News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Since 1980, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has tracked United States weather and climate events. This tracking process is specific and addresses the economic and societal impacts. So far, the United States has sustained well over 250 weather events where the overall damage costs reached or surpassed the mark of $1 billion. The year 2019 witnessed many costly weather or climate events. A total of 14 events s...
In Central Washington, we understand that healthy forests are the true key to wildfire prevention. Each summer, we come face-to-face with the threat wildfires pose to our land, our communities, and our health. We are blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world, surrounded by national forests and public lands. Unfortunately, decades of mismanagement and misguided funding have prevented the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) or the many engaged forest collaboratives in our region from properly caring for our lands. I have committed to the...
As a child growing up in west Coulee Dam, our outdoor playground was built by the toil of young unmarried men of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was born out of the Great Depression in 1933 and was a voluntary public-works program of President Roosevelt's New Deal. Roosevelt's program put men of ages 18 to 25 to work on projects involving natural-resource development and conservation. The average wage was $30 per month, of which $25 was sent home to their families. With the...
Deny! Deny! Deny! When it comes to climate change, that seems to be our current national policy. This administration has systematically turned aside most climate policy tasks set by president Obama. The climate change problem will never be solved from the top down. It is going to take a movement from the bottom up. A 17-year-old girl from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, has been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace prize for her work in trying to get world leaders to focus more on climate change problems. The U.S. has pulled out of the international...
I notice we have at least one yahoo living amongst our four communities that loves to tear up church parking lots, federal roads and federal parking lots, along with the river trail and Washington Flats. This is his favorite time of year because the roads are thawing and we can leave deep, deep ruts for other drivers to follow in and we don’t even have to steer. He is starting his conquest this time of year. If you see him, maybe you can congratulate him on a yearly job well done. He does his off-roading at Washington Flats. Maybe he should b...
The last decade has seen a drastic shift in the way the U.S. generates electricity. We have shifted from relying primarily on fossil fuel burning power plants to a thriving clean energy industry that supplies renewable, low-cost electricity to consumers. A combination of demand from customers and diminishing technology costs have helped wind and solar projects sprout up across the country, and with them has come a range of economic benefits. Renewable energy systems have created new jobs and...
While wind farms generate “greenhouse gas free” electricity, there is increasing concern over the rapidly growing number of worn out blades ending up in landfills. Those blades, housed on giant towers reaching over 200 feet in the sky, are starting to reach the end of their useful life (15 to 20 years) and are being taken down, cut up and hauled to dumps in Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming. Adding to the spent blade disposal problem, utilities are retrofitting existing wind farms with longer bla...
A proposal to build a 31-mile water tunnel under the Grand Coulee was made by Frank Harris, a civil engineer from Renton. His plan, publicly announced in December 1935, was to expedite the irrigation of approximately 500,000 acres of land in the Columbia Basin by a gravity system, without waiting for Grand Coulee power. He figured that the amount of water required to lift and fill what is now Banks Lake would be 20,320,000,000 cubic feet before any could flow out into the main distributing canal...
For the last few weeks, The Star has carried some stories from Olympia, written by student journalism interns serving as reporters in the news service of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, of which The Star is a member. I serve on WNPA's board of directors, am a past president, and help edit a few of the stories when tapped on digital shoulder by a dedicated retired publisher overseeing the Olympia bureau. I try to pick stories most relevant to our local readers, although the students produce more than we could ever fit in. The st... Full story
I have not seen Bureau machines Going thirty On the highway. I don't know why I must comply, When they are not In my way. I do believe They do deceive. Does one exist? Doubtful I'd say. I drive so slow. I want to go! Cannot discern But just obey. I do feel fear There’s another year Going thirty On the highway. Barbara Durnil Just an Observation...
Why is it that every time an animal gets in a human’s way their only solution is to put the animals to death? It’s about the turkeys! The turkey is a beautiful animal! The only time it is acceptable is on Thanksgiving! If the disturbed human is so aggravated, why shouldn’t they have to put up fences; or, adjust their thought process for them to adapt? Why can’t the humans learn to live with these beautiful creatures? They were here long before the arrogant humans were! What gives them the ability to judge? Because of their discomfort? Please...
A few years back, a lot of them really, there was an article written in this very paper entitled “Flames of Love.” It was written by Temple Stark, a reporter here that has since moved on to another riveting assignment. The feel-good article was about a young couple who met at the firehouse and sparked a connection. Who knew then the journey the couple would go on would be like searching a burning building? Sometimes dark, sometimes dangerous, twists, turns and obstacles sometimes becoming dif...
The Chinese New Year kicked off Saturday, Jan. 25. It’s the year of the rat, which I could suggest was named for a number of people I could name! The lunar year is divided into 13 categories, all named for an animal. While traveling to the Far East once, I was caught up in the Chinese New Year by chance. I had landed in Taipei, Taiwan from Osaka, Japan, on my way to Saigon. I had a booking at the Grand Hotel, referred by Mary Yang Meeds, wife of Rep. Lloyd Meeds at the time. Lloyd represented Washington’s 2nd District. The Grand Hotel was owned...
An abandoned reinforced-concrete bunker, built partially underground, sits atop an isolated granite mountain knob approximately a mile south of the Grand Coulee Dam; approximately 330 feet above the western shoreline of Lake Roosevelt. From September 1941 to August 1942 the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey would construct a recording seismographic station. The bunker would house a seismograph and associated instruments installed to detect possible earthquakes caused or initiated by the...
What makes good government? Many of us would probably contend that we have taken a recess from good government. Sometimes we learn more during recess than we do in the classroom. Polls indicate that our confidence in the way our federal government operates has been declining for several decades. Money has become the governing factor enabling a political candidate to get on stage. At that point, it becomes a personality contest with all manner of pundits rating every syllable, move, garment, and hair style while photographers spot every...
When we look around Central Washington, it is hard to miss the thousands of acres of wine grapes that cascade across our rolling hills and valleys. In fact, there were more than 59,000 acres and nearly 70 varieties of wine grapes planted last year. As the co-chair of the Congressional Wine Caucus – and the first co-chair from outside California – I could not be prouder to represent the Washington wine industry. With an annual economic impact of $7 billion, Washington’s wine industry is second in size only to California’s, and our communi...
As you all know by now, I like to profile certain seniors at Lake Roosevelt High School. It gives you all a chance to learn a little bit about the adults that the Raiders are producing and get a glimpse of where they have been and where they are going. Living in a small community, they become all of our kids, and Nick Baker is one of those students we all enjoy. So here is a little bit of my chat with “Big Nick.” Before we even got started, that big smile that Nick carries with him was pla...
At first when the Colville Reservation was formed in 1872, there was a paranoia from the lawmakers in the east that an attack would come from across the Columbia River by Seaton's Landing. To keep an eye on things, the U.S. Government sent out two decorated Indian War veterans, Len and Sam Dillman. When they arrived in the Grand Coulee, they set up base close to Rattlesnake Canyon, but pretty soon purchased the orchard at the bottom of the canyon. When it became apparent the attack would never...
A year ago, much of America’s heartland was inundated by Missouri River flood waters. At least 1 million acres of U.S. farmland in nine major grain-producing states were under water. More than 14 million people were impacted. Damage exceeded $1 billion. With 11 dams on the Missouri, why was the flooding so severe? Why didn’t the dams absorb the excess waters? Its dams are above the flooded areas. The last impoundment is at Gavins Point Dams in South Dakota, and heavy rainfall and snow melts wer...
Happy New Year to each of you, and welcome to the new Roaring Twenties! I’ll start off by gazing into the crystal ball of long-range weather prediction. The dedicated public servants with the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) at the National Weather Service have done well with the prediction for these past months. We’ve seen higher-than-average temperatures and less-than-average precipitation. So, what are their predictions for the next three months — January, February and March 2020? For the n...
A person can be defined by the little things he remembers and his favorite places. My parents liked to take drives, and on one of them they would stop at a roadside springs to get a drink of ice cold water. They had a collapsible tin cup that was kept in the glove box for such an occasion, along with a camera that folded up. The adventure of those trips probably accounts for developing the same habit. One such place was Grizzly Camp, a few miles up from Potlatch, Princeton and Harvard in Idaho. It was a mountain location and a popular picnic...
Anyone that follows any sport at all knows how special it is when your team finally makes it to the championship game. It does not matter if it is in Little League sports, high school, college or professional, it is a cherished moment when your team colors take the field in the biggest moment of their career. That happened to me this past weekend. I had waited 46 years for this moment, and it was surreal. I cannot pinpoint the time I first became a Kansas City Chiefs fan, but I do know I have...
The Washington State Legislature once again is attempting to make government records more obscure, this time by trying to shield public employee birthdates from disclosure with the introduction of HB 1888. Rep. Zack Hudgins, of the 11th Legislative District and Javier Valdez from the 46th Legislative district, both Democrats, are the sponsors. While proponents say they are most concerned with privacy rights and identity theft, this bill is really about a fight between public employee unions and the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank...
By proclamation of the governor, January is School Board Recognition Month. It’s a great time to recognize our elected community members who selflessly give their time and energy in support of high-quality public schooling for our youth. School board members in Nespelem School District are entrusted by this community with responsibility to develop the school district’s educational program and set the course for the school district. All of this is done within the context or racial, ethnic and religious diversity and with a commitment to edu...
This is a view of track laying along the upper Grand Coulee in the late months of 1934. Note iconic Pinnacle Rock in the distance. The contractor who built the line, David H. Ryan, had already completed some earth-moving contracts at the dam and had his equipment at the ready when he won the job of building the tracks from Coulee City to the dam site. Mr. Ryan was known to do things on the cheap. He used mule power when he could, and only had a few machines to build the line. The picture is take...