Citizen Journalist • Member since Jul 23, 2015
Eric Hirst has a Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University, spent 30 years as an energy policy analyst at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and retired to Bellingham 18 years ago. He is a local environmental activist.
How can we best resolve long-standing water-resource issues in the Nooksack River Basin? These problems–primarily too little water in the river and streams during the summer months–have been [...]
Electricity and water are essential resources in our society. But the way we efficiently plan for our electricity needs is vastly different from how poorly we plan for our water [...]
State water law is a complicated mess, a piece-by-piece accumulation and accretion of disparate laws since 1917. Worse, these laws confound solutions to the problems we face today in managing an [...]
"Hi David, Thanks for your insightful comments. I agree that unpermitted water use in the agricultural sector is a big problem, perhaps 40% of total irrigation water use in Whatcom County. [...]
"John, Congratulations on turning 77 and deciding to begin a well deserved retirement. Although I often disagree with the stories and/or comments published in NW Citizen, I very much [...]
"Elisabeth, thanks for your helpful comments on my article. We likely both believe that salmon are doing poorly because of many factors, some involving ocean conditions and others involving their [...]
"I agree with Greg’s comments. As he notes, we have allocated more water for human, out-of-stream uses than is actually available. Therefore, salmon, other fish and the environment in [...]
"I agree"that it is impossible to make definitive statements about who is or is not using water illegally, until we have accurate data.” But there are no plans, at [...]
Bellingham can learn from successful programs for the homeless elsewhere and would do well to abandon ineffectual approaches.
1 comment, most recent 19 hours agoCity council and planning commission meetings were poor arrangements to begin with, and with Zoom it is very much worse.
2 comments, most recent 5 days agoIrene Morgan writes a public letter to Governor Inslee about a new director of prisons
A substitute bill for the original SB 5188 was accepted and moved to the Ways and Means Committee for further consideration.
2 comments, most recent 2 weeks agoCurrent legislation, moving forward in Olympia, would permit localities to adopt ranked-choice voting as an upgrade to their currently mandated top-two system.
1 comment, most recent 2 weeks agoThe monumental, pre-COVID levels of cruise ships and world tourism were not sustainable.
4 comments, most recent 2 weeks agoRay Kamada guest writes on how to have your cake and eat it too.
5 comments, most recent 5 days agoThe city has instituted unnecessary restrictions on the Broadband Advisory Group’s discussion and outside input.
3 comments, most recent 2 weeks agoBrian Martel on the issue of Internet broadband service to our homes and pending bills in Olympia.
The Whatcom Human Rights Task Force has sent an open letter to the Community regarding the sweep of Camp 210.
Marii Herlinger writes on this past Thursday’s clearing of the homeless camp by city hall.
For the first time in a decade a hearing on a public banking bill found more supporters than detractors.
Bellingham started clearing 24 hours earlier than announced days ago. Antifa has showed up in numbers to provoke. Heavy police presence
2 comments, most recent 3 weeks agoRegulatory standards in SB-5511 offer nothing but give the appearance of doing something.
New Roberts Bank container-ship terminal proposed by the Port of Vancouver would generate additional vessel traffic that will impact endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales.
2 comments, most recent 5 days agoMayor Fleetwood and outgoing council members could not handle the truth at last night’s Bellingham City Council meeting. Homeless people and their advocates spoke truth to power.
25 comments, most recent 3 weeks agoTip Johnson makes the case that the City’s cozy relations with developers and its neighborhoods-be-damned attitude is costing us all.
3 comments, most recent 1 month agoA public bank in Washington is sorely needed for infrastructure projects and more especially with COVID-19 and the resultant severe economic downturn.
5 comments, most recent 1 month agoStatement by County Executive Satpal Sidhu in response to attack on Capitol
2 comments, most recent 1 month agoGene Knutson today announced he will not run for reelection this year and is retiring from the Bellingham City Council.
5 comments, most recent 1 week agoWhile McClatchy appears ready to accept unionization among the Herald’s content creators, it would be on their terms.
5 comments, most recent 1 month agoMark Ashworth writes about Trump and our current national situation.
There are no excuses remaining.
13 comments, most recent 1 month agoTwo photos of the same door, one taken about 2 p.m., the other six hours later at about 8 p.m., on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.
10 comments, most recent 1 month agoPublic Works Director, Eric Johnston and Council Member Michael Lilliquist hand-picked their “perfect members” to determine our internet future.
14 comments, most recent 1 month agoA shift in housing policies is needed to avoid an escalation of our housing crisis.
4 comments, most recent 1 month agoFrozen resistance in some quarters against public banking may find a thaw in 2021.
3 comments, most recent 1 month agoSomething is amiss regarding the BNSF oil-train wreck in Custer on Dec 22, 2020. Why, after a week, are there no answers and a cause?
11 comments, most recent 1 month agoWWU, Western Washington University has a “Culture of Fear”. No, NW Citizen is not saying that - the Seattle Times is.
Even as our military veterans are dying at twice the rate of the general population, plans are being made to provide vaccinations through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
After a takeover by a hedge fund with a history of decimating newspapers, The Bellingham Herald’s news staff is taking a stand.
2 comments, most recent 1 month agoCOVID changed everything; let’s make policing better for everyone.
Councilman Lilliquist tries to rewrite history in Bellingham’s war over internet fiber.
A conjunction occurs when two astronomical objects appear to line up. A great conjunction is when that happens with Jupiter and Saturn.
Olivia Hobson gives us a reprise of the last year under COVID-19 from the point of view of a WWU student.
1 comment, most recent 2 months agoWhatcom county - and Benton County - did better than expected in terms of the Covid-19 Post Thanksgiving surge
5 comments, most recent 2 months agoComcast inflicts $3/mo rate hike, data caps, and overage fees
4 comments, most recent 2 months agoCurrent flux in the composition of the Planning Commission means the group is overloaded with development-oriented members.
4 comments, most recent 2 months agoWith encouragement from the city of Bellingham, in 1994 Daniel Kirkpatrick organized dozens of Happy Valley neighborhood residents to build a trail on a city right of way.
3 comments, most recent 2 months agoProposed Elimination of the Douglas Avenue Trail
10 comments, most recent 2 months agoA “clinical trials geek” speaks up
4 comments, most recent 2 months agoHow Bellingham Schools fail the poor.
Bellingham’s homeless have no place to go. They need shelter now.
4 comments, most recent 3 months agoRepublicans who are silent during this disaster of a transition should be held to account in the next elections: county, state, and national. Here’s one example of their hypocrisy.
2 comments, most recent 3 months agoStay home for the holidays in 2020 so that you and yours will be around for the holidays in 2021
Chuck Robinson provides his knowledgeable perspective on Christmas and Holiday shopping. We asked Chuck, who is now retired, to write this for all of us.
In the three Whatcom County school districts carried by Trump-Pence the covid-19 infection rate is 1.4 times higher than found in the 4 districts carried by Biden-Harris.
3 comments, most recent 3 months agoState Senator Doug Ericksen parrots baseless Republican Party claims about non-existent voter fraud in the 2020 presidential elections.
8 comments, most recent 3 months agoAs is the case, nationwide, it appears that Trump assisted Democrats in carrying the 2020 presidential and gubernatorial elections in Washington
2 comments, most recent 3 months agoThe meaning of the original Armistice Day has been turned on its head. We lose a yearly history lesson as a result.
13 comments, most recent 3 months ago
