FERC throws out complaint about meeting
violation
By CASSANDRA PROFITA
The Daily Astorian
Thursday, February 22, 2007
http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=395&ArticleID=40
483&TM=23845.2
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has dismissed a complaint about an
exclusive meeting of government officials and representatives from Northwest Natural
and Northern Star Natural Gas Co.
Members of Columbia Riverkeeper and several other groups filed a complaint against
FERC after they were denied access to a Dec. 14 meeting about the Bradwood Landing
liquefied natural gas project.
They claimed the meeting violated federal rules on "ex parte" or exclusive
communications between FERC staff and project applicants.
FERC is the federal agency that will ultimately approve or deny Northern Star's
application to build an LNG facility at Bradwood Landing, 20 miles east of Astoria on
the Columbia River. Northern Star is one of five companies looking to site an LNG
terminal in Oregon. Four proposed sites are on the Columbia River, and a fifth is at Coos
Bay. Bradwood Landing is the farthest along in the approval process. The terminals
receive supercooled natural gas liquid and convert it back to a gas for pipeline
distribution. Dozens of entities, including Columbia Riverkeeper and Northwest Natural,
have filed with FERC as intervenors so they can have a voice in the Bradwood Landing
approval process.
Northwest Natural has proposed to build a natural gas pipeline that would connect with
any LNG facility that is sited on the Columbia River and deliver gas to customers in the
region.
According to the Columbia Riverkeeper complaint document, no public notice was given
for the contested meeting and some intervenors were allowed to attend while others were
refused. Columbia Riverkeeper Director Brent Foster said he believes all intervenors
should have been allowed to attend.
In a ruling last week, FERC dismissed the complaint, saying proper procedure was
followed. FERC regulations allow for "off-the-record" communications between FERC
staff and project applicants "for the purpose of preparing an Environmental Impact
Statement," or EIS. The EIS is a federal assessment of the project that is required before
an LNG terminal can be approved. FERC rules also state that a written summary of
meetings about the EIS must be made public.
Meeting notes
Notes from the Dec. 14 meeting were posted on FERC's Web site on Dec. 29, about a
week after the complaint was filed. The notes listed 28 different people who were
involved in the talk, including lawyers, consultants and company executives affiliated
with the Bradwood Landing proposal and officials with National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Oregon Coastal Zone
Management program and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
There were also representatives from Northwest Natural and the Nez Perce Tribe.
According to the notes, the topics discussed pertain to the negative environmental effects
of the Bradwood Landing project and the methods government agencies will use to assess
the impacts.
Officials requested more details from Northern Star on how the company plans to
mitigate the negative impacts on habitat and wildlife.
Regulatory agencies attending asked FERC to include specific items in its environmental
review of the project, including information on LNG ships' ballast water intake, the
required maintenance dredging in the river near Bradwood Landing, dredge material
disposal at the project site, testing for contamination in sediment, and possible impacts on
bald eagles and Columbia white-tailed deer.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both
federal agencies, requested the right to review the FERC assessments and comment on
them before they are finalized.
FERC's schedule
The meeting notes also reference a schedule for FERC completing its environmental
review. Other documents recently filed on FERC's Web site indicate a draft of the EIS
will be ready in late March. The document has been delayed because of "data gaps" in
biological information, mitigation of environmental impacts and the Coast Guard study of
waterway safety.
Once the EIS is released, the public will have 45 days to review the document. FERC is
planning public meetings on the project in Longview, Wash., and Knappa in April, after
which the agency will review all comments and prepare responses. The final EIS
document is expected to be complete by late July or early August, and decisions on the
project's required state and federal permits are expected by mid-September.
By the end of September, FERC commissioners could decide on whether to authorize the
project. If the commission gives the project the green light, construction could start in
spring 2008.
President Issues Federal Disaster Assistance
for Oregon
Salem-News.com
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation
measures statewide.
http://www.salem-news.com/printview.php?id=3541
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - President Bush has declared a major disaster exists in the State of
Oregon and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area
struck by a severe winter storm and flooding during the period of December 14th-15th, 2006.
Federal funding is available to State and eligible local governments and certain private
nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or
replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storm and flooding in Benton, Clatsop,
Columbia, Lincoln, Polk, Tillamook, Wheeler, and Yamhill Counties, and the Confederated
Tribes of Siletz Indians.
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures
statewide.
R. David Paulison, Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department
of Homeland Security, named Glen R. Sachtleben as the Federal Coordinating Officer for
Federal recovery operations in the affected area.
The Agency said additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the
State and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.
Moorage on their minds
Concerns remain as fishermen, port officials meet
By Susan Chambers, Staff Writer
http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2007/02/21/news/news01022107.prt
CHARLESTON - A Tuesday meeting that started out as salmon trollers discussing the upcoming
season led into something else: A discussion about moorage.
Though salmon seasons also were on the agenda, about 25 fishermen and two Oregon
International Port of Coos Bay officials, Deputy Director Mike Gaul and Communications Director
Martin Callery, spent much of the morning on Tuesday talking about moorage payments, the
latest incidences of vessel seizures and the resignation of Harbormaster Don Yost.
Earlier this month, the port seized some vessels that were way behind on their moorage and
storage locker payments - in arrears prior to last year's deferment program - and about half a
dozen more were on the list to be impounded when Yost turned in his resignation.
And while the port is sympathetic to fishermen, it has to take care of business, too.
“Some guys understand the situation we're in,” Callery said.
Further impounds have stopped and fishermen are working with the port to make payments, he
said.
Port staff already are putting together ideas in anticipation of another year of diminished
commercial salmon opportunity. One idea is to forgive the interest on past-due moorages, Callery
said, or maybe another deferral program for 2007.
But it all depends on what the season will be. Fishermen plan to meet again soon to go over more
options before the industry meeting in Newport on Feb. 28.
“We're going to put in for some coho,” Charleston troller Rayburn “Punch” Guerin said today.
But until March, everything still is up in the air regarding salmon season.
“It's difficult to know what (fishery) managers are going to do,” Callery said.
The port also is dealing with another situation: ice.
Last year, Charleston Ice owner Pat Houck said he couldn't afford to keep the plant operating, but
the port stepped in to help. The port and Houck could be in the same situation this year, Callery
said, so port officials are trying to work something out prior to summer.
“We want to make sure there's ice for the coming season,” Callery said, noting that the shrimp
and tuna fleets that also operate during the summer need ice.
Less impact elsewhere
Other ports along the coast are struggling with the loss of the salmon season, but not so much as
in Charleston.
Port of Brookings Harbor Harbormaster Mike Blank said the situation near the California border is
different.
“We have some (in arrears) but I can't think of any right off hand that are directly related to the
poor salmon season,” Blank said.
Though last year's cancelled season was a first for Charleston fishermen, Brookings-area
commercial trollers have been stuck with very limited or no salmon seasons for a few years,
Blank said.
“I think it's worse as you go north,” he said.
In Newport, a large port with a boat basin and marina comparable to Charleston, General
Manager Don Mann said vessel seizures are few and far between.
“It varies. Maybe one a year, sometimes more,” Mann said Tuesday. “We try to do everything we
can before taking the last step.”
Newport-area trollers were able to fish for limited weeks during the summer and that may have
helped keep the troll fleet afloat.
Salmon has not affected the fleet - or the port - any more than in other years and other fisheries,
such as groundfish, Mann said.
Fishermen want Yost returned
In Charleston, fishermen still are concerned about the state of affairs.
Yost's resignation had a lot to do with that.
Fishermen considered him an ally in many cases. He understood the eccentricities of the fleet
and individual fishermen and also understood their plight. It was not uncommon to see Yost at
many of the local fishery management meetings.
Already, a petition for his reinstatement is circulating.
It says, in part: “Whereas: The port administration requested Don Yost, the harbormaster, to sign
impound notices on vessels delinquent in their moorage, whereas in good conscience the
harbormaster refused to sign the impound notices, Š the undersigned petitions the port to
reinstate Don Yost as harbormaster of the Charleston Marina.”
“It just shows our support for him, more or less,” Guerin said today.
Several fishermen have said they hoped for Yost's return and that they're concerned the “uptown
crowd” of port officials don't completely understand the situation.
Last week, after Yost turned in his resignation letter, he said he didn't know what the future holds.
He has a background in construction, though, and he considered returning to that.
“If I do anything, I'll strap my nail bags on and do low-key construction,” Yost said at the time.
Injured Ukrainian mariner reunited with his
rescuers
By Randy Trick, Peninsula Daily News
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS/
702220307&template=printart
PORT ANGELES - Vyacheslav Kornya nearly lost his left leg during an accident
at sea in November.
But when members of Coast Guard rescue crew 6591 walked into the Olympic
Medical Center's meeting room Wednesday evening, the Ukrainian sailor sprung
out of his chair onto his feet.
In front of the OMC's Board of Commissioners and a full meeting room, he
gripped the hand that piloted the helicopter that rescued him on Nov. 15.
"It's good to see you again," said Lt. Dan Leary, a broad smile across his face
when he recognized Kornya.
Kornya walks on crutches, his injured left leg in a weight-bearing plaster cast.
But once it was a mangled mess, and the members of the Coast Guard knew
Kornya only as an unconscious and bloody victim.
Reuniting with a person they have saved is a rare opportunity.
"All the holes lined up to save his life," Leary said.
The sailor is undergoing physical therapy and ultrasonic treatment at Crestwood
Convalescent Center in Port Angeles.
He may need three months of treatment before doctors, either in Port Angeles or
in his native Ukraine, can determine if he has fully recovered.
For his rescuers, the surgical staff who took Kornya under the knife 10 times
since November, and for the OMC Board of Commissioners, the sailor's first
public appearance was an encouraging occasion.
Orthopedic surgeon Bob Watkins told the Olympic Medical Center Board of
Commissioners that Kornya, 45, has been a "very tough, healthy, lucky
individual."
Watkins shared with the board the extensive medical measures taken to save the
sailor's life and leg.
The OMC commissioners presented Watkins with an award for "true medical
heroism."
But Watkins credited the Coast Guard with the timely save.
"Without their skill and courage, this story stops here," Watkins said.
And Watkins credited the community.
"Collectively, we have lived up to this motto - 'Some can. We do,'" he said.
Since his accident in November, Kornya has come to love Port Angeles, he said,
and the city has embraced its accidental resident.
People who live in the area have visited Kornya in his hospital room over the
Christmas holidays and since.
The rescuers, the medical staff and the foreign mariner were given multiple
standing ovations by the packed room.
"You have no idea how happy he is," said Oksana Ostrovsky, a surgical nurse at
OMC.
Ostrovsky graduated from school in Kornya's hometown the same year he did,
but the pair never met until he became a patient.
Ostrovsky has translated for Kornya, and their two families have grown close.
"He is a quiet guy, a quiet family guy," Ostrovsky said.
Kornya's family - his wife Lyudmila Serbinova and 14-year-old daughter, Arina are still in his hometown of Odessa, Ukraine.
He said, in broken English, that he's looking forward to seeing them as soon as
he can.Rescue
The Ukrainian crewman was an electrician aboard the Iolcos Glory, a 700-foot
container ship headed for Vancouver, British Columbia.
The ship was stuck in heavy seas and strong winds about 30 miles off Cape
Flattery when the storm struck.
Spare engine pistons tied to a wall under the deck came loose and crushed
Kornya's left leg.
The Coast Guard dispatched an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Port
Angeles to retrieve Kornya.
Leary piloted the helicopter, assisted by co-pilot Lt. Steve Mahany.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly Weppner, Chief Petty Officer John Linnborn and
Cmdr. Jeffrey Salvon-Harmon completed the crew.
Leary, Mahany and Weppner attended Wednesday night's presentation.
With sea swells as high as 30 feet and sustained winds of 50 mph, retrieving
Kornya from the bobbing boat was a test of precision.Recovery
Kornya arrived in the emergency room of OMC about four hours after his leg was
crushed.
He was unconscious and his leg had no pulse.
He was stabilized and revived before surgery.
He pleaded with doctors to save his leg.
Kornya's tibia was broken in so many places, and the damage to the tissue
around it was so extensive, repairing it required an atypical approach.
"To do this, one doesn't try to fix the bone from the inside," Watkins said.
An intricate external set of pins drilled through the foot and leg, and braces
between them, sought to do what the bone normally does - support the leg.
The brace seems to have worked, he said.
"Upon removal of the external frame, his foot didn't fall off," Watkins joked.
What was once a gapping wound now looks like a large scar, similar to a burn,
from the skin grafts.
Kornya is exercising his leg for hours each day, and tissue seems to be healing
from ultrasonic therapy.
A BANK ACCOUNT has been established at Sound Community Bank at 541 N.
Fifth Ave., Sequim, in Vyacheslav Kornya's name to help cover medical costs.
The donation account number is 0018749279.