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Mt Baker Pollutant Study!

I have a hard time with this one and spent some time sending an email to Ruth (project research lead) last night.

Essentially they are conducting a study to find out whether or not there are higher levels of pollutants in the middle of a high traffic snowmobile trail or in a wilderness area, and how those levels of pollutants impact may aquatic species.

I questioned Ruth....Dr. Ruth that is....about the methods or sampling, test plot locations, times of samplings, methods of analyzing collected data, and locations of adjacent headwaters in relationship to the test plot locations.

If they take samples in the middle of a trail on the middle on a Saturday afternoon where there could possibly be high(er) ammounts of pollutants, but that trail is located 1+ miles away from the nearest headwater is it really going to have a negative impact on the local aquatic species? I think not. However, i'll be polite and let her get back to my email before I jump to conclusion.

It's pretty easy to read through the lines on this one. The research is setup to negatively reflect on the snowmobile community. It's like taking a sample of levels of oil in the middle of a lane on I5 and comparing it to a side street in Milton. Of course you'll see higher levels of pollutants.

Pretty biased study if you ask me...to be continued
 
NWAlpineAssassin said:
I have a hard time with this one and spent some time sending an email to Ruth (project research lead) last night.

Essentially they are conducting a study to find out whether or not there are higher levels of pollutants in the middle of a high traffic snowmobile trail or in a wilderness area, and how those levels of pollutants impact may aquatic species.

I questioned Ruth....Dr. Ruth that is....about the methods or sampling, test plot locations, times of samplings, methods of analyzing collected data, and locations of adjacent headwaters in relationship to the test plot locations.

If they take samples in the middle of a trail on the middle on a Saturday afternoon where there could possibly be high(er) ammounts of pollutants, but that trail is located 1+ miles away from the nearest headwater is it really going to have a negative impact on the local aquatic species? I think not. However, i'll be polite and let her get back to my email before I jump to conclusion.

It's pretty easy to read through the lines on this one. The research is setup to negatively reflect on the snowmobile community. It's like taking a sample of levels of oil in the middle of a lane on I5 and comparing it to a side street in Milton. Of course you'll see higher levels of pollutants.

Pretty biased study if you ask me...to be continued
Click to expand...
Nice! Get to use your fancy edumacation for something snowmobiling aye?

Steamboy said:
Yes you are right the grant was from them. I stand corrected. Still..does anyone think that this study will be favorable to sleds?
Click to expand...
NOT AT ALL!!! These guys have been with the whole WMC thing for a while too...
 
I'm pretty sure you could have a tanker spill on hood hill and not a trace will make it into water more than a mile away....of course any trace amounts of oil found will be assumed to travel, unfiltered to some endangered species of pollywog 10 miles away. :face-icon-small-dis
I bet they cannot find the identical pollutants (assuming they came from a snowmobile and didn't get there by way of air pollution) in nearby streams....I'll also bet they will not even check! Just another attempt to gather worthless data to eliminate sleds from Baker.
I'll put my etec up against the car they drive to the mountain for emissions emitted per year!
 
Ohhh the heck with it, I was gonna go off again...but upon further edit, never mind.
 
Last edited:
Those little black spots we leave would be a great spot to take a sample. Pray for an avalanche on the study group, big one. In fact, snowmobiles are great triggers as we all know...
 
I'm surprised that a research professor is accepting grant money from a group like the WWA. It pretty much removes any legitimacy from their research. WWA isn't going to give money to any research that doesn't support their cause.

Hmmm. Looks like the samples have already been collected. Odd that the grant is to 'analyze' the samples. Samples collected to analyze for gasoline constituents and other volatiles usually can't be held for a year before analysis. They usually have holding times that require analysis within 14 days or so.

If this was a true unbiased study, I think it could be very beneficial for snowmobiles. I have no doubt that none of these chemicals reach surface water at concentrations high enough to impact aquatic life. Any 'unburnt' fuel will attenuate very quickly in open air. That's what I deal with in my career on a daily basis.

I could see concentrations in the snow in the middle of a trail having some low levels of petroleum hydrocarbons while it is being actively used by sleds. I'm sure that is what this study will try and demonstrate, and then somehow claim that means those same concentrations will actually reach surface water.

I'll be following this one.
 
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