— from Janet Alderton —

Dear Councilors Hughes, Stephens, and Jarman,

I ask that you restore the ban on underwater oil pipelines and overwater-facilities for the refining of oil* to the draft SMP Update. I also ask that you include underwater natural gas pipelines and overwater-facilities for creating Liquefied Natural Gas in the ban.

The benefits to the residents of San Juan County from allowing such facilities and pipelines in our waters are zero. The risks are many.**

Since Governor Inslee appointed me to the Citizens’ Committee on Pipeline Safety, I have learned more about the risks that the proposed Island Connector Pipeline (Williams Steelhead Pipeline) and LNG facility would pose to the people who live in or visit our county and enjoy its marine waters.

The Citizens’ Committee on Pipeline Safety is unique in our nation. We work with representatives from pipeline companies to decrease deaths, injuries, and environmental impacts caused by malfunctions of pipelines carrying hazardous materials. The hazardous material pipelines in Washington State include oil and natural gas pipelines.

The head of the pipeline safety division of the Utilities and Transportation Commission and three staff members met with me to introduce me to the issues. This is serious stuff. Four staff took over four hours to orient one new member of the Citizens’ Committee on Pipeline Safety.

The Utilities and Transportation Commission investigates pipeline incidents in Washington State that involve death, injury requiring hospitalization, or damages of more than $50,000. During my orientation I was told about an incident involving a Liquefied Natural Gas facility explosion in 2014 at Plymouth, WA near the Columbia River. The blast seriously burned one worker and injured four others. It forced an evacuation of 400 residents and agricultural workers within a two-mile radius of the facility.

The natural gas vapors in a nearby LNG storage tank could have exploded if they were mixed with the right amount of oxygen, atmosphere and an ignition source. That larger explosion would have killed anybody within a radius of up to three-quarters of a mile.

Larger LNG facilities, such as the one that would be served by the proposed Island Connector natural gas pipeline, would be potentially more dangerous. Ships carrying LNG would traverse Turn Point/Boundary Pass, judged the most dangerous commercial marine passage on the west coast of the United States. Image the effect on our economy if a whale-watching boat was destroyed by an LNG explosion.

*https://www.codepublishing.com/wa/sanjuancounty/html/sanjuancounty18/SanJuanCounty1850.html

Chapter 18.50
SHORELINE MASTER PROGRAM

18.50.250 Industrial development.

  1. General Regulations.
  2. The installation of underwater cross-sound oil pipelines and over-water facilities for the refining of oil shall be prohibited.

**From the news article below:

Jerry Havens, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Arkansas, helped develop the vapor dispersion models that federal regulators used until recently to evaluate hazards from the facilities. He suggested the events in Plymouth should be cautionary. The risk of a tank breach may be smaller at an LNG terminal, he said, but the marine terminals increase the risk of a spill onto water, which could make the vapor dispersion even wider.

“We’re still learning about the safety of all these ventures because we’re moving into a whole new area where we’re handling such large amounts of LNG,” Havens said. “We’re talking about so much energy and so much potential for a catastrophic event to occur. We should really think about whether we should allow these things to be built close to any population center.”

Havens was hired in 2005 to assess risks of putting an LNG import terminal in the Port of Long Beach, Calif. Based on his analysis of industry and scientific studies, he defined the hazard zone to the public as a minimum of a 3-mile radius from the facility.

**https://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/gas_explosion_at_lng_facility.html

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