From Stark
It’s shaping up to be a busy day on the boats and trains beat.
At 1:25 p.m., the City Council’s Lake Whatcom committee will get a staff report on the impact of closing the Bloedel-Donovan Park boat launch until a system of inspecting and decontaminating boats can be set up. In past meetings, council members have expressed serious concerns about the risk that boats will introduce zebra and quagga mussels into the lake, which would be a bad thing.
The staff report doesn’t appear to provide much support for a closure. It notes that 300 to 500 boats may use the launch on a busy summer day, but it also observes that “most of those boaters will seek and use other points of access to launch into the lake.”
The report also notes that extra police officers would likely need to be assigned to the park to enforce the closure, and that would be expensive.
At 1:55 p.m., the council will discuss Communitywise Bellingham’s report on potentially disruptive effects from rail capacity improvements that might be required to accommodate the flow of Powder River Basin coal trains to a proposed Cherry Point terminal.
On Sunday, we reported on some of the complexities of railroad freight operations. BNSF officials say they can get the trains through town without constructing a massive siding that would cut off Boulevard Park, among other things. But to me at least, the situation is murky.
I did turn up a little-noticed rail capacity study completed in late 2011 for a coalition of Washington state ports that did not include Bellingham. That study, like previous state studies about rail capacity in this region, anticipates the need for additional sidings between Everett and the border to meet demand.
Here’s the link to the 2011 study.
Both committee meetings are in council chambers at City Hall, 210 Lottie St.
Speaking of ports, the nice people at our own Port of Bellingham have decided that this would be a good week for commissioners to meet on Monday instead of Tuesday. But let’s save that for the next post.
Have any of the local organizations who are concerned about the effects of boating in this matter stepped up to offer at least informational leafletting at the boat launch or a little peer pressure by offering non confrontational voluntary inspections? Why always run to the cops or expect government to ante up? The Lake Whatcom Pledge, years ago, was a good move to make people aware. Why not make them partners in this awareness. And why not encourage anyone to report registration/license numbers to the Sheriff if a questionable vessel is launched? Lord knows all those guys do is joy ride on their jet skis, usually missing what is going on around them.
Zebra mussels are not Asian clams. You may need to see it to believe the masses that form below the water line on every piling and rock.
It doesn’t seem to follow logically that police enforcement would be necessary. In Bellingham, there are laws against letting unleashed dogs run through the parks, littering, distracted driving while talking on a cell phone, running red lights and stop signs, etc., none of which are observed by Hamsters or strictly enforced by our government. Whether or not there are police or cameras present, some will be selfishly ignorant of the law. Better to publish a law ASAP and let the community internalize and enforce this new norm for ourselves.