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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2020
IN BRIEF
ODOT plan could fund
improvements to Highway 101
SEASIDE — The Oregon Department of Transpor-
tation’s capital improvement program could bring sev-
eral important projects to Seaside.
• Nearly $8 million for construction of a new center
turn lane and enhanced bicycle and pedestrian facil-
ities along Avenue A to Avenue K along U.S. High-
way 101.
• $1.2 million for repaving on U.S. Highway 26
from Necanicum Junction to Jewell Junction.
• $360,000 to rehabilitate and replace fi ve small
culverts and one large culvert along Highway 101.
The projects are under review for the Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program, also known as
the STIP , from 2021 to 2024.
— The Astorian
NEW
The public had an
opportunity on
Saturday to check
out the Seaside
Fire Department’s
latest addition — a
nearly $1.2 million
tractor-drawn aerial
quint with a 100-foot
ladder, designed to
reach the city’s tallest
buildings.
HEIGHTS
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
State Route 4 closed by landslide
SKAMOKAWA, Wash. — State Route 4 between
Naselle and Longview remains closed following a sig-
nifi cant landslide on Thursday. It is unlikely to open
sooner than next week.
The slide near KM Mountain’s eastern foot fol-
lowed several days of intense rainfall, including 7
inches during one 24-hour period. The deluge resulted
in signifi cant fl ooding, several other landslides and a
power outage caused by downed trees.
The highway is closed to all but local traffi c from
milepost 19 near Shannon Road to milepost 26 near
Mullen Road.
— Chinook Observer
Washington state bill
would beef up label law
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Makers of veggie burgers,
soy sausages and other vegetarian or vegan meat sub-
stitutes would have to prominently label packages
with a disclaimer that their products sold in Washing-
ton state have no meat under legislation sponsored by
state Sen. Judy Warnick.
Senate Bill 6329 is similar to legislation proposed
or passed in other states to regulate the advertising of
plant-based products that use terms associated with
meat. Warnick, R-Moses Lake, said she doesn’t want
consumers to be misled.
— Capital Press
ON THE RECORD
Rape
• Allen J. Chetwood,
19, of Seaview, Wash-
ington, was arrested Sun-
day at Young River Falls
in Astoria for rape in the
third degree.
Assault
• Johnny Theodore
Loke, Jr., 48, of Sea-
side, was indicted Fri-
day for assault in the
second degree, unlaw-
ful use of a weapon and
unlawful possession of
methamphetamine.
• Levi Trent Smith, 32,
was arrested Saturday on
W. Marine Drive in Asto-
ria for assaulting a pub-
lic safety offi cer, harass-
ment, disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest.
Theft
• Kayla Marie Sando-
val, 27, was arrested Sat-
urday in Seaside for theft
in the second degree.
• Frank Kenneth
Nimz, 38, was arrested
Thursday at the Warren-
ton Police Department
for theft in the second
degree, criminal trespass
in the fi rst degree and
criminal mischief in the
third degree.
Reckless
endangerment
• Richard S. Smith, 54,
of Astoria, was indicted
Friday on two counts of
recklessly endangering
another person, unautho-
rized use of a vehicle,
fl eeing or attempting to
elude a police offi cer and
reckless driving.
Criminal mischief
• Michael Meeu-
wsen, 28, of Warrenton,
was arrested Friday on
N.W. Gardenia Avenue
in Warrenton for crimi-
nal mischief in the sec-
ond degree.
DUII
• James Edward Blay-
lock, 68, of Astoria, was
arrested Sunday on 31st
Street and Marine Drive
in Astoria for driving
under the infl uence of
intoxicants. His blood
alcohol content was
0.12%.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A.
Clatsop County Human Services Advisory Council, 4 to
5:30 p.m., Room 430, 800 Exchange St., Astoria.
Astoria Library Board, 5:30 p.m., Flag Room, 450 10th St.
Knappa School Board, 5:30 p.m., Knappa High School
Library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30
Seaside Airport Advisory Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
Astoria Planning Commission, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
THURSDAY
Clatsop County Recreational Lands Planning and Ad-
visory Committee, 1 to 3 p.m., fourth fl oor, 800 Exchange
St., Astoria.
Ocean acidifi cation damages crabs
New study released
on West Coast
conditions
By HAL BERNTON
The Seattle Times
Ocean acidifi cation is
damaging the shells of
young Dungeness crab in
the Northwest, an impact
that scientists did not
expect until much later this
century, according to new
research.
A study released this
week in the journal Sci-
ence of the Total Environ-
ment is based on a 2016 sur-
vey of Oregon, Washington
state and British Columbia
coastal waters that exam-
ined larval Dungeness. The
fi ndings add to the con-
cerns about the future of
Dungeness crab as atmo-
spheric carbon dioxide —
on the rise due to fossil-fuel
combustion — is absorbed
by the Pacifi c Ocean and
increases acidifi cation.
“If the crabs are affected
already, we really need to
make sure we start to pay
attention to various com-
ponents of the food chain
before it is too late,” said
Nina Bednarsek, the lead
author among 13 contrib-
uting scientists. The study
was funded by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration .
Dungeness crab sus-
tains West Coast commer-
cial seafood harvests typi-
cally worth more than $200
million annually, and are a
mainstay for tribal and rec-
reational crabbers. They
have thrived in coastal
waters that in recent years
Maddie Meyer/The Seattle Times
Dungeness crab sustains West Coast commercial seafood harvests typically worth more than
$200 million annually.
have been found to have
hot spots of ocean acidifi ca-
tion. This is due to periodic
strong upwellings of deeper
ocean water rich in carbon
dioxide and surface waters
that also have absorbed gas
released by fossil-fuel com-
bustion and other human
activity.
“This makes our region
very unique,” said Rich-
ard Feely, a senior scientist
at NOAA’s Pacifi c Marine
Environmental Laboratory,
who was one of the co-au-
thors of the new study.
Research published in
2014 showed ocean acidi-
fi cation harm to West Coast
pteropods, small free-swim-
ming snails that are food for
Dungeness crab. And a lab-
oratory study of Dungeness
crab larvae released in May
2016 by the NOAA North-
west Fisheries Science Cen-
ter showed that increased
ocean acidifi cation could
also jeopardize the crab.
Bednarsek, Feely and
their colleagues — for the
fi rst time — documented
that some Dungeness lar-
vae in the wild already had
pitted and folded shells,
described in their jour-
nal article as “severe cara-
pace dissolution,” and that
these larvae were typically
smaller in size.
“We were really sur-
prised to see this level of
dissolution
happening,”
Bednarsek said.
They also found damage
to hairlike structures that act
as sensory receptors, and the
researchers hypothesize this
could lead to slower move-
ments, impaired swimming
and other problems.
A 2017 study, based
on expected declines in
some Dungeness food
as ocean-acidity levels
change, forecast these West
Coast crab stocks could be
about 30% lower by 2063,
although they would fl uctu-
ate from year to year.
The authors of this new
study say more research
is needed to understand
what the new fi ndings may
mean for the future of the
Dungeness crab as the
Pacifi c coastal waters con-
tinue to absorb more carbon
dioxide.
“This sets us off in a new
direction,” Feely said.
The larvae they sam-
pled did not include any
from Puget Sound, which
Feely says has areas that are
particularly vulnerable to
ocean acidifi cation.
Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped to historic low
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By DONALD ORR
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon’s
unemploy-
ment rate dropped to 3.7%
in December, the lowest on
record dating back to 1976,
according to the Oregon
Employment Department.
Nick Beleiciks, an eco-
nomic analysis manager at
the department, said the lat-
est estimates suggest there
are fewer unemployed Ore-
gonians now than at any
point since comparable
records began.
“That’s especially strik-
ing considering Oregon’s
labor force is twice as large
as it was 44 years ago,” Bele-
iciks said in a statement.
State economist David
Cooke said the unemploy-
ment rate has been around
4% for the p ast three years
— it was 3.9% for Novem-
ber. As a result, Cooke said
Oregon’s economy is expe-
riencing an increasingly
tight labor market.
“The number of people
who have been unemployed
for less than half a year
dropped to 64,300 people
in December, the lowest on
record dating back almost
20 years,” Cooke said.
“That fi gure had been up
to as high as 180,000 during
the recession.”
Oregon saw payroll
employment jump by 800
jobs overall in December,
following a gain of 3,800
jobs in November as revised
by the department. Jobs in
the leisure and hospital-
ity industry saw the biggest
gain with over 2,000 jobs.
Industries that took a loss
were professional and busi-
ness services, cutting 1,600
jobs, and health care and
social assistance, cutting
900 jobs in the course of the
month.
While health care and
social assistance jobs were
cut in December, the indus-
try is rapidly growing, add-
ing 7,000 jobs over the p ast
12 months in Oregon at
a 2.7% gain. Some of the
fastest-growing industries
in Oregon over the p ast 12
months were private educa-
tional services, transporta-
tion, warehousing and util-
ities. Retail trade, mining
and logging saw a net loss
of jobs over the year.
Oregon’s over-the-year
job growth in 2019 was
1.4%, matching the rate of
national job growth. Most
of Oregon’s major indus-
tries expanded between 1%
and 3% since December
2018.