Transcending time

On Friday, the Columbia was poisoned. Fuel oil overflowed the tanks and deck of the cargo ship Transcenden Time into the river. About a hundred gallons of Texas Tea was added at the confluence of the Willamette River. While that might sound like a lot, let's put a little perspective on the matter. We're talking about little more than 13 cubic feet of material, which would likely fit within your home refrigerator. While the river doesn't always see oil added in this kind of concentration, I'm sure every rain fall washes far more oil from our roads into the water. But this isn't the first spill the Columbia has seen:

• 1978 - Toyota Maru - 30,000 gallons
• 1983 - Blue Magpie - 80,000 gallons
• 1984 - Mobil Oil - 200,000 gallons
• 1991 - Tai Chung - 11,000 gallons
• 1993 - Southern Pacific - 5,000 gallons
• 1993 - MV Central - 3,000 gallons
• 1994 - An Ping 6 - 3,000 gallons
• 2009 - Black Hawk - 150 gallons
• 2011 - Davy Crockett - currently unknown but 1,450 gallons have been cleaned up.

By comparison, the Exxon Valdez dumped about 25,000,000 gallons into Prince William Sound and last year's BP oil spill resulted in 206,000,000 gallons of oil being added to the Gulf of Mexico.

Oregon's DEQ considers any spill over 42 gallons to be a major issue. Site response, containment, cleanup isn't free, and those responsible for the mess foot the cleaning bill. About $300,000 in fines where levied against the owners of the An Ping 6.

Such spills may be caused by damage to vessels, the pumping out of contaminated bilge water, and the failure of equipment designed to prevent this sort of dirtying. These spills are made up of hydrocarbons that might be in the form of crude oil, mechanical lubricants, or diesel fuel. Oil slicks can cause health issues for all living things, often resulting in the failure of internal organs and hypothermia. While birds and fish make up the vast numbers of casualties, mammals who come into contact with the fouled waters are just as vulnerable. Submarine plant life also suffers due to the oil cutting off supplies of sun light. The oils can stick to beaches and take months to years to clean up.

While the up front effects of such spills can be tragic, geologically speaking, there Earth, and the Columbia Basin, have been through much worse. These are things that can be recovered from, the Columbia will heal and live to flow another day.

Happy Hunting,
Brett

Purple Flat Top

The Inland Northwest, sometimes referred to as the Columbia Basin, is an area near the northeastern corner of Washington near Spokane. It has been shaped by titanic forces throughout history, not the least of which is the works of humans. It is a hard land that has developed a great diversity of trees, birds, and personalities. It is here that Jack Nisbet traveled to after graduating college. He went to find a place, what he found were people, and he found himself.

The book Purple Flat Top doesn’t specify when it takes place, it dances around the subject of time. From the state of the economy and the changes in technology I’m guessing this book takes place throughout the decade of the 70s. I’m not local to the Inland Northwest, so the names of mining operations that supported settlements are unfamiliar to me. Perhaps, if I knew the date when Corporation A had taken over the business that drove the local economy, and closed it down, such a red letter day would standout on my calendar. The only disaster of which Mr. Nisbet writes that I know takes place in my lifetime is that of Mt. St. Helens erupting.

There is no central narrative to this book. Instead it is a string of unconnected episodes of Jack’s life full of random jobs and eccentric locals. Instead, what we have is a series of illustrated portraits of people who have shaped, and been shaped by, the land they living. They have become characters, people with interesting traits, flaws, strengths, passions, pains, and conflicts. Sherlock Holmes would often tell Watson that there is nothing so extravagant as the mundane, that no authors wild imaginings could compare to what happens every day behind closed doors. This were Jack’s neighbors, friends, and co-workers, yet they are drawn so perfectly that we feel that these are our memories, that this is our story.

Happy Hunting,

Brett N

P.S. The distance travelled of my imaginary toy boat, from my bridge over Beaverton Creek to the Pacific Ocean, is 176 miles.