Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

STA critique too superficial

For providing a reliable community service and being prudent with entrusted public funds, Spokane Transit Authority is called “blessed” and “privileged.” It is continuously attacked. Would that a few more of our government services had savings, paid cash and ran in the black.

Specifically, I take issue with the idea that each ride costs more than the individual driver’s pay (Letter, Feb. 13). This critic neglected to calculate into his results the costs of congestion, pollution and determine the savings that public transit provides. These costs may not be as obvious but they do exist. For example, each car driving 15 miles a day expels about 992 kg. per year of waste into our air. Fossil fuel in, CO waste out. To calculate your own commute costs visit http://www.iclei.org/iclei.htm.

Can we calculate how many tons of waste those eight million rides a year save Spokane in air pollution alone? How about saved time because of reduced congestion? If you think those are just quality-of-life arguments and not fiscal, examine our national air quality standards. If those guidelines are consistently exceeded, federal matching funds will be eliminated.

Fifteen cities in Italy are being faced with no-car days to address this fallout. Is Spokane far behind? Without an alternative in place, then what? Having transportation choices available benefits us all, even those who choose to drive. However easy a bus may be as a target, I encourage you to look beyond the obvious for the multiple repercussions before attacking at the surface. C.J. Tyler-Watson Spokane

STA critics don’t understand

Those who attack Spokane Transit Authority for spending money on advertising and use the argument that advertising is wrong because STA has no competition just don’t understand the realities of public transportation.

While STA is not competing toe-to-toe with another provider of bus services, it competes against the practice of clogging the roads with too many cars hauling too few people. Rush hour traffic backups on Interstate 90 cannot be alleviated by widening I-90, as the feeder arterials are the reason it backs up. The cost of widening those arterials would be astronomical, not to mention disruptive. The only solution is to haul more people in fewer vehicles - exactly what STA has worked so hard to accomplish. Even if you never ride the bus, it’s in your best interest for Spokane County to have the best public transportation system possible.

Spokane County has lots of miles and extremely low population density, a nightmare combination for those running a transit system. In order to run buses everywhere and often, routes need enough riders to justify the extra service. It has long been proven that good advertising is the most cost-effective way to reduce costs, by getting more people to try the bus. Recent STA advertising has won acclaim and has proven very effective. Without good advertising, transit ridership would dwindle and costs to the taxpayers would increase accordingly. William D. Robinson Spokane

OVER THE LINE

Clearly, BNSF has gotten the message

The controversy over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Hauser fueling depot has taken on a curious spin: we’re 20 years behind. The local community of environmental activism is girding itself to fight the last war and we as the larger community are buying into their argument that because industry has historically demonstrated disregard for the environment, it must not be trusted or allowed to pursue new projects.

Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on trust. Since the 1970s, we’ve been caught up in an environmental tide of awareness that has increasingly dictated levels of safeguards that today simply don’t provide opportunity for environmental degradation. We no longer must trust BNSF because it has put itself in such a brilliant spotlight that it can’t misstep.

If installed, the fuel depot will be the most carefully designed, engineered, monitored and followed industrial facility in a four-state region.

BNSF has proposed a safety system comprised of double-bottomed tanks, a 130 percent secondary containment capacity with redundant continuously monitored leak detection and warning systems, two separate impermeable barriers with additional leak detection and warning systems, an emergency response and contingency plan, and on-site remediation equipment and staff that in total describe a safety net that is foolproof, not to mention far in excess of government requirements. Instead of crying foul, environmentalists should declare victory and applaud BNSF. Rick Hendon Spokane

Playground time is instruction time

Re: “School hours fudged, says Hayden man,” (Feb. 9). A child being around other children with adult supervision, even during recess, should be considered instructional time. People have to be taught how to act around each other - the teachers put across the rules as to what is acceptable and what is not.

For example, children who take another’s coat, because they are cold at the time - the instructor teaches the child that taking another’s coat is not proper behavior, and that instead they should go grab their coat which is on the steps.

I think the father is forgetting that not only sitting down at a desk is considered instructional time, but especially for kindergartners, any time with someone instructing them is considered worthwhile. Also, they are rather picky about five minutes here and there between bells - high schools count those times, as well. Does that mean we have to be picky about the five minutes he spent chit-chatting with his boss this morning? Crystal Ridge Spokane

NORTHWEST DAMS

Salmon woes precede dams

Re: “Spokane crowd favors removing Snake dams,” (Feb. 9). Studies have shown that the salmon population was declining decades before the dams were built. There is no scientific data to supplement the speculation that dam removal will bring the salmon back.

Kim A. Pitts Lacrosse, Wash.

Why rush to adopt last thing we need?

Dan Hansen’s articles about the salmon hearings left much unsaid. Real time PIT tag data confirm that the PATH modeling process failed to accurately characterize smolt passage through Snake River dams.

Technological improvements, ranging from simply operating the dams within 1 percent of rated turbine capacity to surface bypass systems, have made a difference. Barging is a major benefit because smolts avoid the lower four Columbia dams in addition to the four Snake River Dams.

The current problem is the lack of understanding of the marine habitat. Science knows little about survival impacts from marine predation, changes in ocean temperature and changing impacts on salmon food supply.

Many Columbia and Snake River species spend their adult lives in Canadian waters, out of range of ESA regulations. What impact does harvesting in Canadian waters have on survival of Columbia and Snake River species?

Inland habitat restoration, severe restrictions on harvesting and reducing the tern population on Rice Island offer the best course for immediate action. Breaching dams makes absolutely no sense at all. Chris Lyle Washington Association of Wheat Growers, Ritzville

Breaching proponents many, varied

I agree with those who say you missed the boat on the salmon hearings. Public support for dam breaching was strong. I imagine you sent a journalist to hear speeches from the public officials and the journalist rushed out to meet deadline, not worrying about what the public had to say.

I spoke in favor of dam breaching and I am not an Idaho fishing guide, Nez Perce Tribe member or out-oftown college student. The same was true of most of the dam breaching proponents I heard speak. Bob Hoffmann Moscow