Hey there,

Just a reminder for anyone who's like me and waits until the last minute, today is the last day to submit comments to FERC about the Sunset Falls "fish passage" proposal.  Here's the cheat sheet, you can submit comments online easily:

Create a FERC Online account here:

https://ferconline.ferc.gov/FERCOnline.aspx

Once you're logged in, click "EComment" in the left sidebar.

Then in the Docket # section put in:  P-14295

Select the 2 docs below and then type up to 6,000 words in the section below your name.

Thanks to all who are working to keep the Skykomish River wild and beautiful.

Here is some good news that is on the front page of the american WW page...

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article/view/articleid/31737/

I emailed Dan Haas, At U.S. Fish and wildlife asking him about getting federal wild and scenic designation and got this response:

It’s not a designated wild & scenic river, though, so no one has any say-so about it through that venue.  Theoretically, the state has standing through the state designation, but the Washington Scenic Rivers Program has been defunct for so long . . .
 
It’s a beautiful river system, and personally I support you 100%.  There’s just no real venue through the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act.  I’s say, ‘Shoot for a wild & scenic study’ through legislation to at least slow down the hydropower licensing process, but sounds like the U.S. Forest Service has already looked at it through their own internal land management planning process, so I doubt Congress would authorize an additional study.
 
So, good luck, and if there’s any questions I can answer related to getting a study through Congress and what it means from a practical point of view, I would love to help you.  There’s just nothing legally that I can help with since it’s not a designated river.
 


Edited by not-very-clever - 19 Jul 2013 at 11:21am

The interface is not the best (I forgot to mention you probablly have to choose the 'washington hydropower' option (or something like that) when you sign up and yes you do have to put an alternate contact like you mentioned, but it reallly doesn't take that long and it is much less of a pain in the butt than 5 years of dam building and a dam on the Skykomish River. :)