Bonner County Daily Bee

SANDPOINT — A recent study shows that two railway bridges in the area are showing structural integrity, a concern for the Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeepers.

Waterkeepers across the nation documented the structural integrity of 250 railway bridges along routes known to carry oil trains. The study was done from July to September. The Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper joined the study with Waterkeeper Alliance and ForestEthics.

Almost half of the bridges, or 114, had areas identified as a concern, with two of them in the Sandpoint area. The Trestle Creek bridge crossing and the Sand Creek crossing near City Beach showed deterioration. The Trestle Creek crossing has concrete supports showing signs of deterioration and the Sand Creek crossing has a foundation that appears to be slumped and cracked.

Shannon Williamson, executive director of Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, urges residents to raise their voice and take a stand.
For the rest of the story, see the print edition of the Bonner County Daily Bee or subscribe to our e-edition.

Spokane residents and officials frustrated by a railroad and oil industry filibuster at a June hearing on oil train safety will get another opportunity Oct. 28, and they’ll have new sets of proposed federal and state regulations to support their calls for more measures to protect the public from the very real consequences of an accident.

The state Marine & Rail Oil Transportation Study says 16 loaded oil trains pass through Spokane each week, a volume that could double by 2020 and triple by 2035. And although most of the safety concerns have focused on the volatile Bakken crude that has been linked to several fires or explosions, the report notes the environmental hazard posed by another fuel increasingly being moved by train: liquid bitumen from northern Alberta’s tar sands.

If spilled into waterways, the bitumen sinks to the bottom. More than $1 billion has been spent cleaning up a 2010 spill into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.

The state study, which will be the topic of a five-hour hearing that begins at 5 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, recommends the implementation of several rules and procedures at a potential cost of more than $13 million. One possible point of leverage for the state, which must defer to federal authorities who regulate interstate commerce, is the control of train speeds through public crossings. Gov. Jay Inslee wants train speeds held to 30 mph. BNSF Railway puts its limit at 45 mph.

The final report to the Legislature is due in March. Expect legal challenges from industry if the state adopts an aggressive regulation plan.

Back in Washington, D.C., the Federal Railroad Administration has rejected arguments that sharing information regarding shipments with emergency responders would compromise their safety. In states like Washington, that information must be available to the public.

The industries also argued that disclosure would expose proprietary commercial information to competitors, as if there was any real alternative to railroads for moving Bakken crude to the coast.

They also are asking the proposed period for eliminating outdated oil tank cars be doubled to four years from two. Although they argue the two-year deadline is unreasonable, an Oregon maker of sturdier tankers says that is not so. And at least one Washington refinery – BP Cherry Point – has stopped using the older cars.

The trains are going to roll, and emergency responders and the public are entitled to know when and where. If the oil and railroad industries want to convince Washington residents they are taking every reasonable precaution, they should get on board with the most transparent disclosure rules that themselves do not compromise safety.

Federal and state regulators should be equally transparent in setting rules intelligible to industry and the public. Too much overlap or contradiction, and who is responsible for what becomes garbled. Above all, the public wants accountability.

Click here for the original article.

The Sightline Institute

The Pacific Northwest stands squarely between Asian energy markets and large fossil fuel deposits in the interior of North America. In order to reach these markets, energy companies are planning to build a range of large fossil fuel infrastructure projects in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2012, British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington have seen new active proposals for four new coal terminals, three expansions of existing terminals, two new oil pipelines, eleven oil-by-rail facilities, and six new natural gas pipelines.

Each of the projects is distinct, but all can be denominated in a common currency: the tons of carbon dioxide emitted if the fossil fuels were burned. Taken together, these plans would be capable of delivering enough fuel to release 822 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

For context, consider the Keystone XL pipeline—designed to carry oil from northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico—which has earned an international reputation as a first-order climate catastrophe. When burned, the fuel carried by Keystone XL would emit 149 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, about as much as is produced by every activity in Oregon and Washington combined.

In other words, if all of the coal export terminals, oil-by-rail facilities, oil pipelines, and natural gas pipelines planned for the Pacific Northwest are completed and fully utilized, the region could export fossil fuels carrying five times as much climate-warming carbon as Keystone XL:

• Coal terminals. Seven new or expanded coal export terminals would together move 132 million metric tons of coal annually above current levels, enough to emit 264 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
• Oil pipelines. Two new oil pipelines would be capable of carrying more than 1.1 million barrels per day, enough to emit 199 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
• Oil-by-rail facilities. Eleven oil-by-rail facilities at refineries or port terminals could move 858,900 barrels per day, enough to emit 132 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
• Natural gas pipelines. At least six new natural gas pipelines capable of carrying 11.7 billion cubic feet per day would be enough to emit 227 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Read the original here.

by Edward McAllister

(Reuters) - A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train carrying crude oil derailed as it left a railyard in north Seattle on Thursday, but there were no reports of a spill or injuries, BNSF said in a statement.

Four railcars came off the tracks at around 2 a.m. PDT (0900 GMT), three of which were carrying crude oil, said BNSF, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The train originated in North Dakota and was bound for Tesoro Corp's 120,000 barrel-per-day Anacortes oil refinery, 80 miles (129 km) north of the city, Tesoro confirmed.

The derailment comes at a pivotal moment for the booming crude-by-rail industry, which has come under intense scrutiny after a series of accidents over the past 18 months.

While small in comparison to recent explosive oil train derailments, Thursday's accident occurred a day after the U.S. Department of Transportation issued new safety proposals governing the transport of crude by rail, including phasing out older unsafe tank cars.

The rail cars that derailed were the CP-1232 model that meets the latest federal safety standards, BNSF said. The train is expected to be back on the track later on Thursday and the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Washington State has become a leading destination for crude-by-rail cargoes from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, which produces oil that is lighter and more volatile than other grades of crude, according to recent government tests.

As many as 19 trains per week carrying Bakken crude oil transited through the state in recent months, according to BNSF data provided to emergency responders in Washington State, as required by a federal executive order this year.

Seattle authorities and residents have become skittish about the growing traffic. Seattle's city council in February passed a resolution urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to strengthen regulations and phase out older tank cars.

The Department of Transportation on Wednesday proposed that older cars be phased out in a staggered manner over five years.

Seattle's resolution also urged the state to assess the safety, environmental and economic risks tied to oil-by-rail traffic through the city and the state.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee has asked the state Department of Ecology to analyze those risks, including Bakken crude volatility, and develop spill response plans. That study is slated to wrap up in October.

There is already opposition to new crude-by-rail projects in the state, including Tesoro’s proposed railport in Vancouver, Washington.

By Brandon Baker  EcoWatch

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced details Wednesday of a proposal to make crude oil transportation safer, in a bid to prevent more derailments and the threats that accompany them.

The proposal would phase out older DOT 111 tank cars that ship packing group I flammable liquids, a category that includes most Bakken crude oil. Retrofitting the tank cars to comply with new standards is the only way that wouldn’t be phased out.

Other elements of the proposal include braking controls, lower speed laws and a testing program for mined gases and liquids.

“Safety is our top priority, which is why I’ve worked aggressively to improve the safe transport of crude oil and other hazardous materials since my first week in office,” DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx said. “While we have made unprecedented progress through voluntary agreements and emergency orders, today’s proposal represents our most significant progress yet in developing and enforcing new rules to ensure that all flammable liquids, including Bakken crude and ethanol, are transported safely.”

The proposal is subject to 60 days of public comment. The proposal is based on an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in September that received more than 150,000 comments. Here are some highlights of Wednesday’s proposal:

•  Carriers would be required to perform a routing analysis for high-hazard flammable trains (HHFTs) that would consider 27 safety and security factors and select a route based on findings of the route’s analysis.

• HHFTs that contain any tank cars that don’t meet enhanced tank car standards would be required to choose one of three speed restrictions: A 40-miles-per-hour maximum speed restriction in all areas; a 40-mph speed restriction in “high-threat urban areas”; or a 40-mph speed restriction in areas with populations of 100,000 or more.

• All HHFTs would be equipped with alternative brake signal propagation systems. Depending on the outcome of the tank car standard proposal and implementation timing, all HHFTs would be operated with either electronic controlled pneumatic brakes, a two-way end of train device or distributed power.

More crude oil was spilled from rail cars in 2013 than in the previous four decades combined. The trend continued this year with derailments like one that spilled thousands of crude oil gallons into the James River in Virginia.

The DOT in February issued an emergency order requiring all shippers to test product from the Bakken region to ensure the proper classification of crude oil before it was transported by rail.

Read the original article here.

By Brett VandenHeuvel  Columbia Riverkeeper

In remembrance of the one-year anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic oil train tragedy that killed 47 people, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) raised a banner from cranes today calling out unfair labor practices and protesting unsafe oil at the Port of Vancouver in Washington.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union raised a banner from cranes calling out unfair labor practices and protesting unsafe oil at the Port of Vancouver in Washington.The Port of Vancouver is under intense scrutiny because it has not supported the locked-out ILWU Local 4 who have worked the docks in Vancouver since 1937. The port refuses to assist the ILWU during a labor dispute with the multinational United Grain Corporation. 

At the same time, the port is trying to ram through a dangerous and dirty crude-by-rail terminalproposed by Tesoro. This terminal would send 42 percent of the capacity of the Keystone XL pipeline—360,000 barrels per day—by train to Vancouver, where the oil would be loaded onto oceangoing vessels to sail down the Columbia River. The ILWU has taken a stand against the massive crude-by-rail project.

“Longshoreman would be the guys tying up and letting the ships go, but our local said, ‘no, the risk isn’t worth the reward,’” said Cager Clabaugh, president of the Local 4, ILWU. “We don’t believe in jobs at any cost.” 

The 1,500 square foot banner read:

Unfair grain

Unsafe oil

Community

Under Attack

The ILWU Local 4 is requesting people call Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to ask him to end the labor lockout and reject the Tesoro oil terminal. Now is the time for labor and enviros to stand together for clean water and safe working conditions.

Read the original article here. 

CASSELTON, N.D. — Kerry’s Kitchen is where Casselton residents gather for gossip and comfort food, especially the caramel rolls baked fresh every morning. But a fiery rail accident last month only a half mile down the tracks, which prompted residents to evacuate the town, has shattered this calm, along with people’s confidence in the crude-oil convoys that rumble past Kerry’s seven times a day.

What was first seen as a stopgap measure in the absence of pipelines has become a fixture in the nation’s energy landscape — about 200 “virtual pipelines” that snake in endless processions across the horizon daily. It can take more than five minutes for a single oil train, made up of about 100 tank cars, to pass by Kerry’s, giving this bedroom community 20 miles west of Fargo a front-row seat to the growing practice of using trains to carry oil.

“I feel a little on edge — actually very edgy — every time one of those trains passes,” said Kerry Radermacher, who owns the coffee shop. “Most people think we should slow the production, and the trains, down.”

Casselton is near the center of the great oil and gas boom unleashed these last few years. And it has seen up close how trains have increasingly been used to transport the oil from the new fields of Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota, in part as a result of delays in the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. About 400,000 carloads of crude oil traveled by rail last year to the nation’s refineries, up from 9,500 in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads.

But a series of recent accidents — including one in Quebec last July that killed 47 people and another in Alabama last November — have prompted many to question these shipments and have increased the pressure on regulators to take an urgent look at the safety of the oil shipments.

In the race for profits and energy independence, critics say producers took shortcuts to get the oil to market as quickly as possible without weighing the hazards of train shipments. Today about two-thirds of the production in North Dakota’s Bakken shale oil field rides on rails because of a shortage of pipelines. And more than 10 percent of the nation’s total oil production is shipped by rail. Since March there have been no fewer than 10 large crude spills in the United States and Canada because of rail accidents. The number of gallons spilled in the United States last year, federal records show, far outpaced the total amount spilled by railroads from 1975 to 2012.

Railroad executives, meeting with the transportation secretary and federal regulators recently, pledged to look for ways to make oil convoys safer — including slowing down the trains or rerouting them from heavily populated areas. (Trains go up to roughly 35 miles an hour through towns and at higher speeds outside populated areas.) They also agreed to speed up a review of tougher standards for the train cars used for oil. And last Thursday, safety officials urged regulators to quickly improve industry standards.

“This is an industry that has developed overnight, and they have been playing catch-up with the infrastructure,” said Deborah A. P. Hersman, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Casselton accident. “A lot of what we’ve seen could have been a lot worse.”

But given the fragmented nature of the business — different companies produce the oil, own the rail cars, and run the railroads — there is no firm consensus on what to do. And few analysts expect new regulations this year.

“There was no political pressure to address this issue in the past, but there clearly is now,” said Brigham A. McCown, a former administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. “Producers need to understand that rail-car safety can become an impediment to production.”

The stakes are high. In five years, domestic oil production has jumped by 50 percent, to reach 7.5 million barrels a day last year.

But with little pipeline infrastructure, energy producers had to scramble for new ways to get their oil to refiners. Rail was the answer.

“The reality is that this came out of nowhere,” said Anthony B. Hatch, a rail transport consultant. “Rail has gone from near-obsolescence to being critical to oil supplies. It’s as if the buggy-whips were back in style.”

Far more toxic products are shipped on trains. But those products, like chlorine, are transported in pressurized vessels designed to survive an accident. Crude oil, on the other hand, is shipped in a type of tank car that entered service in 1964 and that has been traditionally used for nonflammable hazardous liquids like liquid fertilizers.

Safety officials have warned for more than two decades that these cars were unsuited to carry flammable cargo: their shell can puncture and tears up too easily in a crash.

In 2009, a train carrying ethanol derailed and exploded, killing one person in Cherry Valley, Ill. The National Transportation Safety Board said the inadequate design of the tank cars made them “subject to damage and catastrophic loss of hazardous materials.”

After that accident, railroads and car owners agreed in 2011 to beef up new cars with better protections and thicker steel. But they resisted improving safety features on the existing fleet because of cost. They also argued that thousands of new cars were being ordered anyway, so it would be just a matter of time before the fleet was replaced.

But analysts said that time has run out; railroads and car owners can no longer ignore the liabilities associated with oil trains, which could reach $1 billion in the Quebec accident.

“Quebec shocked the industry,” Mr. Hatch said, adding that while rail safety has improved over all, “the consequences of any accident are rising.”

Last November, the Association of American Railroads said it would support requiring that the 92,000 tank cars used to transport flammable liquids, including crude oil, be retrofitted with better safety features or “aggressively phased out.”

Still, other groups have resisted. The Railway Supply Institute, which represents freight car owners, told regulators three weeks before the Casselton accident that existing cars “already provide substantial protection in the event of a derailment” and suggested minor modifications to be phased in over 10 years.

While the safety record of railroads has improved in recent years, the surge in oil transportation has meant a spike in spill rates. From 1975 to 2012, federal records show, railroads spilled 800,000 gallons of crude oil. Last year alone, they spilled more than 1.15 million gallons, according to an analyis of data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration done by McClatchy Newspapers. That figure includes the Casselton spill, estimated at about 400,000 gallons.

The accidents have also created a sense of weariness among elected officials and even staunch oil backers.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, insisted that the first priority was improving tank cars. “These exploding tank cars are obviously very powerful and very dangerous,” he said.

The accidents have brought another problem to light. Crude oil produced in the Bakken appears to be a lot more volatile than other grades of oil, something that could explain why the oil trains have had huge explosions.

Here too, the warnings came too late.

Federal regulators started analyzing samples from a few Bakken wells last year to test their flammability. In an alert issued on Jan. 2, P.H.M.S.A. said the crude posed a “significant fire risk” in an accident.

The Federal Railroad Administration also pointed to rising numbers of oil cars that showed a “form of severe corrosion” on the inside of the tanks, covers and valves.

After the recent meeting with regulators, the American Petroleum Institute pledged it would share its own test data about the oil, which they have said is proprietary.

While the tank cars themselves have not caused any accident, they failed to contain their cargo. That happened on the outskirts of Casselton when a 106-car oil train crashed into a soybean train that derailed on a parallel track.

In a preliminary report, the N.T.S.B. said 18 of the 20 oil tank cars that derailed were punctured. Much of the oil spilled was incinerated by the explosions, and some soaked into nearby corn fields.

Aside from evacuating nearby farms, there was little the fire department could do but watch the train burn.

Tim McLean, Casselton’s fire chief, pictured what the town would look like if an oil train derailed. The large propane supply tank would explode “like a bomb” and incinerate two multifamily houses next to it. Five blocks to the west are a lumber yard and two gasoline stations. Oil might accumulate in storm sewers and possibly spread a fire underground.

“There’s virtually no way we could protect these buildings,” he said as he passed the barber shops, drugstore and pizza parlor, all occupying sturdy brick buildings more than a century old. “It would be too hot.”

The terror of what might have happened hit many here immediately.

Adrian Kieffer, the assistant fire chief, rushed to the accident and spent nearly 12 hours there, finishing at 3 a.m. “When I got home that night, my wife said let’s sell our home and move,” he said.

Correction: February 2, 2014 
An article last Sunday about the dangers posed by increased shipping of crude oil by rail omitted credit for a data analysis showing the quantity of oil spilled in rail shipments in 2013. It was done by McClatchy Newspapers, using data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. It was not analyzed by the administration itself. In addition, an accompanying chart omitted a label in one section. The bar chart of oil freight rail cars should have indicated the numbers were in thousands. The article also described the Casselton spill incorrectly in relation to last year’s spillage. The 400,000 gallons spilled at Casselton was included in the overall 1.15 million gallons spilled; it was not excluded. And a credit for a picture of a fiery rail accident in Casselton, N.D., in December misidentified the photographer. The picture was taken by Dawn Faught, a local photographer — not by the son of a coffee shop owner on whose phone it appeared.

By Ben Jervey

As a direct result of the Bakken shale oil boom, more crude oil was spilled from rail cars last year than in the previous four decades combined. That’s according to a McClatchy analysis of federal data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which governs rail transport of liquid fuels like crude.

The analysis revealed more than 1.15 million gallons of crude spilled in 2013, considerably more than the 800,000 gallons spilled from 1975 (when the government started collecting data on spills) to 2012.

The rail industry likes to boast a 99.99 percent success rate in delivery shipments without incident, and that number remained consistent in 2013, with 1.15 million of the roughly 11.5 billion gallons shipped by rail being spilled. What did change was the volume of actual crude being shipped by rail.

As we’ve covered before, there is a massive boom in crude-by-rail throughout North America, with a nearly 2400-percent increase in crude railcar shipments in five short years from 2008-2012. As it turned out, 2013 was another record-setting year.

These charts from the Association of American Railroads and the U.S. Energy Information Association show the trend pretty clearly:  (View the charts and read the full article by clicking here.)

Railroad companies don’t want the public to know about shipments of crude oil chugging through their communities but some states, including Washington and Idaho, have refused to get on board.

Shipments of volatile materials have long been shrouded in secrecy, but a series of fiery – and sometimes deadly – derailments triggered a federal order for greater disclosure. However, BNSF Railway, Union Pacific and CSX, with an assist from the feds, are asking states to keep the information from the public.

California and other states may cooperate. Thankfully, Washington and Idaho won’t, saying secrecy would violate public records laws. Oregon hasn’t decided what to do.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued the emergency federal order in May, shortly after three CSX rail cars carrying crude oil plunged into the James River at Lynchburg, Virginia. Unbeknownst to city leaders, at least one shipment of crude passed through the city each day.

In the past year, five major derailments have occurred in North America, the worst being the tragedy in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people.

Under the federal order, railroad companies had until last Friday to report information to states about crude oil shipments of at least 1 million gallons – or about 35 cars – from the vast Bakken fields of North Dakota, Montana and Canada. Crude from that source has proven to be more volatile. Details requested include route details, volume and emergency response information.

The companies complied, but they also tried to persuade states to enter into nondisclosure agreements, according to the Associated Press. Unfortunately, the feds abetted this position by sending notice to the states that first responders could see the information, but that anyone else would be informed on a “need to know” basis.

Initially, Washington state’s Emergency Response Commission was going to immediately post the oil train information online, but now the state’s plan is to send the information to county emergency managers and require a public records request from others. If a request is made, the railroad companies are notified and given time to block it in court.

We’ll soon see how that plays out, because McClatchy News Service filed a records request on Monday. The state’s given BNSF until June 24 to respond. If necessary, we expect the attorney general’s office to fight hard for the public’s right to know.

The railroad companies say it’s important to keep shipment details of potentially dangerous materials secret, for fear of terrorist attacks. But long oil trains can’t be hidden. An activist group in Everett recently conducted a weeklong count and had no trouble spotting them.

It’s no secret that the number of oil trains has surged in recent years. The rail industry needs to demonstrate that it can safely handle the increased traffic and that it isn’t afraid of sharing information.

Secrecy doesn’t calm anyone; it just derails trust.

Traffic increase raises fears of harm - and even possible disaster

by Cate Huisman  Sandpoint Magazine summer 2014

Train traffic through Sandpoint is a familiar part of our heritage. We’re used to hearing train whistles in the distance, and if we have to wait occasionally for a train to pass, it’s a modest price to pay for the efficiency of rail shipment.

But our relationship with trains is on track to change.

Coal and oil shipments through town have increased dramatically in the past five years, and three major coal and eight oil-shipping facilities are currently under consideration for construction in Oregon and Washington. If all of them were built, train traffic through our town could double from the increased numbers already in place.
This prospect has raised alarms not only in Sandpoint but in other communities along the tracks.

In Bonner County, there are an astounding 144 “at-grade” crossings where we wait for trains to pass. A report by the group Forest Ethics states, “Communities with trains running through them could face an increase of more than four hours a day of waiting at the tracks if all the oil-by-rail and coal train proposals come to fruition.” More chilling is the effect these trains will have on emergency response times, as ambulances and fire trucks will need to wait more often.
Pollution is another concern. Coal dust blowing off uncovered coal cars has the potential to foul both our air and our water as trains pass along waterways such as Lake Pend Oreille. Derailments could dump coal or oil directly into the lake, and although coal is an organic substance, it contains traces of toxins, including arsenic, mercury and lead, that can leach into the water. Exhaust from the five diesel engines necessary to pull each mile-long train will also contribute to air pollution.

A derailment of a volatile oil train, followed by an explosion, is the scariest proposition. Within the past year, oil train accidents have caused fiery explosions in Alabama, North Dakota, New Brunswick, Canada, and Quebec, Canada, where 47 people were killed and a significant portion of the town of Lac-Mégantic was destroyed.

“These suddenly focused attention on the very real danger of a highly volatile oil product, in contrast to the export of coal that is bad in a less obvious way,” said Gary Payton, an active environmental advocate in Sandpoint.

The movement of goods by train is controlled by shippers at one end and receivers at the other, and for those of us in the middle, options are limited. Given the magnitude of concern, communities along the tracks have begun to act, including Sandpoint.

The City Council in the past year has passed resolutions insisting that federal standards be created to track chemical components of rail shipments, that safety regulations for tank cars be implemented, and that plans for response to a derailment be reviewed and include the city in the process.

Taking a longer view, the resolutions request also that “potential impacts to Sandpoint’s public safety, environment, economy, and traffic” be included in environmental reviews of the proposed shipping terminals. Such reviews are required by federal law, but in some cases they cover only environmental effects at the location of the terminal itself.  The process of completing these reviews is complex, says Payton, and will last for the next several years.

In the meantime, other cities have passed resolutions as well. The City of Sandpoint, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper and Idaho Conservation League are working with towns along the tracks to raise their awareness.

Go online to www.idahoconservation.org or www.lakependoreille waterkeeper.org to learn more about those efforts.