and the estuary is looking just like it should. The log 'bay' is no longer a 'bay' water levels have dropped and human and canine feet have caused so much erosion over the years that it has filled with gravel to the point it is now high and dry....
getting high and dry out that way too....in fact there are now sand bars showing up almost to the highway 7 bridge....
still there is lots of activity out there...the Trumpeter Swans can't come in close anymore, no water! but are still hanging around and the Bald Eagles are feasting on the salmon that continue to be uncovered as water levels continue to drop.
in fact numbers of eagles seem to still be increasing, which is normal during the month of December....
Now for the bad news. This week every home owner in the area rec'd a notice of a public meeting to be held on the 14th of this month. The reason for the public meeting - a proposed contaminated soil landfill site to be created just 8 km as the crow flies from the estuary.
Here is the site. It was logged off 5 or so years ago and is adjacent to a productive gravel pit that opened just a few years ago. Just around the corner and on the other side of that line of trees is a year round creek called Statlu Creek - in fact they are calling this the Statlu Landfill. Statlu Creek flows directly into the Chehalis River which of course flows directly down to join the Harrison and form the Chehalis/Harrison Estuary. They are calling it a 'green operation'. There will be 2 layers of liner and all sorts of safeguards. But we all know that these safeguards sometimes fail, and if they do, any leeching of contaminants are going to make their way into that creek and on down stream....effecting not only the most productive Salmon producing river in the world, which in turn would effect the densest concentration of Bald Eagles in the world. There are other concerns as well....like they are going to have a waste water treatment plant on site. You see they are promoting this as a 'green' operation. Why? Well the plan is to bring truck loads of contaminated soil from construction sites in the lower mainland, at the rate of 1,000 tonnes per day - that translates to approximately 50 trucks per day driving the narrow winding road along Harrison Bay and up an even narrower winding forest service road to this site - the potential for serious accidents is huge - then once the soil is dumped, the trucks will be cleaned (to decontaminate it) and filled up with clean gravel and head back to the city. It is classified as green as you don't have an empty truck going one way. So back to that waste water.....the only source of water in the location is the creek. How will taking that much water out of the environment impact the surrounding echo system? There are so many issues and perhaps the biggest one is that we aren't being told the whole thing yet. Just bits and pieces. The first piece was a proposed gravel transfer station, that was turned down thanks to local residents and a petition, but it hasn't died, as it is part and parcel of this whole thing and is now being approached via a back door route.
Anyway, this Public Meeting takes place on Dec. 14th at 7:00 pm at Scowlitz Community Hall ......the timing of that date in itself is suspect....a large part of the population in this area are snowbirds and not available....and don't you think they know that!!!
I will be at this meeting and hopefully every other concerned citizen will be too.
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