I originally conceived this post as a aggressive attack on the
Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) and the
Western Watersheds Project, but I have reconsidered and will present the facts and let my readers decide if they have done right or if they should have scorn heaped on them.
The story begins like this:
El Paso Corporation is building a 42" natural gas pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon; 680 miles in all. The
Ruby Pipeline passes through my city less than one mile from my home. Here is a picture of the pipe laying coming down Flat Bottom Canyon, west of Brigham City.
The pipeline running North along the foothills of Brigham City
(Keep in mind that the pipe sections are 42 inch diameter and 75 feet long.)
Additionally, El Paso paid $20 million to ONDA and Western Watersheds Project, in what I assume to be a mutually beneficial arrangement, since the details are not available to the public.
ONDA brags about the arrangement/payoff
here. In other accomplishments, ONDA
laments the destruction by bulldozer of "juniper trees" in the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area of Oregon.
"The BLM project, undertaken without any environmental study or public involvement, widened and built roads on 28 miles of primitive or previously non-existent routes on Steens Mountain. The routes travel through the Blitzen River Wilderness Study Area (WSA) and a citizen-proposed wilderness area. BLM even extended some roads into the protected Steens Mountain Wilderness Area and the Donner und Blitzen Wild and Scenic River corridor.
BLM pushed over live juniper trees with bulldozers, pulling them out of the ground by their roots where the trees were in the way of the new route. BLM bulldozed large amounts of rocks and soil to the sides of the new route, including into the WSA. Most of the routes were doubled in width and converted from primitive two-track paths to bladed, contoured roads."Look what El Paso, ONDA's sugar daddy, is doing along 680 miles.
This swath, that has to be cleared to bury the pipeline, amounts to more that 15,000 acres and it remains to be seen how well El Paso will reclaim this land.
I leave it to the reader to determine whether ONDA is exhibiting pathological hypocrisy in protesting the uprooting of "juniper trees" in some wilderness area in Oregon, but is taking $20 million from El Paso, the company building the pipeline, which is stripping 15,000 acres across 4 states.
I can only assume that ONDA values sagebrush in Oregon, (which will no longer have cattle and sheep grazing amongst them because ONDA is using the money to retire grazing permits along some of the pipeline route) more highly than it does sagebrush and wildlife in the Wellsville Mountains of Utah?
I also leave it to the reader to imagine how much more the natural gas consumer will have to pay, so El Paso can make up the $20 million it paid ONDA. Of course, El Paso must have gotten something in return? Perhaps ONDA's promise not to sue El Paso in Federal Court? Or maybe El Paso feels it got it's moneys worth, since ONDA essentially stops oil and gas drilling in Eastern Oregon, thereby necessitating a pipeline in the first place?
On another note, here is the pipe staging yard for the project, just north of Little Mountain in Box Elder County. It is the approximate size (probably bigger) of the proposed and now defunct Private Fuel Storage for storing spent commercial nuclear fuel on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah. (I wonder why it's called Skull Valley - maybe because it is an ugly wasteland?)
Maybe the reader knows why a high pressure natural gas line that covers more than 15,000 acres is safe and allowed, but 100 acres of nuclear waste in double-walled, stainless-steel dry casks are not allowed because F-16s flying from Hill Air Force Base to the UTTR carrying depleted uranium bullets might conceivably have an emergency and crash into the casks?
This is the headstone of Governor William Bradford, my 9th great grandfather. On the north side of the stone is engraved in Hebrew "Jehovah is the help of my life" and in Latin
Here is Plymouth Rock.
These are photos of the Mayflower II replica in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts.
The plane is powered by a Rotax 503 DCDI (dual carbs and dual ignition and 50 hp) and geared down to turn a 60 inch prop with a synchronous belt drive. (Which, by the way I have blogged about before, but this application seems to be one of the successful ones.)
The tandem seating arrangement was a little tight for me, but I am tall. I tried the front seat and it was adequate, but a little difficult to get into. I guess that's just the price of trying to fly inexpensive aircraft. If I were loaded, I would buy a Cessna 172 XP. They have ample cabin room for me.
Jerry added cabin heat by putting this intake on the cooling shroud (the Rotax 503 is fan cooled) and ducting the hot air to the front of the cabin. Canadian Challenger owners also do this to keep flying through the winter.
(Keep in mind that the pipe sections are 42 inch diameter and 75 feet long.)
This swath, that has to be cleared to bury the pipeline, amounts to more that 15,000 acres and it remains to be seen how well El Paso will reclaim this land.
