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off the record a VIP policy letter from Senator Kim Elton Room 115, State Capitol, Juneau, AK 99801 * 465-4947 Phone * 465-2108 FAX Edition # 180 Please feel free to forward August 20, 2004 |
Capitol Undercurrents |
Salmon stream proposal 'toxic' |
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When good love goes bad -- “My resignation is predicated by frustration and mounting disgust at the severe damage inflicted upon the framework of local government and the people of  Alaska as a result of the Governor’s agenda being usurped by individuals on the governor’s staff . . .” So begins the August 9 letter of resignation from the former director of DCED’s Division of Community Advocacy. The extremely disillusioned fella unloads on the governor’s chief of staff and budget director for “calamitous, long-term systematic damage”, “cynical arrogance”, loyalties “to special interests”, and installation of “an uninformed henchman”. He ends by saying: “I have reached the regrettable but unavoidable conclusion that it is preferable to resign than to bide time in a degraded, demoralized and discredited shell of an agency.” This from a 23-year state employee who gave $900 to the governor’s campaign and was elevated from local government specialist to director of the agency after the governor’s election.Cheney speak--We ran my last five newsletters through a political bias rinse cycle at wordcounter.com/politics to check for partisan slant and were shocked at the results. Two of my columns on the legislature’s special session were rated “moderately right”. The columns on the politics of rural ferry service, on the report of the oceans commission and the governor’s negative reaction, and on soft political Pins and needles?-- In a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story, the chief of staff for Sen. Gene Therriault sees potential big changes in Senate leadership. When asked to speculate about who’d be Senate president in the next legislature, Balash responded: “the simple answer is, we just hope we’re still in the majority.” He did add that if the GOP prevails in November, his boss would be interested in staying in the president’s post.
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I used to be a fishmonger. I learned the best way to see if a fish is still good enough to sell is to hold it right up against the nose and smell it. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) should try that smell-and-sell sniff test out on proposed regulation 18 AAC 70.240. That’s the proposal that allows mixing zones “in certain fish spawning areas” (that’s DEC’s description from their on-line public notice). A mixing zone is a neutral sounding term of art that means you can dump chemicals and other pollutants into a water body at will as long as they become diluted to the point of being “benign” (or, at any rate, below legal thresholds) within a certain distance from the source.  In its online public notice, DEC says the department wants to reorganize mixing zone regulations to “improve clarity and reduce redundancy.” And, by the way, the new regs also permit mixing zones where they are not now allowed-right smack in spawning areas for salmon and other fish. The regs do allow the department to determine if the mixing zone will be detrimental to existing biological resources. But this discretion will be exercised by the same department that supports spraying of pesticides next to salmon streams. I’m no longer comforted by this administration’s assurances to “just trust us”. In addition to the salmon/pesticide don’t-worry-be-happy stance, this administration has: defanged local communities by gutting important elements of the Alaska Coastal Zone Management Act; cut habitat biologists and moved the remnants of the habitat division from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game with its biota conservation ethic to the Department of Natural Resources with its biota exploitation ethic; and supported and signed legislation that mandates timber production be the highest and best use of state forests, ranking logging higher than fishing, tourism, subsistence, and recreation. Further, if they want to begin earning my trust, they need to extend the public comment period for this proposed regulation at least until fall when salmon harvesters return from salmon fishing. I’ve asked DEC to extend the comment period beyond the published September 10 deadline but have not yet received a reply. It’s also telling that DEC is only scheduling public hearings in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau and not in Kodiak, Sand Point, Sitka, Ketchikan, Yakutat, King Salmon, Naknek, and the dozens of other coastal towns where salmon is a vital leg of the economic stool. The governor and his DEC appointees dangerously push this ‘pollutants in salmon spawning, incubation and rearing areas’ policy at a time when Alaska’s salmon hold an increasingly tenuous position in world markets. The Alaska salmon sector, mainstay of many coastal fishing communities and the families who live in them, is reeling from the avalanche of industrially produced salmon. Much of our salmon marketing efforts focus on Alaska’s pristine waters and the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids that occur naturally in wild salmon. This positions us nicely against industrial, farmed salmon that are tagged in the popular and scientific press as replete with pollutants. Fish consumers, especially in the more sophisticated salmon and seafood markets, are beginning to recognize that wild Alaska salmon are less contaminated than industrial salmon and wild salmon from elsewhere. Just two weeks ago, a study published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal noted that farmed fish and wild fish from Oregon and British Columbia were tainted with fire-retardant chemicals. Why then do the governor and his staff at DEC want to knock the raison d’etre for buying Alaska salmon into a cocked hat? Here’s my premise: Alaska’s pristine water and healthy choice wild salmon marketing campaigns  won’t survive a counter campaign by fish farmers pointing out that we dump industrial pollutants in salmon spawning, rearing and incubation areas. Raise your hands (or send me an email) if you disagree with that premise.I spent a good portion of my professional life either trolling for salmon or promoting Alaska’s wild salmon as head of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. I know that our best entrée to food service providers and retailers is the health and pristine environment pitch. Chefs and grocery chains get that message and more and more consumers are demanding healthy choices. It is a very important way in which we differentiate their salmon from our salmon. It’s powerful. It goes in the trash can, though, if this administration allows chemicals and other pollutants to ever be dumped in a salmon spawning, rearing or incubation portion of a stream. If we want to position our salmon in the markets as better, safer and healthier, let’s not allow industrial salmon producers to rebut by pointing to 18 AAC 70.240. This proposal by the governor and DEC absolutely fails my sniff test. Alaskans should not, must not, buy what they are trying to sell as an attempt to “clarify and reduce redundancy” with its oh, by the way add-on. If you don’t want chemicals and other pollutants dumped in salmon spawning, rearing and incubation areas call (907) 451-2726 or email Nancy_Sonafrank@dec.state.ak.us. |
dollars slithering into Alaska’s U.S. Senate race were all rated “neutral” on the political bias scale. Here’s what I find disturbing: when ex-Alaska reporter David Postman (now chief political reporter for the Seattle Times) ran two recent Dick Cheney speeches through the bias finder, one came up “neutral” and the other “moderately right”. My columns rated the same as VP Dick Cheney’s speeches. Must be a burp in the software. This week’s policy newsletter, by the way, comes up “neutral”.