From the neighborhood, hope you can enjoy this program.
The Susitna Super Salmon
And merry Christmas from Nancy, Boss, & I
The Susitna Super Salmon
And merry Christmas from Nancy, Boss, & I
The Susitna Super Salmon Video;
- Thread starter Ard
- Start date
ia_trouter
Senior Member
Merry Christmas to you and Nancy, and Boss-Dawg of course. I almost always watch a fly fishing video at bedtime. This will be tonight's feature film.
And Merry Christmas to you all from Carol, Ashton and I.
And Merry Christmas to you all from Carol, Ashton and I.
I think you'll enjoy the show Dewayne, right near the beginning they will show you coming up the Big Su and passing the confluence of the Yentna, then they'll mention some other places you will recognize. I enjoyed it and I watch very few videos.
ia_trouter
Senior Member
I'm sure the confluence of the Su and Yenta is the only water I would actually recognize Ard. But understanding where the landmarks are located allowed me to make sense of the film. I found it interesting of course. It was a well presented description of the problems had the Su Dam project been completed. Somebody from the lower 48 would be inclined to believe all is well for the salmon as long as they placed it far enough upstream. Until a few years ago I did not realize how the salmon carcasses nourish the land. And it still made little sense any distance from the shores of the rivers. Controlling the spring runoff could have profoundly changed the ecosystem. The video of the spring ice breakup explained how the trees are fed away from the shoreline. Or at least I think it did. I assume the spring ice break up causes ice jamming and brief flooding? It sure would in the Midwest. I understand this area is mostly unpopulated of course.
I have always viewed the dam in the same way I have the Bridge To Nowhere project. The cost projections always seemed to be too low and unless you own a company who builds dams or bridges across oceans in the most active earthquake zone on the continent neither project seems fiscally intelligent.
I'm sure folks wonder why some here are so skeptical of these huge capital ventures. Here's some food for thought, the numbers are close but not exact because I have not looked them up in a while.
About 10 or 11 years ago the Matsu Borough decided that they would buy a Ferry with federal grant money and money from the treasury. They bought a really nice ferry for somewhere around twelve million dollars. The idea was to provide a fast trip across Cook Inlet to Anchorage from Pt. McKinsey. This is the same crossing area proposed for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere project.
So they use the property tax revenue to buy this multi million dollar ferry but there is a problem. There is no terminal for it on either side of the ocean inlet, not at Pt. McKinsey or Anchorage............... How could that happen? You mean you bought a 12.3 million dollar boat and have no where to put it? !!
It seems that was the case so they paid to store it for 10 years while they tried to wrangle how to put it into service. So it sat, but not for free, the costs for storage ran over another million; Go Figure, I'd love to own that storage lot............
So they put it up for sale at 6 million dollars but there were no takers. So they dropped it to 3, then finally to 2. An offer from the Philippines came in and a deal was made. But there was a problem. Heavy rains a couple years ago had flooded the engine hold and damaged the engines but the deal was made.
being held to the auspices of the contracted sale MatSu (we) now had to get those engines working...................
The cost of replacing the engines in this 172 foot ferry boat was 3 million dollars and in an effort to avoid breech of contract on the sale and delivery they (we) fixed the boat!
The ferry is gone now and when the additional 1.5 million loss is added to the grand total the Borough spent somewhere north of 17.3 to 18.3 million dollars and never delivered a single passenger or car across Cook Inlet.
They spent local Tax revenue, they spent federal money and they got nothing at all. Most have been voted back into office and no they are not the Democratic party people.
The people and the state government here scream that they want the Feds out of our life, out of our life that is until we need a few billion of the Tax dollars you folks in the other 49 states pay every week of your lives.
So if ever you hear that They (Alaska) are going ahead with the Dam or The bridge, don't be silly enough to believe that every tax paying American doesn't have a dog in the fight. This place has been a private club since it was purchased from Russia. And some of the boondoggles and money pits (with eager hands at the bottom) that our conservative leaders here have launched are beyond belief.
For the real stories about the ferry you can use these.......
https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/mat-su-drops-price-offload-troubled-ferry-mv-susitna/2015/06/30/
https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/feds-demand-12-million-ferry-money-mat-su/2014/08/07/
https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/...epairs-star-crossed-ferry-susitna/2016/02/12/
Of course there are more if you search the news..................... No Susitna Dam!
I'm sure folks wonder why some here are so skeptical of these huge capital ventures. Here's some food for thought, the numbers are close but not exact because I have not looked them up in a while.
About 10 or 11 years ago the Matsu Borough decided that they would buy a Ferry with federal grant money and money from the treasury. They bought a really nice ferry for somewhere around twelve million dollars. The idea was to provide a fast trip across Cook Inlet to Anchorage from Pt. McKinsey. This is the same crossing area proposed for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere project.
So they use the property tax revenue to buy this multi million dollar ferry but there is a problem. There is no terminal for it on either side of the ocean inlet, not at Pt. McKinsey or Anchorage............... How could that happen? You mean you bought a 12.3 million dollar boat and have no where to put it? !!
It seems that was the case so they paid to store it for 10 years while they tried to wrangle how to put it into service. So it sat, but not for free, the costs for storage ran over another million; Go Figure, I'd love to own that storage lot............
So they put it up for sale at 6 million dollars but there were no takers. So they dropped it to 3, then finally to 2. An offer from the Philippines came in and a deal was made. But there was a problem. Heavy rains a couple years ago had flooded the engine hold and damaged the engines but the deal was made.
being held to the auspices of the contracted sale MatSu (we) now had to get those engines working...................
The cost of replacing the engines in this 172 foot ferry boat was 3 million dollars and in an effort to avoid breech of contract on the sale and delivery they (we) fixed the boat!
The ferry is gone now and when the additional 1.5 million loss is added to the grand total the Borough spent somewhere north of 17.3 to 18.3 million dollars and never delivered a single passenger or car across Cook Inlet.
They spent local Tax revenue, they spent federal money and they got nothing at all. Most have been voted back into office and no they are not the Democratic party people.
The people and the state government here scream that they want the Feds out of our life, out of our life that is until we need a few billion of the Tax dollars you folks in the other 49 states pay every week of your lives.
So if ever you hear that They (Alaska) are going ahead with the Dam or The bridge, don't be silly enough to believe that every tax paying American doesn't have a dog in the fight. This place has been a private club since it was purchased from Russia. And some of the boondoggles and money pits (with eager hands at the bottom) that our conservative leaders here have launched are beyond belief.
For the real stories about the ferry you can use these.......
https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/mat-su-drops-price-offload-troubled-ferry-mv-susitna/2015/06/30/
https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/feds-demand-12-million-ferry-money-mat-su/2014/08/07/
https://www.adn.com/mat-su/article/...epairs-star-crossed-ferry-susitna/2016/02/12/
Of course there are more if you search the news..................... No Susitna Dam!
ia_trouter
Senior Member
You seem to have a strong opinion on this subject. I thought you might. It sounds like the idea is shelved now so that is good. I'll read the Ferry Fiasco soon. After decades of service I know the government may do some necessary services well, but they do absolutely nothing efficiently. Clean hydro power sounds good, but they would never pull it off in a pristine wilderness habitat. The green project would end up not being very green when all factors are considered.
First and foremost the film is posted because of the good job they did of covering the area. many people may never get to ride Devils Canyon's Rapids or see Breakup and I thought that was a positive. When I watched it an understood that it also focused on the dam project I was concerned that posting could invite some level of controversy but decided the positives outweighed the negatives so I posted here in AK. general discussion. If anyone tries to turn this into a political topic to debate those posts will just disappear. These are just things that are happening.
As far as whether I have really strong opinions about the dam...... no more a strong opinion than the average person if something was planned for their neighborhood that would completely change life as it currently is and not necessarily for the better.
When I read opinions on dams and mines and etc. wherein it is suggested that some want to return to life before the wheel I wonder how that would play if the unwanted project was going down in their favorite spot. How bout a landfill within sight of your home or maybe just upwind, or some low level nuclear waste planned for the property down the road. These things are fun to comment on and to take a side on until you are forced to examine the possibility of 'it' becoming a reality for you, yourself, personally. Sometimes people stick to their guns and support the development or project and sometimes there is a change of heart.
The story about the ferry blunder was only meant to make it perfectly clear that things here are not always executed by the best and the brightest. It would be like your city council or assembly voting to buy one of the Space Shuttles because they figure the town can make some dough running loads to the International Space Station and then discovering that they will need a launch complex. When you think about this as you mail the check for property taxes or hear about the State budget woes on the news it really makes you wonder what these people are on. I can't imagine sober people spending this kind of loot / loosing this kind of loot on a ferry and then thinking they can build the largest hydro dam in the country out there. Remember this, the electricity would provide power for............... There are only about 750 thousand people in Alaska with 380 thousand of those in Anchorage and the Valley.
The cost of stringing lines through this rugged land? Hundreds and hundreds of miles of lines going all over a state twice the size of Texas and not nearly as flat and warm......... To service maybe 550 thousand people on the grid, it just doesn't seem cost effective from here
As far as whether I have really strong opinions about the dam...... no more a strong opinion than the average person if something was planned for their neighborhood that would completely change life as it currently is and not necessarily for the better.
When I read opinions on dams and mines and etc. wherein it is suggested that some want to return to life before the wheel I wonder how that would play if the unwanted project was going down in their favorite spot. How bout a landfill within sight of your home or maybe just upwind, or some low level nuclear waste planned for the property down the road. These things are fun to comment on and to take a side on until you are forced to examine the possibility of 'it' becoming a reality for you, yourself, personally. Sometimes people stick to their guns and support the development or project and sometimes there is a change of heart.
The story about the ferry blunder was only meant to make it perfectly clear that things here are not always executed by the best and the brightest. It would be like your city council or assembly voting to buy one of the Space Shuttles because they figure the town can make some dough running loads to the International Space Station and then discovering that they will need a launch complex. When you think about this as you mail the check for property taxes or hear about the State budget woes on the news it really makes you wonder what these people are on. I can't imagine sober people spending this kind of loot / loosing this kind of loot on a ferry and then thinking they can build the largest hydro dam in the country out there. Remember this, the electricity would provide power for............... There are only about 750 thousand people in Alaska with 380 thousand of those in Anchorage and the Valley.
The cost of stringing lines through this rugged land? Hundreds and hundreds of miles of lines going all over a state twice the size of Texas and not nearly as flat and warm......... To service maybe 550 thousand people on the grid, it just doesn't seem cost effective from here