America's Most Endangered Rivers 2014

 American Rivers protects wild rivers, restores damaged rivers, and conserves clean water for people and nature.  Since 1973, American Rivers has protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and an annual America's Most Endangered Rivers campaign.  

 This morning river conservation organization brought our efforts to protect the Wild and Scenic corridor to even greater national attention by announcing the designation of the Lochsa and Middle Fork Clearwater rivers as among America's Most Endangered Rivers.  This designation shines "a national spotlight on the threat that megaload shipments bound for the Canadian tar sands pose to the rivers' unique Wild and Scenic character."  Further, American Rivers and its partners urge the US Forest Service to stop industrialization of the Lochsa-Clearwater U.S.12 corridor by banning megaload transports.

You can help protect our rivers by personally writing to Tom Tidwell, the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service ttidwell@fs.fed.us 

Or respond to the Take Action call via the American Rivers website

American Rivers protects wild rivers, restores damaged rivers, and conserves clean water for people and nature. Since 1973, American Rivers has protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and an annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers® campaign. - See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/about/#sthash.9TuJgBJo.dpuf

Thank you!

 



 

The Wild and Scenic rivers’ coldwater fisheries, scenery, and whitewater are threatened by industrialization that would bring huge megaloads bound for Canadian tar sands onto narrow roads beside the rivers. - See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/endangered-rivers/#sthash.z6qPowII.dpuf

The Wild and Scenic rivers’ coldwater fisheries, scenery, and whitewater are threatened by industrialization that would bring huge megaloads bound for Canadian tar sands onto narrow roads beside the rivers. - See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/endangered-rivers/#sthash.z6qPowII.dpuf

March Megaload News

Recent Megaload News:

Thursday night Omega Morgan/GE megaload #3 was blocked on Reserve Street in Missoula, Montana by about 80 protesters.  To-date OM #3 has been trudging along for no fewer than 34 days.  

Missoula women arrested during megaload protest, Missoulian, 3/21/14

The women...joined members of Indian Peoples Action, Northern Rockies Rising Tide and the Blue Skies Campaign in...bringing the shipment to a stop for about 20 minutes...  Indian People's Action... released a statement saying, “We are standing in solidarity with our cousins of the Nez Perce tribe, the Umatilla, and the cousins to the north whose lives are being drastically affected by the destructive nature of the needless extraction of tar sands. This is leaving the land uninhabitable and our people with no place to go.”...  Read more.

Keystone XL in the News:

On April 22nd, a group of ranchers, farmers and tribal communities from along the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline route, called the Cowboy Indian Alliance, will ride into Washington DC...  On April 27th, thousands...will join them to stand together for a final message that the Keystone XL pipeline and the tar sands must be rejected...  See more and join the march here.

'Cowboy Indian Alliance' will ride to D.C. for 'Reject And Protect' Keystone XL Protest, Brianna Elliott, Huffington Post, 3/11/14...  

This rally gives a voice to the communities that would be most impacted by Keystone XL, and their message is clear -- to protect land, water and climate now and for future generations. The Keystone XL would cross several rivers and the Ogallala Aquifer, which would put wildlife, public water supplies and croplands in danger if a spill were to occur...  Activists have mounted increasing pressure on the Obama administration to reject the project, delivering over two million comments on March 7 following a series of mass arrests in front of the White House...  Read more.

Another firm that evaluated Keystone for State Department had ties to TransCanada, Huffington Post, 3/13/14...  The contractor that evaluated greenhouse gas emissions for the State Department's Keystone XL report is the latest company to come under fire for its ties to TransCanada, the prospective builder of the controversial pipeline...  Read more.

Megaload Tar Sands Boondoggle

Megaload Tar Sands Boondoggle 

by Jim Fetter

(Printed here with cartoonist's permission.)

Otter's blast at Judge Winmill: He's not one of us 

 Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman, 2/13/14

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter says U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill is out of touch with Idaho values, including freedom and the marketplace...  Otter “urged people to understand their votes matter in coming elections because public officials are responsible for appointing judges like Idaho U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who he said might not share Idaho’s values”...  It’s not every day a governor questions the values of an Idaho federal judge...  Among Winmill’s notable cases:...  delaying megaload transports over U.S. Highway 12 and ordering the U.S. Forest Service to assess environmental impacts...  Read more.

RCCI Withdrawals Mega-Load Appeal

 On Thursday, October 24th Resources Conservation Company International (RCCI) withdrew both its emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and its full appeal on behalf of General Electric!
Judge Winmill's ruling that the Forest Service must issue a Closure Order to all Omega Morgan mega-load shipments until the agency has conducted a review of impacts to the area and consulted with the Nez Perce Tribe now stands unchallenged!
Two years ago, ExxonMobil's attempt to transport mega-loads on Highway 12 failed in the face of fierce opposition, and now GE has folded.
The message is clear – US Highway 12 is not open to mega-loads.
  A huge thank you Idaho Rivers United, the Nez Perce Tribe and Advocates for the West; as well as to all the many brave citizens who live, work and recreate along the Clearwater-Lochsa and let their voices be heard!

Here's another opportunity to speak out in favor of protecting the beautiful Wild and Scenic Lochsa River.  
In 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act into law, he said:
"In the past 50 years, we have learned -- all too slowly, I think -- to prize and protect ... precious gifts.  Because we have, our own children and grandchildren will come to know and come to love the great forests and the wild rivers that we have protected and left to them. ... An unspoiled river is a very rare thing in this Nation today. Their flow and vitality have been harnessed by dams and too often they have been turned into open sewers by communities and by industries. It makes us all very fearful that all rivers will go this way unless somebody acts now to try to balance our river development."
 Tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect the Wild and Scenic Lochsa-Clearwater from industrialization by multinational tar sands corporations!

A Win for Wild and Scenic Highway 12 in Court

Judge Winmill has granted the Nez Perce Tribe & Idaho Rivers United's requested preliminary injunction and ordered the Forest Service to issue a close of Highway 12 to Omega Morgan's megaloads until the corridor study and tribal consultation are complete.  Read the decision here.

Beautiful Lochsa Corridor

Photo by Roger Inghram

A message from Advocates for the West about the ruling:

Chief US District Judge Winmill rejected the Forest Service's claim that they had authority "to review but not enforce" scenic values protected in the Clearwater/Lochsa Wild and Scenic corridor. As we argued, the court agreed that the Forest Service's position was "obviously...an erroneous reading of the Court's [February 2013] decision."

The decision goes on to say that by allowing an initial General Electric mega-load to pass through Hwy 12 on the week of August 5th, the Forest Service ignored its own rules on oversized loads within the Wild and Scenic River corridor and willingly chose to abdicate their statutory responsibilities.

And, in response to the Nez Perce Tribe's involvement in the case, Judge Winmill's decision states: "The Court also finds that they [Nez Perce Tribe] are likely to suffer irreparable harm if no injunction is issued. The plaintiffs are not seeking damages; they are seeking to preserve their Treaty rights along with cultural and intrinsic values that have no price tag."

The decision also addresses defendant Resources Conservation Company International's (RCCI) claim that their company stands to lose over $5 million if they are not allowed passage through Hwy 12. The Court places the blame of that loss squarely on the defendant, stating: "RCCI decided...to proceed before the Forest Service could complete its corridor study and consultation with the Tribe. In other words, RCCI knowingly put its loads into a position where the company would incur $5 million in losses if it must wait for the Forest Service review."

The court injunction will not affect normal traffic on Hwy 12 at all; it only closes the route to mega-loads. This is a truly incredible victory for all of us. The Court's decision sends a clear message that we will not be bullied by corporate Goliaths such as GE, Omega Morgan, and ExxonMobil.

Permission for Megaloads Ignored Nez Perce Treaty Rights

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/09/08/2748910/permission-for-megaloads-ignored.html#storylink=cp

". . .This road along the Nez Perce trail is incomparable in its beauty, as well as its cultural value to the Nez Perce people. Its historical and cultural importance to the U.S. public is extraordinary. People who travel this route can feel its immense intrinsic value; the state of Idaho touts the unique nature and appeal of this corridor for tourism and recreation.

However, some Canadian and outside interests look at this route and see dollar signs in transport savings — for them. We are told of the wonderful opportunities of commerce this will bring.

The Nez Perce Tribe knows better. We have heard similar promises before. The travel of more than 1,000 of these megaloads, as is rumored, through one of the most pristine and spectacular areas in America is not genuine commerce. It is your Wall Street neighbor driving across your lawn, so that he can get to work five minutes faster and make a little more money — for him.*

The tribe has made its position on this issue known to the United States and the state of Idaho. The tribe has been ignored by the outside interests who will reap profits at the expense of the region’s resources. This exclusion led to frustration that spilled over into acts of civil disobedience so the tribal voice was heard. The tribe refuses to be excluded any longer. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday in U.S. District Court, Boise. ..."

Read the full article written by Silas C. Whitman, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, in the Idaho Statesman.

If you'll be in Boise on Monday, September 9th please consider attending the Nez Perce Tribe Rally 
on the west steps of the State Capitol at 1pm 
as well as the megaload injunction hearing at 4:30 p.m.
at the Federal Courthouse, 550 W. Fort Street, Boise

*Emphasis on this statement added for the purpose of this blog and is not printed this way in the Idaho Statesman.

VIDEO PROOF THAT ITD & THE OIL COMAPNIES ARE LYING ABOUT MEGALOAD DELAYS

 

ITD states that in order to receive a permit "Over-legal loads are limited to 15-minute traffic delays."  Anyone who's had the misfortune of being stuck behind or in front of one of these megaloads as they block the highway in both directions knows the wait in many places is much longer than 15 minutes.  Now, a revealing video, taken from a steep hillside above U.S.12's Fish Creek Bridge during early August's Omega Morgan megaload transport, provides proof of ITD's -- and Omega Morgan's -- lie.

The embedded video, "Megaload Through Clearwater Country" documents 29 minutes of a 1-hour-25-minute traffic blockage caused by Omega Morgan, clocked by a citizen timer, witnessed by approximately 75 on-site protesters.

 

Video footage by Roger and Janice Inghram 

Megaload Creates Delay and Protest in the Wild and Scenic Corridor

Thursday night, as the enroute Omega Morgan megaload crawled up Hwy.12 alongside the Wild and Scenic Middlefork Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers, approx. 75 people protested for over an hour at Fish Creek, Hwy.12 Milepost 120.  

At Fish Creek, as per its ITD-approved transport plan, Omega Morgan was required to cross Fish Creek Bridge by unhitching the transport's trucks and using a pull-cable.  By unhitching the trucks, the 644,000 lb. transport was reduced in weight to a point that ITD had determined would not likely damage or break the bridge.  The Fish Creek bridge is listed as a 'bridge of concern.'  

All traffic was blocked for 1 hour 20 minutes during the staging and crossing, while the actual crossing took 43 minutes.  All was observed by the protesters, including 4 NPTEC members and Idaho Rivers United Director Bill Sedivy, and recorded by a Fighting Goliath video camera.

In part because of its overnighting at Syringa, the transport was in the Lochsa-Clearwater Wild & Scenic corridor for 30 hours.  It's actual travel time was 13 hours.  You will recall that 1 of the 3 criteria that would trigger USFS review of megaload permits is that a transport not "require more than 12 hours to traverse US Highway 12 between MP 74 and 174."  However, ITD issued Omega Morgan a permit for the load regardless of the USFS criteria, and Omega Morgan pushed its way into the corridor with complete disregard for the criteria and Federal law.

Early Friday morning, as the transport navigated up the mountainside miles to Lolo Pass, it blocked all traffic, including several commercial trucks and a total of 20+ vehicles, for 40 minutes before crossing into Montana at 7:52 a.m

Idaho Rivers United & the Nez Perce Tribe File New Lawsuit Against the U.S. Forest Service

The lawsuit charges that the U.S. Forest Service’s failure to stop a megaload from entering the river corridor was “arbitrary, capricious, (and) an abuse of discretion.”  Read the full press release

Nez Perce Tribe Protests Illegal Megaload Shipments

Night 1: 

Approximately 150+ blockaders participated on the first night of the Omega Morgan transport.  The megaload transport had launched about 45 minutes late, at 10:45.  As it approached the reservation boundary at about 12:40, the blockaders walked out onto the pavement to block the highway.  The blockaders held back the megaload convoy for almost 2 hours.  The megaload, whose target for the night was Hwy.12 Milepost 38.8, only managed to travel 3 more miles west of the blockade.  It's total miles, 11 miles, was 27.8 miles short of its target.

Every member of the Nez Perce Tribe Executive Committee and several other people were arrested.  Others were forcefully removed by police from the blockade and taken to the sidelines.  Some were threatened with mace.

Night 2:

More than 100 Nez Perces and others had created a 2 1/2-hour human road block that, for a second night, halted the Omega Morgan megaload.  As the megaload eventually became able to inch forward, the blockaders became a moving roadblock tightly bottlenecking the transport, moving with it, and preventing it from gaining even modest speed.  The number of police officers at the scene was estimated to be double that of last night, perhaps as many as 40, and about a half dozen people were arrested.

The Nez Perces staged tonight's blockade at Hwy.12 Milepost 11, below the legendary Ant & Yellowjacket rock archway perched above the highway about 2 miles upriver from the transport's launch point. The site is 1 of 38 Nez Perce National Historical Park sites strung along a 4-state route.  One concern of the Nez Perces and other anti-megaload activists has been the effect of ground vibrations created by transports as immensely heavy as the Omega Morgan megaload.  Complete with load, trailer, trucks, etc., the transport weighs 644,000 pounds, and ground vibrations theoretically over time could loosen rock and cliff structures alongside and above Hwy.12.

Ant & Yellow Jacket

picture from Nez Perce Historical Park

Night 3:

As the megaload left Mile 38.8 below Orofino, for the third night, the Nez Perces blockaded it.  More police officers preceded the megaload than the previous 2 nights, and they aggressively drove their vehicles towards the blockade in an attempt to force the blockaders into retreating.  When the Nez Perces held their ground, officers approached on foot, shouted "get off the road," and physically pushed some of the protesters toward the roadside.  Yet the Nez Perces remained in a group and gradually began to move backwards, intentionally slowly, as the police vehicles and megaload convoy were relegated to following at a snail's pace for a mile or two through the Riverside area of Orofino.

 

The Omega Morgan megaload reached Hwy. 12 Milepost 90, Syringa, last night, within the Clearwater National Forest and the Wild & Scenic Middlefork corridor.  They did that by breaking the stipulations of their permit & filed travel plan.  Instead of stopping regularly to let traffic pass, as required, they held all cars traveling east hostage behind 2 Idaho State Police vehicles, who led what was at one point 40+ personal vehicles and forced them to travel at 0-17 mph speeds for 51.2 miles.  In other words, corporate Canada 'owned' and controlled your highway last night, aided by state police.

According to their plan, Omega Morgan's target destination had been the Kooskia kiosk station.  However, apparently they felt they would be beyond more Nez Perce blockades if they could get farther up the highway.  They are parked in a large private lot owned by Terry & Becky Jackson.  Terry is the person who -- for pay -- lifts the tram cable that crosses the highway at Milepost 83 so megaloads can pass under it.

Idaho Officials Disregard Nez Perce Tribe and U.S Forest Service in Attempts to Please Multi-National Corporations

Links to this video and more from the Nez Perce Tribal Council

ITD’s recently issued permits to megaload transporter Omega Morgan come after the recent court ruling, requiring Forest Service oversight of megaload traffic.  The USFS District Manager, Rick Brazell warned the heavy-haul company that the agency does not authorize the shipment through the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forests.

Brazell also accused the company of ignoring language in the state permit outlining Forest Service and Federal Highway Administration jurisdiction.

The Nez Perce Tribe also opposes this megaload shipment through their reservation and ancestral homelands.  

 “The tribe is shocked by Omega Morgan’s audacity," Nez Perce Tribal Chairman Silas Whitman said in a news release Monday. “The company has apparently decided it does not need to wait for Forest Service review or tribal consultation to move General Electric’s loads."  Read More

Idaho Rivers United Press Release 8-8-13

Release - Megaload enters Wild & Scenic corridor.pdf

BOISE — An unauthorized megaload traveling Highway 12 in north Idaho barreled through the Nez Perce Reservation last night and entered U.S. Forest Service land and the Wild and Scenic River corridor. It finally stopped at Syringa near Milepost 90, 16 miles into the Wild and Scenic River corridor. “This is a sad day for Idaho. The Idaho Transportation Department, Omega Morgan and their Canadian clients have blatantly disregarded the wishes and regulations of the Forest Service and the wishes and requests of the Nez Perce Tribe,” said IRU Executive Director Bill Sedivy. IRU Conservation Director Kevin Lewis said IRU is pursuing legal options. “The Nez Perce Tribe has done an excellent job protesting this load’s shipment across the reservation, and now the load has entered public land and the Wild and Scenic River corridor,” he said. “This is a clear violation of the U.S. Forest Service’s order denying shipment across public land. We are consulting with our attorneys this morning and plan to proceed to protect the tribe’s homeland and our Wild and Scenic Rivers.”

 

 

Highway 12: A Timeline

After the recent victory for Highway 12's Wild and Scenic corridor in a Boise courtroom, we thought it would be a good time to present a timeline of Highway 12 from it's creation to the present:

1961-1962: U.S. Highway 12 was built and paved through Idaho and into Montana.

1968: With passage of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, eight of the nation's most pristine rivers were designated Wild & Scenic. Among them were three Idaho rivers: the Selway & Lochsa, which join to form the third, the Middlefork Clearwater. For about 90 miles, the latter two -- Lochsa and MF Clearwater -- flow immediately alongside Hwy.12, and at Milepost 97, the Selway flows in from the southeast.

1995: The USFS, which has jurisdiction over these three rivers and the wild corridors through which they run granted a highway management easement to the Idaho Department of Transportation. Many residents, fearful that ITD would ignore Wild & Scenic protection mandates, spoke against the easement. In 1997, some revisions were written into the easement. Five small stretches of the highway were inadvertently, or otherwise, left out and remain left out today.

2008-2010: "Improvements" were madeon Highway 12, including the widening and rock filling of some turnouts, projects partially paid for by Exxon Mobil/Imperial Oil.

2010, spring: ITD and Exxon/Imperial made public a proposal to ship 200+ tarsands modules on U.S.12. Following consultations with Idaho Rivers United and Friends of the Clearwater, The Rural People of Highway 12 Fighting Goliath was launched, and in Montana, NoShipmentsNetwork and All Against the Haul, among others, had entered the fray. Numerous organizations and hundreds of individuals joined the anti-megaload fight, and Advocates for the West lawyer Natalie Havlina and director Laird Lucas began documenting developments.   An Idaho District Court win involving ConocoPhillips' shipments, followed by a Supreme Court appeal, two unsuccessful contested cases (but that caused significant and costly time delays for the corporations), a court case win in Montana that stopped Exxon/Imperial in its tracks, protests, monitorings, comments and letters, and so much more. And then ...

 

2011, March: IRU filed its lawsuit against the USFS & FHWA.

 

2012, December: The Nez Perce Tribe filed a motion for amicus status in the case.

 

2013, Feb. 6th: Advocates for the West's Laird Lucas presented final arguments before U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, and Tribal lawyer Michael Lopez argued for amicus status.

 

2013, Feb. 7th: Judge Winmill ruled in IRU's favor. 

 

Now: With the IRU win secured, all of us must remain engaged in order to ensure that the USFS does step up to protect the Wild & Scenic Lochsa--Middlefork Clearwater corridor from the kind of industrialization megaload transports would bring.

 
 Recent Articles about case:

   The Mega-Myth About Mega-Loads

  equities.com: If not industrial corridor's demise, something close

  Judge Sides with Conservationists in Mega-Load Case

Megaload Accidents: Public Safety at Risk - A Year in Review

Likely you've learned of the Imperial/Exxon megaload-and-van crash that occurred Dec. 6th on U.S. Hwy. 95 south of Moscow ID. (KLEWTV article). In response to that crash and other megaload-related incidents, citizens are raising questions of safety. The public has reason for concern because those incidents are adding up:

ConocoPhillips' megaload cliff collision at U.S.12 Milepost 52 and resulting 1-hour highway closure. (article)

Imperial/Exxon's "test module" collision with a large tree branch in Lewiston and its collision with a guy wire at U.S.12 Milepost 46.5 resulting in a 5-hour electrical outage for hundreds of people and 1-hour highway closure. (article)

Nickel Bros. Nov. 1st-2nd unreported megaload's unsuccessful attempt to regain access to Highway 12 from the Kooskia kiosk parking area at Milepost 73.9, which resulted in Nickel Bros.' having to put the load on blocks and repair the damaged dolly transporter.

A Ryash Transport incident on Highway 200 in Montana involving a motorhome whose side mirror was scraped off and whose passengers' safety was compromised by a megaload. (article)

A Nickel Bros. megaload incident on Highway 287 in Montana involving a heart attack victim traveling to the ER who was forced to wait for the megaload (article). (This megaload had first traveled U.S.12 through Idaho.)

Crash #1 on U.S.95 involving an Imperial/Exxon convoy and private driver Frank Bybee, who says the lack of a flagger with a "stop" sign and the presence of bright blinding convoy lights were factors in the accident in which he ran into a car "I couldn't see" that was moving slowly towards the convoy.

Crash #2 on U.S.95 involving an Imperial/Exxon megaload whose driver mistakenly moved forward and crashed into the van of private driver James Irquidez. The van was totaled and Irquidez notes that he was nearly killed. (LMT article & photo, AP article, AP followup article)

Multiple citizen-driver accounts describing confusion caused by the "unsafe" traffic control management procedures of megaload convoys on U.S.12, accounts given in sworn testimony, legal affadavits, and video and monitoring reports admitted into evidence during the contested case hearings, as well as numerous less formal accounts.

On U.S. Highway 12, we are now facing megaload shipments with no ISP escorts. The recent 8 Nickel Bros. shipments traveled sans ISP. The Selway Corp (Stevensville MT to Snoqualmie WA) megaload shipment is scheduled to run tonight with no ISP escorts. The 40-60 proposed Harvest Energy megaload shipments may be being planned minus ISP escorts. With incidents stacking up and actual crashes occurring, citizens are asking why ITD's mandate to first and foremost ensure public safety is not, in turn, mandating ISP escorts for all megaload convoy travel.

The necessity of ISP escorts was a focal point of the contested case hearing regarding Imperial/Exxon's megaload shipments. In his Conclusions, hearing officer Duff McKee confirmed the need to use ISP escorts, and ITD Director Brian Ness adopted those Conclusions as his own in his final order to allow the Imperial/Exxon shipments to go forward.

Of course, there is also the larger looming question: If -- even when accompanied by ISP escorts -- the megaload convoys are causing incidents, some of which endanger lives, can megaload travel on Idaho's highways ever be safe?

Current Events

A lot has happened in the past month related to Megaloads and Highway 12. Imperial/Exxon will not, for the time being, pursue any more permits for megaloads to travel on U.S.12.
Read the storyand watch the video "Toxic Alberta" on Huff Post. Read the story at the Oregonian.

While this is good news for residents & travelers, the fact that Imperial still speaks of wanting in the future to use U.S.12 and that other companies, too, want to turn this route into a permanent high and wide corridor is unsettling. Especially in the face of the numerous risks these types of loads pose to the residents of the local communities they pass through.

Here are a few stories about recent problems with megaloads:
1.) A woman being rushed to the emergency room is delayed by megaloads--Megaloads; The long night, by Alex Sakariassen, Missoula Independent. Augusta residents Lorna and Pete Scott took to Highway 287 shortly after midnight on Oct. 6. Lorna's mother was suffering an apparent heart attack. The family decided to drive her to the Teton Medical Center, in Choteau. But the normally 25-minute drive lasted nearly an hour—due to an oversized industrial shipment..."There was nothing we could do," Lorna says. "We couldn't see a patrol car. We could see nothing but flashing lights, and many of them, in front of us."
... the Scotts discovered it was an oversized load. It belonged to Nickel Bros., a Washington-based company transporting machinery through Montana along the same route proposed for industrial shipment by Exxon Mobil subsidiary Imperial Oil.... Scott says she saw no flaggers...

Her incident was an isolated one, but it does underscore the public safety concerns voiced by megaload detractors over a year ago, when Imperial Oil first announced its Kearl Module Transportation Project. MDT has repeatedly stated that turnouts would be constructed to allow the megaloads to comply with state law, which forbids traffic delays of more than 10 minutes. However, the turnouts were proposed as part of Imperial Oil's beleaguered KMTP and have yet to be constructed between Augusta and Choteau.... Read more.

2.) Injury accident results from confusion over megaload transportation--Two injured in U.S.95 collision, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, 11/10/11Two Idaho men were released from the hospital following a rear-end collision Tuesday night near Viola on U.S. Highway 95 that law enforcement claims occurred when one driver stopped to talk with a flagger awaiting Imperial Oil shipments bound for the Idaho/Montana border.
.... Shawn Dewitt, 36, of Princeton, stopped his vehicle on the highway to investigate flashing lights belonging to a flagger awaiting three shipments of refinery equipment and ask how he should proceed.
Idaho State Police Capt. Lonnie Richardson said Dewitt voluntarily stopped to talk to the flagger around 11 p.m., and had not been requested to do so. Dewitt's vehicle was then struck from behind by a vehicle driven by Frank Bybee, 33, of Desmet...
Subcribers, read more.

If you'd like to see for yourself how confusing these megaload shipments are please watch this video.

One of the major concerns local residents have about megaloads is accidents. Highway 12 is a notoriously dangerous highway with a long history of semi-truck accidents, many causing major spills into the Wild & Scenic Lochsa River. The most recent one took place on Saturday.

Fuel tanker crashes on Highway 12, by Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune, 11/13/11LOWELL - A multi-agency response team worked to mop up a fuel spill along U.S. Highway 12 and the Lochsa Wild and Scenic River Corridor following a one- vehicle traffic accident Saturday.... about 10 miles east of Wilderness Gateway Campground... No fuel was detected in the river....
... driver Marco D. Williamson of Florence, Mont., failed to negotiate a curve.... drifted left, over corrected and the pup trailer whipped across the snow covered road and hit the guard rail ... before coming to rest on its side in the ... ditch.... [carrying] 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 1,700 gallons of gasoline. HazMat workers pumped some... gasoline out of the wrecked trailer .... "We don't know how much diesel is out" ... "We are offloading gasoline so all 1,700 gallons are not on the ground."...
Officials from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Clearwater National Forest, Idaho Transportation Department, Nez Perce Tribe and a private HazMat company were on hand...
The Lochsa River is a blue-ribbon cutthroat trout stream and home to protected bull trout, wild steelhead and chinook salmon...
The highway along Lochsa-Middle Fork Clearwater...has been the location of several large fuel spills. Last year, ...a fuel tanker spilled 7,500 gallons of diesel.... In 2005, a three-vehicle accident spilled 1,600 gallons of diesel... Crashes in 2002 and 2003 each spilled thousands of gallons. In 2003, a tanker crashed and spilled 6,300 gallons.... A year earlier, a tanker crash spilled an estimated 6,000 gallons of diesel directly into the Clearwater River near Syringa. Several downriver communities temporarily halted pumping drinking water from the river until the escaped fuel had dissipated. Subscribers, read more photo taken by Vickie Garcia & Walt Bailey

New Articles & Food for Thought

From today's Lewiston Tribune...
Imperial Oil undecided about Highway 12 route; Recent court ruling in Montana allows shipments, by Elaine Williams
Imperial Oil appears to have no immediate plans to begin using U.S. Highway 12 for megaloads, in spite of recent court decision in Montana that opens the route for shortened shipments that could still take up two lanes of traffic.... Judge Ray Dayton of the District Court in Missoula County ruled the oil company can transport oversized loads from Lolo Pass at the Idaho border on two-lane highways, but only to Missoula, where they would take an interstate highway to Canada, said Dave Ohler, acting legal counsel for the Montana Department of Transportation....
Dayton's ...[ruling] allows use of U.S.12 and U.S.Highway 93 to Missoula since, unlike the Missoula to Canada section, no new turnouts would be needed for Imperial Oil to comply with Montana's rule that limits traffic delays to 10 minutes. Dayton retained the restriction on the part of the proposed two-lane highway route from Missoula to Canada pending another court proceeding scheduled for January, Ohler said....
Still, taking U.S.12 and U.S.93 might have advantages for Imperial Oil. It would allow the cargo bound for a processing plant at the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada to bypass Moscow. The extra-big hauls are routinely encountering protests in Moscow...
But Imperial Oil doesn't appear to be rushing to take advantage of Dayton's loosening of the original injunction. As of Wednesday, the transportation departments in Idaho and Montana hadn't received the paperwork they would require before Imperial Oil could be moving loads on U.S.12.
At the same time, the port of Lewiston hadn't been notified of any new arrivals belonging to Imperial Oil. ... Subscribers, read more.

We read the above article with some skepticism. The reporter's explanation of Dayton's ruling isn't precisely correct -- Dayton didn't rule that "the oil company can transport oversized loads...." As we understand it, Dayton ruled that MDT could consider 32-J permits for the reduced-size Imperial/Exxon loads. Also -- as we all have learned -- information coming from Imperial/Exxon spokespeople may not be true. So while the above article pulls out some details regarding the meaning of Dayton's ruling and indicates Imperial/Exxon isn't at the moment hot to hit the road using U.S.12, we are not drawing any firm conclusions.

Now, this food for thought...
Corporations are not people: We hold these truths to be self-evident…by Michael Nagler and Stephanie Van Hook | October 11, 2011, 2:11 pm

When is a Person not a Person?
Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PSR) recently answered this absurd question with the obvious and embarrassing answer: when it’s a corporation. According to PSR's statement, in case anyone is confused, a human being:
is a complex organism with capacities for joy and pain, reflection, and the compassionate appreciation of others. Mature persons are expected to display reasoned judgment, and are personally responsible for their own actions (our emphasis). Human beings live, breath, think, experience emotions, and internalize values such as empathy and caring for others. Like all sentient beings, they suffer, and die.
....Read more

Remember when getting a crane to retrieve a fallen megaload on U.S.12 would be quick & easy? Now we have...CONOCOPHILLIPS & THE "GIANT" CRANE...

Giant crane to install megaload coker drums at Billings refinery; by Tom Lutey, Billings Gazette
BILLINGS - This winter, the tallest thing on the Billings horizon won't be First Interstate Bank. It will be one of the world's largest cranes with a 500-foot boom swinging two large pieces of oil refinery equipment into place.
"It's a Mammoet PTC ringer crane, 1,600-metric-ton capacity," said Brady Hobza, project engineer ... the fourth largest crane in the world." It is a megacrane special ordered to install two, 350-ton coker drums that earlier this year eclipsed two-way traffic on Montana backroads...
... more than 100 semitrailers ... will haul [the crane's] pieces here in a couple months ... Read more

IMPERIAL/EXXON:
Moscow wants reimbursement for megaload policing costs posted by Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise @ the Spokesman-REview, from an Associated Press story, 10/11/11
Moscow (Idaho) officials want a company transporting oil equipment for ExxonMobil to pay $12,800 for police services... from July to September. The city plans to submit weekly reimbursement requests to Mammoet... Read more (On page, scroll down.)

Imperial/Exxon's "contingency plan" = alternative routes

What a year ago Imperial/Exxon called "No Plan B" they now call "our contingency plan" -- that is, no fewer than 3 alternate megaload routes other than U.S. Highway 12.

In an August 8th press release, the giant corporation announced plans to use "additional routes" for Kearl tar sands project modules. The release notes,"The companies are reducing the size and weight of the shipments and will seek permits for an additional route that will use four-lane divided highways and not require road closures or highway upgrading....The reduction in module size and additional routes are being made necessary by lengthy permitting delays for the original modules size shipments via US 12 through Idaho and Montana....We will continue to pursue the permits for those full-sized modules through Idaho and Montana, which is more efficient and cost effective. However, we need to move forward with our contingency plan to maintain project schedules. For shipments from the Port of Lewiston, ID, in addition to the Highway 12 route, the companies are using an additional route north on US 95 in Idaho, then east along I-90 through Idaho and Montana, and north on I-15 to the Canadian border. Imperial began using this route in mid-July. We are also pursuing a plan to ship additional loads from the Port of Pasco, WA, by truck on US 395 in Washington and along I-90 through Washington, Idaho and Montana, then north on I-15 to the Canadian border."

This announcement brings us, we hope, closer to the day Exxon admits the truth -- Highway 12 is the wrong route for their megaloads and they need to find a better path if the want the Kearl project to be built in the foreseeable future. Opponents will steadfastly continue to resist Exxon's plans to transform the people's scenic rural highways, including a nationally designated Wild and Scenic River corridor, into an industrial megaload truck route.

Highway 12: A National Treasure

Now that contested case hearing officer Duff McKee has recommended the permitting of of Imperial/Exxon's 200+ megaloads for travel on U.S.Hwy.12 it's time to write again. I’ve been at a loss for words these past few weeks, wondering why someone in Boise has the power to decide the fate of the highway that runs through my community as well as the fate of the nationally mandated Wild and Scenic Clearwater and Lochsa River corridors. I’m disappointed in the amount of spin being used by those in favor of shipping megaloads along Highway 12 and disturbed by the affects their distorted half-truths are having on my community as well as the debate at large.

Why does Exxon have more clout with my political representatives than I do? Why is our society so short sighted when it comes to issues that pit economics against the environment?

The deaths in May of two young men who died when a boulder crushed their vehicle while traveling eastbound on Highway 12 saddened me. It's an increase in these kinds of accidents that are my major concern when it comes to megaloads on Highway 12. I’ve put in many hours driving on 12. I’ve made tracks through fresh snow, barely making it under downed trees during a snowstorm. I’ve missed my nephew’s birthday party stuck on the west side of a swift truck wreck sprawled across both lanes of the highway. I’ve come upon distraught members of a caravan who watched their friend and traveling companion incorrectly negotiate a turn sending his truck into the river when the water was so high there was no chance of survival. I’ve seen rocks fall, land slide, guard rails crushed, creeks blown-out and the residue of diesel spilled into the river. I helped reassemble my friends front end after an elk left the river running right in front of his truck. I've seen too many close calls on Highway 12 to take it for granted.

But the Exxon and Imperial execs at the Kooskia meeting last year did not have the same experience with Highway 12, in fact they had no experience with 12 short of looking at it on a map and calculating the money they could save by using 12 as shortcut from manufactures in Korea to the tar sands in Alberta. The trip from Lewiston to Kooskia that day was the first trip many of them took on the highway. Their lack of understanding about the nature of the highway and their willingness to overlook the details in favor of fancy brochures and projected profits was disquieting. ITD’s director Brian Ness has never even driven the section from Kooskia to Lolo Pass and yet he's the one ultimately in charge of permitting megaloads.


From a local perspective Exxon’s megaloads are too big, too heavy, too wide, too tall and too dangerous for Highway 12. Just as Exxon’s corporation is too big and too profit hungry to understand the nature of Highway 12 or the risks they are taking in their attempt to turn the Wild and Scenic Lochsa corridor into a tar sands shipping route. When will people learn that Exxon is not capable of keeping anything pristine? Nor are big oil & gas corporations up front about problems once they arise as can be seen playing out today along the banks of the Yellowstone River. Why let Exxon gamble with the Lochsa?

Highway 12 is an America treasure – a drive-through wilderness without all the schlocky commercialism and consumerism that lines other wilderness highways. A drive that is in and of itself wild – where you need to be ready for the unexpected, prepared for the worst and open to the best nature has to offer. The beauty and wildness of Highway 12 can not be risked.

Exxon can not be trusted with this national treasure.

Paul Edwards Video

After months of research on the issue of megaloads and the Alberta tar sands, Montana resident Paul Edwards created an engaging youtube video to share his point of view. Here's the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoKW771tG_Q

Video of Megaload on Highway 12

To view Vickie Garcia's video, shown at the contested case hearing during her testimony, go here: "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehstxkkO6aQ"
Vickie and her husband Walt Bailey were among the 3-4 dozen north central Idaho residents and Missoula residents who monitored and observed the 2 ConocoPhillips' shipments and the Imperial/Exxon so-called "test" shipment. Vickie's video clearly shows that the ITD-approved traffic management plan of the first ConocoPhillips' shipment was woefully inadequate at best, and at worst, seriously chaotic, inconvenient and unsafe.

Tree-scaping in the Wild and Scenic Corridor

Exxon hired an army of out-of-state tree trimmers to take to the Wild and Scenic corridor on Easter Sunday. Here are just a few pictures from the "tree-scaping". The top three pictures are along the Wild and Scenic Lochsa, the next two pictures are in the Devoto Memorial Cedar Grove and the last one is in the Wild and Scenic section of the Middlefork of the Clearwater river.

Easter Sunday Hack Job

Driving up Highway 12 to enjoy the Wild and Scenic Lochsa River Corridor on this Easter Sunday my family was shocked and saddened to see an army of tree trimmers hacking away on the beautiful old trees that line the highway. Trees that stood long before the highway was built are now being altered in a most un-aesthetic way to make way for an Exxon Test Module (one that is too large for the corridor and doesn’t even have a permit to proceed beyond Lolo Hot Springs!)

Frank Church and Cecil Andrus along with the U.S. Congress protected the Lochsa River Corridor for future generations of Americans with the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968 and now ITD and USFS are working hand in hand with Exxon/Mobil to undo those protections.

Anyone taking a Sunday drive upriver today or traveling home from a family gathering met with 40+minute delays as they were held behind flaggers and led haphazardly by a pilot car through a maze of tree-trimmers trucks.
What kind of transportation department schedules major road alterations on Easter Sunday?
Why wasn’t there any kind of notification on ITD’s website to inform the traveling public of the delays being experienced on Highway 12?
What kind of Forest Service allows for a nationally mandated Wild and Scenic corridor to be radically changed in a way that puts the trees that line the highway at increased risk of disease and weakens them to the affects of wind and snow damage?

This inane attempt of making Highway 12 into an over-sized shipping route must come to a stop. The time is NOW before anything worse happens. Already many of the concerns brought up by locals have come true – delays well over 15 minutes, trees along the highway damaged, power outages, pullouts blocked off to the public, the shipments not being able to make the trip in the time presumed, altering of the wild and scenic corridor and a highway shutdown - and all that after only 2 megaloads have made the full trip from Lewiston to Lolo Pass! What more has to happen before ITD acknowledges the truth? These loads are too large for Highway 12 and they place an unnecessary risk on the local citizens and businesses who rely on Highway 12.

Let’s stop this NOW before something worse happens. If one of these loads went into the river the damage to the riverbed would be devastating. Exxon has proven that they have not planned well for this transportation project. There are other options to get this equipment to Alberta. We do not need to sacrifice Highway 12. I encourage you to pick up the phone on Monday morning and call as many of the people on the following list as you can to express your concern and dismay at the disregard with which our government agencies are treating the public. The short-sightedness of those individuals charged with protecting the resources of the public must be addressed.

PLEASE CALL
USFS:Craig Trulock, Lochsa Ranger Station (208)926-4274
Rick Brazell, Clearwater Natn'l Forest Supervisor (208)476-4541
Leslie Weldon, Regional Forester (406) 329-3470

ITD:
ITD Director Brian Ness (208) 334-8876
Public Involvement Adam Rush (208) 334-8119
IDAHO TRANSPORTATION BOARD MEMBERS
Darrell Manning – Chairman (208) 334-8808
Jim Coleman (208) 762-4704
Jan Vassar (208) 743-5093
Jerry Whitehead (208) 344-2539
Gary Blick – Vice Chairman (208) 537-6787
Neil Miller (208) 681-3172
Lee Gagner (208) 529-5600

If you’d like to call more people at ITD here is a link to the complete phone list:
http://itd.idaho.gov/aboutITD/phonelst.htm