By Floyd McKay
From Crosscut.com”News of the Great Nearby”
Gateway Pacific Terminals, the entity behind Bellingham’s proposed Cherry Point coal port, is moving ahead with permitting but dodging opponents pushing for an environmental review covering a wider geography. Another battle heats up over economic impacts and displaced jobs.
Gateway Pacific Terminals filed several hundred pages of documents late Monday with Whatcom County planners, setting in motion the formal processes that could result in the nation’s largest coal-exporting terminal on a 1,200-acre deepwater site at Cherry Point north of Bellingham.
SSA Marine of Seattle, the developer of the proposed terminal, which would be capable of exporting up to 54 million tons of coal and other commodities at full buildout, had its applications rejected by [Whatcom] county nine months ago. This week’s filing was the result of months of working with county, state, and federal agencies to design documents that will pass muster. If they are accepted, a process known as scoping will begin next month to determine the extent of the environmental review of the project
Some 23 separate permits and authorizations must be obtained from at least nine local, state, and federal agencies before construction can begin on the projet. Though SSA Marine hopes to begin operating in 2016, critics predict a longer time frame. Whatcom County plans to post the entire set of documents online. In the meantime, the Bellingham Herald has posted a link to the operative document.
The documents filed Monday [March 20] make it clear that Gateway Pacific wants to avoid environmental studies away from its Cherry Point site. Discussions of transportation issues do not include railroad traffic away from the immediate site with its short spur line to serve the terminal, or the impact of adding nearly a thousand massive ships to the shipping lanes of the San Juan Islands.
The Cherry Point terminal is particularly sought-after because of its 80-foot channel, which requires no dredging and can handle shipping’s massive Capesize ships, so large they cannot pass through the Panama Canal. About a third of the coal ships expected would be Capesize, the document projects; the others would be Panamax, somewhat smaller vessels.
The new ships would enter either through Haro or Rosario straits, which already carries heavy traffic from Vancover container and coal ports, as well as crude-oil tankers serving refineries at Cherry Point and Anacortes.
To read the full article, go to https://crosscut.com/2012/03/21/coal-ports/22104/Coal-port-advocates-narrow-the-range-of-environmental-impacts
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
One thousand coal ships, each one larger than a football field in length, passing through the San Juan Islands !? Am I missing something here ? And what is the motivation for this environmentally disasterous boondoggle ? All for the sake of increased commerce with China ! Ah, what about the people of this country? Sounds like pure greed to me, and we all get to pay for it. Let’s stop this in it’s tracks, before they turn the once pristine SJ Islands into a coal freight yard !
Yes! Help stop this gross abuse! People can go to http://www.powerpastcoal.org to tune in to all of the news and find ways to help out.