Some More Whitebluffs Landslides

Previous posts showed the large landslide caused by wetland creation at the north end of the Whitebluffs of the Hanford Reach National Monument huge-landslide-at-whitebluffs and slides at the south end of the Whitebluffs downstream of the Reach end-of-road-at-ringold-landslides.

There are other huge landslide areas. There is another large slide associated with irrigation water. This slide is located below a natural drainage area that receives run off from irrigation water. The water then flows via the subsurface to the face of the bluffs causing slope stability troubles. This slide is very similar to the northern slide as described in the previous post with a broad area of lumpy topography between the river the headwall scarps where the failure took place. And like the northern slide it too is lined along the top of the bluff with sand dunes. 

Large slide viewed from the south with gray sand dunes along bluff top

Saddle Mountains are in the background and Columbia River is on the left.

The water source for this slide can not be simply turned off like the north slide where the canal feeding the wetlands was simply no longer used. This drainage is at least partially natural, but now with significantly more water passing through due to irrigation from the Columbia Basin project. The water route follows one of the routes of the Missoul Flood. This problem has been partially addressed by directing water into a ditch and routing the water to a break on the bluff slope to the north.

Blue lines denote Missoula Flood water routes

Canal has been dug to route water to a valley between bluffs

Besides the more recent landslide activity, a very large landslide complex is located along the central area of the bluffs. This slide complex is no longer active, but is larger than either of the slides to the north. This slide complex is massive in scale with very large back rotated blocks that form sets of ridges parallel to the river and the top of the bluff.

North end of slide complex

View is from the bluff top looking down onto the north end of the slide

The ridge between the river and the bluff is a large back rotated slide block

Large rotated blocks between bluff summit and river

View towards the south with multiple back rotated slide blocks forming ridges between the river and the bluff top. The slide complex continues beyond what can be viewed from a single spot

The gravel road on this eastern portion of the monument comes to and end at the top of this slide complex. The road does continue down to the river but has been gated. Alas I was getting short on light so that hike will have to wait another day.

Two maps below might help route finding. This is an area that has undergone a bit of change so may of the roads besides the main route really don't go anywhere or end at gates. I am not sure of all the history of this area. Some roads were for hunting access which is more limited now that the area has become a National Monument. Some of the roads may also been used to access gun emplacements to ward of attacks on Hanford.

One thing I have not mentioned - this reach, the Hanford Reach is in reference to the river. Besides the bluffs and landslides, this area has been protected as federal land since World War II. Interesting that nuclear weapons production along with the Yakima Firing Range would save the largest block of intact scrub steppe in the Washington State. The Hanford Reach also is the only non dammed part of the Columbia River in Washington State above Bonneville Dam. The river along this reach is not entirely free flowing as dams upstream control flows, but Hanford Reach has river braids and complex channels and velocity. The healthiest and nearly only main river stem salmon spawning grounds are along this reach of the river.

Energy Notes

The United States Energy Information Administration puts out various energy reports with great graphics http://www.eia.gov/. Having spent a little time this past year on the high plains I was impressed with the intensity of the Bakken Shale Oil Boom oil-boom-in-western-north-dakota. This graphic shows how rapidly that oil play has developed.

I had also editorialized a bit on gas flaring from Bakken wells wasting-gas-for-short-term-gain. The EIA put out an interesting graphics on gas flaring as well. Note that the first graph shows that gas production exceeds the gas marketed. While the United States does not have a policy that would discourage flaring per se, North Dakota can charge a tax on all gas generated at a well regardless of whether it is marketed or not. North Dakota allows a one year period for flaring and can grant an extension beyond a year for hardship. I do not know much about the details on how this has been implemented, but for gassy wells an incentive to hold back production until infrastructure is in place.

The second graph shows that once the Bakken began rapid development North Dakota's overall non marketed gas peaked at 40% dipped as new pipelines were installed but has begun to lag again going over 35% last year.

The EIA also routinely puts out charts on coal - a subject that has once again become dear to Bellinghamhamsters. (I say once again as Bellingham was once an active coal mining town). As can be seen on the graph exports of coal from Australia, Indonesia and Russia have all increased very significantly over the past decade. Some folks in the United States would like to get in on that coal export action. But as noted in a previous post coal-terminals-in-washington-state the shipping terminal options are limited.

Last a graphic showing a huge energy advantage the the Pacific Northwest has. Greater than 61% of the electric capacity is hydro. The overall hydroelectric generation in the United States is 6%. The result is we have a rather skewered view of energy production. And more recently Washington has added significant wind energy electric generating capacity. Of course our challenge with such a heavy renewable energy portfolio is manging the variableness of that generation.

Follow Up on Permit Extensions

This is a bit of a follow up on my previous post regarding permit extensions david-versus-whatcom-county. As noted in that post David challenged Whatcom County's permit extension ordinance to the Growth Management Hearings Board. The board ruled the ordinance invalid primarily based on the lack of environmental review. Whatcom County did not review of the proposal under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

County and City ordinances are presumed to be valid under the Growth Management Act. The only way to get a determination that an ordinance is not valid under the act is to prove that it is not valid to  the Growth Management Hearsing Board. A challenging task.

Think about it and one realizes that there may very well be significant numbers of zoning and development regulations all over the state that are presumed valid but may very well be far from meeting the intent of the Growth Management Act. The only zoning and development regulations found to be invalid are those that are successfully challenged before the Board. The ordinance has to be challenged in a timely manner; one can not decide two years after an ordinance passed to bring a challenge to the Board. And the ordinance can only be challenged by those on the record as having raised objections to the County or City.

All this means having to stay on top of the nuances of just what the zoning and or development regulations mean and how they line up with a wide range of goals in the Growth Management Act. Growth planning gets very wonky and complex and is not easily translated to political sound bites.

An interesting issue regarding the Whatcom County case of permit extensions crossed my mind. Whatcom County was by no means the only local government that passed a permit extension ordinance without an environmental review (SEPA review). The City of Bellingham did the exact same thing and even called out within the ordinance itself that the ordinance was exempt from SEPA. I heard vaguely that a number of communities did the exact same thing around the state. So while Whatcom County's permit extension ordinance was deemed invalid, the City of Bellingham's ordinance still stands as does any other county or city that did the same.

To be fair, Bellingham and other local government permit extension ordinances may not be comparable to the impacts of Whatcom County's permit extension ordinance. Geographic area alone makes a big difference. In addition, nuances within past Whatcom county permit vesting dates and old regulations were such that there were clearly a number of subdivisions that would get extensions that would allow development under old very different regulations. For example dozens of lots in the Lake Whatcom watershed that would see no restrictions on impervious areas for minimizing stormwater impacts even though impervious area rules have been in place since 1999.

Some, but not all of the impacts, of Whatcom County's permit extension ordinance were brought before the Growth Management Hearings Board during the appeal. But for other local governments that did not do SEPA on permit extension ordinances, it is hard to know what the environmental impact was as there was no SEPA review.      

White Fields Without the Snow

It appears that it is likely that we will go past December before we get snow in the low lands of western Washington this year. A bit different than last winter when we had significant snow fall a week before Thanksgiving. But there is still plenty of white stuff on the flat lands of Skagit County - snow geese and trumpeter swans. Initially there were a few snow geese and then a few swans on the Skagit Flats. Now the numbers are impressive. Big flocks brightening the fields with their white feathers. Skagit County is a great place to see them as they are often visible along Interstate 5, Highway 20 and the Highway 10. You can also see them in Whatcom County, but not along the heavily traveled roads like in Skagit.

They show up late in the fall to winter over before heading back to the Arctic. Always a thrill to see that they have made it back for a winter visit. Dave Wenning over at Fidalgo Wild has some nice write ups and pictures.

wildfidalgo.birds-of-feather and wildfidalgo.lesser-snow-goose and wildfidalgo.trumpeter-swan

Geologic Pilgrimage: Mima Mounds

Mima Mounds

Early this fall I took a side trip pilgrimage to the Mima Mounds. Amazingly and to some extent embarrassing that I had never gone before. It really does not take that much time to leave I-5 south of Olympia and check the mounds out. For geologists the mounds are great fun because there have been no end of ideas on how the mounds formed. A perplexing problem that I will not hazard adding to at this time. It is my understanding that David Tucker will be including a chapter in his much anticipated field trip guide book nwgeology/my-book. He even has a great picture of a mound in cross section from the gravel quarry adjacent to the mounds, but alas not written it up on his blog. Washburn (1988) provides an over view of the mounds and an evaluation of the reasonable theories. I am not sharing my preferred theory, but I will say that I am in agreement with Washburn that there is no grand mound theory for all the various mound sites scattered around the country. 

While the Mima Mounds themselves are of great curiosity to geologists, there is another geologic aspect to this site. The Mima Mounds are located in Mima Prairie. Yep, we have grass land prairies in western Washington. The geology aspect of the Mima Prairie and some of the other prairies in western Washington is the very gravely glacial outwash underlying the site. So despite a wet climate, this area is exceedingly well drained and the substrate does not hold water. There are other factors as well that causes one to wonder about the anthropocene and the role of humans in regards to ecosystems.

The open prairie grass land ecosystem found at the Mima Mounds has become greatly diminished over the past 200 years. The Mima Mounds are a Natural Area Preserve managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The mounds themselves are worthy of protection, but the open grass land ecosystem has become an endangered ecosystem with a variety of rare plants and animals found only in these prairie areas. There are other mound sites nearby the Mima Mounds, but the ecosystem is in a better condition at Mima Prairie.

Traditions, Culture and the Land

Christmas Eve. A time of traditions. A time when cultural layers may dictate traditions. And the landscape influences the culture and the traditions. My family - siblings and our own children all have a variety of traditions and plenty of ideas about what the traditions should be! Many of those traditions are dictated by family ancestry, but the landscape also has an influence as well as the people that live on that landscape.

Living in Bellingham, in the heart of what many people consider the Pacific Northwest has influenced my family traditions. One tradition that we had for many years was the annual Christmas Tree hunt. This involves going out into the rural landscape seeking tree farms. We had calculated this was easier than going all out and getting a Forest Service permit and likely cheaper with higher probability of getting an appropriately shaped and sized tree. This was not a tradition that either Lisa or I brought from our childhoods. Both of us had grown up in eastern Washington. No tree farms there and evergreens were miles away. So this new tradition was initially very fun.

Another tradition that I find common in western Washington and predates American/European settlement is smoked salmon. We have, like those that lived for millennium before us on this landscape, become Salmon People. Smoked salmon is given as gifts, eaten as appetizers, and sought out from the best smokers. A bit extra good this year as Will had worked in the salmon industry this summer and gotten some of the "good stuff".

Lutefisk is another tradition for many traditionalists from northern Europe that brought the traditional dish with them. However, it is a tradition that has not transferred as well as the salmon.

The weather this time of year is far too variable for traditional sleigh rides or ice skating. Lisa and I have fond memories of sledding down our street after putting gifts under the tree. Alas white Christmases are not common in Bellingham. More likely to be gray and 40s like this year. However, I learned during our second winter in Bellingham that Bellingham can get very cold. We traveled to see family in eastern Washington. Very cold there, but turned out it was nearly as cold in Bellingham as frigid air poured out of the Fraser Valley. We returned to frozen pipes.

Whatever your year end traditions. Enjoy them. And think about how the land has shaped your traditions.

Impressive Lummi Quarry Video

A couple of months ago I was contacted to see if I would be willing to help on opposing a quarry expansion on Lummi Island. I agreed to help, but thus far there has not been a lot for me to do. I did some minor reviewing. The anti quarry group put together a very impressive video on the quarry (see below). Often, hyperbole and hysteria can take over on an environmental issue. But in this case there is no single issue presented in this video that I disagree with and nor would I describe any of it as hyperbole or hysteria. (And some enviros that I have not hesitated using those terms). 

The video is factual and accurate. And as someone that works on mine projects, it upsets me that a mining operation in a sensitive area like this has done such a horrible job and that the regulation of this mine has been such a failure.

On a purely technical basis there are many reasons that the mine area designation should not be expanded. But even though this blog attempts (and sometimes it is hard) to be neutral in presentation of issues, I will suggest another reason this mine expansion should be denied: Justice. This mine was granted an expanded mining area in the late 1990s. They could have manged the mine in an appropriate manner and followed water quality laws, water rights, and mine reclamation plans. They did not. They do not deserve even consideration for expansion. They are a black mark on the aggregate mining industry of which I have often been a participant during my geology career.

The above said, the process will proceed. A specific issue of environmental review is the most pressing at the moment. I'll probably get around to posting something on that at a future date and a review of how various counties have dealt designating and protecting mining resource lands for mining purposes.