Gov. Jindal wrong about volcanoes

By DICK HUGHES

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal likely never had the chance to meet Reid Blackburn. If Jindal had, he wouldn’t have derided the federal money being spent to monitor volcanoes.

He also might have gotten his numbers right.

Jindal gave the Republican response Tuesday night following President Obama’s speech to Congress.

I almost leapt out of my chair when Jindal complained that the federal economic recovery legislation included “$140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.”

That sounds like a great applause line ... until you think back to May 18, 1980, the day that Reid Blackburn and 56 others died in the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Reid and I worked together on the Linfield College student newspaper in the early 1970s. A brilliant photographer, he was on assignment for National Geographic and the Vancouver Columbian when St. Helens exploded. Though he and volcanologist David Johnston were several miles away, they had no chance to flee.

The air blast, ash clouds, mudflows and lava pulverized Spirit Lake; destroyed 200 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railroad and 185 miles of highways; and brought grief to many families.

The toll could have been worse.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Forest Service had been monitoring St. Helens and tried to keep people out of the potential blast zone. But the volcanic eruption — the most deadly in recorded U.S. history — was powerful beyond anyone’s prediction.

Active volcanoes

There are close to 170 geologically active volcanoes in the U.S. Without ongoing monitoring, Seattleites will have little warning of destructive mudflows if Mount Rainier erupts. Airliners flying over the top of the world won’t know when to avoid volcanic ash clouds in the Aleutians. Oregonians won’t be alerted to volcanic activity in the Cascades.

The whole country, not just the Pacific Rim, has a stake in volcanic monitoring, which by the way was only $15.6 million of the federal recovery bill.

That money will go to places such as the Cascades Volcano Observatory, Yellowstone and Alaska to upgrade monitoring devices. It also will flow to equipment manufacturers, helicopter pilots, scientists and others who are part of the trail from design to installation.

The overall $140 million for the USGS will have a similar impact. It includes upgrades to seismic monitoring systems, stream gauges and fish laboratories, all of which are relevant to the

Northwest. In fact, work will be done at more than 5,000 sites around the country, providing jobs in technical and non-technical fields alike.

If Gov. Jindal is so concerned about the costs of volcanic monitoring, let’s make a deal: We’ll ask the government to quit monitoring volcanoes if he’ll ask the feds to quit forecasting and tracking hurricanes.

No deal?

X Dick Hughes, who climbed Mount St. Helens when it was 1,300 feet higher, is editorial page editor of the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. Contact him at dhughes@StatesmanJournal.com.