaload actions, heeding the same reasons we have always resisted fossil fuel evils, Washington and Idaho activists are still deliberating our travel options (that need your donations!) and anticipating that this behemoth could arrive in Great Falls as early as Wednesday night, October 7-8.  Because minimal and broken MDT website links to the presumably similar second megaload transport plan perhaps purposely offer little information, we contacted MDT, asking where on its website concerned citizens could find the Bigge transportation plan for these megaloads [6].  MDT staff replied that, “As of this evening (Friday, October 3), the current, parked location of Bigge Crane and Rigging’s megaload is milepost 108.8 on Interstate 15 [about 17 miles south of Butte].  They are expected to remain parked until Sunday night, at which point they will go through Butte.”  MDT referred additional questions regarding travel routes, planned stops, and past moves to Motor Carrier Services Division Administrator Duane Williams at 406-444-7312 or duwilliams@mt.gov.

WIRT’s best, mapped guess of the progression of routes and layover spots of the third Bigge/Calumet megaload in Montana, based on all currently available agency and media information, follows [7].
* Sunday night, October 5-6: Interstate 15 from Feely through Butte to Jefferson City (points B to C)
* Monday night, October 6-7: Jefferson City through Helena to Lyons Creek (points C to D)
* Tuesday night, October 7-8: Lyons Creek through Wolf Creek to U.S. Highway 287 and Montana Highway 200 to Sun River (points D to E)
* Wednesday night, October 8-9: Highway 200 to Frontage/Vaughn Road to Northwest Bypass to Third Street NW to Calumet Montana Refining (points E to F) Continue reading →

Global Frackdown Idaho

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Global Frackdown Idaho Flyer

Over the last four years, a majority of Idaho senators, representatives, and agency staff members has succumbed to the mercenary ambitions of the oil and natural gas industry and the state of Idaho. They have passed and misapplied state laws, rules, and regulations, allowing hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)  that pollutes surface and ground water, sanctioning associated waste injection wells that leak or re-use water wells, permitting seismic testing and gas flaring that degrade geologic stability and air sheds, granting corporate hegemony over local jurisdictions that undermines democratic oversight of oil and gas facilities, approving gas wells and processing plants that spew volatile toxins, traffic, and noise, and consenting to drilling on state lands and near or under rivers, wetlands, and wildlife refuges that sustain water resources, agriculture, and native species [1, 2].  Subsequently, they have effectively compromised our air and water quality, jeopardized our health, property, and livelihoods, dismissed local protective ordinances, threatened agricultural communities, endangered tourism revenue, and risked the state’s lands, waters, and economy.

Despite ongoing outcry from thousands of citizens and diligent input from scientists, attorneys, elected officials, and conservation organizations, our delegates have negligently accommodated oil and gas exploration, production, and transportation in Idaho, especially where the state owns the subsurface mineral rights, at the likely expense of their constituents’ health, safety, finances, and self-governance. In the wake of increasingly erratic weather, horrific Colorado gasland floods, continent-wide oil and gas spills and explosions, and indigenous and settler blockades of fossil fuel equipment and product supply roads and rails, honest, hard-working Idahoans dread the impacts of similar probable scenarios on their families and communities, homes and businesses, and resources and recreation in the Payette River floodplains, where drilling resumed during summer 2013, potentially affecting wild, downstream Snake River canyons [3-6].

In response to state and local policy makers and administrators, in solidarity with harmed communities, and in conjunction with the Global Frackdown worldwide day of action on Saturday, October 11, concerned citizens and climate justice activists from across Idaho are converging to stage more public demonstrations, calling for a ban on looming first fracking in Idaho and around the Earth [7, 8]. As we circulate a petition to state officials and consider a ballot measure, to ban all toxic oil and gas practices statewide, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), Idaho Residents against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition (PESC), and other groups and individuals are coordinating a Global Frackdown Idaho march and rally in Boise and gathering in Moscow, to publicly oppose fracking. Continue reading →

AM Idaho Highway 30 Refinery Expansion CUP Documents

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Please comment about proposed expansion of this solitary Payette County natural gas processing plant, still under construction.  Written opposition by late Thursday, October 2, to accommodate later appeals, would further obstruct southwestern Idaho gas production.  WIRT has posted pertinent documents for your response here, a mapped location, and site photos on facebook.

From: Payette County Website [mailto:webmaster@payettecounty.org]

Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 3:00 AM

To: Patti Nitz

Subject: Payette County: Information about Amended CUP for AM Idaho

This is an enquiry email via http://payettecounty.org/ from:

Helen Yost, Wild Idaho Rising Tide <wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com>

Ms. Nitz,

Please direct us to or send the pertinent documents considered at the October 9, 2014 Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission hearing about an amended conditional use permit (CUP) requested by AM Idaho LLC for its natural gas and hydrocarbon liquid treatment facility near 4303 Highway 30 South in New Plymouth, Idaho.*  We would prefer to receive this information electronically and in a timely manner accommodating our comments five business days in advance of this hearing.

Thank you,

Helen Yost

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

208-301-8039

* Legal Notice of Public Hearing

http://id.mypublicnotices.com/PublicNotice.asp?Page=PublicNotice&AdId=3628297

On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Patti Nitz <pnitz@payettecounty.org> wrote:

Good morning, Ms. Yost:

Attached please find the application to amend a conditional use permit submitted by AM Idaho, LLC for its natural gas processing facility on Highway 30 South, New Plymouth.  I have also attached the notice of the upcoming public hearing, the staff report, an aerial map of the proposed location, and a memo containing my notes from the technical review meeting.  I have not yet received the engineer’s comment letter that follows the technical review meeting.

Patti S. Nitz, Administrator

Payette County Planning and Zoning

208-642-6018

pnitz@payettecounty.org

AM Idaho Highway 30 Refinery Expansion Aerial Map

AM Idaho Highway 30 Refinery Expansion CUP Application

AM Idaho Highway 30 Refinery Expansion Hearing Notice

AM Idaho Highway 30 Refinery Expansion Payette County Staff Report

AM Idaho Highway 30 Refinery Expansion Payette County Technical Review Meeting Memo

WIRT Comments on AM Idaho Highway 30 Processing Plant Expansion 10-9-14

Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Ellen Roskovich 9-29-14

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The Monday, September 29, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes Ellen Roskovich, a stalwart, core WIRT activist and supporter of environmental justice and community spirit, soon departing Moscow, Idaho, for Portland, Oregon.  Ellen will reminisce about Moscow, WIRT, and indigenous resistance to fossil fuel infrastructure throughout the region during the last three years of her strong involvement in direct actions.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show also covers continent-wide climate activism news and dirty energy developments, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her/his KRFP DJ.

WIRT Newsletter: September 26 to October 30 Events

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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 →

Climate Justice Forum: Michael Lewis & Tina Fisher 9-22-14

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The Monday, September 22, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes Michael Lewis, director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Idaho Water Science Center in Boise, Idaho, talking about a baseline water quality study proposed for Gem County before natural gas development.  We also discuss recently proposed and ongoing installation of fossil fuel infrastructure with Tina Fisher of Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, and lastly air a half-hour of speeches recorded by KRFP at the People’s Climate March in Portland, Oregon.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show also covers continent-wide climate activism news and dirty energy developments, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her/his KRFP DJ.

WIRT Newsletter: September Idaho Gasland News

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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 →

Climate Justice Forum: Patrick Mazza 9-15-14

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The Monday, September 15, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes Patrick Mazza, a long-time Washington state climate activist, co-founder of Climate Solutions, and member of 350 Seattle and Rising Tide Seattle.  As one of five Northwest fossil fuels resisters who blockaded an oil train at an Everett rail yard on September 2, Patrick discusses climate change, direct action, and political pressure to resolve impasses.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show also covers continent-wide climate activism news and dirty energy developments, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her/his KRFP DJ.