Sorted by date Results 1 - 3 of 3
The Federal Railroad Administration has confirmed KUOW reporting that a safety device meant to keep trains from plunging into Puget Sound knocked a train off the tracks and onto the Swinomish Reservation early Thursday morning. The short, seven-car BNSF Railway train was approaching a swinging bridge over the Swinomish Channel after leaving an oil refinery in Anacortes. The bridge swings open to let boats through the Swinomish Channel, a shallow, 11-mile long arm of Puget Sound that connects Padilla Bay to Skagit Bay. Devices called...
A fishing boat carrying 2,600 gallons of fuel sank off the western shore of San Juan Island on Saturday, releasing an oily sheen that spread for 2 miles in critical habitat for the Northwest's endangered orcas. Researchers called it "incredibly lucky" that the whales and the diesel apparently never crossed paths. The crew aboard the Aleutian Isle radioed for help Saturday, saying they were taking on water. They abandoned their sinking ship and clambered into the skiff they normally use to maneuv...
KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio Devoting your life to something that is disappearing can be tough. Portland State University professor Andrew Fountain has been researching the dwindling glaciers of the American West since the 1980s. He said for years, he studied their retreat dispassionately – as an interesting phenomenon to try to understand. Then last year, he had an epiphany. “It dawned on me that, ‘wait a minute, in 20 or 30 years, everything that I've studied is useless because there are no glaciers,’” Fountain said. The Olympic...