Great Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count will be February 12-15 this year.

Bad News For The Mississippi Gulf Coast

Cochran supports the Salt Dome plan, which has been the focus of some environmental concerns from South Mississippians and is still going through its approval process.

I encourage you to contact both Senator Cochran and President Obama and let them know how upset you are about the Richton Salt Dome Plan. President Obama must be informed about the potential harm it can do to our environment and the fact that the majority of Mississippi residents do not support it.

To contact President Obama
 Call or write to the President:

Email
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address

Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

Federal Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Public Hearing

WHERE:      New Orleans Aquarium at the Audubon Nature Center, Entergy IMAX Theater New Orleans, LA

WHEN         October 19, 2009 ‐ 3:30 pm‐7:00 pm

Our oceans and coasts are beautiful environments and economic engines that provide valuable jobs, food, recreation, and energy resources. Yet more than 140 different and often‐conflicting laws govern our oceans, and this allows poor management and environmental harm. To help overcome the challenges faced by our oceans and coasts – including pollution, habitat loss, overfishing and climate change – we need one unifying national policy.
On June 12th, the President created a 23‐member interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to develop a first‐ever national ocean policy. The Task Force is charged with developing a recommendation for a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes.

On October 19th, we need to come together to urge President Obama to issue an Executive Order that protects special ocean places and establishes national ocean policy that protects, maintains, and restores our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. This is the best opportunity to get what we need for a healthy Gulf. Be there!

We need a national policy that protects wild fish populations and restores wildlife populations, protects ocean wildlife habitats, cleans up our waterways and reduces the impacts of climate change. The Task Force has planned six listening sessions around the nation to gather public input and expert opinion, and October 19th is the only Gulf Region session.

Transportation to and from the event available!

Contact Raleigh Hoke by email or 504-525-1528, ext. 204 to join the effort to create a national ocean policy that truly protects our oceans, coasts and wildlife.

For information on the Interagency Ocean policy Task Force and its Interim Report go to: http://www.whitehouse.gove/administration/eop/ceq/intiatives/oceans/

For more background and information about the Coalition for Oceans and Greta Lakes check out: https://sites.google.com/site/healthyoceansandlakes/home

LTE ~ Richton Salt Dome Project

Don’t trade our river and our Gulf for 10 days of oil

It seems that politicians in Perry County and Washington are hell-bent on destroying our Pascagoula River system. I can’t understand why the DOE wants to spend $2 billion to $4 billion to store 10 days worth of oil. What good will 10 days of oil do us in a world war? The refineries will not be operational to refine it into gas or diesel, so what’s the point? Besides, we’re broke!

If Richton wants this oil project, let them mine, then pile that salt in their city or county so it can destroy their property, not our river and gulf. I’ll bet they don’t want all that salt contaminating their farmland, just as we don’t want it contaminating our river and gulf.

Right now the Obama administration has stopped new drilling, and oil is being stockpiled by companies until they get the price back up. So why is the DOE going ahead with this? The answer is greed. A select few will get rich off this at the expense of the environment.

I’ve said it before, you can’t eat money and you can’t drink oil. We need the river’s fresh water and the food from the river and gulf more than we need 10 days worth of oil. This project is going to put all this in jeopardy. The depletion of fresh water — 50 million gallons a day — from the river will allow saltwater intrusion to destroy the marshes.

I hope there is enough protest from voters to get this stopped. Use the money for something we need.

In an e-mail, Rep. Gene Taylor says he supports the dome project but doesn’t support the way the water is to be taken from the river nor the dumping of the brine into the Gulf so near shore. He doesn’t address the spill factor that the DOE itself admits. We must band together and get this stopped, please write your representatives and voice your concerns.

C.F. LIGHTSEY

Moss Point

Wicker: Don’t hurt the environment for economic gain

Wicker speaks out against using fresh water from the Pascagoula River for the Richton Salt Dome Project.