Occupy Cocktail?

A lot of people have been wondering, why the studied silence from Toxic Cocktail, with all this Occupy Wall Street stuff going on around the world? Is it a massive media conspiracy? Well, no, it's not that. It's just that after much thought, I can't deny that the official beverage of Occupy is beer. It's the drink of the people. It's the drink that can double as a meal. And it's the drink that doesn't totally screw up your commitment to peaceful protest.

Three Eyed Fish

Three eyed fish, for real, here.

Trojan Factoids

Some interesting information about the decommissioned Trojan nuclear plant, from today's Oregonian:

-359 metric tons of spent fuel are currently being stored at Trojan

-it was supposed to be removed by 2018, but the current date is 2033

-Portland General Electric is setting aside $12.6 million for decommissioning costs

-PGE spends about $3.3 million a year on storage costs

-the plant closed in 1993

One less LNG proposal in the US

Hess LNG is pulling out of its project in Fall River, Mass. The market just isn't there for imported natural gas, they said. This one never really had a chance. It was a logistical nightmare and was opposed by powerful people like John Kerry and Barney Frank. It scared a lot of people, and now that it's officially off the table, I want to thank it for strengthening the anti-LNG movement.

Bridge Cam

Construction on a new, transit-only bridge over the Willamette begins on July 1. Here is a live view of the east side of the river, where the bridge will be going up: Bridge

Because Coal Cares (tm)

Can this possibly be a real campaign???

http://www.coalcares.org/index.html

free inhalers for children, from Patriot Coal.

Chernobyl, land of giant possibly mutant wild boars

Just came across this awesome article about Chernobyl from Outside Magazine:

"Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden."

Port Dolphin LNG

There's an LNG project in Florida that I hadn't heard of before. It's called Port Dolphin LNG.I was alerted to its existence by a notice in the Sutherland LNG email newsletter announcing that Port Dolphin had filed an incidental take application with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Incidental take" is what happens when you are building something or extracting and your activity might accidentally harm or kill an animal that is protected by the government. In this case, the animals in question are - yes, really - dolphins.

Keeping Springfield Safe

As trace amounts of radioactive material from failed Japanese nuclear reactors are being found around the world, the authorities are assuring us that there is no health hazard. But just to be extra, extra safe, some broadcasters in Canada and Europe are refraining from showing any episodes of "The Simpsons" that depict nuclear emergencies. Because the more you think about a nuclear meltdown, the more likely it is to happen? Because humor is bad way to deal with stressful situations? Because viewers sometimes confuse "The Simpsons" with a documentary? Because people might become alarmed and start thinking that nuclear power isn't safe?

Time for a new obsession?

Photo: Abandoned condos with a view of Jordan Cove, in Coos Bay, Oregon

A lot has changed since I started following the development of natural gas import terminals two years ago. Nationally, most of the proposals have died, and new reserves of domestic natural gas are being tapped, creating a whole new world of health and environmental nightmares.

Of the three projects that were proposed for Oregon, one is dead, one is hanging by a thread, and one is still more or less proceeding through the regulatory process. The big news this month is that Northwest Natural has withdrawn its application for approval of the Palomar Pipeline. This major pipeline was originally tied to the Bradwood Landing import facility, which went bankrupt last year. There was speculation that Palomar could hook up with Oregon LNG, the second import facility in the Astoria area. That didn’t happen, though, which does leave Oregon LNG in a bit of a pickle. It’s own pipeline only would go only partway across the state, rather than all the way to the north-south transmission network that connects Oregon to California.

Anyway, at this point Oregon LNG can’t even get its pipeline through Clatsop County, the first of five counties the pipe would have to cross after leaving the coastal import station. After a changing of the guard in recent elections, the county board revoked the pipeline’s permit. Of course, the whole thing is tied up in court, and Oregon LNG’s promises to work with the community have dried up into a rancorous tangle of litigation.

That leaves the third project, Jordan Cove LNG, which is also muddling its way through a series of legal hurdles, including the objection of the state of Oregon to federal approval of the project. It is also having trouble with its pipeline — turns out that obtaining the right of eminent domain over the property of 675 landowners, many of them unwilling, creates a bit of a headache. The thing is years behind schedule. Really its only hope is that it takes so long to get approval that the U.S. actually uses up its domestic natural gas in the meantime — we’re estimated to have only enough for next 100 years or so.

Springwater Six: Lonesome Town

I’m sorry to say that the sixth leg of the Springwater Corridor trek was the worst. I set off from the trail’s intersection with Southeast 82nd Avenue on a bitterly cold day. The wind was blowing off 82nd like it was Lake Michigan. The first thing I saw was a city truck driving down the path. The truck stopped and the young man inside warned me that there was some wet paint on the trail.

I noticed some patches of black paint on the pavement and realized he’d been cruising down the path, painting over graffiti.

On either side of the trail were scraggly bushes, and occasionally the backs of buildings.

At one point there was a rickety home-made bench under a tree that was dedicated to someone in rough paint. Behind it was a falling-down shed. Two people were leaving the shed, saying goodbye to someone inside. I wanted to take a picture of the bench but I didn’t because I was afraid the people were cooking meth in the shed.

There was ice on the puddles and the sky was the color of a dead whale. The wind kept blowing. There was garbage in the tall dry grass.

Jackie was nervous. She was especially unhappy when we walked under the overpass for I-205, six or eight lanes of traffic going overhead at 70 miles an hour. During most of the walk, she stayed out ahead of me, weaving back and forth across the path like she was sniffing for land mines.

On the way back to the car, I walked by a culvert that ran under a busy street. I saw a man ducking into the tunnel, I assume to do drugs.

Couldn’t wait to get back to the car.

That was in January. Now it’s March, I need to buck up and get back out there.

Meltdown

I've been mulling over ideas for a drink in honor of the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, but I don't think I can do better than the cocktail I was served at a place called Vintage last night. First the bartender mixed Maker's Mark and Cynar (the Italian artichoke liqueur) with ice in a pint glass. Then she went into the back room for some reason. Then she poured green Chartreuse into a wine glass and set it on fire. She strained the first mixture into the wine glass to douse the flames, then singed a bit of orange peel and tossed it in.

The government claimed it was not strong enough to cause any harm, but I beg to differ.

Oregon wolves

Sharp video of Oregon wolves from ODFW via Natural Oregon:

wild wolves

Springwater Trail, Part Five

I parked across the street from the Wichita Feed & Hardware in the pouring rain.

The trail runs parallel to Southeast Johnson Creek Boulevard. It’s dark and cold and there are no bicyclists and no pedestrians except a man so drunk that he’s stumbling and weaving. He’s got mud on his pants, like he fell down somewhere, and he’s carrying a plastic bag of groceries.

The trail crosses the road at Southeast Bell Avenue, where there’s a convenience store called Bell Station. It looks really old, and I’m guessing the name comes because it was a stop on the old passenger train line that ran where the trail is now.

The online references to the Bell Station Market are a little spotty. Wikipedia calls it “historic.” Yelp says, “they should be ashamed of selling drug paraphernalia in our neighborhood.” It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, where its Period of Significance is described as 1900 to 1924 and its Current Function is “commerce/ trade, domestic, work in progress.”

The trail stretched on along, lined with scrubby areas and industrial storage places. There was a housing development behind a wall. Jackie started acting skittish and pretty soon we came to a no-kill dog shelter, in which a dog was howling.

Then all of sudden we were at the intersection with 82nd Avenue.

Wow, I can’t believe I walked all the way to 82nd Avenue. And still only at Milepost Eight.

Springwater 4: Déja Vu

At times, walking the Springwater Trail reminds me of taking a subway. You’re cruising along, and then every once in a while, you pop up somewhere familiar and think, whoa, how did I get here?

I ended the third segment of the trip at a place called the Tideman Johnson Natural Area, which I had never heard of before. When I was ready to head out again, I looked it up online to find out where I should park, and realized the area is near where I used to walk when I first moved to Portland.

On a hot September day in 1987, I walked farther than I had ever walked before in Portland. I came to a dusty trial and some railroad tracks. I walked by two kids — they looked like fifth-graders — smoking cigarettes. I came to a swimming hole surrounded by blackberry bushes. The blackberries were all ripe. People were sitting on a concrete slab and jumping off of it into the water.

Returning to the Tideman Johnson, I recognized it. The railroad tracks are now a new paved trail. The water flows faster and the blackberries are replaced by young-looking native plants. The banks of Johnson Creek have been restored in many areas, and I just read in the newspaper that three dead Coho salmon were found 15 miles upstream this year, the farthest up that anyone can remember.

It was a cold, sunny autumn day. I kept walking and emerged into a developed area. I saw a house and shed, run down and overgrown, that reminded me of “Sometimes a Great Notion.”

Then I came to Wichita Feed & Hardware. I thought, whoa, how did I get here?